You might be asking yourself, what in the hell does a little midge pattern have to do with Dr. Strangelove and Atomic Bombs? The right answer's "nothing", to anyone who's mentally and emotionally stable. Luckily I'm neither, so to me it makes perfect sense.
It all boils down to my love-hate relationship with microscopic flies, or as i like to call them, my "little boys" and "fat men". See, in the hands of the right person (or the wrong person, depending on how loosely you want to base this article off a Stanley Kubrick movie) a Zebra midge or an Als rat can be an absolutely devastating fly to fish on any type of river. On the right day it can almost be like dropping a world-ender in the water and scooping up the fish as they float downstream (see where I'm going with this?).
Midges provide a year round food source for fish in many different types of water systems, which means that on any given day if you bump a fish on the nose with a midge larvae you're most likely going to feel a little nibble on the end of your line. The trick is, fish are so accustomed to seeing these larvae in the drift (and in ridiculous numbers) that they're not going to expend a lot of energy going after your pattern through a run. This can be super frustrating, and has personally lead to a ton of time spent head scratching, cursing, and vowing to never fish a midge pattern again. Luckily I'm not good at keeping promises either.
This is where the hate part of my relationship with midges began. Part of me has always believed that midges were just too damn small to be fished reliably. Why the hell would a fish that's seeing massive mayfly steaks floating by sit and nibble on microscopic little midges? It just doesn't make sense. It pisses me off a little bit if we're being honest. But I sucked it up and fished them without ever having that "AHA" moment that turned the tables for me. It wasn't until last summer, fishing Deep Creek in the GSMNP that started to turn me on to fishing midges with confidence. Bryce and I were cruising down this deep canyon, picking off fish with some generic patterns and having a really good day on the water. Bryce, who is just an insanely fishy person, I mean he's got that knack for picking up fish in a drainage ditch type of fishy, caught this nice solid brown out of a stupid small side channel on a PURPLE midge larvae. I feel like I went through the six stages of grief with that fish. I was shocked, elated, angry, and finally accepting that this beautiful fish just ate a purple midge. Like come on man. But, this was the turning point. Eventually I'd get over it.
When I moved back home to Pennsylvania a few weeks ago, part of my promise to myself was to really learn the ins and outs of my homewater, the Little Lehigh. After every trip, I've made a habit to stop in the Little Lehigh Heritage Fly Shop and bullshit with the owner, Ed, and whoever else happens to be hanging around. Last week we got to talking about one of Ed's fly fishing mentors, Al Miller, and his famous midge larvae pattern the Al's Rat. I'd grown pretty confident over the last couple months fishing the stripper midge and disco midge to Blue Ridge trout and wanted to learn what made Al's Rat such a must have for the Little Lehigh. Ed walked me through tying an Al's Rat, how to use the brown monocord to create a thin, segmented body, and how to dub a slight bulbous thorax with muskrat fur. Really it's an unremarkable, incredibly easy fly to tie. But, what's absolutely incredible about this pattern is how much it looks like the midge larvae and pupae you'll find in a spring creek. Ed pulled up a couple pictures of midges he had found in the Little Lehigh and I honestly don't think anything else could reach the level of detail that a well tied Al's Rat can give you. I had just found my midge fishing "AHA" moment. Ed gave me the demo pattern he tied, which i promptly took out the next day and caught like 6 fish on just downstream of the shop. I started to develop my love for the midge.
Since then, I've been out probably 3 or 4 times on different water around the Lehigh Valley (I'm on terminal leave, cut me a break) and I haven't finished a day on the water yet without bringing in fish on an Al's Rat. I can't say I don't worry about fishing midge patterns yet, but I'm definitely starting to love the bomb.