Chironimid Techniques!
Okay Fishcarver, here it is!
I prefer to use floating line with a strike indicator for up to 15 ft. depths. I will make my leader a couple of feet longer than the depth I am fishing.
For bloodworms which I'll fish in the mornings until about 11 a.m. I like to fish them in the mud
and use a lazy jigging motion. The jigging motion is done with the hand on the line not the rod. As the fly is being lowered back down to the bottom is when I get 90% of the takes. This is painstakingly slow and it should take around ten minutes to retrieve a fifty foot cast. When the fish are on the bloodworms the action can be furious and sometimes you can just hang the fly off the bottom. Worth noting is the fact that I use a lot of v-rib patterns which don't absorb water thus sinking quicker like beadheads.
For chironimids it is my opinion that the larger and smarter rainbows don't cruise through the water column inhaling chironimids but sit on the bottom and nabbing them when they first come out of the mud after leaving their larval cases. Island Lake is a prime example of this. Therefore I fish strictly on the bottom for at least an hour before changing techniques. I would rather change locations first. The same as with the bloodworms, it is a very slow hand twist retrieve with periodic pauses and twitches. Those who don't twitch their fly occasionally are missing out on opportunity. I love to sit on shoals and cast over dropoffs as this is where I seem to get the most action. In response to your other question about popular chironimids, the number one fly around Merritt is the redbutt and it is twice as effective tied with frostbite. The sno-cones have their place and I know a couple of lakes where they work good but I don't know if they're any better than a beadhead just a different type. I like flash patterns incorporating v-rib because of the durability factor. I hear lime green super floss is an awesome pattern!!
Back to techniques if you want to fish emergers maybe Geoff McDonell can add some info here. As for dries on the rare occasion that I fish them, the Griffith's Gnat is the only one for me as they represent a cluster of adults and sometimes a twitch is all it takes(and they're a cinch to tie)
There are a couple other techniques for wind drifting flies that'll I'll get into later. Chironimids and sedge pupa drifted on the wind provide excellent results. Prof.

Prof: This is great. I have fished a fair amount with chironomids and with great success, but there is always something to learn and I think others will pick up a great deal of information here. It is great that you have taken so much time to help out fellow fly fishers. What greater way to use the site than sharing information with each other so that we can all learn something. Thanks very much.
Garth

I'm with garth this is great. Ok when you tie on your chironi's do you cinch the knot tight or use a knot that leaves a small loop so it can move freely? I hope you don't mind me asking these questions. Just trying to up my odds

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Fishing the chironomid emerger: Almost the same as fishing the nymph except that you are in the surface film or at a maximum 6 inches below the surface. Usually mid-day when there are visible flying midges on the water and you can see boiling type rises. The fish are quite wary going near the surface and you may need to use a fairly fine tippet at least 18 inches long (I'll use 5X generally) that sinks and does not show in the surface film. Cast out over the area where you can see the bugs emerging off the surface and where there are boils, and then do the dead slow retrieve with a couple twitches thrown in and the fish usually hit just after a twitch. If the fish are rising all around the fly and their riseforms leave visible bubbles on the surface, they are likely starting to take the bugs off the surface, and that's the time to switch to a dry fly like the Griffith's Gnat. For some reason I find the coastal Cutthroat to be suckers for the emerger pattern I use in the smaller lakes around the lower mainland, and I have also had very good luck with it on some of the lakes along the Coquihalla and the Connector. I have a "road trip" with some fish boys at the end of May, heading up to the north Cariboo, and we'll see how it works up there, too. Cheers.

I believe these boards were originally designed with the idea of sharing info, ideas and techniques and I would be a damn fool if I said I hadn't learned anything here. I don't keep any secrets and am more than willing to share what knowledge I have. Sometimes we get off the subject matter but for the most part I absolutely love this board.
Fishcarver, the only imitation I use a loop knot on is damsels. There is no advantage to using it on chironimids as the retrieve is very slow. And for the record I don't mind that inquiring minds want to know! Prof.

