Unknown midge pupae?

[steve collyer]

I enjoyed a tough but ultimately rewarding day at Blackwool Farm on Friday.
3 of the 4 fish I took (all on red-ribbed black buzzers) were stuffed full of what looked like a medium-sized, highly translucent midge pupae which had quite distinctive brownish or dark grey segmentation & also quite a dark thoraxes. Breathing filaments were also quite apparent on some & the little blighters can move a bit - several were wriggling like mad on the chopping board when I came to gut the fish at home!
I suspect that they're the phantom midge at the pupa stage but I could easily be wrong.

Just had to tie a few up (as close as I can get!) for the return visit.
This is the simple dressing I came up with:

Unknown midge pupae

Hook:
Kamasan B100 size 14
Thread:
White uni-thread
Breathing filaments:
White cock hackle fibres
Rib:
Pearsall's brown silk
Underbody:
White uni-thread
Body:
Stretched polythene covered by 2 layers of varnish
Thorax:
Peacock herl

[arkle]

Hi Steve, Re your above mention of "phantom's" have you tried your late fathers version of this pattern ? It was dressed on a nickelled d/e hook with a few turns of olive thread started at the rear of the shank to hold a thin strip of polythene that form the body after it was wrapped over the thread after it had been wound in open turns along the shank. A couple of turns of silver badger hackle, swept well back completed the pattern.

The only item that's difficult to get is the nickelled hook, but with today's brightly finished ones I doubt if that'll be an issue. In fact they look quite good dressed on Kamasan B420's size 14 downwards. Small tufts of white marabou for breathers make super breather tubes on this pattern.

[North Country Angler]

You sure somebody hadn't chucked a few maggots in?

Only joking! That's a nice tie and full marks for trying to represent what you've spooned.

Matt

[steve collyer]

Originally Posted by arkle

Hi Steve, Re your above mention of "phantom's" have you tried your late fathers version of this pattern ? It was dressed on a nickelled d/e hook with a few turns of olive thread started at the rear of the shank to hold a thin strip of polythene that form the body after it was wrapped over the thread after it had been wound in open turns along the shank. A couple of turns of silver badger hackle, swept well back completed the pattern.

The only item that's difficult to get is the nickelled hook, but with today's brightly finished ones I doubt if that'll be an issue. In fact they look quite good dressed on Kamasan B420's size 14 downwards. Small tufts of white marabou for breathers make super breather tubes on this pattern.

Hi.
I haven't tried the Phantom Midge Larva but I do know that some very sizeable trout were taken on it, most notably from the famous Two Lakes fishery in the early-mid 1970's.

[steve collyer]

Originally Posted by North Country Angler

You sure somebody hadn't chucked a few maggots in?

Only joking! That's a nice tie and full marks for trying to represent what you've spooned.

Matt

Thanks.
They definitely weren't maggots but I'm not sure I've ever come across the larval or pupa stages of the phantom midge before. Obviously I've seen loads of various shades & colours of regular Chironomid pupa before, but these were much more "glassy" in appearance & as I say, they had quite obvious dark thoraxes & brownish-grey body segmentation.
I've done a brief investigation via the web & I think that Blackwool Farm is indeed infested with phantom midges at the moment!
I think the only way I can easily make a better representation of what I found is to perhaps dub some mole fur on as a thorax instead of peacock herl.

[jindra]

Nice buzzer, I really like your approach to translucency. I tried the same once to get the look of mayfly spinners and kind of liked the result, but working with the layers of lacquer and waiting for them to dry was quite a chore.

[arkle]

Hi Steve, as I remember, the pattern was originally "designed" for use at Two lakes.

[steve collyer]

I've swapped the peacock herl for mole fur & I'm very pleased with the result.
The only trouble is that the body could be thinner because I ran out of size 14 B100's & had to use the heavier gauge B110:

[arkle]

Steve, there is a sedge hook in between the B100 & B110, it's the up eye B420. Not so easy to apply breather tubes to at the head, but it's a very good hook.

Did you use S/H over the body or epoxy ?

& did you use Uni 6/0 or 8/0 as there are some alternatives out there such as G.G's 14/0 that would help with the profile, takes a few more turns mind.

[steve collyer]

Originally Posted by arkle

Steve, there is a sedge hook in between the B100 & B110, it's the up eye B420. Not so easy to apply breather tubes to at the head, but it's a very good hook.

Did you use S/H over the body or epoxy ?

& did you use Uni 6/0 or 8/0 as there are some alternatives out there such as G.G's 14/0 that would help with the profile, takes a few more turns mind.

Hi. It was 8/0 uni as that's all I have in white. 2 coats of s/h on top of a double layer of stretched polythene for added translusence.
I love the sedge hooks' shape, so I may well get some. Good idea - thanks!