Midge-May Be: A Midge to Baetis Crossover Pattern With a Mayfly Tail & a Midge Downwing made of CPE

[troutracker 0]

Video on why and how to tie the Midge-May Be:  https://youtu.be/qk5DegDRtnU

A midge to Baetis crossover pattern with trident tails like seen on Baetis mayflies but tied with a downwing like a midge. The Midge-May Be has a body profile that suggests both insects--that is--- a segmented yet thin abdomen leading up to a leggy thorax.  The fly also introduces a new wing material, CPE,  that has a milky translucency like that seen on both naturals, yet is durable and tear-resistant. 

Besides being a crossover pattern that has features of two insect families, the Midge-May Be is also designed to lay flat down in a depression it makes on the water surface as well as dimpling the surface film--like the phantom midge does in the video. The Baetis-like tails are thought cross over to look like the legs of a midge--midges who hold their front legs out in front of them like antennas. The tail/legs are thought important to the flies performance is that the tails and palmered fly body press into the film, depressing it and, at the same time dimpling it. Depression and dimpling of the film is thought to be an early visual clue to a trout that food may be floating towards them. 

Recipe

Hook:
I use a wide-gape dry-fly hook. Like a Firehole 419 light wire 2x gape hook or a Tiemco 100 sp-bl heavy wire 1.5x gape hook.

Hook Size:
Because the Midge-May Be is a midge and Baetis mayfly crossover need hook that spans the size of both those insect families. In the Central Rockies, river-based midges roughly span a size from 18 on down. Baetis span a size range of about 16-24. The crossover is about size 20 but can be a size 18 in the spring when the hatching insects tend to be larger. In the Fall, If needed, I fish it in a size 22 or 24. I don't tie this fly below size 24, because such small hooks often require playing the fish to exhaustion to land it. 

Thread:
Semperfli Nanosilk 20D black. I keep the body as thin as possible because midges and Baetis both  have a thin abdomen tapering slightly up to a rounded leggy Thorax. I tie in the thread and wind it using side by side wraps back the hook bend where I lash in the tails. 

Tails:
I cut off three straight hairs from patch of moose body, even the tips up, and lash them at the hook bend projecting out at a length equal to the hook shank. I then pass the thread between hairs and pull to flair them out into a trident-like array. The tails are important to this flies performance. First of all, the tails act as outriggers to help the fly land upright on the surface film as well as by adding flotation help keep the fly floating parallel to the water surface. Second, the tails suggest midge legs or Baetis tails-- a key crossover feature because while midges do not have tails-- many species hold their front legs out front of them in an antenna-like way. In any case, trout don't seem to care/know which end is which on a tiny fly, nor can they count the number of tails/legs so its not unreasonable to expect they could be taken either as tails or legs. Finally, the tails/legs are thought important to the flies performance in that the tails press into the film, depressing and dimpling it making an early clue to a trout that food may be floating towards them. The palmered hackle on the fly body, tied in next, adds to the dimpling effect. 

Body:
Palmered grizzly hackle trimmed flat-- reverse Mohawk style -- so fly is lays flat and low down in a depression its made in the film --as well as further dimpling the film -- again as shown in the video-- common for midges and mayflies lay low in water. 
     The stem of the palmered hackle makes for a segmented abdomen like seen on both midges and mayflies. Further, the palmered hackle trimmed flat sitting under the translucent wing used here makes for a diffusely-lit fuzzy bodied fly-- which by the response of the fish--is thought to be alluring to trout. 

Wing:
For wing material, I use strips cut from a frosted CPE (chlorinated polyethylene) bag. You can buy 4 mil thick bags from Ebay for $9/100. CPE is a durable, tear-resistant lightweight plastic. CPE's frosting lets a diffuse light through unto palmered hackle-- lighting up the body like would happen on the naturals.

If needed, I use a strip cut from the bags welded seam to make a stiffer doubled wing. The strip is cut to about 2mm wide and 10-15 mm long for ease of handling. 

Before lashing in the wing, I make several winds of thread just behind the hook eye to make a platform for the wing so that it is not wedged upward by the thickness of the palmered hackle. This platform allows the wing such to project more or less parallel to the the flat-cut hackle and hook shank. Trim the wing into a V-shape and a length just short of hook bend after lashing it in. Double Whip finish.

