Get the ribbing right....

In reading "Midge Magic", Don Holbrook, Ed Koch, it became clear that
one of the major strategies for imitating midges is to get the size and
color correct especially with regards to the abdomon and contrasted
segmentation on the abdomon. Obviously presentation and 'attitude' of
the fly in the water, tippet size, motion etc. are important as well,
but it seems very important to get the ribbing and the 'contrast'
defining this segmentation right. This is an interesting observation,
in that it would suggest to me that the fish key on 'ribbing' or that
quality of segmentation that occurs in virtually all of the streamside
insects that we're imitating. It seems that the gold/copper/silver
ribbing we've been adding to flies for a long time is more than flash,
for sure. In tying small mayflies, for example, I have learned to tie
them with very, very sparse tapered abdomones and crisp segmentation.
This is true of biot ties as well, the segmentation is crisp and
distinct and purveys that quality of "this is a bug, not moss" to the
fish. I'm currently spending more time observing these things, looking
closely at the natural and getting the ribbing right in my patterns.