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3. A variety pack

Here are a bunch of bugs I've collected lately.

I also saw a small cloud of small mayflies flying up and down in the style I've seen described for Paraleps. I tried for 20 minutes to catch one of these little buggers and failed. They were moving too fast and generally stayed too far for me to reach them. Time to invest in a butterfly net. Do paraleps tend to hatch around this time of year?

-Shawn

Well Shawnny, the dipterans in the first photo are blackflies and yes they bite. Probably Simulium sp., the second photo looks like a Heptageniid, summertime cahill, Stenacron or Mccafertium sp. I would suppose. But we can wait to hear from the experts.The bottiom mayfly does not look like Centroptilum to me, wrong color in my experience they are a much paler tannish cream color. Oh and the Paraleptophlebida are around now, probably P. mollis if you saw large clouds of them. Did they kinda look like a big female trico?

I've now attached my multicolored midge pattern for the fly in the third pic. The abdomen is pale olive thread and white thread. The wing is CDC, with the butts extending past the eye of the hook as antennae. The dubbing is, well, dubbing. I left the wing long and picked out the dubbing to give it better flotation. I also tried to make it look really disheveled. In spite of posting a pic of a beautifully preserved natural, the vast majority of the naturals were lying mangled in the film. This is a theme I've been noticing with a lot of naturals. I guess they could be called cripples, but I think that term is usually applied to partially emerged flies that never escape their shucks. Maybe I'll just call them "ugly dries". I'm beginning to think that our pretty, picturesque patterns look too good to look natural. I'm thinking I'm going to start making my dries uglier.

-Shawn

It seems from the photo like the wing on yours is really long. I see that you've explained why you tied it that way; my question (as a guy who never fishes midges, or any other really small dries for that matter) is this: wouldn't the extra long wing make it look less "natural" to the fish?

On the natural that you photographed, the wing looks considerably shorter than the body, but on your tie the wing looks considerably longer than the body...

That is definitely a species of Stenacron (Summer Cahill) in the second photo and the midges are in the Chironomidae family. That's a cool looking dry Shawn, but the fish were most likely taking pupa so tie a few flies to simulate them as well.

As for the last specimen,


Looks too stocky to me. It could possibly be a species of the baetid genus Acentrella. One of your dun photos looks like it could be as well for that matter so perhaps... None of the nymphs in your first photo on the other thread are of this genus, though.

BTW - Great photos. Get some shots of those baetid wings this sharp and we may be in business!

Perhaps. The hope is that the wing won't be the main thing the fish sees, since the rest of the fly will be right in the film and the wing should stay on top. That's at least the theory. I could always clip the wing shorter if it doesn't fish well, but I can't make it longer without retying the fly. And it has to float (at least somewhat).

Speaking of the pupae (and also the idea of floating the fly in or just under the film), I saw online the other day the most creative tying technique I've seen in a long time. I'm not sure who came up with this "parasol" wing, but I love the idea: http://www.riverbum.com/Parasol-Midge-Emerger-Black/

-Shawn

Say what?
I say: Any midge fisherman that is unable to suspend the midge pupae where it needs to be to be successful is not a midge fisherman.

I try to refrain from using midge pupae that are tied to drift at any specific depth in the water column, preferring to use technique as a means to cover top to bottom instead of changing flies.

I think the wing is fine, Shawn. The main thing will be drift. Drag free, and the fish will probably eat.

Louis & Shawn


I agree, assuming the fish are on the adults.

Al -

I largely agree with your assessment, though I do dress some patterns on heavy hooks (sometimes w/ beads) for fishing deep. These come in handy for use on lakes when the fish work the pupa at various depths prior to any surface activity. BTW - who are you quoting?

http://www.riverbum.com/Parasol-Midge-Emerger-Black/

Ah.. Thanks. I couldn't find it here and assumed it was from another thread.

A paint strainer slipped over your fishing net works really well, to not only sein the surface, but also to swat the little bastards out of the air.
Bruce gave me one, and now I don't leave home without it.


Yes. Especially where you live.