Spent the weekend on the Smith for the first time in awhile. Fishing was decent to good on small bwo nymphs and zebra midges during the day. Even stuck two large (ugly) stocker bows.
However last evening I was pretty humbled during what looked like a heavy cream midge hatch size 26 or smaller...rising fish everywhere and not one to touch my fly. Full on leaping out of the water sometimes and others just gentle rises. Threw everything I had...griffith's gnat, disco midge in the film, tiny little bwo parachutes on and on and nothing. Any ideas how to attack this hatch next time? Just smaller flies or what?
fun ain't it??
I don't even try to match those suckers. Go find some more fish.
Try a bug authored by a true fly tying genius. Or you can catch a few of them, and hold them up to your porch light at midnight while drinking moonshine and murdering a chicken on an indian chief's grave under a full moon while playing In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida over and over . Now get to tying, you may have to toss the first 3435 into the trash, but number 3436 might be strong medicine. p;
Quote from: 5xTippett on November 22, 2010, 16:08:16 PM
I don't even try to match those suckers. Go find some more fish.
Yea I should have just moved. Tough to walk away from a bunch of rising fish within casting distance though. Should have threw a beetle at em!
My beetles have gone into hibernation, but I have done that into October. -0- I hate those little white squirts. Follow TM's advice and kill a chicken.
Been there done that, way too many times b'; Sorry, I really wish you would have got them to strike but it is nice to see its not just me.
Got out with Darrin around fish camp on Saturday and we didnt exactly kill 'em but like you, got them on bwos and #22 zebra midge. That wasnt you we saw walking the RR tracks on Saturday was it?
I fish this hatch on a stream in the western mountains of NC. The pattern that has worked well for me is a size 26 or 30 cream midge.
Finding the right size hackle is the most difficult part of tyeing this fly. Capes with lots of neck feathers will provide a few hackles in this size.
Glassfisher has also had some luck with tyeing a cream colored griffiths knat, using cream thread for the body and cream hackle. The size he likes to tie them is 22.
rjs123 that wasn't me I was below town on saturday.
troutphisher what kind of leader system are you casting to get a size 30 fly to lay out straight lol
Its a pretty simple system. I use a 9ft tapered 6x leader and 3 ft of 6x tippet.
I fish bamboo and use synthetic sylk lines. In the cold weather, the sylk stays subtle and lays out smooth.
The older bamboo rods load better with the new synthetic sylk lines and rolls the leader out smoothly and straight.
How I don't care how small they are, about 22/24 is as low as I'm gonna go. I take a biot and cut it in half length wise for the body, and get the smallest hackle i can wrap 2 or 3 times. If that doesn't work I use a white, tan, or yellow midge pupa.(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y166/flyman1/DSCN1552.jpg)
Those fish are pretty smart and have seen it all, you may try some 8-9x tippet ( floro), that may help, but they have seen it all so dont feel bad.
very nice bug TM .We have been catching some on the size 20 but when they are on the smaller ones you got to go down to them.I dont try but here is a size 26 that will get close to what Ive seen.
(http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/22midge/PICT0321.jpg)
Quote from: 22midge on November 29, 2010, 21:23:37 PM
very nice bug TM .We have been catching some on the size 20 but when they are on the smaller ones you got to go down to them.I dont try but here is a size 26 that will get close to what Ive seen.
(http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/22midge/PICT0321.jpg)
Nice one Midge 'c;
Ben this is the style I was talking about the other day vs folding over and back material for wing pads and legs on the other pattern we were talking about.
Wanna see some nice midge patterns, check out this guys blog bd;0 'c;
http://poudrecanyonchronicles.blogspot.com/2010/11/essential-midge-patterns-red-hot.html (http://poudrecanyonchronicles.blogspot.com/2010/11/essential-midge-patterns-red-hot.html)
wish you hadn't put up that link tm, gave me way too many new patterns to try, i like some of his bugs
anybody had much use for red midges on the soho? sorry to stray off topic, but hell, thats normal for me-
usually needed for the dirty d, but i haven't had much success with them on other rivers??
rhody
Rhody,
Red can be a good color on the Soho. Especially when they are sluicing and the water is higher than normal wading conditions. I'd add some weight to be able to get them down and slow them down just a touch as well. I think I even got away with some patterns up in the 14 to 16 size range.
TP was doing some experimentation with varying patterns of red, not sure what his final outcome was. Maybe he will chime in.
I've never had much luck with red, which is probably why I never fish them, which might have something to do with why I've never had much luck with them....
From what I've read, red midges occur where there's a soft silt or mud bottom. Generally, that would also mean slower moving water as well. It's supposed to have something to do with lower oxygen levels. So, whenever you see mud, stick on a red midge and see what happens.
Quote from: WRector on December 02, 2010, 08:58:31 AM
Rhody,
Red can be a good color on the Soho. Especially when they are sluicing and the water is higher than normal wading conditions. I'd add some weight to be able to get them down and slow them down just a touch as well. I think I even got away with some patterns up in the 14 to 16 size range.
TP was doing some experimentation with varying patterns of red, not sure what his final outcome was. Maybe he will chime in.
The experimenting I have done on the Soho, showed red to be a great choice, especially for rainbows. In most cases the rainbows took a red midge pattern 6 to 1 on browns. The browns seamed to prefer the stripped quill or darker colors like black and brown.
I carry red, black, brown, tan, grey and a couple of mixed colors like yellow and olive, or black and olive.
Glassfisher has done well with an olive midge, copper rib combo.
The sizes we find worked best are size 20 and smaller, all the way to size 26.
PS. Nice find on the link "O" holy one....... 'c;