Ant - sz 16

[Brian K. Shaffer]

I started tying this pattern some time ago. To me it is all about the legs.

Bill Skilton makes the legs. Ant / Beetle legs. I use the Reg size in black, brown, or green.

Just yesterday I added the little yellow dot. Make sure to glue the top and bottom to hold the legs.

I use Sally Hansen's Hard as Nails.

Recipe :

Hook - sz 16 TMC 100SPBL

Thread - black or brown or red 8/0

Body - cylinder foam in black or brown to match size of ants

Legs - Skilton's Ant / Beetle legs, Reg size in black, brown or green

Optional yellow dot - yellow foam sliced thin and glued to top







This is a good ant to study... Missouri ant... big one...

The longer you stare at this ~ the better your ants will be - believe me.



Kinda spider-ish also...

[bassman]

Looking good Brian. My wife is so allergic to even the smallest piss ants that she won't look in the room if I'm tying ants. I have a lot of very fine rubber leg material I'm assuming it would be about the same thing. Our big ants here are the Fire Ants and everyone is allergic to them buggers. Don't know if fish will even eat them. Ant might chew his way out from inside out.

[Caneghost]

Bill's legs do look realistic as they are stiff enough to be positioned. I have also used black Krystal Flash (3 strands for 6 legs) with success, and of course hackler works. For foam I use Larva Lace strip foam. A CDC wing in white or dun adds visibility, doesn't detract from effectiveness for regular ants, and works for flying ants too!

[Brian K. Shaffer]

I believe the legs to to be thread sprayed with something or dipped in something....
but I just liked that it worked when I needed it to. (and still does)

And Bill was a riot on the phone at times.
I might be the only guy who called to order 48 packs at a time twenty years ago.
He thought I was nuts.

I like these ants - they are durable. You will lose it before it fails you.

[Caneghost]

I always liked his beetle bodies, sold in strips with bright orange, white or yellow dots painted at intervals. It was a nice dense foam that made that little plot when it fell. The stiff legs were used with those too but they sometimes affected hooking since they were stiff and the beetle body wide as it should be already. I started using TMC 102Y hooks for terrestrials as the type of bend gave a wider bite and set the point slightly to the rear as opposed to a standard dry. Plus I always liked black hooks for black terrestrials and I still do.

THe 102y bend shows up well on a larger fly.

[Brian K. Shaffer]

I loved that 102Y hook... man...

[flyfishingpastor]

Very nice. Thank you for sharing them with us.

Pat

[Hellmtflies]

Excellent! I've been using Skilton's products for years. Top shelf. Never had a single issue with any of them. His foam ant bodies are one of my favorites. Most of his products can be found on .....aaa....what's that site?

[Eric Peper]

I like having something that provides an illusion of motion in my ant patterns. It can be a few loose fibers of dubbing or, more often, some CDC fibers. I always use CDC for the wings on flying ants, but a few fibers dubbed on the thread, wrapped at the "waist" and used as legs work well too.
Just as a side note, I've been trying to add a "motion" element to just about all my flies lately. Both on my own and in conversation with Hans Weilenman, I've concluded that motion is the key element in the success of the CDC & Elk pattern. Also, before he contracted ALS Gary Lafontaine told me his "next project" was going to explore the element of behavior as a key feature in a fly's effectiveness.

Eric

[Adamsdry]

Back in 1990 Gary sent me a dozen or so flies that he hand picked for the Deerfield River in Western MA.
Along with the usual Caddis patterns he included a hinged foam hopper pattern. The fly was deadly on the Green River in UT. I would throw exaggerated mends after each cast putting twists into my leader. As the hopper drifted I would allow the leader to drag and tighten this would untwist the leader. The first time that hopper would flop at the end of a tight line it would get hammered. I took quit a few fish that day with this unorthodox technique. The dead drift would get the fishes attention but the movement of the fly at the untwisting of the leader would trigger the take. So much for dead drift, loose line fishing on the Green.

The use of marabou, aftershaft feathers, and CDC adds quite a bit to the effectiveness of flies floated in the film. Was not tinsel and its' reflective properties originally used to simulate movement in a rather static imitation of the real thing?

