Muerto Midge

A Transitional Pattern

Muerto's Midge

Chances are, if you've been around lakes or reservoirs much, you've seen times where the fish seem to feed on the surface but aren't really feeding entirely on the surface. More often than not, they're feeding in or just below the surface before they focus on the actual chironomid or midge adults. Similar to the trusty Foamerger pattern, the Muerto Midge is intended to be fished just in the surface film.

The main difference with this pattern is that the white foam buds are meant to imitate a very pronounced feature on the naturals that, in my opinion, are a crucial targeting point for the fish as they feed -- especially in stillwaters. So we keep the magic tail/shuck feature from the Foamerger and just add a couple more features to optimize it on bigger bugs targeting (often) bigger fish on bigger non-moving waters.

I will fish this the same way, overall, with just a dab of floatant on the top of the foam. The rest of the body can hang in the surface film. It's also good to perhaps use a bigger fly as an indicator of sorts or you can use some Loon Biostrike (see link below) about 18 inches up from the fly.

Material List

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Hook: Hanak H 530 BL Pupa  - 16
Thread: UTC Ultrathread 70 Denier - Black
Shuck/Body: EZ Magic Dub - Black
Under Body: Mirage Tinsel - Opal - Small
Wing: EP Trigger Point Int'l Fibers - Quick Silver
Breathers: Rainy's Evazote Foam - White - 1/8"
Thorax: Ice Dub - UV Shrimp Pink

Other tools from the tutorial:
    

Tiemco Dual Whip Finisher
Tiemco Razor Scissors - Gold, Half-serrated
Loon Biostrike - Fl. Orange