I guess February is one of those in between months, more toward the end of the mid winter and the coming of spring , which brings new life in the country side, and bug life in the rivers.
BSD is now open again and saw the usual armada of traffic, not a place l choose to fish until the crowds disappear, which they will before too long. Trout are no different to any other species of fish. They will rarely feed when they have been spooked and subjected to man's interference in their world.
In between the real cold and windy days, we have been out there fishing. Seventy degrees in January is nuts; but on one such day, we saw a 100 plus fish day our there. That warm spell got the fish going in a hurry. Some real nice Browns also in the bag that day, along with many Rainbows that were gorgeous fish, full fined and color wise; and they have managed to survive through the summer period of fishing pressure.
Now that l have let the cat out of the bag with the availability of some of my fly patterns here for our local fly shops, particularly my DW Prism super midge and the white tail versions of those fly patterns, you may be interested to know that the white tail versions of my midge patterns came about many years ago during the days l fished international fly fishing competitions, always looking for an edge during those events.
At that time, I used a hare's ear version with a white tail, which was a killer fly for me. Midge pupa are a staple food base for trout in lakes and reservoirs; and as a rule in those systems, they are on average hook size 10 to 12, some also way larger and some species smaller.
Midge pupa are very active during the process of ascending to the surface and also during the stage of emergence to the winged adult, which is impossible to imitate with an artificial fly. The only way to add further animation is with a detached material, and marabou is the perfect material for that purpose. As it is also for many of my mayfly patterns and other fly patterns that l use.
Some 3 years ago while looking at some of my fly boxes containing many of my competition flies of the past, those white tail midge patterns sprang to life. Midge patterns are in my book some of the go to fly patterns here for our rivers, and for that matter any other system that trout are to be found. Years ago you would not have been guided in that direction, at least for the larger sizes of pupa imitations. Sowbugs and scuds were the order of the day here.
So l began to have my customers fish my white tail and prism midge patterns, and they nailed fish.
I must tell you that with a very few exceptions you can fish the entire White and Norfork river systems with midge patterns, provided you have the combinations of size and color, with and without bead heads.
The general profile of a midge works equally well as both a sowbug and a scud imitation, with the right color combination used for the fly.
l do have a range of sowbug patterns that are more correct anatomically and color wise. Like wise the same for caddis pupa and many of the mayflies we see here.
My original white tail pupa had bodies formed from feather herl, goose, turkey or condor. Thoracic regions were either of peacock herl or dubbing. In some cases l added also orange or gray wing buds and thoracic wing cases. This was before the days of bead heads.
Today we are blessed with many new synthetic materials that in many ways are superior to natural material, at least for certain fly patterns. l would by no means give credit for synthetics for all uses, but l developed the SLF dubbing ranges some 20 years ago, which were originally produced to duplicate natural seal fur which became prohibited. Later on, l produced combinations of both synthetic and natural fur to produce a wide range of SLF dubbing products.
Click here for the standard tie for the DW Prism midge, to which you may add the white marabou tail, red for the blood worm version.
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