How to Tie a Parracute Midge

Hi! I am Charlie from Tight Lines Fly Fishing Co., and today I am going to be tying a parachute midge called Charlie's secret attack midge. The materials for this fly, starting out with the hook, this is a TMC 2488, size 22. It's a straight eye hook. The actual fly is going to be about a size 20, when it's said and done. The thorax for this fly is midge diamond braid in black. The wing is going to be this gray Swiss straw. The abdomen is going to be peacock herl. The parachute post is going to be fluorescent orange, ParaPost material, and the hackle is just a small grizzly hackle. The first step to this fly is just tying in the parachute post. Now, we are working on a pretty small hook here, so it's important to make sure you leave enough room to build up a little thorax, and hackle the fly and tie off the hackle most importantly. So I am going to put this post on about two eye lengths back, and do some wraps of thread in front and behind the post, just to make sure it doesn't slide around. And wrap a nice piece of thread going up the post; this will be kind of the platform for the parachute hackle. Next, I am going to tie in a small grizzly hackle, and I tie this vertically right up the post. Now that the hackle is secured, we will just take a couple of wraps back towards the bend of the hook, and here is where I am going to tie in the thorax and the wing over the top of that. Now, the thorax is just a little piece of midge diamond braid. Now, I am going to hit one end of it with a lighter, just to kind of sear that end, to keep the fibers together. Next, I am going to lay a little piece of Swiss straw right over the abdomen of this fly. And kind of the key to doing this is cutting it long enough so you can hang on to it, because this gets kind of slippery and pretty difficult to hang on to in smaller sizes. But if you cut it a little extra line, you can just trim it to size when its tied in. We just want that to lay, kind of, right over the abdomen. Trim that to size. Most midge that you will see, the wing will hang just a little bit over the back of the abdomen, kind of round that off. Next, I am going to tie in a piece of peacock herl that I am going to wrap, do a few wraps behind the post, and a few wraps in front, and that will create kind of a thorax head type region. Very important part of this fly is to make sure that you leave just enough room to make a little thread head. Now, the final step is wrapping your parachute hackle with a hackle that's sharp; hackle players can be very handy. Just three or four turns of hackle is more than enough. Next, I am going to pull the hackles aside and finish the fly. The final step is just trimming your parachute post to size. And that's it, the secret attack midge.