Productive Fying Ant Patterns

[Losthwy 0]

What is your preference for productive flying ant pattern?

[zip 0]

I've always had great luck with a fur ant.Simple and only a couple of materials

[Bruce Norikane 0]

I tie and use a lot of parachute ants. I use grizzly hackle which along with the post can look like wings. The parachute post makes the ant very visible. For a more specific flying ant, I tie a down wing of antron and switch to hackle around the waist.

 

http://www.charliesflyboxinc.com/flybox/details.cfm?parentID=31

 

[zip 0]

Bruce that is a killer ant pattern!Gonna go in the box!

[epzamora 0]

The ant bruce shows is similar to the ant i've bought many times in past years and has proven an irresistible morsel in my sierra streams. except mine were purchased as barbless and had white calf's tail for the post. the shop has since stopped selling them, i'll have to try tying my own.

 

eric

fresno, ca.

[Dave G. 0]

That's a nice ant Bruce !

 

The one I tie has the two bumps of dubbing like Bruces has (of cinnamon synthetic dubbing) but I put in where his center body is, a traditionally tied hackle of either just Grizzly or Grizzly and Badger combo hackle. I use the white antron as well, but it comes out from under the hackle leaning rearward and up. It's my latest iteration, there should be ants in my favorite location any time now and I'll see how these work. I tied up about a dozen of these to try last year and never got out to fish them due to other responsibilities, so we shall see this year..

[Bruce Norikane 0]

Most parachute ants are similar, but that's Charlie Craven's ant. Here's the SBS:

 

http://www.charliesf...cfm?parentID=31

 

I often tie mine with a hi-vis post. Some I tie on a curved hook like a Klinkhammer. I was inspired by LuciV's beautiful ants

 

http://www.flytyingforum.com/index.php?showtopic=81462&p=630657

 

[wlshafor 0]

Has anyone tyed flying ants with small feathers as wings?

[Bruce Norikane 0]

 

The one I tie has the two bumps of dubbing like Bruces has (of cinnamon synthetic dubbing) but I put in where his center body is, a traditionally tied hackle of either just Grizzly or Grizzly and Badger combo hackle. I use the white antron as well, but it comes out from under the hackle leaning rearward and up. ..

 

That's how I tie winged ants.

[Bruce Norikane 0]

Has anyone tyed flying ants with small feathers as wings?

 

I sometimes use leftover hackle tips. They look good, but white yarn is easier and more durable.

[retrocarp 0]

Please excuse the quality of video it was early in the piece lol

[Crackaig 0]

The only ant pattern I have ever caught on is the Defiant. Two plastic beads with thread ramps front back, red at the back black at the front, covered in UV resin, and a black hackle in the middle.

 

Cheers,

C.

[mikechell 0]

Any floating ant body should work as a "flying" any with the addition of wing imitations. This is my floating ant:

 

 

Loosely based on the McMurray Ant, it's just two dots of 2mm foam (with a piece of braid threaded through them) with legs of your choice tied in the middle. Here, in sunfish country, I can't keep the little fish from tearing it up, but once in a while, a good sized one will get to it first.

 

Tie a couple of strands of white synthetic hair for wings and I am sure it will do just as well.

 

The SBS is here, if you're interested.

 

http://www.flyrecipes.com/index.php?option=com_mtree&task=viewlink&link_id=987655992&Itemid=53

[Losthwy 0]

Has anyone tyed flying ants with small feathers as wings?

No, I haven't but Kelly Galloup has flying ant pattern, called the Ant Acid, tied with deer hair. he states it floats like a cork and the best he has used.

 

Thanks for the replies some interesting patterns.

[Bryon Anderson 0]

A.K. Best ties (or used to tie) a flying ant that used a strip of plastic from a Ziploc-type sandwich bag (I believe it was actually the Glad brand) for a wing. This particular sandwich bag had a strip just below the closure that was embossed with a crosshatched pattern. He said the embossed crosshatching reflected a ton of light and you could see it from quite a ways away, but it was also translucent like the wings of the naturals, not to mention being super-durable and inexpensive. The rest of the fly was your standard ant tie--big ball of dubbing for the abdomen, a thin thorax of just tying thread, over which he wrapped a few turns of dry fly hackle, then the strip of plastic, trimmed to shape and tied in flat so that the hackle propped it up at about a 45 deg. angle to the hook shank, then a very small ball of dubbing for the head.

 

I tried to find a picture online, but had no luck. It's on this video: http://www.frontrangeanglers.com/shop/tying-terrestrials-caddis-and-midges-by-a-k-best/

 

I've fished this pattern in late summer on the Au Sable and Manistee Rivers in Michigan when the flying ants were on, and I can report that it floats well, is easy to see and catches fish.