CHIRONOFLASH MIDGE PUPA

I wanted a simple midge that was easy to tie, durable and worked in a variety of situations( tailwater, freestone streams and small creeks) I used the midge tubing on the body for durability and appearance (shiny and realistic looking). I then wanted to add a little flash to the fly to give it the appearance of a gas bubble that is present when the midge is emerging. The head color was selected to give the fly a little contrast in the water from light to dark with a darker wing pad (medallion sheeting) on the top like the naturals have. I began tying this fly in 1997 for the South Holston Tailwater in Eastern Tennessee for the darker midges I was finding in every sein sample I was collecting from the river. I felt that if I added a little flash to the fly, it would act as a trigger spot on the fly to entice the trout to eat that one over the naturals. When I moved to Colorado in 2006, I shared this fly with Pat Dorsey who began taking it into the Canyon and "Dream Stream" with great success. He could not believe the fish he was catching with this fly and also could not understand why? I explained that the addition of the flash behind the wing pad instead of a mercury bead at the head of the fly was the difference. He did not seem to care about the technical aspect of the fly, all he wanted to know is when he could get 12 dozen more as his catch rate in the Canyon, Blue River and "Dream Stream" just went out of the roof. The fish that were causing him problems on the river were now moving with reckless abandonment to eat this fly. The fly is best fished on a two fly indicator rig with enough weight on the leader to keep the flies in the appropriate zone the fish are feeding in on the given day. If you are fishing this fly right along the bottom, it does not work as well because the fly is designed to imitate a midge (and also a Beatis, believe it or not) suspended in the water column making its way to the surface to emerge. You can also fish as a dropper below a dry with some sort of weight between the dry and the Chironoflash to get the fly down into the feeding zone. This works great in shallow water or riffles when fish are pushed up feeding.