“How to Tie the Size 24 Parachute Midge”

Producer: tightlinevideo

Winter time is midge season here in the Northeast United States and this size 24 parachute midge has worked pretty well for me the last couple of years. A simple change in thread color, from white to fluorescent orange, makes it far more visible on the water’s surface and, although really small, it’s not that difficult to tie.

The fly starts with a size 24 Dai-Riki #320 dry fly hook. After getting the hook firmly secured in the jaws of my tying vise, I load a bobbin with a spool of bright orange Veevus 16/0 thread. It’s strong, bright and has an exceptionally thin diameter. Get the thread started on the hook shank, leaving an eye-length space behind the back edge of the hook eye. After taking a few wraps rearward, snip off the excess tag.

I like to use grizzly midge saddle hackle for both the tail and the hackle on the fly, but feathers from a hackle neck will work just fine as well. For the tail, I’ll strip off any unwanted, webby fibers from the stem in order to make getting hold of the appropriate fibers easier. Squeeze the tips of 6-8 fibers in the fingertips of your left hand, as you pull the stem away with your right. If the butt ends are aligned, the tips usually are too.

Measure to form a tail a hook shank in length then transfer that measurement rearward to the start of the bend. Begin securing the butt ends of the fibers to the top of the hook shank with wraps of tying thread. Continue wrapping all the way back to the start of the hook bend then advance your thread forward, with open spiral wraps, until it’s just behind the initial tie-in point.

White polypropylene floating yarn is used for the fly’s wing post. Snip a card-width segment free. Separate the strand approximately in half lengthwise. While holding one end in the fingertips of your left hand, anchor the yarn on top of the hook shank with tight rearward wraps of tying thread. After 3 or 4 turns, pull up on the yarn and snip it off close at a shallow angle, being careful not to snip off the tail in the process. Wrap your tying thread forward until the wing is bound down to the initial tie-in point, then take a few wraps around just the hook shank at the base of the post.

Twist the polypropylene yarn in a clockwise direction, as if you’re looking down on it. Then fold the post over to furl it. While maintaining a pinch on the furled post, take tight wraps of tying thread right at its base. Lift up on the excess forward-pointing portion of the yarn and snip it off close at a shallow angle, being careful not to snip the post fibers in the process. Take a few thread wraps to corral any wayward butt ends then work your tying thread rearward until it hangs at about the hook point.

Black Super Fine Dubbing is used to form the body of the fly. Pinch the dubbing in the fingertips of your left hand while pulling just a wisp of dubbing fibers straight up and parallel to your tying thread. Pinch the top part of the fibers and twist them in a clockwise direction, again, as if you’re looking down on them. Leave the lower portion of the fibers untwisted. Pull a second wisp of fibers free from the clump and kind of weave them in with the previous fibers. Continue the process down your tying thread to create an extremely slender dubbing noodle, about 3 inches in length.

Work your bobbin up to the end of the dubbing then start taking wraps with the noodle. Try to get the dubbing to begin right at the base of the tail. Make touching wraps forward, first behind the wing, then in front of it, then back again to create a nicely tapered body on the fly. If there’s any excess dubbing, simply pull it free. Finish by making a few clockwise thread wraps around the base of the post then end with your tying thread in front of the post, on the near side of the hook.

To hackle the fly, select a slightly oversized hackle, this one’s just a little shy of size 20, and pluck it free from the skin. To prep the feather for tie-in, snip off the lower fuzzy portion, then with the shiny side of the feather facing you, pull a couple dozen fibers down, perpendicular to the stem. Using good quality tweezers, strip a dozen fibers from the bottom side and two dozen from the top edge. You can do this with just your fingers but tweezers make the job much easier.

With the shiny side of the feather facing you, lay the bare stem against the near side of the post so the fibers begin right at the base of the post. Then, take thread wraps to secure the stem, first up the post, then back down. Try to keep those wraps as smooth and even as possible. Make sure to return your tying thread all the way back to the base of the post and leave it hanging on the near side of the fly, in front of the post.

Carefully reorient the fly in your tying vise so the hook eye points straight down, like so. Get hold of the hackle feather and begin making touching wraps with it, behind your tying thread, up the post. Pulling up on the tying thread will help to keep these wraps sandwiched close together. After 3 or 4 turns, secure the tip of the hackle feather to the post with 3 or 4 tight wraps. You can then reach in with your tying scissors and snip the hackle tip off close, being careful not to nick the post or snip off any of the wound hackle in the process.

Pick up your whip finish tool and use it to do a 4 or 5 turn whip finish, seat the knot well and snip or cut your tying thread free. If there are any wayward, trapped hackle fibers, now’s a good time to snip them off, although they’re really not going to hurt the performance of the fly. With any necessary clean-up done, reorient the fly back to its normal position in your tying vise. You can then use your tying scissors to snip the wing post off to about a hook shank in length.

It’s very important with this fly to get hold of some thin head cement, like Sally Hansen Hard as Nails, and apply a small drop to the thread wraps above the hackle. The cement will both keep the thread wraps from unraveling and seep down the post to lock the hackle wraps to it, thus making the fly really durable.

Although the tying method shown here may seem a bit unorthodox, it produces an exceptionally clean underbody on the fly, nicely wound hackle with the cupped side of the feather facing down and a bright little orange hot spot to increase the fly’s visibility on the water’s surface. Yes, a size 24 is very small but tied in this manner, at least the hook eye remains clear so you can deftly guide that 7x tippet through it with nearly frozen hands during an epic winter midge hatch.