Blog

October 27^th 2022

FLY OF THE WEEK!!! A fish I’ll never forget on a day I’ll never forget with people I love. And guess what - this was caught 3 days after last week’s post “the leech” on a balanced leech!! All over the country leeches are a great big meal for hungry trout so be sure to always have a variety of colors and variations!!

Now onto THIS WEEK’S fly of the week- the “Mercury Midge” Small but mighty the Mercury Glass bead always seems to be more productive than a standard zebra midge or other black midges. The glass bead mimics a gas bubble that insects use to emerge and if you’ve been reading each week you know that trout love emerging insects because they are most vulnerable.

With winter coming - it had me thinking about tailwaters & fishing small bugs. That being said I do fish this fly all year round, it’s a great fly and @discountflies makes a unique variation that gives pressured tailwater fish a fresh look at something different from the aforementioned flies above - & it makes a difference!! Imagine what a fish thinks seeing 1000s of bugs - the majority of them small & black and then seeing the same mass tied black beauty over & over again then seeing something different with that attractive “bubble” - it’ll bring the pickiest fish to the net!!

There are over 1000 different midge species & they are one of the only insects that hatch all year round. They also can complete a life cycle within as little as 4 weeks- where as many insects take months and even years to complete a life cycle. In most rivers in the West midges make up nearly 50% of the trout’s diet. Part of what makes them as abundant as they are is because they have a wider range of hatching water temperatures and oxygen levels. Making them great for the colder months when a lot of other insects aren’t hatching.

There are four stages of the midge life cycle: egg, larvae, pupae and adult. The Mercury Midge imitates the larvae stage, being that larvae live on the bottom of river beds this fly is best fished as your bottom/last fly.