Ant patterns

[wetnet]

Been catching fish on ants in late july and still caught trout on them today. Anyone have some ant patterns they would care to share?

 

[Heritage-Angler]

Hello wetnet - Hope all is well with you. Here's an ant pattern I use and love. Very easy to see for the optically challenged among us:

parachute ant tutorial

I tie mine a little different though - I attach the post in between the body segments and whip finish the hackle on the post. I think it floats more evenly this way by adding the bouyancy of the hackle further back to support the bend of the hook more. I'm sure the method in the tutorial would work fine as well. For a bit of variety, try tying them in a cinamon color with matching color hackle, and also bright orange with cream hackle. Sometimes that bright orange one is especially deadly!......Ed

 

[MKern]

I have pictures, but don't have the time to down size them to fit on the site yet.

Basically, for dry ants I use one of 4 patterns.
1 - traditional parachute with black or grizzly hackle.
2 - winged ant with hackle tips
3 - I tie in a para post, but no hackle in the abdomen section with legs up further on the fly (reason - the post gives a visual reference and a little floating ability while letting the front sink)
4 - I call it a bubble ant and tie in a small strip of foam, dub, and pull the foam over; like a wing case. This allows the fly to float a little. You can add the bubble over any section of all sections, depending on how high you want it to float or water conditions.

 

[Padraic]

I've always had great luck with the plain ole fur ant. Just dub the back end of the fly in a nice ball, tie in the hackle, wind a few turns, tie off and dub another ball up front. Nuttin' to it.

The best size/color combo is what Paulg and his friends call The WMD. A size 18 orange ant with white hackle. Of course when I say orange, I mean orange! Hareline makes a dubbing that is the color of a hunter's vest. That's the stuff. And don't use dubbing wax or it will get dirty and not be as bright. Just moisten your fingers and twist like heck. If you really lay on the pressure when you dub the fur and then when you wind the body segments, it can be a surprisingly durable fly.

Oh, a tip for fishing the WMD. Dress it and your tippet well, so it sits high. And don't trim the bottom of the hackle. I have a suspicion that the trout take it for a cranefly as well as an ant. So if it sits high, it can be quite convincing.

 

[jayL]

A small strip of black foam lashed twice to a hook. It looks damn close to the real thing, especially in small sizes. It floats low in the film too, which I think is important. You can tie a dozen in 10 minutes.

 

[dryflyguy]

I've always done quite well on black deer hair ants, - and they're pretty simple to tie.

Just tie in some black deer hair at the bend of the hook by the butt end. Pull forward to make a medium size hump. Leave a little space, then pull 3 strands out on each side for legs. Leave a small space again, then form a smaller hump for the head section, and tie off. Clip the legs to proper length.

 

[Crotalus]

I like the foam cylinder variety, i tie them with both front and back hackle.

I have tried a few parachute versions with limited success

 

[Padraic]

I almost forgot... I used to buy this little fly at Dick's Sporting Goods that looked like an ant and a half. It had three body segments. There was hackle between each segment. They did the whole thing in olive, so it was harder than anything to see on the water. Still it worked nicely. Don''t know if it was an ant per se though.

I'd tie it on a long shank hook. Maybe a 1x long

 

[ryguyfi]

Like Jay, I like the simple foam ant. take a strip of black, cinnamon, or orange foam and lash it to the hook. I prefer to put 2 or 3 turns of a matching hackle on it also to help it float a bit more. I have a lot of success with this pattern when nothing else is getting rises. Next to a griffiths gnat, this is my go to for top water.