Black Bead Head Chironimids

These are typical dark bodied size 12 and 14 bead head chironimids. The body of the top fly is black floss overwrapped with a semi-clear rubber wrap. The middle fly body is composed of black V-rib and the bottom fly is smoke swannundaze. The larger flies' thoraxes are peacock herl. The herl was left off the small fly but could be added.

All three flies have small wisps of white antron near the head. This simulates the white feather-like gills on chironimids. Many anglers believe the white gills are a key attractor for the fish.

The beadhead on all three flies is a great aid in making these flies sink quickly when float tubing. The wind and waves tend to blow you around, even when anchored, making it difficult to get a small chironimid down 10-20 feet to feeding fish.

These flies sometimes put off super-selective trout, but usually they work well because they get down to the fish. Some "Fly Fishing Only" regulation lakes in Washington do not allow the angler to add weight to the line. Float tubers will do well to have some bead head chironimids in their fly boxes in these lakes.

Boat anglers, on the other hand, can anchor both ends of the boat securely, cast down wind, and wait patiently for a lightly weighted more precise imatation fly to sink. 

Serindipity Style Chironimids

These are the easiest of all my flies to tye. I tye the body with various colors of swannundaze or v-rib and then add a bit of dubbing of bleached elk at the head. I catch more trout on these chironimids than on any other. Simple, but effective.

I prefer sizes 12 through 16 but have done well on size 18 for finnicky trout.

The body of this fly is read thread overlayed by red V-rib.

The bloodworm is nothing more than a chironimid larvea that with lots of hemoglobin in its system that makes it red. Bloodworms, are not hatching chironimids. They are usually found by the trout drifting near the bottom of lakes, but on days when there are updrafts in lakes, they can be brought up near the surface.

I like this fly a lot because it is the simplest fly in my box, and catches fish very well at some lakes. I usually fish it with a split shot 6 inches up the line, if regulations allow, and a 15-20 foot leader. I let it sink, and then give a swift fin kick once or twice a minute to give the fly some upward motion to catch the fishes attention. After each kick, I wait for a while to let the fly settle back down. The fish usually strike just as the fly begins to move upwards.

Sometimes I tye a few chironimids is bright crazy colors.  I'm not sure what the trout really think they are, but they work at times. This particular chironimid caught me quite a few fish in Spring '99.