Fly of the Week: Olive Midge Pupa Nymph

With winter in full swing, it seems fitting to spend the next few Fly of the Weeks looking at that winter fly staple; the midge. They are one of the most abundant variety of insects in the worlds waterways, and they are year round residents. What better pattern to have in your box?
Now I will be the first to admit, these midge patterns will not be the most complex, technical, and detail oriented patterns you could tie. What I'm going for here are patterns that are easy to tie,.especially to those who may have been like me, and would gather eat broken glass than tie a fly that was about the size of a flea.

Tying small is something you just need to jump in there and do, and these are the perfect patterns to do that.

While this weeks is the olive midge, they can be tied in any variety of colors. I also tie these a lot in black and cream as well, using the respective colored threads. Actually, for my cream midges I use a light cahill thread. I like the color better.

We'll start the midge series with a very easy to tie midge pupa pattern, then next week will be an emerger and then the adult dry. I tie these in small sizes, typically under size 20, so I try to keep them simple. Most midge pattern sizes are 16 and under, with the majority of the flies tied under a size 20. So simple is good.

So here is a very simple, but very effective, midge pupa nymph pattern.

Midge Pupa nNymph(olive)

Hook: size 24 nymph

Thread: olive 8/0

Abdomen: purple peacock herl