How to Tie the Titan Tube Midge

When you're fishing in a stillwater environment, having a solid Chironimid imitation in your box is about as crucial as it gets, and having one that's durable and quick to tie provides the icing on the proverbial lake…er, cake, that's it…having midges on the mind can cloud the sanest of brains. With his Titan Tube Midge, Landon Mayer has designed the perfect fly whether you're fishing a reservoir loaded with cuts' or hitting an alpine lake in northern Maine for beastly brookies. An ultra-realistic pattern, the Titan Tube Midge checks all of the boxes for a lifelike Chironimid imitation. This pattern starts with a slim profile that includes the clear-cased look of a Chironimid and ends with just a touch of flash and a ton of movement from the ostrich thorax, making it an excellent choice to fish in tandem with other patterns or by itself whenever fish are cruising high in the water column. Easy to adapt to any size insect in your water system, the Titan Tube Midge is one that we always have in the box in sizes 12 through 16.

Material list:

• Hook: TMC2302, size 14 (can be tied in sizes 12-18)
• Thread:
• Bead: 3/32" Black Brass Bead
• Body: Micro Tubing (color: clear) and Ultra-Wire (colors: black and red; size: small)
• Veevus Pearlescent Mylar (size: large)
• Thorax: Ostrich Herl (color: white)

Step 1. Begin the fly by inserting your wire into the Micro Tubing. A steady hand dramatically helps, and once your wire is inserted into the tubing, turning the tubing clockwise around the wire while pushing the tubing forward tends to make the insertion a bit easier, rather than pushing the wire into the tubing. Insert your wire about two inches into the tubing, and leave roughly an inch and a half of your wire extending out of the tubing (this will become the rear body of your fly). You will need to do this for both the red and the black wire.

Step 2. Once you have your wire in the Micro Tubing, begin wrapping it onto the hookshank; start wrapping it just above the hook's barb and be sure to leave your tag of wire that's not in the Micro Tubing extending to the rear (this will be wrapped rearward later).

Step 3. Wrap the wire to roughly one bead's length away from the bead. While wrapping, be sure that you keep the two wires in place so as to not disrupt the alternating colors.

Step 4. Wrap the exposed wire on the rear of the shank three times towards the bend of the hook.

Step 5. Begin your thread just behind the bead. Capture the wire encased in Micro Tubing, tie it down, and trim the excess.

Step 6. Tie in your Veevus Mylar Tinsel on the top of the hook, just in front of the wire.

Step 7. Make one wrap over your wire with the tinsel, then tie the tinsel down and trim the excess.

Step 8. Select one piece of Ostrich Herl and tie it in just in front of the tinsel.

Step 9. Wrap your Ostrich Herl forward to build a collar. Then tie it off and trim the excess.

Step 10. Whip finish the fly and cut the thread. You can use head cement or Super Glue to seal your thread.

Step 11. Cut off the remaining wire on the end of the fly, then add a bit of Super Glue to lock it in.

The Titan Tube Midge is now ready to hit your local stillwater for those chironomid-hungry trout.

Video Transcript

Hello, I'm Carl at Trident Fly Fishing. Today we're going to tie the Titan Tube Midge. This fly is from Landon Mayer's book, Guide Flies, Easy to Tie Patterns for Tough Trout. This fly was designed for stillwater anglers and imitates the bloodworm stage of a chironomid. It can be tied in various colors of micro tubing and wire, and it's suggested to tie it in sizes 12 through 16.

The hook we're going to use today is a TMC 2302 in a size 14, and I've got a 3/32" black brass bead. You could also use tungsten to get it down a little bit quicker. This fly uses some micro tubing from Hairline - in this case we've used clear, which would be kind of hard to see on camera. For the wire we've used both black Ultra-Wire in small, and red.

The toughest part of this whole fly, in my opinion, is getting the wire inside the tube. To get the wire to advance in the tube, I've found that it's easiest to push on the tubing itself and give it a little twist as you go, rather than try to push the wire into the tubing. For a hook this size, I would advance the wire about two inches inside the tubing, cut it off, and then leave probably a good inch to an inch and a half of wire extending out of the tubing.

Now we want to wrap the wire around the hook and keep it from twisting, which is not an easy task sometimes. You want the black and red stripes to alternate, and if you let it twist, it won't do that. Wrap this up until you get about a bead's length behind the bead. Then take the other end of that wire and wrap it down the hook bend three turns - one, two, three. And like before, don't let the wires cross. Pull that tight and just get it up out of the way.

Now we're going to take some Veevus 8/0 in the color white, get our thread started right behind that bead, and capture our wire with a couple of tight turns. I've got a pair of scissors here that I use just for cutting wire. Next we're going to tie in some Veevus Pearlescent Mylar in the size large. We need about a one or two inch piece of that - not even that, really. I tie this in with the curl down so it stays out of the way as I'm working with the fly. Tie this in right on top of the hook and wrap back about a bead's length.

Then we're going to take the Mylar and make one turn around that wire body, advance it a turn, and capture it with our thread. Tie that off and cut off the excess.

The collar for this fly is going to be just an ostrich plume in white - pick a nice one. Get this started just in front of that Mylar, take your wraps forward, capture it with your thread, and cut off the excess. I like to take a touch of Super Glue and put that on the thread - probably not necessary, but it's a habit. Whip finish, seat the knot, and cut the thread.

Now for the wire at the back - take your old dull pair of scissors, cut that off, and once again just a dab of Super Glue to hold all of that in place, and our fly is finished.

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