In Larry Wegmann’s article, Midges, he writes, “I discovered the photo of an emerging pupa with gill filaments and added this to my new flies. I waited for the most difficult time to try the gilled midge, a clear blue sky at noon. The pool I was fishing provided 20 trout that morning. Jerry Jester was with us and caught 15 more from this pool. On my first cast with the gilled midge, three trout rushed the fly and started fighting each other for first rights. I caught around ten more trout with the gilled midge. “ The picture above is of a gilled midge pupa.
We also know that the Root Beer Midge and the Harvest Midge catch their share of fish. So, here is my imitation of the gilled midge pupa.
Materials
- Hook: Tiemco TMC100BL
- Hook size: 16, 18, 20
- Gills & Tail: Nylon fibers (MicroLon –Gray, Tan or White)
- Thread: UTC 70 White and UNI-Thread Camel 6/0
- Head: Brass Bead Black Nickel 2.4mm
- Body: Stretch Tubing – Tan, Brown or Shrimp
I really like Nylon because it is strong, light weight and does not absorb water. The MicroLon is also nylon and has a little sparkle in it. It works just great. I take about 25 strains and use my hackle pliers to hold them together.
Dave Tucker (Fly above) uses Antron for the gills. I like that also. Dave is using TMC100BL size 20.
Tying Steps
A couple of thing I do different in tying this fly and would like to bring it to your attention. If you will notice, I have build up the thread base a little and that is because I am going to put the bead on with the large hole. I want the gills to be able to move around and if I installed the bead with the small hole first; the small hole seems to pull all the fibers together. By Building the thread base keep the large hole from covering the eye of the hook.
With the thread, I am trying to build a wing case. I tried it with dubbing but the thread does a nicer job.
Trim the gills. I do not have a standard length but 2 or 2 ½ eye lengths should be good. Then I UV coat ½ of the bead, the wing case, and the body back to the tail. Notice in the slide before the UV, that fibers are sticking out on the body. To clean them up, I used my burner.
Fishing Instructions: In Larry’s article, he said, “she was high sticking and watching the contact of the leader with the water surface while at the same time watching for the erratic swimming motion or white mouth to set the hook.” You can also dead drift on a strike indicator.
Do not be afraid to try other colors, hook types or hook sizes. The important thing is to find out which fly catches the most fish and report back your success.
Here are a few different colors. The sizes in the following pictures is 18.
If you would like this detail tying instruction downloaded to your phone or computer in PDF format, click on the name below.
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