Midge Magic

Reminded me that flies should be simple. The book shows that simple flies can still capture accurate colors with inexpensive materials. For only a couple of dollars, I bought enough materials for me to tie a wide variety of flies for serveral fishing seasons. Writer/tyers make a lot of money designing complex flies and selling books on tying them. But we can catch a lot of fish with simple, fast-tied flies.

Throw away the book buyback guides! Finally there is a tell-it-all midge book that you will treasure forever. I stumbled across this book as I was perusing the aisles at my local bookstow and knew immediately that I had to have it. Aside from the blatantly Jacobsonian title, this book is your definitive guide to Midge. Midge assistance and special orders was always something I left to my coworkers. Midge can be very confusing and frustrating. Seeing the many faces of Midge, the runess birthed from the dark underbelly of that infamous Baltimore music conservatory, had left me intrigued. Now having read this book, and having looked closely at the Midge under magnification, I am beginning to see the light from dark. Of course, one can not be expected to explain why none the currently available editions of the Brandenburg Concertos are suitable. That kind of psychological dissection could take years to explain, so I do not fault the authors for this shortcoming. This book is TOP SHELF!

Mr. Holbrook has done a very fine job of covering how to tie midge pupa, larva, spinners and (a few) winged adults down to size 32 hooks. This book shares space on my tying shelf beside Darrel Martin's Micropatterns (it adds nicely to Martin's fine work), Leeson & Schollmeyer's Fly Tier's Benchside Reference, Oliver Edwards' Flytyers Masterclass (the English use flytyer where the US uses fly tier), Hughes' Trout Flies and Mariano's In the Ring of the Rise. I rank it with these other fine books because it belongs there. If you have an interest in tying midge patterns and want to learn how Mr. Holbrook came to his patterns, this book reveals all. If you want to tailor your midge patterns to your local Dipterans, you can find out how to do that as well. This is not a book on taxonomy and it is not intended to be (and a guide to Dipterans is WAY beyond all but the Ph.D. taxonomists ..the Dipterists and Dipteran Journals are turning to genome studies over the morphological classification - do a search on Dipterists for more information). The collection, observation and macrophotography guides are excellent for beginner to advanced collectors. This is a must have book! Ed Koch is partially responsible for the author's addiction: good on you, Ed!

As long as the reader understands that this book doesn't cover a lot of tactics, it's a highly useful guide. The focus is on patterns--how to get the colors right, how to tie them, and what they imitate.There's not much on casting technique or how to actually use them on the stream, but the material that is there is great. It has really useful patterns that are surprisingly easy to tie.

Midge fishing and tying midge patterns was always something I left to somebody else - very intimidating. Where do you start and what do you fish and why? Talking to Ed and Don at fly fishing shows, listening to what they have to say, seeing the vials of midges that Don had pumped from the stomachs of trout, looking closely at the midges under magnification, and reading this book brings it all together. The patterns are real. They are easy to tie. The materials are cheap. When you read this book, sit back and take it all in you realize that most of the mystery is gone. It gives you the tools with which to master this art. You gain an appreciation for the patterns and why they work. This is not a pretty fly book. This is a real working fishermans reference. You have the results of 20 plus years of two masters trials and errors of fishing midges. A must have for a fly fisherman.