[troutracker 0]

The Midge-May Be has been tested in streams and stillwaters throughout the Central Rockies and over the years has proven to be a widely useful attractor pattern.

To fish it, I treat it with my favorite floatant (Cortland's silicone spray) and fish it on a dead drift using a two-foot long 6x -7x tippet knotted to the end of a 9-12 ft leader tapered to 5x.

[flytire 0]

ak best tied something similar

[troutracker 0]

I still cannot find an AK Best pattern like this.  I spend a lot of time looking for similar patterns before I post, but could have missed it.  I rechecked  AK's books   "A.K.'s Fly Box" (1996) and "Advanced Fly Tying" (2001) and still do not find a pattern like Midge-May Be.  Best does show several midge adult patterns --but they are tied Catskill-like Style-- so fly sits cocked up on the water -- not flat lying like the Midge-May Be.   This is a crucial difference because when I see midges on the film in nature they are typically lying low and parallel to the water surface.

I also found a hatch magazine article on AK's favorite flies but do not see any similar pattern there: https://www.flytyer.com/fly-tyer-exclusive-k-s-favorite-flies/

 

I like to give credit when its due. So, can you help out here and tell me where the pattern you describe is published?

 

[chugbug27 0]

I enjoyed your video (and not just this one, others, too) very much, in your explaining the intent of the design.  Thank you for going that extra mile.

Just for giggles a while back i tried tying a combo midge /bwo pattern, where the bwo is tied on the shank as a dry fly and the midge is tied separately, just the head on the bend as a furled midge pupa dangling off the back, two separate flies in one. Had not suspected it would work, but as you note about the overlapping hatch period, at the right time the trout really went for this thing as a surface pattern when both midges and bwos were the main dish. 

[troutracker 0]

41 minutes ago, chugbug27 said:

I enjoyed your video (and not just this one, others, too) very much, in your explaining the intent of the design.  Thank you for going that extra mile.

Just for giggles a while back i tried tying a combo midge /bwo pattern, where the bwo is tied on the shank as a dry fly and the midge is tied separately, just the head on the bend as a furled midge pupa dangling off the back, two separate flies in one. Had not suspected it would work, but as you note about the overlapping hatch period, at the right time the trout really went for this thing as a surface pattern when both midges and bwos were the main dish. 

That's what I have found as well.  Like you say trout seem to really like these crossover patterns during the combo hatch period-- but I have also found it to be a good searching pattern over skittish fish in the 20-24 hook size.

Thanks for the encouragement about adding the intent of design to my posts.  While addressing the intent of the design takes a lot of time but its absolutely necessary this at this time of rapidly evolving fly tying concepts. I think that there are so many patterns out there that if you are going to propose a new design that you have to explain why existing designs do not cover the void that you are addressing. As you note, a plus is that in developing the science and observations that control the design it also leads directly to how to fish the new pattern and when. 

[flytire 0]

the "something similar" i mentioned above was in reference to the wing material that ak best used on some of the flies in the fly tyer article. nothing more

ak used a strip of freezer bag for the wings. you used a strip of "frosted CPE (chlorinated polyethylene) bag"

A.K.’s Favorite Flies | Fly Tyer

[troutracker 0]

3 hours ago, flytire said:

the "something similar" i mentioned above was in reference to the wing material that ak best used on some of the flies in the fly tyer article. nothing more

ak used a strip of freezer bag for the wings. you used a strip of "frosted CPE (chlorinated polyethylene) bag"

A.K.’s Favorite Flies | Fly Tyer

I appreciate your timely clarification. Thanks. 

I would point out that the motivation to tie and use a Midge-May be is mostly for design reasons beyond its frosted CPE wing--design reasons that are explained in the opening minutes of the video.  

That said, CPE (chlorinated polyethylene) is a relatively new polymer series that has improved rubbery elasticity and durability as well as far better weathering and ozone resistance when compared to the freezer bags, likely made of transparent polyethylene, that are used by A. K. Best for some of his midge wings 

I intentionally used frosted CPE, over transparent versions, because it has a whitish translucency like that seen in, or reflected from, from natural wings. Also, to me, is far easier to track a frosted white winged fly on the water than than a fly with a wing made of a transparent plastic. Further, trout do not seem to mind a white wing over a transparent one-- and a highly visible wing sure makes for fun fishing by being able to locate and then see your fly being taken by a trout.