Friday, July 12, 2019

The "North Country Fly"...Midges

Within the pages of this book "The North Country Fly" are some of the most effective flies ever created. Reading through it I have found recipes of flies that are a century and a half old. These spiders were crafted from simple materials that were available in the day. Many of the materials are not available to us today for various reasons but the flies can still be tied using what we have at hand. In many of the recipes in the book the spiders are referred to as midges, which we all know to be very small flies. Back in the day when these flies were tied I not certain small hooks, say 18-22 were available. I have tied variants of these North Country Midge patterns for some time now and have fished them with success. I use 14 and 16 hooks, silk thread and starling hackle.



This is a recipe from 1890. This is a pattern that works for me.


Black Midge...purple silk body, black dubbed thorax and starling hackle.


This black midge is the same as the one above only it has a sparse dubbed body.


Brown Midge....brown silk body, brown dubbed thorax, and bleached starling hackle.


This is a variant of the one above but with the sparse dubbed body. These flies are deadly when fished slowly in pools as well as those soft seams at the end of a riffle.












6 comments:

  1. a fantastic book Alan, Robert the author & myself are pals we are fishing in a few weeks time again when some water goes into the rivers.

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    1. George
      Thanks
      George you tell him for me that I appreciate all the work he put into that book. I use it as a guide in many of my flies. Fantastic book.

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  2. Hi Alan
    I have a copy myself, it is a wonderful book......
    The great thing about North Country flies is we can mix and match the materials to meet the requirements of the fish in our streams. Now this may upset the purist, but my retort is who are we to argue if it is taken by a trout.
    Thanks
    Alistair

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    1. Anonymous
      Thanks
      Alistair I would gladly tie most flies as the creator intended them tied, but most of the materials are just not at my disposal, so I make do with what I have.
      Besides we all have creative juices and my painting stinks.
      Fish on friend.

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  3. Hard to beat soft hackles, Alan. If left with a choice for only one fly to fish, soft hackle would be my choice. Lately a caddis version of a soft hackle had been getting good results for me.

    Regards, Sam

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    Replies
    1. Sam
      Thanks
      It would be hard to disagree with what you just said.
      Yesterday I had some success with a caddis soft hackle.
      The stream was swollen and chocolate milk colored. Substantial rain here.

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