LE Hatching Midge CdC
Originator: Leif Ehnström

One group of few insects hatching through the whole fishing season are the mosquitoes or midges. You can find it from early springtime until late autumn. The colour differs with the species and the water but generally you can find black, grey, brown, dark green, and dark red in so many waters that your fly box is not filled if you haven't at least one of the colours in it.

The size also differs from about 15 mm down to just one or two. That leaves us with hooks from 10 to 18. I don't tie them smaller anyway, because I find it harder to keep the fish on smaller hooks. I think it's better to choose a larger hook or a smaller fly on a larger hook.

When the pupa is hatching it is often hanging a while just in the surface, trying to lift it's wings. This fly is therefore meant to lie just in the surface leaving only the wing on top of it. Now again, don't fear if its sinks, because the pupa's must come from underneath up to the surface when it hatches, so just fish on and pretend it's just going to hatch.

I mean that my pupa has just got the wings up and will soon be leaving the water. At least I think the fish believe that, because the attacks on the flies are sometimes wild and hard.

It's simple to convert the pupa to a Klinkhamer Variant if you want a hatching caddis or may fly. Just remove the little tail. The CdC legs gets the fly in the absolute surface with just the wing above it.

Recipe:

Hook: M80250 #12-18 or similar
Tail: A small bunch of white marabou
Thread: Black
Abdomen: Goose- or Turkey biot
Thorax: CdC + polycelone fly foam
Legs: From thorax
Wing buds: CdC

Description:

1. Secure the thread and tie in some fibres from a white marabou feather. Don't bother the length, it will be cut later. Tie down the roots from the herls along the hook stem.Also tie in a goose- or turkey biot of the colour you want for the abdomen. Whiting has got some biots of a good quality and good length. Some midges have flattened bodies and if you want to tie one of these you can make the hook wider with a piece of nylon on the sides of the hook.

2. Wind the biot along the hook stem and tie it down just in front of the middle of the hook. There you also tie in a small piece of fly foam -15 mm long, 1,5 mm thick and about 3 mm wide. Cut it up though the middle. It's supposed to be folded over the thorax on each side of the wing bud later.

3. Make a loop on your thread and spin in a dun coloured CdC feather. Wind it forward to the hook eye folding the herls back while winding. Tie in a bunch of grey CdC herls or a CdC Puff in front of the thorax.

4. Hold the "wing" upwards and fold the foam forward on each side of it and tie the strips down at the hook eye.

5. Cut excess material, form the wing and legs to shape and length and put a sparse amount of lacquer on the head. Beware that it is not sucked up by the CdC.

Comments: If you cut up a little less of the foam, you can force the wing forward over the hook eye. This will make the fly sitting different on the surface and makes the body to hang down more. If you like you can also tie in a small white bunch of CdC just over the hook eye to make the fly more realistic. But I don't think the fish will notice the difference. At least I haven't noticed that so far.

Text & photo: Leif Ehnström © 2004