Questions on Midges and Nymphs

[charliepff]

Hello Everyone,

I do not not tie anything really special. I also tend to stay away from dry flies. In fact I bought my last good assortment thru Jerry. I have tied simple nymphs and midges. I have a question though. Does everyone have a select color they tie their pheasant tails, brassies, and wd40 flies in; or, do you just go with the standard colors. I am not sure what colors to try. I though about olive colors on the pheasant tails and such. The brassies and such I have no idea what other colors to try in. I guess I am wondering what colors everyone has found to work for them. Thanks for your help everyone.

 

[darwin]

Match the hatch is always a safe rule to follow. Various shades of tan,yellow, brown, olive, gray and black are good to have. Then again sometimes blue, red or purple will work. . All part of the challenge.
When in doubt I stick with natural colours.

 

[dillon]

I use an olive dyed pheasant tail fibers for PT nymphs an soft hackles. I don't fish brassies much but they would pass for chronomids. Kingfisher blue wire body might be killer. I've never heard of a wd40 fly, but Pacific salmon fishermen spray their lures and bait with wd40...

 

[airborne 82nd]

The beauty of tying youre own flies is the options to experiment , matching the hatch is always a good guide to shadow, then try some differnet colors , as well as sizes , i enjoy tying these in various colors, i even try things that make no sense lol ... hot spots are An option , reds, pinks, oranges, neons ?
I usually use natural pheasant tail color , however i do hVe some tIls in green and blue , tinted, looks pretty cool , somtimes ill add a different. Color wire, or beadheads but again mix it up , have fun and experiment , and lastly..., you will be glad you did , take notes , i do this it helps, dates times , temps weather
What colors worked what didnt , after awhile you will find youre own strategy
And hopefully enjoy this beautiful hobby we love. ..good luck let us know what you found worked ? Maybe somthing ive never tried. Enjoy
Airborne

 

[flytire]

be creative. experiment

basic colors found around a stream, river etc are olive, brown, tan, black

 

[mtboiler]

So, I tie everything I use....and personally I feel it is a big advantage. I modify my flies to my personal liking. I think that fish seeing the same flies over and over again get use to what everyone is throwing and won't take it. So having something just a little bit different, with a different color or slightly different shape definitely helps.

 

[mcnerney]

Darwin
The others have offered great advice, but wanted to add that on my WD-40's, I tend to like brown the best, but I do tie them in black, olive and tan.
Another pattern that you might be interested in is the WD-40 Plus. I haven't tried fishing them yet, but it looks like an interesting improvement on the original Mark Engler WD-40 midge pattern.

YouTube

 

[charliepff]

Thank you everyone for the help. I think when I tie them up Ill try some of the main colors, then move on to the others. I appreciate the advice. It amazes me sometimes on what colors work. I have two streams where a flashy hares ear destroys the rainbows on it. Really flashy.

Mcnerney, I will check out the video you attached. I think it would definitely be worth tying a few of those up too.

 

[silver creek]

Hello Everyone,

I do not not tie anything really special. I also tend to stay away from dry flies. In fact I bought my last good assortment thru Jerry. I have tied simple nymphs and midges. I have a question though. Does everyone have a select color they tie their pheasant tails, brassies, and wd40 flies in; or, do you just go with the standard colors. I am not sure what colors to try. I though about olive colors on the pheasant tails and such. The brassies and such I have no idea what other colors to try in. I guess I am wondering what colors everyone has found to work for them. Thanks for your help everyone.

There was a question about Jason Randall's "Nymph Masters: Fly-Fishing Secrets from Expert Anglers" on the Wisconsin Forum and it has application to your question. Jason sent me a copy of the book in exchange for one of my UV Resin kits.

Here is a sample piece from Jason's book.

Nymph Fishing: Pregame Preparation | MidCurrent

"Knowing the food that’s available to trout in the river you’re fishing can’t be overemphasized. Fishing with Ed Jaworowski and Tom Baltz on the Yellow Breeches, we shook streamside bushes and plucked rocks from the streambed to look for bugs— you need to look at the menu before you order. It’s a habit Joe Humphreys also has. When we arrived at Spring Creek last year, we picked up streambed rocks to examine the local fauna—the food available to trout. He identified cress bugs and Sulphur nymphs and then opened his multipaneled fly box and plucked out his favorite cress bug fly and a small Pheasant Tail Nymph to use as a dropper. He compared each fly next to the natural to match the size and then dipped the flies into the water to match the color of the wet fly to the bugs. Our fly needs to match the natural in the water, so wet the fly; the color often darkens after the fly gets wet."

You can't do better than to copy Joe Humphreys, Ed Jaworowski, and Tom Baltz. Match the hatch and even better tie your nymphs so the wet color matches the wet color of the real thing.

