Winter fishing — the mighty midge

You don’t have to see it to believe it…

Fishing in winter is challenging. Anything that helps increase the chances of success is welcome.

Midges

Small flies like midges are hard on the angler. They are hard to see, hard to tie on the tippet, require a finesse set and hard to keep in a fish’s mouth. But they catch fish. I once hated the thought of fishing them, but success made me a believer, inconvenience be damned.

The other day I came across this article on the Orvis website, Pro Tips: How to Fish Midge Patterns in Winter by Zach Matthews of The Itinerant Angler fame.

“But one thing is very clear: trout love to eat midges. Your average brown trout in a midge hatch is like a fat kid with a bowl full of M&Ms. Although each of the bugs may not make much of a meal, a river is like a conveyor belt that delivers thousands of the tiny morsels to a fish.”

Matthews is an excellent and entertaining writer. I won’t muck up his work by paraphrasing it, but here are a few things that caught my eye.

• His explanation of fishing midges below the surface and how he rigs up to fish them.

“The most important thing for anglers to remember is that all midges are born on the bottom of the river, and they have to make their way to the surface. Once in the air, only the unluckiest midges get eaten by trout, so the intelligent midge angler will keep that in mind and spend most of his efforts fishing below the surface.”

• His advice is to fish low and slow.

“A fish can’t eat what it can’t find, and the trick to fishing midges is getting the fly in front of the fish. While you may have had a lot of luck swinging streamers through shoals in the past, indicator fishing with miniature flies can be almost impossible in areas of heavy flow because the fly just won’t get down. Look for one of two situations instead: a slow channel or tail out, or an upstream deep pocket.”

Sounds like Mossy Creek in the winter, don’t ya think?

I encourage you to read the entire article; you’ll learn a lot.

Bonus: There are a couple of fly-tying videos by Tim Flagler. Something to do when the weather is just too nasty. If I can tie midges anyone can. Check them out.

That’s it for this edition of Tales, thanks for taking the time to read it. Don't hesitate to comment or hit the chat button if the spirit moves you; I enjoy hearing from readers. You can find me on Mastodon > @TomSadler or @TroutWrangler.

Until next time, happy Thanksgiving. Remember, “all good days fishing are lived twice.” And they are all good days.