Two-Winged Flies Adapted from Essential Fly Fishing by Tom Meade Mosquitoes and midges, those bothersome bugs you can barely see, belong to a huge group of insects that fish eat. On slow streams and many ponds, two-winged flies are so numerous that fish depend on the insects as a principal food source.
Minuscule midges are especially important.
On many waters, they emerge throughout the year. Fish eat the midge's worn-like larva, the first stage of the insect's life, as well as the pupa, which often suspends itself in the water's surface film just before the adult breaks out of the pupa's skin to fly away. Cast the fly so it lands on the water above the fish, with plenty of time to sink. Then lift your rod to set the hook. Flies imitating adult midges and crane-flies are fuzzy to make them appear as though they are hovering on the water's surface.