Noticed a lot of B.C guys tying mids' with wingbuds rather than simply using thread colors for the thorax.. not sure if it makes a pattern more effective but tied a few tonight.. not real sure the method or sequence for tying the buds in.. the material used to imitate the buds are turkey or goose biots.. if anyone has any experience tying mids with biot wingbuds it would be helpful to know how these are tied in..
Chinook Wind Outfitters' Pro Staff tyer, Trevor Tatarzcuk (@bowsnbrews ) has this down to an art form. Jerry Buron (a member here), in his Complete Guide to Succesful Chironomid Fishing, also has a neat approach to wing pads. Jerry's book is a good one.
Appreciate the responses.. that Trevor is an artist.. very much a work in progress but its an interesting concept for tying mids..
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Very cool looking and I can see why the wingbuds silhouette adds to the fly and no doubt to its effectiveness. Not a facebook member so I'm unable to see how Trevor wraps this fly up.
Getting the buds to fold over and lay right is the trickiest part.. great explanation by tkww on how to do this but for me its been inconsistent at best to get the biots tied in correctly.. definitely need to cover tthe biots with UV resin..
Do these flies work better than without them, or is this just to catch us? Wondering because it seems when I fish mids during a good hatch my simple ties seem to work.
I think it definitely catches us, but my hunch is that the realism helps when the fish are more pressured. So a put-n-take lake, probably pointless. But Crane or Lenice or some of the BC lakes, my hunch is that it can't hurt.
I agree they look great. There are other materials, like holo tinsel that are pretty easy to work with and also look good...but not the same. There is satisfaction in doing the extra work with a difficult material if that’s your goal.
Jeff - I think that the profile of the wingbuds should add something to their effectiveness, more so than tinsel hard against the thorax? Who knows, but I hear ya about catching us.
I use orange flex floss, easy tie in and robust once coated with UV expoy or super glue. I have seen a lot of BC patterns using burnt orange thread wrapped by the bead.
Couldn't agree more, marker pens are a great way to go re giving you a huge, likely infinite, range of options. I've also seen beads lightly brushed on either side with either white or orange nail polish to mimic breathers/wingpads...
Here's another effort from tonight. Dark brown with red/gold rib and wine on the back, orange buds and of course gills. While not directly comparing chironomids with classic flies, the complexity is getting there though doubtful if the troots really care what lengths we go to
Thank you very much Steve, my inner child and Scottish upbringing notes that art is typically preceded with an F I really do think back to Haig Brown and his yarn comments for what works best for steelhead when they were common ☹
Until a couple of yrs ago on my fav lake I did very well on black 14 sno comes, red mids and later chromies. The menu now is onto 18s across clear on chrome hooks to purple and chartreuse.
I’m a chironomid addict, I cannot lie Next stage is using the bobber beyond mids and balance leeches. Ira, Buzzy and b_illymac, amongst many other WFF luminaries who have a lot to teach me/us re the full range of the bobber for cool jigs and blobs etc.
Until a couple of yrs ago on my fav lake I did very well on black 14 sno comes, red mids and later chromies. The menu now is onto 18s across clear on chrome hooks to purple and chartreuse.
Nice ties and interesting observations Dave. Do you think the fish have become more selective? Or is it a case of your preference to fish those cool looking (and tiny!) patterns?
The lake has changed and if I think hard re this, part of it is maybe listening too much to others but also if I pump fish, which I didn't use to do so no historical perspective there..., I see some bloodworms but also mainly small (~>sz18) dark mids, glass worms and on occasion lots of daphnia. Also not many big bombers come off and flies coming off in Spring or Fall are typically 16 and smaller.
That is a great shot, the other key part to this is the profile of the bug; we always look at mids like this against a background. I'd add that trout see them a bit differently, i.e. their silhouette in the water column with varying degrees of light and so basic shape vs precise definition may be key and here fishing different sized mids can help figure that out. That said color can be key, on occasion even 'dumb' stuff like the rib color.
It's a fun challenge to noodle over knowing you'll never really figure it out unless you can communicate with trout .
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