How To Fish Midges ?

[Mudflap]

I was at the dam yesterday and was catching whites, there were a few fish rising to small midges. I am wondering how do I fish a small midge? Do they just sink under the surface? Looking at the patterns on this board wouldnt the bead headed ones sink too deep? Or do they just sit under the film. Please advise

Thanks

[albannachxcuileag]

Midge or Buzzer fishing as we know it on our side of the pond is an art form of it's own.

There are various methods that you can use depending on the type of midge you fish. To us a midge is the adult, winged Chronomid, to you it is the pre-=hatch pupal stage, what we call a Buzzer. We will assume that you want to fish the pre-adult form so here are a few methods that you can use to maximise this major food source.

 

Fishing under a bung - this allows you to preset the depth that you want your buzzer to hang and you can fish several off droppers at varying depths to find fish.

Fishing under a dry - we use this method during a hatch because if the fish is rising to the hatching insect quite often it will turn on the sunken nymph if it ignores the dry adult.

Fishing off a floating line - this method is similar to the above but you are relying on feeling the take rather than watching for the visual indication of tmovement of the bung or dry.

Fishing the buzzer New Zealand style incorporates the use of a dry fly as an indicator and a single buzzer hanging anything from 6" to 8 feet tied from the bend of the dry's hook.

If you want to get a buzzer down quickly and have indication the the bung method is the best as it will stay afloat even with a tungsten headed version on the point .

If you want to fish on the surface then use a suspender buzzer where the head will sit in or above the surface film. You can also rig this to fish with another buzzer on the point below it

 

This is just a quick answer to the question and I hope that it gives you some idea.

 

TLs

[bulltrout]

it all depends on the life stage that you are trying to imitate and at what depth...emergers coming out of the surface can be imitated in smaller sizes using a greased line technique or under an indicator...for midges that are rising from the bottom of the body of water, you can fish with an intermediate line...or you can dropper (from a parachute trico/griffith's gnat) an emerger pattern that has a larva pattern droppered off of it...it all depends on what stage the fish are keying in on...there's no real "set" way or setup to fish midges as long as you are fishing the patterns with minimal movement (hand twist on stillwaters, etc..)...try playing around until you key in on something that works...hope that helps...

[Mudflap]

Thank you. I would assume the whites I saw were likely taking emergers off or near the surface.

[DonAndersen]

Mudflap,

 

A size #20 or less Mustad R50 hook c/w black thread body, 1 turn of 0.010 lead wire @ head with a couple of turns of herl. Fish it using a tiny yarn indicator made of steelhead yarn inserted into your tippet knot.

The lead is required to "just" get the midge under the surface about an inch or so.

If you wish view an article on using the yarn see my site @

 

http://www.telusplanet.net/public/dmanders/

 

 

Don