Selective Browns In August | Spent Adult Midge “SAM's”
The Spent Adult Midge or SAMs
August is a tricky month; Browns get finicky and fussy, water is typically low and clear, and anglers' patience runs thin. With a bit of help, and I mean little!, you can walk away from a day's worth of fishing feeling like you didn't lose your shorts. Midges, tricos, and various terrestrials are typically top of mind for selective feeders. Often, hoppers and beetles don't fool them. So, for my “Selective Trout” 2025 entries, I build scenarios to help troubleshoot situations, so here we go once again.
(Click on any image to enlarge.)
Scenario #78 the Midge Conundrum: Imagine yourself in early August, in water between 12" and 36" deep, along shaded overhangs. You see massive browns turning their noses to everything but the kitchen sink, and even the kitchen sink is being snubbed. They are, however, “tipping and sipping,” a term readily used by the legendary Doug Swisher. So the chessboard tells us that our powerful pieces are slowly disappearing, and soon our only chances of survival are our ponds. Relatively small but essential pieces in positioning the board in your favor. Midges are being taken on the surface, but not just any midge, tiny midges that can barely be seen as a speck in the surface film. Yet none are airborne. You look up into the branches of the overhang, into the cobwebs. What do you see? At first, they look like tricos, but tricos have tails; midges do not. The wings on these little black beauties are splayed straight out and translucent gray. Your powers of deduction are now correct; they are spent midges. So now it's game on. Now you take the time to adjust your leader, tying on 24" of 6x or 7x tippet and find something minuscule and black that resembles a spent midge, hopefully you have the correct piece to make the next move.
Above photo: A #20 Hen Wing Spent Adult Midge, or as I call them, “SAM's”
So these “SAMs,” as I like to call them —a bit of a military reference —are what save my ass in these conditions time and time again. If you're stymied and frustrated beyond repair, always remember to look for clues around you!
Tie a short shank light wire hook, preferably a #20 or #22, and soak some black quills.
Once the quills have soaked in water for an hour, spiral wrap a body 3/4 up the hook shank. Now tie in your hen tips, as if you were tying up a spinner pattern, with the wings splaying straight out. Count your wraps! Use the UTC Ultra 70 thread for this little guy. This thread is low bulk and easy to set wings with. Once secure, do four criss-cross wraps to keep the wings in place.
Dub in a thorax using black superfine and tread lightly on the dubbing. Remember, these are wary and wise browns; they can sense a beefy, cheesy thorax a mile away, so proportions are key. Keep it clean and gossamer-like the natural.
Now tie in a tiny piece of grizzly hackle just in back of the hook eye, four wraps is all you need. One behind the thorax, second crosses over the right wing, third crosses over the left wing, fourth in front of the thorax, done.
Above photo: From the underside of the fly, you can observe how effective the criss-cross wraps are in rendering the legs in a splayed position.
My Spent Adult Midge aka SAM's
Hook: TMC 531 #20-24
Thread: UTC Ultra 70 Black
Body: Black quill
Wings: Hen tip light dun
Thorax: Superfine dubbing black
Hackle: Grizzly, black, or light dun
Spend the time to observe your surroundings and put the clues together to save your day of fishing!
Thanks for letting me share~ Clint Bova
