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Baron

Ants, gotta love'em

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"using a button for a head" Great idea! Thinking of a carp fly with a small button head. Stand by to be amazed. BTW, isn't there a Dahlburg Diver that uses a slanted head to dive like a crankbait?

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Great post.  I tie a few different ant patterns, but rarely seem to use them.  Guess I'll make a point of doing so a little more frequently this summer.

Here are the two main styles I stick with:

Paracute Dry

parachute-ant-resize.jpg

UV Resin Sunken Ant

sunken-ant.jpg

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22 hours ago, Chris_in_Louisiana said:

Great post.  I tie a few different ant patterns, but rarely seem to use them.  Guess I'll make a point of doing so a little more frequently this summer.

Here are the two main styles I stick with:

Paracute Dry

parachute-ant-resize.jpg

UV Resin Sunken Ant

sunken-ant.jpg

Sizes?

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6 hours ago, Baron said:

Sizes?

The UV resin is on a size 16 jig hook.  The parachute is a #18, though I tie them on a #16 and #20 as well.  Admittedly haven't caught much beyond bluegill on them.  Possibly a few brook trout on the parachute over the years in memory serves, but I just don't seem to use them all that frequently.

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I really only fish underwater stump fields for Gills and they work well, off and on. I had 2 or three nice strikes in Flaming gorge, Green River last year on cinnamon ants. I find Ants handy but I only just began tying them. 

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On 2/21/2021 at 9:40 AM, mikemac1 said:

One of my favorite Ant patterns is the Bead Butt Ant using a small glass bead for the abdomen.  Small beads in translucent red, brown, copper or black make for a realistic ant abdomen.  Tied with quality dry fly hackle and 1 mm foam for the head, these float well enough but also do a great job when they sink.  Size 18 Bead Butt Ant below.

BZN11055.thumb.JPG.cd020771ec0835b2ae84ff5d0757d758.JPG

Cute and easy

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Glass beads and Solarez sinkers....
“Don’t say ain’t Little Johnny.  Say isn’t.”
”OK Treacher.  Then there’s an isn’t crawling across your desk...”😝

 

91A713EE-0758-4499-B61C-B85EAB81F90E.png

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14 hours ago, denduke said:

Glass beads and Solarez sinkers....
“Don’t say ain’t Little Johnny.  Say isn’t.”
”OK Treacher.  Then there’s an isn’t crawling across your desk...”😝

 

91A713EE-0758-4499-B61C-B85EAB81F90E.png

Nicely done but do you want ants to sink so fast. I mean I assume that the sink fast if they're made from glass beads. Do the ones you made on Styrofoam float?

Ants, Gotta love'em. Coniving they are, they got us to talk about them for two pages.

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Hmmm - Well I don't tie or fish ants that often, as I don't seem to have much luck with them,  but reading @Baron's comment and seeing the pattern with 2 glass beads and hackle, I'm thinking they might work pretty well swinging them like a soft hackle.  Does anyone fish them that way on purpose, or is it strictly a dead drift thing?

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I make my ants in size 16 and just use dubbing and the really small, thin hackles at the bottom of a grizzly cape. Basically dub a bit fatter in the back, tie in the hackle, and a smaller bit up front.  I make a rusty brown one, too, but that's not shown. This one the dubbing is a bit to on the bend of the hook but it'll still work fine.  These aren't fished as a dropper I just fish single and mostly without an indicator. Total pain

Seems like the hackles get destroyed more than the body. I also noticed when the hackle was mostly gone they didn't catch as well as with it there. 

20210307_133232.thumb.jpg.a369a8584761101ee1796258b1e67f4e.jpg

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