Zebra Midge

[Tom Tricamo]

One of the ole stand-bys. I just caught the fly fishing bug and I'm wondering if you guys can give some insight on this pattern?

Where is it used in the water column?

What size do you like?

How do you fish it?

Strike indicator?

Thanks,

Tom

[Idylwilde]

Drift just off the bottom under an Indicator or as a dropper off a dry fly, size 18 - 20 is good on the Current River. High stick it through the riffles and let it swing up in the eddies. Also their are several colors and names for look alike flies like the Ice Cream Cone, Little Dipper, and Tungsten Gray. Great little fish catchers

[dgames]

You don't always have to fish them on the bottom

In slower water, when fish are feeding on the surface, I will fish bead head midges on a really short dropper (7x or 6x flouro) under a dry fly. At times, I have gone as short as 6", but usually more like a foot to 15". I have had good luck doing this on tailwaters and the trout parks.

It doesn't have to always be a zebra midge either. My go to midge is yellow thread covered with olive midge flash with a copper bead.

[Ham]

I fish 16's and 18's. Mainly 18's. I tied up a couple of hundred (all together) in black, red, blue, purple, rusty, and olive. I always fish them under an indicator. I usually fish them very close to bottom, but not always. If I have fish take it at the end of a drift when the current pushed the midge upwards, I reduce the distance from indicator to fly.

I sling the fly upstream and drift as close to dead drift as I can get it. I set the hook anytime the indicator acts the least bit odd.

[DaddyO]

dgames,

Thanks for posting that picture. I've heard you mention this fly before and I always wondered what it looked like.

[flyrodman]

I like Rusty Midges where the size 18 body is tied on a size 16 hook. I fish them very close to the top, maybe 6"-15" under the smallest possible indicator I can get. I like cutting a palsa indicator in half and using that. Just cast a foot or two in front of some midging trout and let it drift to them. Good Luck!

[dgames]

No problem. I kind of stumbled onto it a couple years ago just playing around at the vise doing a variation of a primrose and pearl. When I tried it out, it seemed to do better than other midges I had in my box at the time and have been using it ever since.

I need to tie up some of your hare and copper patterns to try down on the LI. I keep reading your reports and it sounds like they tear into those pretty well too.