Last week, we featured a simple, diminutive midge pattern, so I figured we’d with go with something a little more garish this week. The Pumpkin Head Midge combines a dark body with a fluorescent-orange head—hardly mimicking the natural—to create something that’s both eye-catching and “buggy.” I know first-hand the power of fluorescent orange. When my friend Joe Phillips introduced me to his version of an Olive Flashback Woolly Bugger, which he ties with an orange cone, I was very skeptical. But I have since caught some of the largest fish each year with that very pattern—including the largest rainbow I have ever caught in the Lower 48. For some reason (maybe someone else knows) trout just love orange.
This video, by Tim Flagler of Tightline Productions, offers step-by-step directions for tying this pattern by Matt Grobert. Grobert, an author and blogger, offered evidence of the Pumpkin Head Midge’s effectiveness in a recent blog post. Give it a try this winter and see if your local trout are attracted the same way Grobert’s are.
Pumpkin Head Midge from Tightline Productions on Vimeo.
Pumpkin Head Midge
Hook: Standard nymph hook (here a Dai-Riki #060), size 18.
Bead: Fluorescent orange, 2 mm.
Thread: Olive, 6/0.
Rib: Copper Ultra Wire, small.
Tail and body: Pheasant-tail fibers.
Wing: White Z-Lon, or White or clear Antron.
Collar: Peacock herl.