My 1St Report.....testing Mic's Midge

[duckydoty]

I was one of the lucky ones to be sent a few midges tied by Mic to be tested. I found them in the mail box on Sunday, worked late on Monday, wanted to test them on Taneycomo Tuesday after work, but they were running water, and finally got to try them today.

First off, they are very well tied flies, and I personally like the size and looks of them. Very well proportioned and I've been wanting to tie some about this size for certain days when the fish are midging and looking for something small.

Now for the report....

Got to the water about 5:15 pm. Sun was shining, wind blowing 10-15 straight down stream and the temp was 47 degrees. Started in the shallow water on the flats between outlet one and two using 6x tippet and one of the first of Mic's midges or mini soft hackles. Maybe I should call it a hair hackle? There was a good chop on the water and lots of surface activity with fish slurping midges off the surface. I fished the fly by quartering my cast down stream and using short 2 inch strips fairly fast for a retrieve. On the third cast, I got slammed by a nice 17 inch bow. 6 more casts, and I landed another 14 incher. 2 casts after that, a hit and a miss. 5 more casts and another hit and a miss. 7 or 8 more cast and I landed a 15 inch rainbow. After that, I did not land another fish and only got 2 or 3 more hits on the fly. I tried slowing the retrieve, moving to deeper water, and even just dead drifting it. I fished the midge for about 30 minutes and then went to one of my go to flies for a comparison on how the fish were biting. I switched over to the olive pine squirrel sculpin I like to fish. I caught fish or got bites on just about every cast that I did not foul up with wind knots for the next 30 minutes. This sounds pretty good, but I think every 3rd cast ended up being a huge wind knot with the fly tangled up and doubled back on the line. Big problem with tailing loops today????? All the fish caught on the pine squirrel were 10 to 13 inches.

My interpretation on the results of the test......Mic's fly caught fish. Landed 3 in 30 minutes and missed 4 or 5 others. It did not catch as many as the pine squirrel in the same time allotment, but Mic's midge consistently caught larger, better quality fish than the pine squirrel.

I will add this fly to my box for future fishing adventures. Ducky approves!

It should be snowing in the Lake Taneycomo area tomorrow, but I plan on getting out and testing one more of the midges in the foul weather.

Another report to come.

[Buzz]

Great report. Good for you and Mic. There's nothing better than the satisfaction of tying a new fly that catches quality fish.

[mic]

Thanks dude. Family and I are planning a Branson trip this summer. Maybe we can get together one morning.

SWEET.

[mic]

There is a pic of the fly about four inputs down on this thread.

[mic]

Duck,

For my education... When the bites quit coming, were the trout still sipping midges, i.e. was the hatch over?

[duckydoty]

Duck,

For my education... When the bites quit coming, were the trout still sipping midges, i.e. was the hatch over?

They were still sipping just quit biting on the midge. Got another report coming from todays test.

[duckydoty]

Thanks dude. Family and I are planning a Branson trip this summer. Maybe we can get together one morning.

SWEET.

You're gonna have to bring the family to Alaska in order to fish with me this summer.......I can hear it now....Alright kids and wife, we gotta pack for Alaska so I can go fish with ducky!