Salmon & Trout Association Lincolnshire Branch
The Midges (non-biting midges)
ORDER: Diptera
FAMILY: Chironomidae
The Chironomids or non-biting midges are one of the most important items of food for trout in reservoir and lakes. Worldwide there are about 5000 species and there are around 400 species of chironamidae in the British Isles alone. The one the fisherman is concerned with is CHIRONOMUS PLUMOSUS. Although it is a difficult job to identify the species, providing we match the size and colour that should be sufficient. The adult midge will vary in size from 1/4 to 1/2 inch long.
LIFE CYCLE
Eggs: Most midges lay their eggs in a jelly like substance that sinks to the bottom of the water where they are laid.
Larvae: They soon hatch out into a worm like larvae. The colour depends on the species, but the larvae contain haemoglobin which gives a characteristic red colour and hence the common name is the bloodworm. The bloodworm will usually live in the deepest part of the lake in the mud. The larvae live on decaying vegetable matter and bacteria found in the sludge at the bottom of the lake. Some can tollerate very low oxygen levels and the bloodworms are often (wrongly) associated with stagnant water.
Pupae: The next stage and one very important to the angler is the pupa. This is the best stage of the midge to imitate. Trout feed on these as they make there way to the waters surface and then when they hang in the surface film waiting to hatch. As the fly breaks free from its pupal skin known as a shuck, the wings are a orange colour but fade in a few minutes.
Adult:The purpose of a adult midge is to reproduce (lucky sod) a short life but a very happy one. Guys think about it!
The Males often appear in clouds dancing near the water. They are then joined by the females who would be resting up in nearby vegetation. The mating usually takes place within an hour of hatching.
If you want to identify the male and female. The male has a long plumed antenna the female short and unplumed antenna.
Not all stages of an insect's life are always of use as a food item to fish, in some cases the life-stage is in a state in which the fish cannot get at it, but the following stages are recognised as useful imitations in the non-biting midges and their common fly-anglers name is given.
LARVAL IMITATION: Blood Worm
PUPAL IMITATIONS: Buzzers
HATCHING MIDGE PUPA: Emergers
ADULT DRY: Midge fly to match size and colour
SHUCK: Remains of emerging skin
The bloodworms are a hugely varied group of larvae, some useful, some not. Some colourful, some pale and almost invisble. The general colours are red because of the haemoglobin content - giving this stage of its life the name bloodworm. Some of the larvae are very pale and almost invivble in the water where they live and others are pale to olive green. There are many different ways of tying imitation bloodworms, in fact almost as many ways as there are anglers fishing with the things. Generally the bloodworms are quite small, 1/4 to 1/2 inch in length and imitations are always 2 - 5 times this size, yet another reason why anglers think trout are stupid! Some bloodworm imitations have lots of dangly, wiggly legs in a variety of lengths and colours from red, through orange, to green and brown, even blue; often up to 3 inches in total length - now that would be one heck of a non-biting midge when it hatched, good job they don't bite.Bloodworms are usually tied using red silk, red twisted cotton to give the segmented effect, red rubber legs can be added, etc. But I have found a good imitiation I have fished and had success with at Ludford (Thorpe le Vale) and I will give my rendition here. If it works for you, well done, if you don't like it, well perhaps you'd like to add your tying to the site. Send it to Barry from the contact page.
Tying the bloodworm. Put a size 12 or 14 long-shank hook in the vice. Run red thread down the shank and tie in a small bunch of red marabou, or a pinch of red fur which should be soft enough to give a bit of movement in the water. If you are really desperate to get the fly down deep you can, and I have tied a silver bead to the head. You could even run lead on the hook shank if you wished.
The method I have used for fishing this fly is really simple, very relaxed and great when it's time for a cuppa. I use a floating line and really long leader of degreased flourocarbon with a single fly on the point. If you were on large deep lake, say Rutland or at Toft, you would use sinking line to get the fly down. Now drop the fly out and pour up your cuppa. Sit back and relax, have a sandwich, whatever. Give the fly a few minutes to sink. Once you think it has been down there for a while and no action has happened. Give the fly a quick sharp tug, then let it sink again. The fly needs to be fished deep and static apart from a sharp tug from time to time to create a disturbance. Beware the fish can take this fly very deep in the throat and you will probably end up killing the fish with this method.
Variants on this theme can extend, as I say from the sublime to the ridiculus. You could try running that red plastic strip along the length of the body to produce a marked segmented effect, or even red holographic tinsel. Legs and tails can be created from marabou as above or from various proprietary materials like rubbalegs, plastic glass, and even red cotton and wool.
The image at left is a photo of a bloodworm on silt taken from a pond in 2008 in Lille northern France. The natural behaviour of a bloodworm is quite limited, generally living in the mud at the bottom of the lake. However if disturbed or when about to change into the pupa, it emerges from the hole in which it has lived and with very vigorous movements lasting for a few seconds, swims freely in the water. It as at this point it becomes vulnerable and trout take it.
The objective of fishing the fly in this way is to imitate the natural as it leaves it safe home in the mud and begins to swim during its process of metamorphosis to the pupa.
The Buzzers are one of the most prolific food forms a trout is likely to take. When the bloodworm, or chironomid larva is fully developed it will metamorphose into the next stage of its life, the pupa, and at this point the trout eat them greadily. Getting this just right, is unfortunately one of my failings. I have fished very little on buzzers through sheer laziness at giving it a go. However, I have one buzzer in my box that I would not be without. From the several times I have used it, it has caught for me. So I will explain this one and hope you too may find it a useful pattern. It was handed to me one day by a good friend who himself had received it in a package from his friend, Gordon in Newcastle upon Tyne. It is the 'Poached Egg' buzzer.
