Fishing with ant flies

[LimerickShaw]

Hey everyone, going to go out tomorrow and I'm fairly limited on my flies right now. Couple different style nymphs and streamers but fairly limited. Also where I'm fishing usually don't hold very big fish so I likely won't be using streamers. I have a couple of ant flies that I have never tried to fish before. How exactly do you fish them? Do you fish them like dries or is it more like a nymph where you're putting weight on to get it down further? Any help is appreciated.

 

[ia_trouter]

I am sure there are countless ways to fish ants. Here is one way that has been pretty effective on my water. On a cool day, mid-day after the air temps warm to at least the low 60s F. Terrestrial insects become more active and the trout dial in on them. I generally fish them in slowish water, surface or slow sinking ants. They work quite often here under those conditions. Other patterns work better most of the day. I typically fish ants when streamers and nymphs shut off by late morning.

 

[Rip Tide]

Supposedly, ant flies that sink are more productive than those fished on top
Poppycock
That's because ants don't "dead drift" like mayflies and for whatever reason people fish them that way.

Find an ant and toss it in the water.
It struggles
It makes very obvious concentric circles.

What I do rather than fish "dead drift" is to fish my ant flies on a tight line and either jiggle the rod tip, or even better if possible, bang with my hand on the rod butt to make the fly jiggle on the water surface.

It's the concentric circles that the fish notice first
If after that, if the fly actually looks like an ant... that's a bonus.

 

[sparsegraystubble]

Depending on the fly and the situation, ants can be fished wet or dry. That said, I have almost always fished them as a floating fly. Usually I have done best fishing along the edges where fish probably see more terrestrial targets of opportunity.

The biggest problem can be to see the little flies. My favorites are the deer hair ants, but I have to admit that the trout probably take them for beetles more often than not.

Foam ant work well too.

But any terrestrial will sink after it is in the water for a while. Faster in rougher currents. So I have used hoppers and other terrestrials with a small split shot and occasionally done well. Fishing them as floaters is a lot more fun.

Don

 

[ivory arrow]

I love ant patterns. Partly because it was the first pattern I ever tied, but also because they work great.

On a still water I use a single size 18 floating foam ant and I can keep track of it well enough.

On moving water you can forget about it. It’s extremely hard to keep track of your fly. For moving water it’s best to use it as a second fly on a two fly rig. Even if it’s two dry flies. Having something visible to follow in the current is vital.

For that reason I have begun just tying my ant patterns to be used as dropper flies for moving water.

The eponymous Evans ant. Throwing this a lot lately.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[bigjim5589]

The majority of trout fishing I ever did was with wet flies, streamers or nymphs, and terrestrial patterns. I always carried ants in both floaters & sinking versions, Black always got better responses than other colors, but I usually carried a few red, and cinnamon and a couple of sizes, 16 to 12. As Don said above they may have been taken as beetles, but they were taken. A very simple ant can be tied with thread body& a hackle. I also liked the foam versions as they floated longest. I tied the sinking ones using acetate floss, dipped in acetone after the body was formed, and added a soft, black hackle at the center, sometimes with a couple of turns of lead wire under the floss, sometimes not.

 

[silver creek]

I consider ants and beetles together.

I often fish a double ant - a dry ant with a sunken ant dropper. Or a double beetle - a dry beetle with a sunken beetle. Or a dry beetle and sunken ant.

Mid-day patterns: Fishermen turn to terrestrials to attract fish during summer afternoons | Outdoors | ravallirepublic.com


"Terrestrial insects are not designed to float," said George Kesel, who owned Missoula's Four Rivers Fly Shop until it closed this spring. "When they hit the water, unless the surface film catches them, they go straight through. Whereas caddis and stoneflies and mayflies, they've all evolved to float."

And Kesel has another unique - at least to me - suggestion. He likes to fish grasshoppers, as well as ants and beetles, beneath the surface, like a nymph.

Cox has tried the same tactic.

