Blood midge for stillwater trout

Gordon Cordova from Northern Calif. tied this blood midge at the show. It's a size 20 scud hook with a cross stitch embroidery bead for a head. He uses a smaller version of flash called liquid flash for the body and antron yarn for the shuck. He wraps the red all the way to the curve to make it look like it's swimming a little.

If there is one thing I've learned this week, it's that I should be buying my materials at the craft store if I want to save some loot. Cordova's beads were way cool -- and he said there were plenty of colors and sizes to pick from.

This first photo shows how gorgeous the fly is, the second shows the scale we're dealing with here.

From MattStansberry

From MattStansberry

Here are a couple other blood midge patterns: Westfly, California School of Fly Fishing.

This post is part of a series of profiles of fly tyers at the Northwest Fly Tyers Expo in Albany, OR.