Zebra Midges

[midge1]

Are zebra midges used mostly in rivers or are they as effective in a lake?

 

[mcnerney]

I use them in both conditions, but in lakes I can use larger sizes, they can be very effective during a chironomid hatch, either fished under an indicator or using an intermediate line with a slow hand twist retrieve.

 

[Matt4.0]

Zebra midges...one pattern I get away from using for no good reason...then kick myself for doing so when I go back to them
(Speaking for rivers, but i can imagine they'd effective in still waters in the right sizes as Larry implied)

 

[flav]

Like mcnerney said, good in both, but in stillwater you can use bigger sizes. For rivers I generally carry only small ones, sizes 18-22. For stillwater I carry a few smaller ones, but most are in sizes 10-14. In lakes I usually fish them under an indicator, those slow hand twist retrieves drive me nuts. If there's a hatch, though, I fish them just below the surface as a dropper under a dry. Most stillwater guys call them chironomids, but they're the same thing.

 

[kevind62]

Never was really interested in zebra midges early on. Until I fished CO one trip and caught a few fish with zebra's still hooked in their mouth from a previous break off. Now they're one of my favorite to tie and use. Very simple yet very effective little boogers. And you can tie them in a myriad of different combos. I like to call them my "two minute flies". That's about how long it takes to tie one. Granted if you coat them with epoxy or acrylic glue it adds just a little more time. I'll place several dozen on a foam hanger and coat them all at once to minimize time and glue. It's not absolutely necessary to coat them, but it does do several things if you do. Helps them gather more light under water, makes them more durable when unhooking fish, and they just look cool when you do coat them. I like to use the beadhead zebras (brass or tungsten) for added weight in faster water.

 

[stenacron]

Are zebra midges used mostly in rivers or are they as effective in a lake?

Midges play an even bigger role in stillwaters than they do in rivers. There is published material [Rowley] suggesting that midges (aka "chironomids" aka "buzzers") make up as much as 50% of a trout's diet in lakes/ponds during spring and summer.

As others have noted, the lake varieties tend to run larger and have some trigger characteristics to their appearance that should be incorporated into the fly design (prominent white gill filaments, reddish body parts, and in some cases a chrome body). Super effective speaking from personnel experience.

In rivers I am convinced that the Zebra Midge is so effective because it not only looks like a midge pupa, but pulls double duty as Black Fly larvae... a tremendously underrated trout food.

Here's a shot that I took on a prominent Colorado trout river a few years back.

And another... this time a throat sample from a 17" rainbow locally here in Utah. Difficult to make out, but the bulk of these items are Black Fly larvae.

 

[corn fed fins]

Another one for increasing the size in lakes; up to an inch long. "Blood worms". Red, black, and light green for lakes around here. The fact is I have seen every color of midge be productive at one time or another in both lakes and rivers.

Funny how I find myself repeating those pie charts to people and they never believe me. Midges are the staple food of a trout's diet. I fish a midge all year and will drop them off dries routinely.

 

[Bigfly]

If I was making a dictionary, under the word "ubiquitous", I would have a picture of a midge.
They inhabit waters near the crest of our peaks....down to ponds in sewage treatment plants, and on to the bottom of a drainage.
I fish them constantly..........all year-round. All stages too...pupal, emerger, dry, clumps, and drowned dry.......

Jim

 

[planettrout]

Some history on the Zebra Midge, usage of the pattern and variations:

Zebra Midge

This is a variant on the Zebra/Shop Vac that I use:

PT/TB