If everything is as it should be, there are two flies in the danger zone. For me, in most cases, I want a No. 10 red chironomid hung just over the top of the weeds, while a black chironomid rides about 18 inches above it.
Studies have been made on a number of lakes to determine the main food source for the trout.
Chironomids are midges, which look a little like mosquitoes, but lack that terrible creature’s bite. On many lakes, the midges make up close to 40 percent of a trout’s annual food intake. If there’s nothing else going on, you can bet the fish will eat a chironomid. But fishing a chironomid is different than fishing imitations of other bugs.
Midges don’t have legs or tails like mayfly nymphs or damselfly nymphs. So you want a vertical presentation instead of a horizontal presentation.
As chironomids hatch, they are trying to produce oxygen between their exoskeleton, their nymphal shuck, and the adult body. They come up out of the mud and they suspend about 12 to 18 inches above the bottom, for up to an hour. That makes them vulnerable to rainbows, browns, and cutthroat.
Chironomid imitations work wherever trout make a living. The hardest thing about it is the fish don’t set the hook themselves. You have to watch that indicator all-day
In Central Oregon, we fish chironomids on East, Lava, Little Lava, Hosmer, and even Wickiup for browns. They are a major food source for a lot of insect-eating trout. The tactics do not change that much except for the depth the angler is fishing.
From outside the boat, it looks like a boring way to fish. I beg to differ. Some methods are more suited to small fish, while other strategies are better suited to big fish. But all trout, big and small, eat chironomids. Setting the hook is like pulling the lever on a slot machine. Especially on reservoirs with submerged streambeds like Crane Prairie, Haystack, Prineville Reservoir, and Timothy Lake.
the trick is finding the old river channels. As the average lake temperature warms, the fish move into the cooler river channels and use them as highways to move around. The channels average 12 to 13 feet deep and are relatively weed-free with a sandy or silty floor.
So what you have is a 90-degree angle coming off your indicator. If you move your indicator a couple of inches. You give it a twitch and it rises up a couple of inches then settles back down. Vertical action is what you want with chironomids.
Photo by Gary Lewis
Reds and black are the primary colors most anglers use in Central Oregon, but olives and browns can also work. More important than color is to present at the right depth. The fish is probably more attracted by the silhouette of the midge.
One of the things we tell ourselves is we want to find the depth where the feeders are working. My friend Scott Cook calls it finding the feeders. If a certain depth is paying off, try to bracket all the flies in the boat around that part of the water column.
A depth finder can help locate schools of feeding fish.
Most chironomid fishing takes place at a depth of six to twelve feet below the indicator. I like to use a nine- or ten-foot leader tapered down to a 4X fluorocarbon tippet. Again knotted to a No. 10 chironomid with another chironomid on the dropper.
Any time the indicator goes down, the fish could be 10 inches or 10 pounds and you don’t know until you set the hook.
There are times when the small flies can get bit in deeper water. When trying to fish down at 15 or 20 feet, try using a very fast sinking line – like with a type 3, 4 or 5 – and retrieve it VERY, VERY slow. The trick is to work the fly in a vertical presentation, retrieving it up through the water column.
# # #
For a copy of the Fishing Central Oregon book, send $29.99 to Gary Lewis Outdoors, PO Box 1364, Bend, OR 97709 To contact Gary Lewis, visit www.GaryLewisOutdoors.com
