An early season adult midge specimen
collected from the Mad River March 25th 2025
Adult midges are probably one of the most misunderstood insects in the fly tying world. They are prolific waterborne insects that habitate ponds, rivers, lakes, and bogs. Literally anywhere there is standing water the possibility of midges hatching is pretty high. Midges are NOT mosquitoes! An adult midge is alive for 3-4 days. Typically their lifespan is much shorter than that based on the fact that many other creatures such as Dragonflies, birds, bats, and yes trout seek them out with a number one food target on their back, or wing case, as is the case (double pun).
The adult midge has NO TAIL (they do however have trailing shucks in the emergent phase) only an extended abdomen that actually stretches beyond the length of the wing. The abdomen is finely segmented, it is NOT hairy and buggy. The abdomen is waxy and has a fairly strict geometry when it comes to various specimens. Lets break it down:
- Phylum: Arthropoda
- Class: Insecta
- Order: Diptera (true flies)
- Suborder: Nematocera
- Families:
- Chironomidae: (non-biting midges)
- Ceratopogonidae: (biting midges, also known as no-see-ums)
- Chaoboridae: (phantom midges)
- Cecidomyiidae: (gall midges or gall gnats)
The adult midge is not as “buggy” as most overdressed flys make them out to be. That being said CDC, deer hair, and guard hair style dubbing often throws too much of a “doughy” profile for such a gossamer adult stage as seen in the above photo.
The adult midge splays on the water, the delta wing shape points back towards tip of abdomen or can flutter straight out once stuck in the surface film. I've actually gone as far as putting a few specimens in my fish tank long ago and for about a minute they performed as described above until my Oscar came up and ended my little aquatic ballet abruptly.
Adult Midge pattern on the right, some Fore and Aft patterns with
with lemon barred wood duck trailing shucks and peacock quilled bodies
on the left. An actual adult specimen on lower left.
All of this being said many many fly patterns specifically for the adult midge are overdressed. If we refer to the “pounds per meat law” trout will feed more on midges in slow to medium water. If trout are in faster water they are using up more energy and zeroing in on larger food items both above and below the water column. They are looking for burgers not Hors d'Oeuvres. I'm not saying this is a steadfast rule, it's a generalization that's generally true. If you chuck a buggy #14 adult midge into some fast freestone racetrack you're probably going to get a lot of action. Cast it into a meandering pool that is 18" deep on a gravel seam with tippers and sippers, forget about it, class dismissed.
Midges are tiny! but not all midges are, the majority of midges in my part of the world are though. Tying midges keeps me up at night based on the fact that if you do not have your midge selection up to snuff you can kiss days of fishing goodbye. About ten years ago I was fishing some private water full of “clients“ who were not mine but who were all getting skunked. I was hooking into very large fish 24" chunkers left and right. These fish by my standards were extremely selective. I handed out over 20 of my midge patterns to 4 different guides and saved not only their end of the day tips but also their executive clients results oriented vacations.
With midges simpler is better in my opinion. How do we describe this order of Diptera? The key word to keep in mind for midges is “gossamer” and profiles and silhouettes are not “buggy” (overused fly tyer term) midges are “webby and transparent” in the extreme sense of these descriptions. So patterns out there that are packed to the gills with gobs of ice dubbing, glow in the dark abdomens that have bluetooth capability and come with a Verizon plan, save them for the Bluegills. They are fun to tie but not fun on selective trout water.
~ Clint Bova