Chronimids ( The stillwater undulator)

Chronimids are probably the most abundant of all the insects available to trout. The trout target this insect as soon as they can. Chronimids are so abundant in some lakes that the surface of the lake is like a dust storm. I have been to some lakes in June that i have had to wear something over my face to stop from eating them. The chronimid goes thru many different stages in it’s life cycle, i will try to explain the stages as easily as i can so as not to get to in depth. I will go into more detail on life stages of insects in a future blog. Chronimids are fished from ice off until freeze up and are available for trout to feed on thruout the water column. The trout usually don’t hit them hard they more often than not just sip the in, so when using these flies you will need to pay attention. Sometimes the slightest bit of movement of your line or your indicator can be a strike. For the beginner i suggest that you start fishing chronimids by using a strike indicator. A strike indicator is a small float or small piece of yarn that will float on the surface and as the name suggests, indicate if you have a strike. I fish chronimids with a indicator if there is chop on the water and fish without one if it is calm, but i still find it much easier to see a strike using a indicator and i have been fishing with chronimids for almost 15 years. You start by finding the place you want to fish and anchor you craft, if in a boat you should anchor both the front and the back of the boat to stop it from turning. Once you have found your spot and anchored, you can find out the depth of where you are fishing. I use marks on my anchor rope to find the depth. Once depth has been determined, set your indicator at 2-3 feet from the ground and tie on your fly. Cast your line away from the direction of the wind so the the line will stay tight on the water and you will be able to see the strike. Once your line is in the water you will need to wait until the fly has sunk all the way before starting your retrieve, this may take several minutes depending on the depth you are fishing and the type of chronimid you are using. Once your fly has made it to your set depth you can start a slow, and i mean slow retrieve. The most common type of retrieve is the figure eight. With this you slowly and loosely wind the line in a figure eight around you hand. The retrieve should be very slow and you should take a 20-30 second pause from retrieving every once and a while. Keep a close eye on your float, if it moves in any way ( unless there is waves) set your hook. The strike can be as little as you float moving slightly sideways or as large as your float going right down under water. If it is not a strike you will need to let your fly sink down again. This can be a extremely affective way of catching trout, but it can be very slow and frustrating also, so you will need to be patient. Chronimids come in many different colors and sizes and there is not room to explain them all here, if you want to learn more you should go pick up a book on the subject. I have a fly box that is dedicated to chronimids only and it has around 200 flies in it. You will need at least 4 different sizes and at a minimum 4 different colors. They are black,green,brown,and red (bloodworms) and this is at a minimum. I would say that you will need to have 4 flies of each size and color and you should have color variations of each of these colors also,( dark green,light green, etc…). The sizes vary from lake to lake but a safe bet would be to have sizes #12,#14,#16,#18. This would be a good start to your chronimid fly box. Again every fisherman has personal faves mine is the black body with red ribbing and a snow cone bead head, i have found that this is the best fly, but again it depends on what they are targeting, the fish can be very choosy with size and color. If you have on a #14 olive green because that is what you see in the water they might be hitting on a size #14 light green, like i have said it can be very frustrating. To the left on this page are just a few of the examples of the chronimids in different colors and styles. I will go into more detail on life cycles of chronimids and other insects on a future blog, For now i will just stick with explaining on how to fish the different types of flies.

Like i have said, this can be by far the most productive type of fly fishing there is but you will need to learn about it and be patient. GOOD LUCK.

NEXT: FLYFISHING BASIC TACKLE AND ESSENTIALS.

Wishing eveyone tight lines and tons of fish.