Your flies will look darker when wet so if you really are particular about matching the color of the hatch, you need to match the wet color of your materials to the natural. That should be your first priority. Then you can add other colors as you want, but I would match the hatch first.

I recently added a thread that explains why materials look darker when wet.

https://www.theflyfishingforum.com/...va-pupa-underwater-naturals0.html#post1077471

 

[flyminded]

Doesn’t get much easier than Dorsey’s Mercury Midge.

 

[charliepff]

Wow, I can not believe all the great suggestions. I will definitely get a hold of that book if I can Silvercreek. I started picking up rocks last year instead of going by what the shops had written on their shop blackboard. I have learned a ton doing that. I was able to catch fish on two streams that I usually do down right lousy on. I was actually able to catch a lot of fish visualizing the river in parts and matching what was turned over. I never thought about how much the wet color or exact size makes such a difference. The mercury midge looks extremely easy to tie and as I have told Jerry, I can not tie small stuff. So the easier the better. You all are great. I can not wait to tie this stuff up. I work 24 tomorrow so hopefully Sunday I can start tying them.

 

[comeonavs]

The joys of tying your own, you can screw around and tweak things and do things like this YouTube

Ive done Red Pheasant Tails, Red with white CDC hackle collar, purple. Im fairly convinced fish aren't generally as smart as we give them credit for. If they're being picky then you have to really dial in all the details. If they are feeding hard then all bets are off.


One of my favorite winter midges is a size 20 scud hook , clear glass bead and blue micro tube same as in the video, A little peacock here collar and trout will hit it in the cold spring months around here.

 

[planettrout]

Scroll down and take a look at the colors of the Midge larva in Colorado Guide Flies:

Colorado Guide Flies: Patterns, Rigs, & Advice from the State's Best Anglers ... - Pat Dorsey - Google Books

When it comes to matching nymph colors and larva colors, a lot can depend of location and in many cases, the color of the stream or riverbed bottom. The best way to find out and keep a record, is to use a seine net and do collections in the biomass. Take a look inside at the section in this book on Collecting and Observing Mayflies Chapter 2. It will provide an idea of what is needed.

Western Mayfly Hatches: From The Rockies To The Pacific: Rick Hafele, Dave Hughes: 9781571883049: Amazon.com: Books

Like flytire said, for general matching of insect colors, one can't go wrong using earth tones. Attractor patterns are an entirely different game. Let imagination be the guide. I tie a lot of off the wall attractor patterns that have caught a lot of Trout for me and my kids...

PT/TB

 

[kevind62]

I usually try to say with 5 basic colors. Black, brown, olive, red, and grey dunn. On zebra midges and copper johns I have used white and chartreus. I like to add a little contrast to some of my SJW's and use yellow, red, and tan for abdomens.

Streamers are different. I'll use some loud colors for good contrast. And you're imitating small fish for the most part so a given amount of flash is always good to have as most all fish have some sort of flashy color in their scales.

Hello Everyone,

I do not not tie anything really special. I also tend to stay away from dry flies. In fact I bought my last good assortment thru Jerry. I have tied simple nymphs and midges. I have a question though. Does everyone have a select color they tie their pheasant tails, brassies, and wd40 flies in; or, do you just go with the standard colors. I am not sure what colors to try. I though about olive colors on the pheasant tails and such. The brassies and such I have no idea what other colors to try in. I guess I am wondering what colors everyone has found to work for them. Thanks for your help everyone.

 

[charliepff]

Thank you everyone for the help. I ordered two new books on the advice of this thread and I am going to get a seine for flipping rocks. I am curious to see what is in our warm water streams in the area also. Thank you all again for the help.

On a side note, it amazes me sometimes the off the wall colors that seem to work on pressured streams. It cracks me up sometimes. I have a stream that is highly pressured I fish. A flashy nymph with blue wire seems to work great. Especially with a silver bead head.

 

[silver creek]

Thank you everyone for the help. I ordered two new books on the advice of this thread and I am going to get a seine for flipping rocks. I am curious to see what is in our warm water streams in the area also. Thank you all again for the help.

Use a nylon paint bucket strainer bag over your landing net. It is a DIY Quick Seine/

 

[themind]

I tie my PT nymphs in a few colours, natural, black, light olive, dark olive, dirty yellow, grey and a sort of fiery brown and find they cover most situations where I want a PT shaped nymph. I sometimes tie them with flashbacks too. I dont use Brassies but I tie Copper johns in a few colours and sometimes with alternating colours of wire. Gold ribbed hares ears I tie with natural, ruddy brown, olive and picric colours, again that covers most of what I want that stule fly for.

Steve

 

[charliepff]

Have you noticed any colors favored over the others? I like the idea if the dirty yellow. I for some reason remember seeing bugs in a color close to that before.