Parachute Ants?

[redietz 0]

You're overthinking things. I've been fishing parachute ants frequently for over 30 years, and can tell you that trout love them.

 

The first parachute winged pattern of any sort that I ever encountered was a fur ant, with relatively high hair wingpost. It way outfished the plain fur ants I had been fishing simply because I could see it. The post was not an issue. I never looked back -- parachutes have been my preferred style of ant ever since. I tie them with several different colors of wing post -- white, hi-viz green, hi-vis red and pink and use whichever I can see the best under the light conditions I find myself in. They work well in low water fished to spooky trout in heavily pressured tailwaters.

[Henrik Thomsen (DK) 0]

Like Henrik's suggestion. For trial this weekend, tying some this morning with short posts of yellow, gold, red, white poly yarn. Might tie some in neon colors.

And I'll like to see pictures of the outcome. 😉

 

Henrik

[hairwing 0]

Well I've never caught a fish on an ant, could be because I have never fished an ant pattern <eek!>. I'm well prepared though, there are ant flies in my flybox, albeit old school without the white post, I'm waiting for the day to find fish gorging on the little morsels but to date it hasn't happened.

I fish mostly rivers and streams and have always found the "bank feeders" opportunistic and ready to take most well cast and drifted flies that come down their feeding lane that looked anything like a terrestrial. I don't fish stillwater very much and can understand that a raft of wind blown ants can excite a fish or two to the point of selectivity.

Fishing flies on a dead drift slacks line cast is hard work if you can't see the fly. I don't enjoy it but now I'll add some ants to my box with a post that I can see. Maybe some day these flies will come in handy..donno.

My river ant is typically size 22 to 28...should be a challenge with a white post.

[Crackaig 0]

Here, for some reason, all the ants swarm over a period of two or three days, normally in late July. Its a fall I've never hit at its height, but an ant pattern is good for days after. One year I was at the Lowther Horse Trials and Country Fair. I had arrived a couple of days early in the hope of fishing the area, but it was just way too hot. I met some friends there and we went over to High Force on the river Tees. When we got back to the car park the ants had swarmed, my car was covered in ants shedding their wings. I mean millions of them. No other car in the car park had any ants on them. I don't know why they picked my car, maybe the colour.

 

I did get to fish a couple of days later, and a dry ant pattern worked well. I used a parachute ant but with a bright pink dubbing ball parachute post rather than a yarn one. It gives you a small intense dot on the surface to sight on. A fish would have to be very high in the water to be able to see it. You could cut a yarn or foam post down to get a similar effect.

Cheers,

C.

[feathers5 0]

Here in Brazil the ants also have wings

 

 

Holy Crap! Those are huge!

[André Ribeiro 0]

These are the winged form of our leafcutter ants, knowed as saúva (Atta ssp.) They assume this form, size and the wings when is time to reproduce and form a new colony.

[flytire 0]

maybe its time to put the books away and tie a half dozen parachute ants and go fishing to see how effective fishing them can be