Fly Fishing: How to Tie a Zebra Midge

The zebra midge is one of the easiest flies to tie.  To start you need:
- 210 denier thread (for the color of the midge you are imitating)
- A bead sized for the hook you are tying the fly on
- Metal wire, color to match the fly you are tying
- A curved hook, in this instructable and in the video I use an daiichi 1150


If you don't want to thumb through this instructable you can see the video on Youtube at: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQZ4XVpuAFY

Pinch the barb down on the hook.  Hooks with pinched barbs are not only easy to remove from a fishes mouth but also easy to remove from clothing and skin.  Mount the hook in your vise and dress the hook with your thread.  Tie the thread around the hook and stop 1/2 way down the curve of the hook.

Tie in your wire.  In this case I am using medium thickness silver wire.  I insert the end of the wire into the bead before I start tying.  By doing this you make sure the wire stays when you tie it down to the shank.

Wrap the thread around the wire securing the wire to the hook shank.  Wrap the thread back down to the back of the bead.

If you want a skinny midge you can skip ahead to the next step and wrap the wire, but I want a fat tapered midge body.  Wrap the thread back down the shank stopping just short of where you tied in the wire, then wrap the thread back up hook behind the bead.  Rewrap the hook again and stop just short of where you last ended the previous wrap and then rewrap back to the bead.  Keep doing this until you have a tapered fat midge body.

Wrap the wire five to eight times around the fly to make the fly look like it has a segmented body.  Secure the wire behind the bead with three wraps of thread and clip the wire.  Push the loose end of the wire down against the fly body with your fingernail and add three more wraps behind the bead.

Whip finish, cement the thread, and cut the end of the thread.

Here are some more zebra midges that I have tied.  You can see the different colors and sizes you can tie.

For more information on how to fish the fly and more instruction you can view the youtube video.

A huge thanks to Angler's Den in Roy, Utah for their support.