Spent some time on a local still water this afternoon in hope of catching a nice late afternoon midge hatch. With temps almost reaching the 70's I was hoping for a pretty good trip. I really wanted to spend some more time fishing my vintage Bill Franke made L.L. Bean Double 6wt on a fisher blank as well. I know it can handle the big stuff….bout how about some tiny midges?
I arrived around 2 in the afternoon, launched shortly thereafter and pretty much fruitlessly tossed a large variety of streamers on full sink just to pass the time under the sun started to dip. After about my 11th streamer change I finally got a hit….
Well….its a start I guess.
It was getting close by now, the late afternoon warmth from the sun had all but disappeared and I put on another layer and tied on a midge dry/dropper setup consisting of a griffiths gnat and non weighted zebra midge, both size 18.
Right about then, right on cue.
Time to get midgy with it!
In the next couple of hours I proceeded to land close to 40 something fish, including one wild double!
I ended up going through 4 gnats and my 3 remaining zebra midges, all of which were either broken off or just simply eaten to bits. A very good problem to have!
Digging through my box I saw a couple flies that I saw tied on someones Instagram account over the winter. I hurriedly had tied a few up before I forgot what they looked like.
Would it serve?
Guess so!
By now it was time to wrap things up and head home. I was quite impressed by my rods ability to chuck the big stuff yet be able to fish midges quite effectively as well. That thing casts smooth as butter! Well….I guess I better tie up some more midges!
Posted: 23 Apr 2017, 20:18 • 