Massacre Midge
Max Pavel & Nava Keno
Translated by Carl Wuebben
Original By Matt Mc Cannel
This fly will work just about anywhere in the world. Fish it deep, fish it as a dropper, I don’t think it really matters. This fly can imitate a variety of emerging insects. The Massacre Midge created by Matt Mccannel has climbed to the top of the list for favorite patterns. It can be tied in a variety of different colors with different colored foams. This fly has a lot of “BUGGYNESS” when you rough up the dubbing a little bit. This makes it very dynamic to your fishing situation. Tie bigger like a chironomid for lakes.
PATTERN
HOOK – TIEMCO 2488h in size #18
THREAD – UTC70 olive
WIRE – small UTC olive wire
FOAM – thin fly foam tan 2mm or white
DUBBING – Dave Whitlock’s SLF in dragon fly color
HOW TO TIE
- Mount hook, start your thread in 2 eyelets from the eye and wrap a thread base back to just before the bend of the hook –clip tag end of thread off.
- Tie in your wire and with your thread wrap it down well back into the bend of the hook then bring your thread back toward the eye with close smooth wraps and stop where you started your thread and as you do make a slight taper toward the front.
- Wrap wire forward with evenly spaced spiral wraps and tie off at about 4 eyelets spaces from the eye then helicopter the wire tag end off.
- Cut a strip of foam about 3-4 mm wide and tie in where your thread is now with the longer part facing toward the eye and a small piece rearward that you will secure down on the shank – pull up on the rear part to put tension on it and clip the tag end off and cover any additional foam that may be showing on the rear side of the foam with your thread.
- Using some SLF dubbing make a small noodle by twisting the dubbing firmly between your thumb and index finger – wrap the noodle over the rear foam area and wrap forward up against the base of the front foam – tie off and clip the tag end off.
- Bring your thread in front of the foam and lay a couple wraps down then put a small dab of Zap-A-Gap on the thread and make a couple wraps in front of the foam again to keep it upward and makes it more durable.
- Whip-finish – clip your thread – rough up the body a little with a Velcro brush and clip off the longer fibers – clip the foam about the thickness of the body or to your liking.
TIE UP A DOZEN OR TWO – AND GO FISHING*** But remember to practice C.P.R. (CATCH – PICTURE – RELEASE)
Checkerboard
Lee Baerman
Translated by Carl Wuebben
These surf flies, the green tailed, brown tailed, red tailed and orange tailed checkerboards have transformed over the years from a bad copy of a hasting’s surf rat to what you see here. The first day out it landed a very nice corbina and continues to be my go-to-fly. When wet, the orange tailed version looks like a new born perch; the halibut and leopard shark love it. It even landed calico bass. The brown version has since been joined by body colors of burnt orange/yellow, fluorescent red (pink)/black, chartreuse/black, pink/silver to go with the original red/black. All kinds of fish have been caught including surf perch, corbina, halibut, walleye, perch, shovelnose guitarfish and leopard shark.
PATTERN
HOOK – Gamakatsu SS15, size 4
THREAD – Ultra 140 (6/0), in red, orange, chartreuse or pink.
WEIGHT – Black 5/32 barbell eyes
TAIL – Brown, red or orange marabou
FLASH – Accent-grizzly flashabou in red/black, copper/black and pearl green/black
BODY - Red/black, fluorescent red/black, red/orange and chartreuse/black variegated chenille. Or you can make up your own by twisting up the color chenille you want with a black strand of chenille.
HOW TO TIE
- Mount hook in the vice. Start your thread in behind the eyelet and wrap back and tie on a black 5/32 barbell eye at about one barbell width behind the hook eye.
- Tie in one marabou feather, one and a half times the length of the hook shank, starting behind the weighted eyes.
- Tie in two strands of accent-grizzly flashabou to each side of the marabou tail. Trim to length of tail if needed.
- Tie the chenille in at the base of the tail, bring your thread forward behind the eye and wrap the chenille forward and wrapping around the eyes and tying off behind the hook eye to help build up the nose then clip off your tag end. Wrap the thread until it forms a cone shape in front of the eyes. Whip finish, clip your thread off and coat with head cement.
TIE UP A DOZEN OR TWO – AND GO FISHING*** But remember to practice C.P.R. (CATCH – PICTURE – RELEASE)