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The San Juan Worm is a divisive fly. Some love fishing with it, others think its an abomination. However no one can deny its effectiveness in certain situations. The traditional way of tying these is to just tie the chenille in two points, and not wrap around the hook, however I find wrapping it makes it look more like an earthworm, and gives it more durability and less chance to spin around the hook shank. This fly is one of the more easy to tie flies. It requires very little materials, and you can fill a box in a short amount of time. Once you get in a grove, you can pump these out in very little time. I have tied up to 30 in an hour, even with this style which takes just slightly longer than the traditional San Juan Worm. You can also tie these in a number of different colors. I know people who fish them in white, red (like you see here and most common), olive, black, brown, pink, chartreuse and much much more.

Annelids and Midge larve are probably the most important food source for trout. They are always in the water, and there are times of the year that the fish will feed exclusively on these. So you must make sure and always have a supply of midge and annelid larvae imitators on hand. I never fish a stream without flies like the san juan worm, zebra midge, and this little fly, the midge ribbed annelid. The midge ribbed annelid is a very easy fly to tie and takes just a few minutes. You can crank out a dozen or more of these in an hour, and if you are really good, maybe even 20. They don't use a lot of materials, and are fairly inexpensive to tie up, depending on the quality of your hook. They are very effective as midge imitators when tied small like I am doing here on a size 20 hook. But the same concept can be applied with a nymph ribbing and a larger hook, say maybe 10-16 size. Hook: Umpqua U203 size 18-24 (the Daichi 1270, or mustad C53S also work well) Thread: Uni-thread 6/0 in red (any fine red thread will do, just make sure its strong enough to wrap tightly, and fine enough not to add bulk) Ribbing: Red vinyl ribbing - midge size Music: funnysong, ukulele - Bensound.com