the Ant

BruceC2C

BruceC2C

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Joined
Jan 5, 2011
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Location
Any GravelBar, will do just fine. 365. Fresh&Salt
Commitment to terrestrials paid off today.

Forcing myself to fish more tandem rigs and almost never fished terrestrials .
Location & Conditions textbook for Hopper-dropper (Chartruese Humpy & Ant)

After culling thru several juvenile fallfish., missed a REALLY nice robust take.
Came right back...my Humpy went quietly under....
.....could only mean one thing....THE ANT..!!!!!

The set...a nice jump ...some bulldog antics...and the net.

Super Nice Brown Trout...Very Rewarding...Great finish to the day.

Interested to hear " Terrestrial Evolution" accounts from others here.
 
Ant was working well on Big Pine this week. I did not fish it but a fellow fisherman did and caught 5. Fishing the ant downstream.
 
Caught my biggest fish on the ant today, about a 15" Rainbow that was super fat. Also assorted Browns, Rainbows and a Brook trout. A no.16 fished as a dropper behind a tungsten bh caddis pupa. That was in high muddy water, too.
 
I was using size 16 and 18 ants this weekend. The rises were very subtle and turned out to be decent size fish. I love pounding the banks with terrestrials. No question, trout love ants. The fire ant is a really good pattern later in the season.
 
Try the dry with a wet ant suspended below it. You might like that too.
 
larkmark wrote:
Try the dry with a wet ant suspended below it. You might like that too.
Click to expand...

This is very good advice. ^
 
Years ago I started tying black ants with a very small bead head for the front bump. Helps keep it suspended under a dry.
 
I fish wet ants a lot, probably more than I do on the surface.

If you're stick nymphing in a typical environment with riffles and current, try a wet ant as your upper fly. Terrestrials get pulled under and drowned in current and, in my experience, the key profile of an ant is as likely to be recognized by a trout near the bottom of the water column as on top.
 
Van_Cleaver wrote:
Years ago I started tying black ants with a very small bead head for the front bump. Helps keep it suspended under a dry.
Click to expand...

This is also very good advice. ^
 
Last week on honey creek, ants were the only thing trout wanted. Size or color didn’t matter.

I was mostly using size 12&14 black ants , but some forum members used to swear by orange ants for everything.
 
Always Black? or red sometimes?
 
Orange ant: throw to the bank. Best advice I ever got from Paul G. GG
 
gulfgreyhound wrote:
Orange ant: throw to the bank. Best advice I ever got from Paul G. GG
Click to expand...

That is who !
 
Im afraid I don't understand the term "throw to the bank". I've heard it used for both trout and Stripers and weakfish. I all my 60 years I've never witnessed someone casting to the bank. The boats I see here in deal are 100s of feet if not more from a any bank and they are catching fish whereas I'm casting from or along the bank and I'm not catching anything. Same way with trout on the Martin Creek. Never saw anyone casting at a bank except where the Chanel happens to be along the bank.
I someone want to explain better I'd really benefit and if you'd rather it be a PA that would also work.
This forum is such a treasure of learning and experience and all my questions of a lifetime are being answered one-by-one, Thanks
 
Here in Western MD black ants around #16 to 14 seem to be every where with a couple larger flying ants.

I've taken "throwing to the bank" to literally mean throwing an ant (wet or dry) right to the bank. I've had trout take an ant in inches of water along the bank where I typically wouldn't fish other flies. One of my most memorable takes was a Slough Creek cutthroat beaching itself in 2 inches of water for a poorly cast ant.
 
I agree with the post above. Browns tend to orient on shaded banks on the deeper side of the stream. That’s where lots of crawling bugs (ants, beetles caterpillars) fall into the water. The plop is a very important part of the natural presentation. I roll cast my deer hair beetles to get the proper plop.
 
shakey wrote:
gulfgreyhound wrote:
Orange ant: throw to the bank. Best advice I ever got from Paul G. GG
Click to expand...

That is who !
Click to expand...

The Paul G "Weapon of Mass Destruction". Many of us still fish it. Ants are really fun fishing. Most reliable "hatch" of the season.
 
Baron, the advice is applicable for two reasons.

First, there is a cushion of slower holding water right along a bank (same goes for rocks, roots, etc). Trout will hold on the slower water, and then dart out into the current to grab food. If it's an undercut bank, it has the added advantage of overhead cover.

The second reason, is that terrestrials generally fall into the water right along the edges, and not midstream (except for situations where there is adequate tree cover or brush).
 
This is the time that terrestrial fishing really comes into it's own
The main spring hatches have just about wrapped up for the year.
And the fish increasingly start looking for other things to eat.

Although I have caught a few fish on beetles here and there during the last month or so.

I used to fish ants a lot. But now fish beetles almost exclusively.
My aging eyes can see them better on the water.

And I really feel think that trout will hit beetles just as well as ants anyway.
I do still carry ants. And have tried them on fish that refused beetles.
But can't remember one instance where it made a difference.

The key to me, seems to be size.
The lower and clearer the water is, the smaller I go. Occasionally even going down to #20 to turn the trick
 
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