The Natrona Midge

You know, a lot can be made from biots, tinsel, some wire, and peacock herl. These 4 materials pop up in my patterns over and over again. It’s no secret that I love Midges. I love tying them as much as I love fishing them. In my collection are pearl, flash, and quill midges. These are also some “emergers”. I decided to give them the Biot and herl treatment, and the Natrona variant was born. The name has some purpose behind it. There used to be a company that operated in Natrona called Penn Salt, or the Pennsylvania Salt Manufacturing Company. They first started manufacturing in 1850. They mined plenty around the area and employed hundreds of local residents. Even building houses for the employees, that is currently a historical district. One of the products that they made was called Lindane, which is an agricultural pesticide as well as a pharmaceutical treatment for both kinds of lice. It just happens to be a cancer causing chemical (big surprise). They decided to bury a bunch of this stuff on a hill, and allegedly it’s all been dug out and it’s now a baseball field. My grandmother lived in Natrona for many years, and still brags about how great it was not having bugs. The unorthodox appearance of the biots jutting out of a midges thorax is probably what happens when your environment leaches pesticides out of the ground when it rains. The mutant midge wasn’t enough fun, and I like to take small digs at Natrona any time I can. It’s a fun pattern to tie and fish!