Favourite stillwater midge pattern

[Viking Lars]

Let's see 'em - pics, please :-).

I'll post a few pics later today myself!

Lars

[Crackaig]

Hi Lars,
Makes no difference, flowing or still water, when there are little black bugs about I fish a Little Black Bug!

SbS here!
Of course, even if you tie that, you should carry some Griffith's Gnats.
Cheers,
C.

[Paul Arden]

Some interesting questions on the FP, Lars. Definitely hard to hit these fish in a tube, possible in a kayak. If I'm stuck with fish rising around but not close, I'll short line, or do nothing until they come close. I had this while wading a few times and ended up taking my shoes off and fishing in socks!

Another thing to think about is sometimes what we see on the surface is only a small percentage of the feeding activity. Fishing a team of three buzzers may catch you more fish. Also an intermediate line and pulling flies may be better.

However if you're chasing the fish on the surface, then I would look very closely at the rises. Head and tail may not be on the surface food, but more likely just below. If there is an air bubble left behind - I know you know this - it means they've taken a surface fly and expelled the air through their gills as they've gone down again.

No bubble: wet flies. Palmers and spiders. Soldier Palmer is a great midge fly. Any Spider in the right colour. Fished static. Light weight hooks.

With bubble: now it gets interesting. I'll fish a suspender on the point, a Shipmans in the middle and a sedge on the top dropper. This covers my options and the sedge I can always see. If visibility is not a problem I'll fish two different Shipmans.

The hardest buzzer fishing is when the fish are "once-ing" on adult egg laying buzzers. You need a hackled fly that you can skate, but the problem is they're once-ing and there is a lot more fish probably feeding below the surface so the decision is whether to go for the odd fish or fish the water with sunk buzzers and undoubtedly catch more fish!

Incidentally last thing in the evening, even though they're still on buzzers, fish a black lure just subsurface and you should be able to pick up 2 or 3 more fish!

Cheers, Paul

[Paul Arden]

Also an intermediate line and pulling flies may be better.

(At this time of year).

[Viking Lars]

Hey Paul!

They were definitely head and tailing and definitely ON the surface - no doubt there.

It was tricky because they either rose 3-4 times and then moved on/switched off or they are patrolling and rising in certain intervals along the same path. I had one fish which began from the reeds, moved out into the lake rising 3-4 times and then "went off" for a short while as it swam back to the reeds, where it then cruised up along the reeds, somtimes in the reeds, rising in a 2-2.5 foot interval. It patrolled about 40 feet along the reeds like this and then went back to the starting point.

Pretty damned fascinating and something I've only experienced a few times before on slow moving rivers.

It was damned hard to hit the right spot from the tube and if I missed once or twice, I had to turn and/or relocate just a little, and the little ripple I produced put the fish off.

On the few occasions where I did hit the right spot at the right time, I obviously didn't have the right fly. I hit it once with a small, olive, reversed suspender and once with a small, black Klinkhamer.

I think what I really needed was some small dries riding high on the surface.

After spending (my friend said wasting :-) two hours trying to crack the dry fly code, I switched to a Hi D and a white streamer and landed 4 :-).

Another interesting fact is that the deeper I fish, the more browns I catch. The bows are high up or a least in the upper part of the water column, but I suppose this is ancient knowledge for stillwater experts.

So today I've tied small, dry midges, Griffith's Gnats and an old favourite of mine - a Griffith's Gnat with a black hackle and two, small strands of flash for a tail!

Lars

[Viking Lars]

Nice fly, C.

I'll tie up a few tomorrow and try them out!

Lars

[Paul Arden]

Yep, browns (and large rainbows) are usually one line density deeper. Or more!

Griffith's Gnat is not my style of fly for this at all. Heading and Tailing is often - mostly in fact! - subsurface feeding. Suspenders or just underneath would be my first approach. Are you allowed multiple fly rigs?

What size are the buzzers and colour? I'm in Bosnia this week - I'll tie you some of my best patterns and send them up. Probably too late for this behaviour this year, but I've never tied you flies and you've tied me lots!

Cheers, Paul

[Paul Arden]

Incidentally the reverse is the case in NZ - browns are usually in the shallows and rainbows in the deeper water.

In Montana the browns were usually in the shallows too, but the rainbows would run wind lanes, like they do in the UK. This is very rare in NZ.

Cheers, Paul

[Barrio]

Size 14 spiders would probably be worth a try, at least they would up here.

Cheers
Mike

[Blackwater]

If i had seen fish feeding like that i would definitely have used either a fly in the surface or just under the surface. Something like a Shuttlecock for an in the surface emerger pattern and maybe a very lightly dressed black and peacock spider just under the surface.

SL Shuttlecock Buzzer.jpg (131.61 KiB) Viewed 8649 times

If i really had to fish the surface dry fly i would probably throw out an F-Fly.