What started out to be a cold, rainy, miserable spring has turned into a really nice warm middle of April, which means it won’t be long before the chironomid hatches will be coming off.
A smart angler will have already tied up a good supply of chironomid patterns so they can be ready for the start of the new fishing season. I think I’ll just head to Westside to see what Bill Keown has tied up. He’s just about the best chironomid tyer I’ve ever come across. His flies not only catch fish, they are little tiny works of art that can be admired for their delicacy as much as their functionality. He also seems to know the right colour and size for just about any lake around.
Chironomids, those tiny little members of the two-winged insect order Diptera, which begin hatching immediately after ice-off, have a complete metamorphosis. Their life cycle begins when eggs are deposited on the surface of a lake and settle into the mire and mud on the bottom. The eggs develop into larvae which are thin worm-like creatures, half-an-inch to one inch in length, with a rather pronounced segmentation along the full length of their body. They are usually bright red in colour due to a hemoglobin substance in their bodies which allows them to live in relatively oxygen-poor waters throughout the winter months.
The majority of chironomid hatches take place in waters that are no more than 10- to 20-feet deep, and although individual chironomids are often tiny in size, one only has to look at the tremendous number of empty chironomid pupae cases floating on the water to realize just how many are hatching at any given time. The pupae stage can be anywhere from less than a quarter of an inch to as large as three-quarters of an inch.
The pupae emerge from protective tubes in the lake bottom to begin their ascent to the surface by trapping gases under the skin of their abdomen and thorax. As they make their way towards the surface, they often take on a silvery mirror-like appearance due to the trapped gases. Immediately upon reaching the surface and breaking through, a split forms along the back of the thorax, the winged adult emerges and the mature insect flies off to mate and begin the cycle all over again.
It is during their ascent that chironomid pupae are the most vulnerable and become easy prey for opportunistic trout, which will often feed almost exclusively on the emerging pupae.
Most anglers fish chironomid patterns with a floating line and a long sinking leader. An integral part of fishing with chironomid patterns is having enough patience to wait for such a tiny fly to sink to the required depth. It can take three to five minutes for a fly to sink 20 feet in the water. A slow retrieve is essential – a couple of inches, pause, a couple more inches, then a longer pause. Too fast a retrieve and your presentation looks too unnatural. Strikes are often subtle and hard to recognize.
When fish are feeding on chironomids they tend to suspend themselves in the water column at a depth that is most comfortable temperature wise, which means that fish are quite often holding at a given depth, give or take a few feet, waiting for the emerging chironomid pupae to pass by on their way to the surface. The trick is to determine the right depth (where the fish are feeding) and then make up a leader/tippet combination that will allow your imitation to sink to where the fish are feeding. Cast your fly above or below the feeding zone and you will sit there all day with nothing, while anglers around you are catching. Cast a chironomid pattern that is too big or too small or not the right colour and again you will have little or no luck.
Chironomid fishing requires attention to detail as much as attention to a subtle take. The rewards can be exciting spring fishing and a great start to the season.