Tying Instructions

This is a simple pattern but very effective in winter on most water. Simply start the thread, wind to the rear, cut and size a piece of stem-sized kiptail and tie in horizontally along the shank of the hook. Shape your body with thread, roughly like a cigar. At 2/3rds up the shank, stop and grab your kiptail, pulling it back and wrapping a thread jam in front. Keep ahold of it and carefully wrap around the bunch to form a vertical, freestanding stem. You’ll need to lock the thread to the shank every third wrap or so, and you shouldn’t need more than 7 or 8 wraps to get a neat tight bunch. Don’t worry if your stem is 5 times as big as the fly at this point, no sense in working with materials too small to grip. Tie in your hackle dryfly style against the stem and wrap with hackle pliers. After one wrap the hackle barbs will lock themselves down. Carefully pull back the front barbs to make room, then lock off the hackle, wrap the front quickly to finish the cigar and whip finish. Cut your kiptail to length and you’re done.

How to Fish

This is a great stillwater midge pattern, especially on tailwaters where heavy midge hatches are a rarity but it seems to drizzle midges all the time. Grease your leader but don’t worry about visibility, I can see the H-V Midge out to 60 feet with my 10.50 prescription contacts. J Try to keep the tippet fine, 6x and 7x, and watch for some exciting takes. Yours is an 18 because I couldn’t find enough good hackle cheap. Ha!