Fishing the Aire on Sunday I caught several fish on a small cdc caddis late morning but then struggled to get a take for the next 4 hours.
The trout became preoccupied with these small black flies all afternoon.

They were mostly in the film but quite a few on the surface and the trout were lapping them up, I only managed to fool 2 fish whilst they were gorging on these things, very frustrating not to be able give them what they want.

Can anyone help identify these and suggest a suitable artificial.

Referencing the 'Waterside Guide' I've narrowed it down to either a reed smut or a small black midge?




Apologies for the pics, taken with the mobile.

Many thanks.
Tony

Small black midge. A size 18 black gnat.

I don't think a midge as in Chironomid as most people think of a midge it is something from the genus Simulium they are in vast numbers over here at the moment on both the Loughs and rivers .

As for patterns ?? Something small and black init

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Cheers Danny

Co-Founder of S.S.F.D 2010

Hi Tony

I spotted this last night and didn't have time to respond and will have to refer you here: Not Only Spiders Spin Webs | Calder and Colne Rivers Trust – Directors Blog tonight as Ive not time to expand.

In short your black fly is, I believe, is an Empidae or Dancer Fly...the trailing legs and relativly large size give a hint....unless you squished him bad and doubled his mass.

The link gives you a good little write up and better picture.....in angling terms a small black 'Hopper' should be spot on.(obvious why when you see the pic in the link)Doubt you will find a commercial one small enough though. ' F Fly' is the one to go for as an alternative generic small black fly or smut

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Good man Danny , I just recently got label for them myself. they are one of the few hatches down here that the trout will become utterly focused upon . I find a couple of black spiders size 18s fool them , have also done well with said black spider fished duo style with tiny black klink . PJ

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Thanks for the link Sedgeking, I hadnt heard of a dancer fly before.

Interestingly my fishing buddy sent the picture to Stuart Crofts who said to put it under the banner of 'black gnat' and that he would have used the 'AB Midge' in this situation'

So Im going to look into a few midge patterns to tie, I think Ed Engles book 'tying small flies' will be a good place to start.

Hi Tony

That's the whole thing about fly fishing ...lots of artificial flys get bundled under a generic banner eg Baetidae when it could be many species that it tries to represent. By this I mean that not many fisherman will try to replicate Baetis Scambus for example when a simple Baetidae (generic family) representation will suffice 99.9% of the time.
Personally I think it's far more important to get your presentation 100% correct. A wrong fly fished right will catch more than the right fly fished wrong.
Anyway tiny midge and Fflys are essential things to have in your armoury so get tying

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Two things to have in life - A good bed and a good pair of boots -and if you aren't in one you should be in t'other

Hi Sedgeking,

You're spot on with that, I have tended to get hung up on the fly pattern particularly when the trout are fixed on one food item.

The second part of Stuarts reply exactly mirrors what youve outlined above re presentation and to make sure that you always focus on this and not so much the fly pattern.

Good advice there Sedgeking, thanks
I'll be at the vice tonight

Cheers
Tony

any small black klinkhammer would work tony, never fails fro me when there are any black insects just match the size to whats coming off

The fly is the september black gnat which is slightly smaller than the species we see in springtime.