Fountains of Youth – Classic trout flies that have withstood the test of time … flies that remain “forever young”
by Rusty Dunn
The next time you’re near a trout stream, look closely among the ground cover and leaf litter. You’ll be astonished by the number and variety of ants. Ecologists estimate that the biomass of ants on earth is 20% of terrestrial animals. That’s one fifth of all land animals, measured not by number but by total weight! Wow! Now look in your fly boxes. Are your ant imitations as prolific as the real deal? Probably not.
As the weather warms, and spring fades into summer, give your ant patterns some quality stream time. Ants and terrestrials are summer staples. They sustain trout through the lean months and are as much a part of the season as baseball, cookouts, and long slow sunsets.
Ant imitations date to the very beginning of fly fishing. Dame Juliana Berners described fishing with ants in the first angling book ever printed (A Treatyse of fysshynge wyth an Angle, 1496), although her twelve famous flies (“the jury of twelve”) did not include an ant pattern. Charles Cotton described the first artificial ant in 1676 in Isaak Walton’s The Compleat Angler. His fly though did not have the modern ant profile of two bulbous segments separated by a thin waist. That bit of realism would await Michael Theakston’s ant pattern of 1853, described in A List of Natural Flies. Materials have evolved since Theakston’s time, but the basic design of ant flies has changed little. Pennsylvania’s Vince Marinaro brought ants and terrestrials into the mainstream in his 1950 classic A Modern Dry Fly Code, considered by many to be “the bible” of spring creek angling. It is, above all, a book about terrestrials, and Marinaro’s favorite terrestrial was the ant:
“If I were to choose one pattern above all others, day in and day out, from fish to fish, the most enduring in the season, it would be the ant in its various sizes and colors.“
Many respected authors have commented on trout fondness for ants. Stream ecologists demonstrate that the fraction of ants in the trout diet is considerably greater than the fraction in the stream drift. Trout prefer ants and go out of their way to take them. Ants are rich in formic acid, and trout may enjoy the tart acidic flavor. Whatever the reason, ants are essentially “trout candy”.
Ants occur in many sizes but only four basic designs: black vs. red (also called brown, cinnamon, or honey) and winged vs. wingless. Black ants are jet black and completely opaque. Red ants are remarkably translucent. Their reddish color shines from within by light that is transmitted through the body. Marinaro described red ants as “glimmering and glowing as if lighted by some inner fire“. Wingless ants are by far the most common. They fall from trees, bushes, and grasses from late spring until the frosts of fall. They are especially plentiful to trout on warm windy days. Winged ants are much less common, but they can create magnificent dry fly fishing. Immense numbers of winged male and female ants swarm in mid to late summer from underground colonies. These mating flights are unpredictable and rare, but if one blows over a stream, trout gorge on the windfall. You’ll be lucky to encounter a handful of winged ant swarms in your life, but if it happens, you won’t forget it.
Floating ants cannot escape the surface film, and trout take them in a leisurely manner. Gentle sipping rises on glassy smooth glides usually indicate fish taking either small terrestrials, midges, or mayfly spinners. You’ll probably need a seine to know for sure, because floating ants are hard to see. They float in, not on, the water … sodden, half-sunk, awash in the surface, and blended into the dark background. Make sure your flies float similarly. Trout probably take more ants underwater than above, and a wet ant pattern can be excellent trailed behind a dry fly.
Trout don’t read the scientific journals, but they know from experience that ants are the most abundant land animal on earth. Ants sustain trout for months, and they can sustain your summer fly fishing as well. Twenty percent of the planet’s land animals just can’t be wrong. Think globally … act locally … fish ants.
