Late summer / early fall is the time when flying ant swarms become a daily possibility on the water. Ant swarms never follow the logic of other insects whose hatches can be predicted and anticipated. While we can expect to see Slate Drakes, Baetis Olives and Tricos at predictable times of the day; fly ants just happen, and we can only hope for being in the right place at the right time when it does. Interestingly there’s another component to flying ant swarms: having the right pattern in your fly boxes to imitate them. Trout will quickly become highly selective to flying ants and feed on them exclusively. Without a good pattern to present you may as well tuck your rod under your arm and watch or head home. A mating swarm of flying ants will have a mixture of sizes within the group, so a perfect match of the size is seldom important. What is important? A pattern that sits tight and flush in the film and has that unique shape and light pattern that says “ant” to a trout. If you look at flying ants on the water, they seldom have that perfect position with the wings folded flat and neatly over the back like an ant at rest on dry land. Instead you see an insect with its wings in varying positions which is the result of trying to free itself from the tension of the water surface. The pattern shown here uses a wing of CDC to imitate this feature and has been money for me everywhere I’ve fished them. I tie these in a variety of colors including black, chocolate brown, red and cinnamon. Hit me up if you need a few and tie one on. You will be glad that you did. www.ramsayflies.com #regalvise #Daiichihooks #TroutHunterCDC
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