Big Fish Small Bugs
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| Colorado Cutthroat on a Chironomid |
With that said, I typically get right down to business busting out the chironomid boxes as soon as the ice comes off. That usually coincides with the first movement of the chironomid larva (blood worms) from the bottom of the lake as they look to migrate to the surface.
In this little clip, I explain a few tactics to handle these early season chironomid situations. Here's a summary of those tips:
1. Fish blood worms closer to the bottom to start off: If you don't see any actively hatching chironomids, keep in mind that at the larval stage, the bugs can still be quite active down in the mud and muck. I fish bloodworm patterns deeper to start off.
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| Pupating Chironomid |
3. Indicator or No? I'm a pretty dedicated indicator user. I like them because I can set my depth accurately and dial in where the fish are and what they're eating. (Side Note:, I'm becoming more and more swayed to the Loch style fishing methods that employ different line types and flies to adjust depth -- more on that in a future post). But for this example, I'm setting my indicator to allow the flies to drop with the bloodworm a foot or less from the bottom and the droppers up from there. I then adjust the indicator level to match when I'm getting fish.
Here are some patterns and other useful info:
- Sparklesvelt Bloodworm Tutorial
- Gutbomb Bloodworm Tutorial
- Buy some Gutbombs
- Buy some Chironomid patterns
- Learn to tie other Chironomid patterns
Anyway, that's the long and short of it for this little segment. Here's a quick video on how it comes together...
