The Best Anglers Never Stop Learning

The Best Anglers Never Stop Learning

Emerger

CDC Transitional Midge

Insect Species Icon Midges
Difficulty Icon Easy - < 1 Min
Water Category Icon Coldwater

Tying Video

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Tying Recipe
  • Hook: Straight shank, down eye dry fly hook
  • Thread: 6/0 Uni Thread or 70 Denier Thread
  • Tail:  Small grizzly hackle feather
  • Dubbing: australian possum
  • Wing Casing: CDC Oiler puff in dark natural
  • Tail:  Partridge fibers or wood duck feather fibers
  • Dubbing: Superfine dubbing or australian possum or beaver dubbing

This fly is so simple and contains only a few materials.  Really the only variations are to change colors on the fly, or add in a little krystal flash on top of the CDC before you finish tying in the head of your fly.

This fly is great because it has only a couple materials, is highly imitative and takes little time to tie. You can’t go wrong when you find a pattern as effective as this that you can tie for just a little more than the cost of the hook. A great guide pattern or anyone who ties a lot of flies and is looking to keep in a budget. If you really wanna go cheap, use hungarian partridge feathers like I do instead of using expensive dry fly hackle for a tail. Both seem to work great and the CDC and profile is what makes this fly effective in my opinion.

Know the back eddies that are full of foam and you just know there has to be a fish back in there?  Well, with a NZ strike indicator on or something similar to help detect the strike and ride above the foam, let this little guy land in the foam.  Midges often emerge in slower water behind or beside pools and runs in the river where the water is slow and easy to break the water tension with their delicate wings and bodies.  Fish get up right along the banks as midges climb all over the rocks.

This pattern is deadly for any fish sipping on midges and is a great fly to throw behind a griffiths gnat, renegade or smokejumper when fishing midges.

Midges

Regional Hatch Chart Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Region: West, Northwest, East, Southeast, Midwest
Midges
Sizes: #14 - #26

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