The poached egg buzzer is really simple to tie. You will need hooks size 12 to 16; white paint and orange paint and black or olive thread. For paint I use plain simple acrylics from the art shop. Best tied on a lightweight grub hook, because we want the fly skinny in the body! In the example I used a size 14 sproat hook. Tie on black or olive thread to suit. Both are reputed to work and both have caught for me. Run the thread down and back to about halfway along the hook. Build up a head using the tying thread and tie off. Now a coat of varnish overall helps both to strengthen and give a surface for the next procedure. With a tiny brush, or even a cocktail stick put a dab of white paint on each cheek of the fly. Then when that has dried, a small dab of orange paint. Okay, this is a poor man's jungle cock substitute and I don't mind saying it. No need to be really fancy, just a dab of white, and one of orange, job done, go fishing! Finally give 3 or 4 coats of varnish, letting each coat dry fully before applying the next coat.
How to fish is again really simple. I tie on a bushy old deers hair thing about four or five feet from the point of a 10 or 12 foot leader, grease the top end of the leader to make it float and degrease the bottom to make it sink. Tie the buzzer on the point, chuck it out and sit back and wait. Pour up another cup of coffee even and sit back and wait. Eat a sandwich, sit back and wait. Sooner or later a trout will take an interest and you'd better be ready for it because I have had one fish hook up on this buzzer whilst doing about 50 miles an hour down-lake!
The Emerger: Once the bloodworm is ready to hatch, gas begins to fill the thorax area (as they say, nothing a good fart wouldn't cure) and the bloodworm begins to rise up through the water column, partly by means of this gas and partly by a vigorous figure-of-eight twitching motion. Eventually it reaches the surface where the thorax begins to swell. At this stage the buzzer is called an emerger, it is about to emerge from the water and begin its brief adult life as a winged fly.
Tying an imitation emerger is a little more difficult and there are many abounding variations on a general theme as usual with most flies. Everyone has a fave' and this is mine.
I use a sproat hook because the tail curls a little and that is just what they look like as they sit just beneath the water - I'll take some video of a bloodworm-buzzer-emerger sometime and show you. The gas holds the buzzer just beneath the surface and it slowly wriggles out of its skin (shuck - of Dave Shipman fame) and finally emerges as an adult fly to sit on the water surface, dry its wings, buzz around awhile mate and if female, lay eggs and die. The wing buds in my version are single goose biot tips, orange, red, olive and blue are all good. The thorax is peacock but just as good is a bunch of grey dubbing, and the body fiery brown seal or a little wool ribbed with fine pearl tinsel.
To fish the fly, I use a mono leader with a little grease to within six inches of the fly, the fly itself needs a little floatant. If you can get hold of some liquid floatant, the stuff you soak your flies in and then let them dry out before use. Otherwise carefully applied mix of lard and cooking oil will do the trick, but do not ruin the shape, look, or feel, of the fly by over egging the chicken or whatever.
I'd just like to say a few words here about variants to this theme. There are many excellent flies that imitate an emerger, and sit in the surface film. Pick up any good fly tying book, or trawl you-tube hunting for the F-Fly, or a Klinkhammer, or a shuttlecock fly. All work really well, it is just a matter for personal preference.
The dry fly: is multitudunious in its patterns and variations for the fly angler from the micro-flies tied on size 20 hooks, to much larger flies visible with the human eye - well mine anyway. There are so many well known flies that to do justice would take several hundred pages and go on and on and on. I'm going to choose one little fly that I enjoy tying; the Dark Tup. The image below is tied on a size 14 up-eye lightweight hook for clarity, you could try tying this down to a 20 or smaller if you can see the hook to do it.
It's a real pity the camera does not do justice to this fly. Using lemon silk, tie down to the start of the bend only. Build up a nice carrot shape body, it was Tony Riley showed me how to un-spin the tying thread so you can get a nice flat body and reduce the ridges caused by fat silk on small hooks. Stop the body about 2/3rds the way to the eye. Dub on a little mole fur, or beaver will also do. Then tie on a honey dun cock hackle. In my image I have left the hackle complete, but in reality you would trim off the hackle beneath the body to provide a better footprint of the fly on water. And if pond/lake olives are hatching - give this a go, you'd be daft not to. In a size 16 or better an 18 this is a perfect match for the pond olive - if you are fishing a pond and a lake olive if it's a lake!
To fish this fly, especially in the smaller sizes, how light dare you go? Your terminal tackle, leader must be heavy enough to hold the fish you are tempting, but light enough not to disturb the fish by being minimally visible on the surface. Fish by drifting in the wind, let the fly float around and hopefully you will pick up a fish or two off the top. Don't drag the fly around, it will look unnatural and put feeding fish off.
Finally: the Shipman's buzzer. Named after Dave Shipman who notice the fish at Rutland water were picking up the odds and ends after flies had hatched, well something like that anyway. The shucks, or remains of the bloodworm-buzzer-emerger after it has hatched and left the water is of interest to fly anglers. Dave Shipman invented a fly to try to tempt the fish picking the shucks from the surface. Such was it's success that the fly has become universal. In fact some anglers have whole boxes of the things in different sizes and colours. My mentor uses one basic colour with a few variants, but swears by fiery brown seal fur which he has made up his own dye especially for the purpose.
This is a variant of the orignal, fished in the surface film, the fly should provide a bit of floatation and rather than using the standard antron I have used a length closed cell foam for the job.