Midge Patterns

[Zack Hoyt]

Hahaha. Was just catching up.

I do a few Ginger soft hackles that I use copper for. As well as some smaller stonefly nymphs....no nymph pics currently. Also on a few crawfish imitations. It tends to lend itself to the orange/burnt orange color. Of course I really dont know that trout care a while helluva lot. Alot more goes toward presentation than fly IMO.

[Jeremy Hunt]

Thanks for posting Zach. I would have to agree on presentation, but having "that" perfect pattern plays a big role on consistent hook ups.

[trout_bum]

I have had very good success with a very simple midge pattern called a copper dun. Shannon Roberts at River Run Outfitters showed it to me a while back. It has a 2.0mm copper bead head, 8/0 rusty dun uni-tread for the body and a fine copper ribbing. It produces best during overcast low light conditions. I will usually coat them with UV Knotsense to make them more durable.

[Jeremy Hunt]

I like Shannon. He's also the one who came up with the p&p. I'll have to tie a few of those up you mentioned. If it came from Shaonnon I'm sure it works. Yeah Trout_bum, I feel the same way about copper, low light conditions is when it works the best for me. And that color (rusty dun) thread is a staple color for alot of my bugs.

[jdmidwest]

I have seen gold bead versions of a pattern work better on clear sunny days while the copper works best on cloudy or low light. I really don't know why but that is my observations. Milky green rivers produce better with copper, clear water with gold.

[Jeremy Hunt]

Great point! Now that you mentioned different colored waters, that makes since now that I think about my fishing experiences.

[Hopper]

Went to the lower mt. fork over the weekend and put the copper bead to test, did very well,#18 primrose, #20 drk. brown coppper zebra, #18 brown micro tube w/rootbeer ice dub collar, except the two biggest were caught on a #22 twisted micro tube midge by pat murphy.

Gregg

[dgames]

Did you tie those hopper? Those are really nice looking - very precise tying.

[Mike Davis]

Has anyone else tried copper tungsten? I tie a variety of colors with the copper tungsten and copper ultra-wire. They've worked on the Little Red, White and Norfork as well as some spring creeks in Wisconsin. I gave a couple to a guy heading to California on a trip and he said a wine colored thread with the copper wire and T-bead did very well on the Sacramento River.

Mike

[Don]

I use copper tungsten beads over all other colored beads combined.

My most successful are in order tan, light brown, rusty dun, wine, and red thread bodies with copper bead and segment.