True, midges are in the order Diptera, or “True Flies”, so I guess in a way those who fish midge patterns are “True Fly” fisherman. Caddisflies on the other hand are not in the order Diptera so fly fishing must not include those, right? Now come on, we all know better that the definition of fly fishing has changed and as such the definition of using chironomids in most fly fishing circles has also changed. Ask a person on a lake what they are using and they say chironomid, most will immediately assume that the person is using a representation of the pupal stage, in fact claiming you are fishing a mid/chironomid when in fact you are soaking a blood worm is really uncool, unless you are either highly ignorant, or a dick. I’ve been a dick before. The same could be said if you were fishing an emerger just under the surface and again claimed you were fishing a chironomid. So I’ll stick to my original Top 6 mids being the pupal stages. We fly fisherman like to break up the life cycles of aquatic insects.