John,
You have an interesting topic going here, I would think there are as many techniques as there are insects. I can pass on some of the methods we get up to over here some of which have already been mentioned but, since I can only poke, slowly, the keys with one finger it will have to wait.
I am anticipating the tremendous sedge hatches you have prophesied and am struggling to tie up so Tom Thumbs, even your ever hungary fish will not be tempted to grab the rough bundle of deer hair I have produced so far.
I have a tying method gleaned from Sport Fishing B.C.but it is not very explicit, I havn't used deer hair since Muddlers went out of fashion over here, any suggestions.
Mike

Mike:
If you check the B.C.Federation of Fly Fishers site at: http://www.bcfff.bc.ca/ -- you will find the pattern there with some instructions on how to tie. Hope this helps. The tom thumb is a great pattern.
Garth. Victoria, B.C.

Michael,
I still have the first Tom Thumb I ever used. I caught 20 fish up to 14" on it and there are only five hairs left but the fish were still hammering it right to the end. I think several others will agree that a Tom Thumb doesn't reach it's full potential until it has been chewed a couple of times. For a fly with only one material it is extremely difficult and frustrating to tie especially if you ever let go of that bundle of hair while tying the overbody. I just remembered a good tip for tying sedges with deerhair wings. Tie the wing with the tips down so you can utilize more of the hollow section of the hair. Prof.

John,

Do you know when the ice comes off at Courtenay? We did so well there in the fall that I can't wait to get up there and fish the shiner pattern. Are you going to give us an updated list of ice-offs soon? I'm just about ready to put away the steelheading gear and warm up the shoulder to start casting the 5 weight.
Is the weather warm enough up there to get those pineapples ripening?

Steve,
Stump has cracked but not broken. We're supposed to be getting some 20 degree weather in the next couple of days. It'll probably be two weeks after Stump that Courtney(spelling?) ices off being that it is higher altitude. Try little deerhair gomphus' in the spring and lots of locals did well last year with my yellow damsel. One of the locals caught a nine pounder last year that had 52 shiners in its stomach.
C.C.P.P.(Cache Creek Pineapple Plantation)has gone out of business after investigations led to the discovery that them chunks in the shakes were not pineapples!!! Prof.

Re tying the Tom Thumb

Thanks Garth
The BCCFF description is great, much better than the one I had.
John,
I know what you mean about well worn flies, on occaisions I have had Pheasant Tail Nymphs which seem to work much better in that condition.

On the Buzzer Topic, we have an advantage over here in that we can use 3 hooks on one cast. Indeed it is traditional to fish a team of loch flies from a boat in still water particularly in Scotland.
When Buzzer fishing depending on the fishes feeding pattern,we have one fly on the point and the other two on say 3" long droppers which are at least 3 ft appart,and the total leader length 9 to 20ft, invariably on a floating line.
If there is no surface activity a wieghted fly would be used on the point and depending on depth of water the leader length and separation of the leaders would be set accordingly. this set up gives the advantage of fishing at three differant depths, and if required three different flies Rates of retrieve and the time allowed to sink are other variables.
If fish are on or near the surface the point and first dropper can be pupae emerger patterns, and the top dropper a floater, This can be reversed so that the floater ( which can be Chironamid, Sedge or even a muddler) so that the pupae/emergers are suspended between the fly line and the floating fly. this method works well from the shore if the wind is in a suitable direction, so that the leader/flyline swings round in an arc giving it the odd twitch now and again.
This rig with a floating buzzer pattern is great fun when fish are patroling the shoreline, if you can lift off quickly and put it on his nose, or should I say where you expect it to be.
Having said all that, with your single hook regulation these methods are not available to you. Can you tell me the reason for this restriction and has it always been the case. I can imagine in cases where there are large shoals or runs of fish 3 20lb salmon on one line just aint gonna work.
personally I can only remember about three occaisions it has happened to me, and only once when the fish were sizeable, (UK Spec over 1lb.)
Mike

John,

I think I bought one of your yellow damsels at the Powderkeg. Black eyes on it, skinny body? I got a few fish on it but there was no hatch when we were there. We did well with a shiner pattern, even in the middle of a snowstorm in October. Tiemco size 10 4X hook, medium gold mylar, olive green Zonker strip for the back, a couple of red feathers tied along the sides and some white phentex tied in as a beard. The trick was to row the boat and troll them zigzagging along the drop-off. The fish didn't take them as well when we cast and retrieved. I also did well there with the infamous lime green (do you grow limes in Cache Creek by any chance?) chironomid. The fish were so aggressive that a couple actually took the indicator. As for Stump, let me know when it comes off and I'll try and get up there right away.

Steve
(I wonder what's in that milkshake that makes it taste so good then??)

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