The fly box · No. 25 of 36
Zebra Midge
Midge pupae rising slowly toward the surface.
- Kind
- Nymph
- Hook sizes
- 18–22
- Season
- Autumn, winter, spring
- For
- Trout and grayling
- At the vice
- An easy tie
The dressing
| Hook | Curved light-wire grub or emerger hook, barbless, sizes 18–22 |
|---|---|
| Thread | Black, 8/0 or finer |
| Tail | None |
| Body | Black tying thread, one or two flat layers, starting a little way round the bend |
| Rib | Fine silver wire, five or six evenly spaced turns |
| Hackle | None |
| Wing | None |
| Also | Silver brass or tungsten bead, 1.5–2.0 mm; a slight thread collar behind it. Red or olive thread with matching wire makes useful variants |
Tying it
- Slide the bead on, pinching the barb flat first if the hook has one.
- Start the thread behind the bead and tie in the wire along the top of the shank, binding it down into the bend.
- Wind the thread back to the bead in flat, touching turns to form a smooth, thin body.
- Wind the wire forward in evenly spaced open turns and tie it off behind the bead.
- Build a small collar of thread behind the bead and whip finish.
- Add a tiny drop of varnish to the collar.
Fishing it
Carry it for slow glides and pool tails in the cold months, when midges are the only insects about and fish sip or bulge without showing their heads. Tie it on 40–50 cm of 6X (0.13 mm) below a small dry fly and fish it dead drift, watching the dry for the least check. In deeper, slower water, fish it under a pinch of yarn indicator at about one and a half times the depth. Takes are gentle; lift smoothly, and play fish with a soft hand on so small a hook.
Where it comes from
The pattern is usually credited to Ted Welling, a guide at Lees Ferry on the Colorado River in Arizona, where trout feed on midges all year. It could hardly be plainer: a thread body, a wire rib and a small bead. The dark and light banding copies the segments of a pupa, and the bead suggests the bright gas at its head.