Winter Tying Project ANTS

**Korrie** · 22-04-13

Having been stumped a couple of times, by selective trout on the river, honing in on a specific ANT HATCH, my goal for this winter is to tie a couple of ant patterns that will be standard in my fly box.
I have always carried an ant pattern or 2, but somehow, I have never had the right pattern for the specific ant hatch.
I want to tie a 2 x floating ant patterns. (terrestrial)
2 x flying ant patterns.
2 x fly termite pattterns.
2 x drowned ant patterns.

I think that I should have all the ant patterns covered.
Or maybe not.
any suggestions for a good ant pattern that will fit above descriptions?

**Pipe** · 22-04-13

This flying termite http://www.presentafly.com/flying-ant.php looks good:

Can probably tie something similar with spun deer hair

**smallstreams.co.za** · 23-04-13

Fred's Ant has proven to be quite a deadly little pattern.

**chrisvd** · 23-04-13

Originally Posted by Korrie

Having been stumped a couple of times, by selective trout on the river,

Korrie, you really need to read Bob Wyatt's book

I like a DDD type fly, with CDL as hackle, the CDL looks like wings and the fly is nice and buoyant, wings has movement and are very similar from beneath to the real thing. taper the deer hair to be thinner than on a DDD and use a hook with a longer shank.

**shector** · 23-04-13

Hi Korrie
A few years ago Grant Kieser posted a brilliant sunken or drowned ant pattern in the "Latest flies..." thread. Should serve at least cover one of those on your list.

**JadeDsantos** · 23-04-13

Originally Posted by shector

Hi Korrie
A few years ago Grant Kieser posted a brilliant sunken or drowned ant pattern in the "Latest flies..." thread. Should serve at least cover one of those on your list.

I use cylinder foam for the body of the dries, with some CDC for hackle, and some antron for the winged versions.

I like to tie my sunken ants with two drops of tip top glue, and then colour in black, with CDC collar and thin black flash for legs.

This is a great all CDC pattern, watch for the rise and not the fly!

2928-CDC_Ant.jpg

**shector** · 23-04-13

I also highly rate Tim Rolston's Ant pattern. He posted a video on you tube of the tying sequence.

**E.T.** · 24-04-13

Korra, haven't you got one of those disks of Uncle Ed?

I just looked on mine and there is about 150mb of data just on ants.
Do you want me to load it onto dropbox for you and send you the download link?

**gkieser** · 24-04-13

Originally Posted by shector

Hi Korrie
A few years ago Grant Kieser posted a brilliant sunken or drowned ant pattern in the "Latest flies..." thread. Should serve at least cover one of those on your list.

I even posted an sbs

Not only is it a fantastic fish taker on our streams, but it is actually very simple to tie.