Double Chironomids for dropper box....

5

509

Steelhead
I am cleaning my room. At age 75 I finally need to see the floor to walk around safely.

Anyway, I found my extra Orvis dropper boxes. I usually pre-tie double chironomids and store them in the dropper box. I use a fas-snap and barrel swivel to quickly switch flies without the fuss of tying knots on the water.

However, I never had a rhyme or reason to the flies I chose to pair.

Anybody have thoughts on how to pair chironomids that make sense?

I did ask Google's Gemini AI service and it did give a couple of suggestions for pairing a Bleeding Elvis. Namely a Black or Olive for contrast or a Zebra Midge. The secondary suggestion was a Blood Worm or Bleeding Bucktail.

But I have never seen AI fishing on eastern Washington lakes. It also seems AI is fixated with blood.

Anyway, any thoughts for a two dropper fly combination to fill my dropper boxes???
 
509 said:
I am cleaning my room. At age 75 I finally need to see the floor to walk around safely.

Anyway, I found my extra Orvis dropper boxes. I usually pre-tie double chironomids and store them in the dropper box. I use a fas-snap and barrel swivel to quickly switch flies without the fuss of tying knots on the water.

However, I never had a rhyme or reason to the flies I chose to pair.

Anybody have thoughts on how to pair chironomids that make sense?

I did ask Google's Gemini AI service and it did give a couple of suggestions for pairing a Bleeding Elvis. Namely a Black or Olive for contrast or a Zebra Midge. The secondary suggestion was a Blood Worm or Bleeding Bucktail.

But I have never seen AI fishing on eastern Washington lakes. It also seems AI is fixated with blood.

Anyway, any thoughts for a two dropper fly combination to fill my dropper boxes???
Click to expand...
Snow cone above a jig damsel nymph
 
If I am fishing 2 chironomids I will generally have an ASB as the top fly because it looks like the pupa ascending. The only other fly I use regularly as the top fly is the Blob...theory being that it catches the attention of the fish and then they go for the natural. Most of my combos are a variant of these...

1. Bloodworm (bottom) / ASB (top)
2. Zebra/Limey/Summer Duck/etc. (thread to match natural color) (bottom) / ASB (top)
3. ASB / ASB
4. Balanced/Jig Leech (bottom) / ASB (top)
 
Questoin: Several of you put the chironny above the balanced leech/damsel? I hang mine below. Would you please explain why and how you rig it?

Thnx
 
Wade Rivers said:
Questoin: Several of you put the chironny above the balanced leech/damsel? I hang mine below. Would you please explain why and how you rig it?

Thnx
Click to expand...
I tie both the tippet and the dropper into the eye of the upper fly.
 
Wade Rivers said:
Questoin: Several of you put the chironny above the balanced leech/damsel? I hang mine below. Would you please explain why and how you rig it?

Thnx
Click to expand...
Your setup is the most logical but I do the opposite as that's the only way that I have figured out to keep the leech balanced and freely moving on a loop knot.
 
^ this regarding how the leech moves mo betta on a loop at the bottom of the rig.

It might be somewhat illogical to fish a bloodworm higher in the water column (even though they can be displaced out of the benthos), but the pupae do have to ascend through the entire column to emerge…
 
DryFly82 said:
If I am fishing 2 chironomids I will generally have an ASB as the top fly because it looks like the pupa ascending. The only other fly I use regularly as the top fly is the Blob...theory being that it catches the attention of the fish and then they go for the natural. Most of my combos are a variant of these...

1. Bloodworm (bottom) / ASB (top)
2. Zebra/Limey/Summer Duck/etc. (thread to match natural color) (bottom) / ASB (top)
3. ASB / ASB
4. Balanced/Jig Leech (bottom) / ASB (top)
Click to expand...
What’s an ASB?
 
Wade Rivers said:
Questoin: Several of you put the chironny above the balanced leech/damsel? I hang mine below. Would you please explain why and how you rig it?

Thnx
Click to expand...
The "chromie" or ABS part is the gasses building up underneath the exoskeleton. Those gases create buoyancy and force the bug to the surface. I think the logic is that the higher up in the water column, the shinier or more silvery the bug should be, as it doesn't make sense to have a fully gassed-up bug be at the bottom, since the gases would have forced it to start ascending.
 
Last edited:
SurfnFish said:
anti-static bag, which is made from a less shiny metallic material
Click to expand...
Here's some ASBs from my chronie box. I tie them with a thread underbody in various colors (black, rusty brown, woodduck, chartruse, red, wine), then wrap ASB overbody with gaps for the underbody color to show through, then coat the whole thing with UV resin. White bead for stained water. Nickel bead with poly yarn gils for clear water.

IMG_1734.jpg
 
I like stuff with bright beads and not too big. Boobies get their mojo from movement not looks.
 
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