Soft-Hackle Black Ant 1550

[William Anderson]

Hook: Daiichi 1550 #16. The wet hook might help it sink a bit once the dubbing is soaked. Or not.
Thread: Black Griffiths 14/0
Body: Black mole dubbed in mounds with a black turkey tail herl cover tied like a wing cover on a nymph thorax. For me it just tidies up the segments.
Hackle: Starling



w

[kanutripr]

W that's a really interesting application of the mole dubbing. I'll be interested to see it wet. Two thumbs up!



Vicki

[willowhead]

That's classy and totally irresistable to Trout.

[letumgo]

William - If you find a trout that refuses this pattern, I will be money that you screwed up the presentation (friendly humor).

Outstanding fly, btw! I plan on calling it William's Hairy Ant.

PS - I bet this fly would slay panfish!

PPS - I have some cinnamon colored mole that would make a nice variation of your fly...thanks for the continued inspiration.

[CreationBear]

cinnamon colored mole

You know, Pearsall's might be a little too slick/thick to make a "threadball" abdomen/thorax, but it might be worth trying. I'd dust a little of Ray's cinnamon mole as I would if I were making the rib on a dark watchet and see if I couldn't build-up a little lump--maybe half-hitch if it showed signs of slipping. (Alternately, you could just split your regular tying thread, dust one side, then spin it back up.) It would be neat to play with different color combinations...I'm thinking black mole/scarlet Pearsall's or cinnamon/hot orange might look good wet.

[willowhead]

Spoken like a truely creative bear..... HEY HEY HEY.....

[DUBBN]

On the lower Gunnison our Division of Wildlife has asked that when fishing, to please remove 4 Brown trout of any size. This is to reduce the numbers of Browns so that hopefully the Rainbows that were lost to Whirling Disease in the 1980's to the present can be replaced by the Hofer strain of Rainbows. The Hofers are doing well thank you.

What does this have to do with your ant pattern? For me, alot. I have had many oppurtunitys to inspect the stomach contents of Brown trout. Mostly because people just throw the guts in the shallow water, and it gives me an oppurtunity to cut the digestive tracts open and see what was the bug of the day. Also, on occasion, I have used a stomach (throat) pump (yes, you can start hating me now). The two common bugs to all these fish are, midges, and from June To October, ants.

For years I thought the trout were eating ants off the surface exclusively. I was very mistaken. A few years back, I noticed some trout feeding aggresively below a riffle. They were in probably 3 feet of water, but feeding in a frenzy less than 8 inches off the bottom. I convinced myself that a Baetis hatch was about to start, so I put on a size 20 Baetis emerger something and a Pheasant Tail nymph. The fish kept feeding hard, but I was watching them move out of the way of my set up. Finally, a small Brown took the PT. To my astonishment the little Brown puked out maybe 10 Black/Brown ants. Without the tail my PT nymph kinda looked like the ants, so I bit off the tail. I am not going to tell you that I had a 30fish day, but I did pull a couple large fish out of that hole, and they both had gorged on drowned ants. I have run into this activity quite a few times since, as I now look for it.

You might think I unlocked the mystery of the Universe, and now can catch fish at will on the Gunn. Nothing further from the truth. The tailess PT is still the best pattern and it is sadly lacking. I have tryed a great variety of ant patterns (sub-surface), and have had terrible luck with them. The ants I am trying to imitate are Black thorax/head with a Brownish Red abdomen. I would guess them a size 18 to 16. After looking at your pattern, I think I discovered the problem with mine. I tyed my hackle with dry fly hackle. It never occured to try Soft Hackle. I believe I can duplicate your fly precisely and substitute the Starling feather for a Ginger or light Brown hen feather and start getting results.

Sorry about being so long winded just to say, great tie sir!

[lykos33]

On the lower Gunnison our Division of Wildlife has asked that when fishing, to please remove 4 Brown trout of any size. This is to reduce the numbers of Browns so that hopefully the Rainbows that were lost to Whirling Disease in the 1980's to the present can be replaced by the Hofer strain of Rainbows. The Hofers are doing well thank you.

What does this have to do with your ant pattern? For me, alot. I have had many oppurtunitys to inspect the stomach contents of Brown trout. Mostly because people just throw the guts in the shallow water, and it gives me an oppurtunity to cut the digestive tracts open and see what was the bug of the day. Also, on occasion, I have used a stomach (throat) pump (yes, you can start hating me now). The two common bugs to all these fish are, midges, and from June To October, ants.

For years I thought the trout were eating ants off the surface exclusively. I was very mistaken. A few years back, I noticed some trout feeding aggresively below a riffle. They were in probably 3 feet of water, but feeding in a frenzy less than 8 inches off the bottom. I convinced myself that a Baetis hatch was about to start, so I put on a size 20 Baetis emerger something and a Pheasant Tail nymph. The fish kept feeding hard, but I was watching them move out of the way of my set up. Finally, a small Brown took the PT. To my astonishment the little Brown puked out maybe 10 Black/Brown ants. Without the tail my PT nymph kinda looked like the ants, so I bit off the tail. I am not going to tell you that I had a 30fish day, but I did pull a couple large fish out of that hole, and they both had gorged on drowned ants. I have run into this activity quite a few times since, as I now look for it.

You might think I unlocked the mystery of the Universe, and now can catch fish at will on the Gunn. Nothing further from the truth. The tailess PT is still the best pattern and it is sadly lacking. I have tryed a great variety of ant patterns (sub-surface), and have had terrible luck with them. The ants I am trying to imitate are Black thorax/head with a Brownish Red abdomen. I would guess them a size 18 to 16. After looking at your pattern, I think I discovered the problem with mine. I tyed my hackle with dry fly hackle. It never occured to try Soft Hackle. I believe I can duplicate your fly precisely and substitute the Starling feather for a Ginger or light Brown hen feather and start getting results.

Sorry about being so long winded just to say, great tie sir!

Being long winded and making others think about and study their fishing situations is a GOOD thing....

[hankaye]

Dub-ya, Howdy;

Great lookin ant. Looks easy for to tye all my attempts at dubbinG so far look like wads of 'stuff' stuck
to the hook.

Dubbin, Howdy;

Thanks for the insights ... the more details the better the plan...

hank

[willowhead]

Wayne..........all i can tell you is that from experience.....in the Catskills (and everyhwere), "Trout LOVE Ants".........in my opinion, it's their single most favorite food of all. They simply cannot resist ants. We got huge ants in the Catskills too and lots of different kinds..........and they especialy love the BIG Carpenter ants, flying ants, and Cinnamon ants. That's it.