I am looking at getting some midge nymphs to put in my fly box and saw t hat there are a lot of different colors. What are the two main colors for Iowa midges?
I was hoping someone would chime in. I carry black, olive and brown. Use black and brown most of the time, but I'm not a very good midge fisherman. I like the WD40 pattern; easy to tie and seem to take fish during bwo hatches too. I'd love to hear some other ideas as I could really improve my midge fishing.
Midge fishing is tough..........Because of their small size, midges must be present in LARGE numbers coming off the water to make them a viable food source for the fish (which makes it even tougher for us). And looking at size #18 and smaller makes it that much more of a challenge. I reserve midge fishing for very late afternoon days, about an hour before sundown. I'm no pro by any means, but this seems to work best for me, sort of like to go this way at the end of the day if i see those little "things" coming off the water. The ones I have observed on my local pond lately are so small I don't think that one could tie a fly that small, but the bass sure do think they are a delight.
I usually go with black midges during the Winter months, I think anything "dark" is better than lighter colors, again, maybe it's just the luck of the draw, who knows. Anyway (I'm writing this at 4:00PM, but just NOW posting) noticed "they" were starting to come off the pond so HAD to give a try at some 2 lb. bass...........................................
Oh well, no luck, even though there were numerous fish taking midges on the surface. That's the thing I find about midge fishing, is that there is usually such a smorgasbord of delights, you have to have the "lucky" presentation at the "right time".
My plan was to use midge nymphs mostly in size 18 or 20. Black was one of the colors I was looking at and red also. I just wanted to have them for the slow cold months.
I've had really good luck at Backbone in the winter fishing dark midges that were a couple sizes bigger than what was coming off the water. I don't know if it stood out as a big treat, but I could consistently get hits on it*
*disclaimer: I am a long ways from even being a good flyer, but this I've had luck with.
I like to use a Zebra Midge tied black with a white stripe, or red with a black or white stripe and a small tungsten bead head. I will sometime fish this as a dropper off of a larger nymph.
One color that I didn't see mentioned is blue. I particularly like a blue midge with a 1.5 mm tungsten bead. I tie them in 24 and 22 standard nymph hooks. For the body I use metallic blue flashabou material that I wrap like tinsel on the body. I might also wrap a ribbing with very thin silver wire. Other than blue, black and red are the color that I use for winter midges fishing. On size 18 and 20 I also tie a version of the brassie with red, green and blue wires. On the surface I go with Griffith gnats on #22 or smaller dry midges tied on curved hooks and either ostrich (gray) or grizzly feathers (the smaller you can get from the cape) wrapped on top of 2-3 wraps of small peacock barb of an eye feather. On the smallest flies I just wrap the hackle over the thread. Ahhh winter fishing.... it is nice to be out in the snow and cold water running at your feet.... It's a nice challenge try to attach a 22 on the tippet.... not to mention to try to keep your fingers warm and the guide of the rod free of ice. Martin