D

PS. "caneghost"
That fur ant with the CDC wing was the pattern I took my first trout on a fly with. I have them in every fly box I've stocked.

[Brian K. Shaffer]

That beetle under that ant on the package is deadly as well. also super durable
I have landed many fish on that tick looking thing... had one in a hat for years that EVERYONE thought was real.
People would often tell me I had a bug on me.

Also, before he contracted ALS Gary Lafontaine told me his "next project" was going to
explore the element of behavior as a key feature in a fly's effectiveness.

That is really cool. I only got to know Gary a little ... and not enough.
__

I also use these..

[Caneghost]

My best Delaware River brown trout was taken on that CDC ant, size 20, during the summer sulfur hatch on the West Branch a few summer ago. He put a hell of an arch in my Dream Catcher AK-47 bamboo rod and stretched the 6X tippet. He measured a kiss more than twenty-five inches, broad and heavy and gorgeously colored.

How many times have the simplest flies produced the greatest memories?

[Eric Peper]

My best Delaware River brown trout was taken on that CDC ant, size 20, during the summer sulfur hatch on the West Branch a few summer ago. He put a hell of an arch in my Dream Catcher AK-47 bamboo rod and stretched the 6X tippet. He measured a kiss more than twenty-five inches, broad and heavy and gorgeously colored.

How many times have the simplest flies produced the greatest memories?

Shhh . . don't give away the secret. Mike Lawson's standard advice for fishing the "extremely difficult" flat water of the Henry's Fork, irrespective of whether there's a hatch. "Tie on a beetle and change if you have to."
My personal preference is a 16 CDC & Elk or an 18-20 ant.

[Bee]

I am late to this discussion , but will note that I have found found that beetles legged with peacock fibers to be by far the deadliest legging set-up for big trout being super selective in flat water. Eric mentions Mike Lawson,( who has been a close friend of mine for forty years plus ) and I will echo Lawsons advice on the effectiveness of small beetles on the Ranch...had them eat a beetle out of a pod of green drake duns. Go figure.

[Horton Creek]

Thin black paint brush bristles are cheap and very durable. Nice pattern by the way. I like the cinnamon colored thread you use on the black ant. Very realistic. I will try tying a few of those versus black thread

[Doug K]

I have found found that beetles legged with peacock fibers to be by far the deadliest legging set-up for big trout being super selective in flat water.

interesting.. how is the durability of those legs ?
I've been using rubber legs but they are a bit stiff, like Eric I prefer a bit of motion..
Biggest stream rainbow I've caught in the last decade was on a beetle used for visibility ahead of a #18 emerger, got some nice fish on the emerger but the 23" wanted the beetle..
This week tied a new batch, used pheasant tail fibers for legging, will see how they fare..

[Bee]

Doug, for the peacock legs on beetles I am doing MUCH shorter legs than the legs pictured in your photos.

I am going for creating realism in length and profile to the naturals I see on the water. Whether it is smaller eastern japanese beetle or the size 10 june bug sized beetle or the longer, more slender western H F beetles.

Usually just a set of the X crossed peacock legs per beetle. Sometimes I add the extended rear legs on the June Bug sizes as they are more obvious behind the that species of beetle when viewed on the water.

I insert the peacock stem through a pre-tied body with a fine needle eye, and run the needle through the body of the beetle in proper location and trim to natural beetle leg length. I will put the tiniest drop of cement or glue on one side of the leg, prior to cutting and pull that end slightly in to the body to secure the peacock set leg. Then trim piece to exact length desired. Repeat for the other leg. For efficiency I will tie bodies en masse, then come back and "leg" them as a grioup in a second operation. Often using the same peacock stem to do several sets of legs. Often just getting all the leg pieces in, then adjusting and gluing, then trimming ends to each length. It goes faster that way for me. I try to use the stems with the most possible herl as when wet it is reduced in profile.

Have caught browns to 30 + inches and rainbows to 27 on these creations, on very public water. East and West but typically not on bamboo . It is a headhunting game