Trout Diet

Midges, Midges, Midges...  These prolific flies can make up more than 50% of all aquatic insects in any given freshwater ecosystem.  Understanding their life cycle and their importance to the trout diet is vital for fly fishing.  When a midge hatch is the only thing happening, you will be thankful for having the right fly in your fly box.   This article will discuss chironomids and their life cycle.

First of all, what is a midge?  Most fly fishermen refer to any small fly as a midge, including mosquitos (which are not midges).  Truth be told, most midges are quite small and artificial midge flies are rarely tied on anything larger than a size 18 hook.  Many anglers avoid midge fishing because of the frustration that comes with trying to tie a size 22 (and smaller) fly on 7x tippet, not to mention trying to tie a fly that small in the first place.   A true midge can be any of several families of insect in the order Diptera.  When it comes to a trout's diet, the most important family in the order Diptera is the Chironomidae.

Now, it's true that if a nice mayfly, caddis fly or stonefly hatch is ocuring, trout will generally ignore midges.  But midges hatch in such abundance throughout the seasons that when other insects are not present the sheer number of hatching midges will make up a huge portion of a trout's diet.  Often, if you fish in an area where winter fishing is legal, it is rare to fish much else than midge patterns.   If you get frustrated with tying on flies I highly recommend getting a clip on magnifier of some sort.  I know many an angler who swears by them.

Midge Larva: 

Midges go through a complete metamorphasis.  They start their lives out of the egg as Larvae and then transform into a pupal stage and finally, emerge as a two winged adult.  Midge Larvae are generally larger than midge pupae and adults.  A midge larva looks very much like a worm.  In fact, midge larvae that burrow into the silt or mud at the bottom of still water are referred to as "bloodworms."  They are quite red due to the retention of hemoglobin in low oxygen depths.  Generally, midge larvae will be black, olive or tan.  Their size is noticeable in length, however, they are quite slender with an obvious segmentation.   The head and thorax have yet to develop so the larval body is consistant in size from end to end.

Fishing a midge larva is really easy.  My choice is the dead drift.  Either keep it near the bottom under a small indicator or drop it under a dry fly indicator.  When choosing the right larva imitation, smaller is usually better.  Turn over some rocks and see what's out there.  When in doubt, go small.  Matching color is less important than size.

I've read of some anglers using just a bare hook to catch trout.  I imagine a single wrap of thread to create segmentation on the bare hook to keep an ultra slim profile could be effective.  I will often fish small buzzers or brassies in small sizes quite effectively.  Both are easy to tie and work like a charm.