Copyright 2018, Rusty Dunn
Red Fur Ant
| Hook: |
Dry fly, #10-24 |
| Thread: |
Rusty brown, 8/0 |
| Body: |
Reddish-brown fur with some Antron mixed in for sparkle. Form two prominent bulbs separated by a thin waist. The rear bulb should be larger than the front. |
| Wings: |
(Optional) Two hackle feather tips, medium dun; projecting rearward from the thorax across the back and split about 30 degrees. |
| Hackle: |
Rusty dun, honey dun, or medium ginger, optionally trimmed on the bottom to float lower in the surface. |
Red Fur Ant
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Last Updated: July 4, 2018 by Drew Kasel
by Rusty Dunn
The next time you’re near a trout stream, look closely among the ground cover and leaf litter. You’ll be astonished by the number and variety of ants. Ecologists estimate that the biomass of ants on earth is 20% of terrestrial animals. That’s one fifth of all land animals, measured not by number but by total weight! Wow! Now look in your fly boxes. Are your ant imitations as prolific as the real deal? Probably not.
As the weather warms, and spring fades into summer, give your ant patterns some quality stream time. Ants and terrestrials are summer staples. They sustain trout through the lean months and are as much a part of the season as baseball, cookouts, and long slow sunsets.
Ant imitations date to the very beginning of fly fishing. Dame Juliana Berners described fishing with ants in the first angling book ever printed (A Treatyse of fysshynge wyth an Angle, 1496), although her twelve famous flies (“the jury of twelve”) did not include an ant pattern. Charles Cotton described the first artificial ant in 1676 in Isaak Walton’s The Compleat Angler. His fly though did not have the modern ant profile of two bulbous segments separated by a thin waist. That bit of realism would await Michael Theakston’s ant pattern of 1853, described in A List of Natural Flies. Materials have evolved since Theakston’s time, but the basic design of ant flies has changed little. Pennsylvania’s Vince Marinaro brought ants and terrestrials into the mainstream in his 1950 classic A Modern Dry Fly Code, considered by many to be “the bible” of spring creek angling. It is, above all, a book about terrestrials, and Marinaro’s favorite terrestrial was the ant:
“If I were to choose one pattern above all others, day in and day out, from fish to fish, the most enduring in the season, it would be the ant in its various sizes and colors.“
Many respected authors have commented on trout fondness for ants. Stream ecologists demonstrate that the fraction of ants in the trout diet is considerably greater than the fraction in the stream drift. Trout prefer ants and go out of their way to take them. Ants are rich in formic acid, and trout may enjoy the tart acidic flavor. Whatever the reason, ants are essentially “trout candy”.
Ants occur in many sizes but only four basic designs: black vs. red (also called brown, cinnamon, or honey) and winged vs. wingless. Black ants are jet black and completely opaque. Red ants are remarkably translucent. Their reddish color shines from within by light that is transmitted through the body. Marinaro described red ants as “glimmering and glowing as if lighted by some inner fire“. Wingless ants are by far the most common. They fall from trees, bushes, and grasses from late spring until the frosts of fall. They are especially plentiful to trout on warm windy days. Winged ants are much less common, but they can create magnificent dry fly fishing. Immense numbers of winged male and female ants swarm in mid to late summer from underground colonies. These mating flights are unpredictable and rare, but if one blows over a stream, trout gorge on the windfall. You’ll be lucky to encounter a handful of winged ant swarms in your life, but if it happens, you won’t forget it.
Floating ants cannot escape the surface film, and trout take them in a leisurely manner. Gentle sipping rises on glassy smooth glides usually indicate fish taking either small terrestrials, midges, or mayfly spinners. You’ll probably need a seine to know for sure, because floating ants are hard to see. They float in, not on, the water … sodden, half-sunk, awash in the surface, and blended into the dark background. Make sure your flies float similarly. Trout probably take more ants underwater than above, and a wet ant pattern can be excellent trailed behind a dry fly.
Trout don’t read the scientific journals, but they know from experience that ants are the most abundant land animal on earth. Ants sustain trout for months, and they can sustain your summer fly fishing as well. Twenty percent of the planet’s land animals just can’t be wrong. Think globally … act locally … fish ants.
Copyright 2018, Rusty Dunn
Red Fur Ant
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