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.