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UNI Products Fly Tiers Corner
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January 2025
Article and photos by Steve Hudson.
When cold weather arrives and temperatures drop, many fly fishers hang up their fly rods till spring. It’s too cold, they say, so they fix another cup of hot chocolate and stay inside where it’s warm.
But even though the weather is cold, the trout are still there and still have to eat. Sure, they aren’t as exuberant about it as they will be in a few months when spring returns and all the zillions of bugs once more become active. But there’s still bug activity even in the wintertime and especially during the occasional warm snaps. If you can match those hatches with the flies you offer, then there’s a good chance you can have a good day of trout fishing even when it’s so cold that ice is forming on your guides.
If you could peel back the water during the wintertime, I’m betting you’d find more bug activity than you might have expected. However, you might have to look closely to spot it, for most wintertime bugs are small.
How small?
“About like this,” my buddy Matt told me one day, using his thumb and index fingers to indicate something less than a quarter inch long. Matt is a seasoned wintertime trout angler, and he catches plenty of wintertime trout. What’s his secret? Most of the cold-weather trout he brings to net are fooled by his favorite winter pattern, a tiny little midge imitation known as the Zebra Midge.
The Zebra Midge.
The Zebra Midge was developed by Lee Welling, an Arizona guide, to imitate midge larvae found on the Colorado River. It’s gone on to become a favorite wherever midges are found, and that is just about everywhere.
Midges (the term is often used as a catch-all name for all sorts of tiny aquatic insects) are certainly ubiquitous here in the South. Tailwaters, such as the Chattahoochee River below Buford Dam near Atlanta in Georgia, are often loaded with them. They’re common in smaller flows, too, and are often exactly what experienced wintertime fly fishers use to turn cold days into fishy days. They belong in every wintertime fly box.
The first thing you’ll notice about Zebra Midges is in fact that they’re small. A quarter-inch-long Zebra Midge is about as big as they get, and many are even smaller versions. I’ve seen them (though I had to squint, truth be told) tied on size 22 or 24 or even 26 hooks! But my eyes are much happier with 18s, so that’s my personal go-to size.
But I should note that in the spring, I’ll use larger versions of size 12 to 16, fishing them Euro-nymph style on streams large and small. The Zebra Midge is a versatile fly.
Zebra Midges can be tied on straight- or curved-shank hooks. Either will work. However, the curved-shank versions just look buggier to me. I think they work better in the water, too, for as the curved fly moves in the current it will present the illusion of a wiggling aquatic bug. I can’t prove it, not being a fish, but I’m convinced that trout respond to that apparent motion by gobbling up the offered fly.
Zebra Midges are easy to tie. The only materials (besides the hook) are a bead (preferably tungsten, as that helps the fly sink fast), some thread, and some fine ribbing wire, plus something such as clear Hard as Nails or UV-cure resin for coating the abdomen.
What about color? Black thread with a silver bead and silver ribbing wire may be the standard. Other popular color combinations include black thread with a gold bead and green or red ribbing, as well as red thread with a gold or silver bead and ribbing.
Because of their sleek profile and heavy beadhead, Zebra Midges sink quickly. That’s one key to their effectiveness, especially in wintertime when trout tend to be deep.
Incidentally, to maximize “sinkability,” use the finest tippet you can. Fine-diameter tippet offers less water resistance and definitely helps these tiny flies sink as quickly as possible. For that reason, I’ll go with 6X (sometimes even 7X) to help the flies go deep where the fish are.
So, sit down at the vise tonight and tie up a dozen Zebra Midges. Then, tomorrow, go ahead and fix that hot chocolate. But don’t pour it into your cup. Instead, put it in the thermos and enjoy it on the way to the water.
The midges – and the trout – are waiting.
Tying sequence:
- Place the bead onto the hook.
- Start thread behind the bead and wrap a thread base rearward. On a curved-shank hook, wrap this base almost to the rearmost portion of the hook. On a straight-shank hook, wrap this base to the bend.
- Cut a five-inch piece of extra-fine ribbing wire.
- Tie in one end of the wire directly behind the bead with most of the wire extending rearward beyond the rear of the fly.
- Continue wrapping over the wire as you return the thread to a point just behind the bead.
- Then wrap the thread rearward again, but stop a short distance before you reach the rear of the thread base. Then wrap the thread forward once more to the back of the bead.
- Again, wrap the thread rearward, this time stopping short of the point where you stopped in Step 7 – and then wrap the thread forward yet again to the back of the bead. You’ll notice a gentle taper beginning to develop in the fly’s abdomen.
- If necessary, repeat Step 7 as desired to create a smooth taper in the body. The small thread you’re using will make this taper easy to form.
- When you’re satisfied with the taper of the abdomen, end with your thread hanging right at the back of the bead.
- Then wrap the piece of wire forward in an open spiral to create a ribbed look on the fly’s abdomen.
- Tie off the wire directly behind the bead. Then remove the excess wire.
- Wrap a few extra turns of thread directly behind the bead to form a sort of thorax.
- Tie off and trim the thread behind the bead.
- Coat the abdomen of the fly (all the way to the back of the bead) with head cement or with clear UV-cure resin.
To learn more about tying and fishing Zebra Midges, check out Steve’s “Zebra Midge Fly Tying Kit.” It is available in many fly shops or direct from the author at flybooks.net.
