This is the 3rd in a series of simple flies that I catch most of my fish on. The deals with fishing a midge hatch and ties a Griffith Gnat and a Tummel Fly.
Hi Larry, Thanks for your comment. There are multiple articles on fishing with crane fly imitations. The articles certainly appear very interesting, but I have no personal experience with fishing with crane flies. I certainly will be watching for the opportunity to try that sometime, but until then, I'm not planning on any videos dealing with crane flies. Rog
Rog, I have tried your tummel fly without success unfortunately for a few years now. I fish some technical tailwaters for midges and thought the Tummel would be the "holy grail" to increases my success rate when midges are emerging. Alas, no such luck! Any tips on how you fish this when small (24-28) is needed and the tailwater trout are finicky?
Hi Dave, Sorry that the Tummel fly hasn't worked for you. The tummel fly was taught to me by a friend from Pennsylvania who fished technical waters out east and recommended that I try it. I've not fished highly technical waters, but have used it in tail waters and spring creeks with success. I usually fish it in a size #22 - #24 on very flat, slow current water. I usually cast it quartering down stream, mending only enough to keep it drifting at or near current speed, and use very small twitches. (again very small) I don't treat the fly at all, but the fly is usually in the surface film. It has worked best for me in relatively sparse midge emergences. I hope this helps. I'd be interested in your favorite flies for midge hatches also, as I'm also always looking for a "holy grail" fly. Thanks Rog
@@RogerFlyFishing Thanks for the feedback! I'll try the small twitches as I've not done that before when fishing midges. I live in Mass. but every year I travel to fish the San Juan in NM and that's where I was hoping the tummel would work (going with your thought about "something the fish haven't seen"). The hatches on the San Juan can also be very large so maybe that's a factor. What does work for me with midges on emergers are Charlie Craven's mole fly, very small parachute adams, matt's midge, and thread midges with segemented bodies and a shuck. For dry flies a griffiths is hard to beat (up to size 14 for large clusters) but many other patterns work too as long as they are small. The WD40 is a great producer for the pupa stage along with foam backs, crystal flash emergers, and my personal go to - the zebra midge in black with a silver wire segmented body. For larva a red annelid pattern beats most others.
@@davidwester9761 Hi Dave, Thanks for your feed back also. I certainly will be trying some of your recommendations. The Zebra Midge is my go to fly also for many years, and I really like the WD40 for a BWO emerger. I'll have to try it for midges also. Some of my midge fishing has been below the dam of Norfork Lake on the Norfork (North Fork) River in Arkansas. I suspect these fish aren't as fussy as on the San Juan, which I look forward to fishing some day, but haven't yet. The Griffith's gnat does seem to work well with heavy hatches. In Arkansas, a Crackle Back seems to be a popular fly and worked for me in Midge hatches although I think of it as a variation of the Griffith's Gnat. The Tummel worked best as I explained above. One time the fish would only take what my Pennsylvania friend called a Starling Wrap. It is simply a #26 hook wrapped with 2 turns of a Starling hackle which is then cut to less than 1/4 diameter leaving blunt tips on the hackle. Of course, I've also had times that I've tried everything that I thought would work, followed by frustrated changes of flies that made no sense, and still got skunked with rising fish around me! Thanks again for the list of patterns you use. Rog
@@RogerFlyFishing Sorry, the WD40 is great for the Beatis emergers on the San Juan, not midges. The parachute adams I mentioned, tied in size24-26 works for both midges and BWOs at the San Juan especially when the fish are taking flies on top. I have heard of the Norfolk but haven't fished it. Unfortunately the San Juan gets huge pressure so expect crowds if you go but like most places if you're willing to walk a little further you can get some water to yourself and there are a lot of big fish to be had.
This was very informative to a novice. Thank you
will you be doing anything on the crane fly love your work you do
Hi Larry, Thanks for your comment. There are multiple articles on fishing with crane fly imitations. The articles certainly appear very interesting, but I have no personal experience with fishing with crane flies. I certainly will be watching for the opportunity to try that sometime, but until then, I'm not planning on any videos dealing with crane flies. Rog
Rog, I have tried your tummel fly without success unfortunately for a few years now. I fish some technical tailwaters for midges and thought the Tummel would be the "holy grail" to increases my success rate when midges are emerging. Alas, no such luck! Any tips on how you fish this when small (24-28) is needed and the tailwater trout are finicky?
Hi Dave, Sorry that the Tummel fly hasn't worked for you. The tummel fly was taught to me by a friend from Pennsylvania who fished technical waters out east and recommended that I try it. I've not fished highly technical waters, but have used it in tail waters and spring creeks with success. I usually fish it in a size #22 - #24 on very flat, slow current water. I usually cast it quartering down stream, mending only enough to keep it drifting at or near current speed, and use very small twitches. (again very small) I don't treat the fly at all, but the fly is usually in the surface film. It has worked best for me in relatively sparse midge emergences. I hope this helps. I'd be interested in your favorite flies for midge hatches also, as I'm also always looking for a "holy grail" fly. Thanks Rog
@@RogerFlyFishing Thanks for the feedback! I'll try the small twitches as I've not done that before when fishing midges. I live in Mass. but every year I travel to fish the San Juan in NM and that's where I was hoping the tummel would work (going with your thought about "something the fish haven't seen"). The hatches on the San Juan can also be very large so maybe that's a factor. What does work for me with midges on emergers are Charlie Craven's mole fly, very small parachute adams, matt's midge, and thread midges with segemented bodies and a shuck. For dry flies a griffiths is hard to beat (up to size 14 for large clusters) but many other patterns work too as long as they are small. The WD40 is a great producer for the pupa stage along with foam backs, crystal flash emergers, and my personal go to - the zebra midge in black with a silver wire segmented body. For larva a red annelid pattern beats most others.
@@davidwester9761 Hi Dave, Thanks for your feed back also. I certainly will be trying some of your recommendations. The Zebra Midge is my go to fly also for many years, and I really like the WD40 for a BWO emerger. I'll have to try it for midges also. Some of my midge fishing has been below the dam of Norfork Lake on the Norfork (North Fork) River in Arkansas. I suspect these fish aren't as fussy as on the San Juan, which I look forward to fishing some day, but haven't yet. The Griffith's gnat does seem to work well with heavy hatches. In Arkansas, a Crackle Back seems to be a popular fly and worked for me in Midge hatches although I think of it as a variation of the Griffith's Gnat. The Tummel worked best as I explained above. One time the fish would only take what my Pennsylvania friend called a Starling Wrap. It is simply a #26 hook wrapped with 2 turns of a Starling hackle which is then cut to less than 1/4 diameter leaving blunt tips on the hackle. Of course, I've also had times that I've tried everything that I thought would work, followed by frustrated changes of flies that made no sense, and still got skunked with rising fish around me! Thanks again for the list of patterns you use. Rog
@@RogerFlyFishing Sorry, the WD40 is great for the Beatis emergers on the San Juan, not midges. The parachute adams I mentioned, tied in size24-26 works for both midges and BWOs at the San Juan especially when the fish are taking flies on top. I have heard of the Norfolk but haven't fished it. Unfortunately the San Juan gets huge pressure so expect crowds if you go but like most places if you're willing to walk a little further you can get some water to yourself and there are a lot of big fish to be had.