Ants are great trout flies. Trout just love them, and if you have ever been on stream when flying ants start hitting the water. Then you know how the trout will ignore aquatic insects and go for these guys. I was out on the heritage section of the Little Lehigh and the sacaun for some afternoons recently and this flying ant was the ticket. Some times a little twitch to the fly did the trick.
I like to put bright colored poly yarn for the posts on ant flies for the reason of usually i am working thin water during ant season. This calls for a long light leader, staying low, and back away from the trout. So the hi-vis post makes it easy to see the flies drift.
Materials
Hook- Daiichi 1180 #12-18
Thread- Black Uni 8/0
Body balls- Black superfine dry fly dub
Wing- Midge crystal flash
Mid section- Black holographic tinsel
Post- Hi-vis poly yarn chartreuse, yellow, orange and red are all pretty easy to spot
Hackle- Brown saddle hackle.
Lets twist one up!
Click see the rest for tutorials and video
Materials
Hook- Daiichi 1180 #12-18
Thread- Black Uni 8/0
Body balls- Black superfine dry fly dub
Wing- Midge crystal flash
Mid section- Black holographic tinsel
Post- Hi-vis poly yarn chartreuse, yellow, orange and red are all pretty easy to spot
Hackle- Brown saddle hackle.
Start the thread back form the eye a bit and wind touching turns down past the barb by a couple turns.
Now start dubbin, The key to a good floating ant and or any dry fly with a dub body, is to use as little as possible and dub as tight as possible.
Wind the dubbing onto the body by wrapping forward past the hook point by a couple wraps then wrapping back over but dont go back as far. This will form a taper. You will need to dub a couple of times to get to were you want to be.
Take a piece tinsel, and tie it in on top
Bring thread forward to about the 3/4 point
Wind the tinsel forward to the thread, touching turns, nice and tight. Tie off the tinsel with 2 wraps, your going to be tying in other materials here, so it will get tied in more.
Coat the tinsel very lightly with your favorite varnish or U.V. product to protect it from those trout teeth
Get 4-6 strand of midge crystal flash and fold them around the thread and bring the bobbin over to guiding the flash on, wrap back over the flash with a couple of touching turns, then bring the thread back to the tie in point
Smash your finger nail on the tie in point to flare the wing open.
Now bring the thread forward to one turn from the eye and bring it back to the wing tie in point. This will grade the step that was created by the wing tie in.
Now get a length of poly yarn, dont use the whole yarn, split it. Then fold it over the thread. (i know the wings not there, these pics came out better, I am tying just a parachute ant here but it is still the same)
Then bring the bobbin over and pull the down, bringing the yarn in place
Now that the poly is on top, wrap in front once, and behind once and bring the thread around the yarn two times to secure the poly
Select a hackle and tie it on the shank, and then post up both the hackle and the poly at the same time. This means to wind thread up the poly yarn post and back down. I go about 6-8 touching wraps up.
Now dub again. Remember nice and tight. Just keep doing figure eight wraps around the post till you formed a ball that is smaller than the rear. Leave the thread in the rear with just a touch of dubbin left.
Wind the hackle clockwise, I use 4-5 turns for a larger ant, use less turns for smaller flies. As you come around on your final turn, lift the thread up and bring the hackle under it.
Bring the thread forward low, and get it over the hook eye, your going low to not trap hackles. Then keeping the thread tight, take a couple of anchor wraps on the shank at the head.
Whip finish, and trim the hackle out of the way.
Trim your post. I like a little touch longer than the hook gap.
Now trim the wing back about a hook gap from the end of the ant body. And you got yourself a great flying ant.
The underside of the fly, The body will sit in the film, while the hackle and wing will sit right on the film. Wild brown and rainbow approved.
Enjoy the video! Great tunes at the beginning and end.
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