Midges are the most important aquatic insects in some places, especially fertile spring creeks where they are extremely abundant and the current is so slow that it's efficient for trout to surface feed on very tiny insects.
Some midges are large, up to hook size 14, but the majority are size 22 or smaller. The number of genera and species is hopelessly huge for angler entomologists to ever learn, and the identifing characteristics often require slide-mounting tiny parts under high-powered microscopes. Even the most Latin-minded fisherman must slip back to the basics--size and color--to describe his local midge hatches.
I thing some members will like this video on midges.
http://www.midcurrent.com/video/clips/cutter_midge.aspx
Best
JAD
They fasten red (crimson red) wool around a hook, and fix onto the wool two feathers which grow under a cock’s wattles, and which in colour are like wax.
Radcliffe's Fishing from the Earliest Times,
Oldredbarn on Mar 4, 2010March 4th, 2010, 7:32 am EST
John,
Thanks for bringing the vid to our attention. April 1st near here they stock a small pond and it's only real food is midges...It's the only time I really get to stillwater fish for trout...It's less than a month away!
Spence
"Even when my best efforts fail it's a satisfying challenge, and that, after all, is the essence of fly fishing." -Chauncy Lively
"Envy not the man who lives beside the river, but the man the river flows through." Joseph T Heywood