"I've done that in the swirlies quite a bit, in the foam eddies, and it's pretty effective," Cox said. "When I move into food collection areas, it can be very good."

"Buy a grasshopper without a post, without any strike indicators to it," he said. "Make sure it's a low floater, coat it with something to make it sink and then fish it just like you would a nymph."

"When you are casting your terrestrials in August and early September, the bug life in the water is minimal," Kesel said. "That means that those fish are looking for anything that's food. How many ants do you think are walking around this area? They're falling in the water all the time. That's why it works."



I fish them near the edges of the stream EXCEPT when I find flying winged ants on the water then they can be fish anywhere. Flying ants patterns should be winged.

I also fish ants and beetles after a thunderstorm. Both beetles and ants can be on trees and they get washed into the water so fish them downstream from overhanging trees when I see rises.

Search along the river and imitate the size and color of the ants and or beetles you find.

Sunken beetle pattern on left, foam dry on right.

 

[philip43]

I recently read "Fishing Dry Flies for Trout on Rivers and Streams" by the late Art Lee. First published in 1982, the author suggests that you try a McMurray Ant when you don't get any trout on your arsenal of dry flies. Philip

 

[silver creek]

I recently read "Fishing Dry Flies for Trout on Rivers and Streams" by the late Art Lee. First published in 1982, the author suggests that you try a McMurray Ant when you don't get any trout on your arsenal of dry flies. Philip

The pattern I posted is a McMurray Ant designed by Ed Sutryn!! But instead of threaded and painted balsa wood threaded and glued on mono it is a much easier version made with foam sections threaded and glued on mono. Below is my McMurray Ant. Second is the original Balsa Wood body McMurray ant.

If you want to make the original, the method is at the link below:

McMurray Ant- by Charlie Dickson | | Hatches Fly Tying Magazine

 

[dennyk]

When all else fails ants are my go to. I like to fish them on the surface under branches and by brush. I fish them dry with just enough movement to see a small ring around the fly. I especially like the flying ant patterns. I'm sure I've caught more trout on ants then anything else.

Denny

 

[wthorpe]

When fish are rising in a thick hatch or spinner fall, it is sometimes useful to mis-match the hatch with a floating ant (or hopper or beetle). All three benefit from some motion imparted on the fly, as all three will typically struggle in the water, and if the motion to the fly sinks it, so be it -- dont just pick it up, let it drift. It seems to me fish often eat terrestrials, real and fake, when they land, when they twitch/swim/fly/etc., and when you pick them up off of the surface.

 

[bigjim5589]

Took me awhile to find these pics. Size 16 for the black & cinnamon, size 14 for the "bee".

 

[bigjim5589]

If you're going to carry ants, you might as well carry other terrestrials too.

The poppers are on a size 14 dry fly hook. They imitate various things. The inch worms are on 14 & 12's, longer shanks, both the deer hair "beetles" are on 12's. The foam beetles are size 12 & 14 also. Simple flies, but they work well.

 

[photoguy]

Last August, I took my new neighbor fly fishing for the first time. James and his family had recently moved here from Ireland and despite his many attempts at salt water striper fishing throughout the summer, he had never been able to catch a fish. I gave him a fly rod and a quick casting lesson a few days before we headed out to a local river, and set him up with a spare pair of waders and boots. By the time we stepped into the river he'd managed to develop a basic cast, just enough to get a fly out on the water. I knew with the warmer water temps that the fishing would be slow but crossed my fingers that we'd have some luck.

When we started fishing I tied on a fly that I thought might work, but it didn't. Then another and another. I was starting to get a little concerned that he might not be having fun as I think his expectations were high. After an hour or so of casting with a variety of flies, I finally put an ant on his line (foam with an orange dot) and on his third cast he hooked a beautiful Rainbow. He was thrilled as was I. As he said, it was his first 'American' fish, and it put a huge smile on his face.

 

[jaydub]

I like to fish them on the surface under branches and by brush.

Good advise.