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THE CHERNOBYL ANT - A mutant becomes a legend
Once in a while, a new fly pattern comes along that quickly becomes an indispensable part of your arsenal. There are a few fly patterns that seem to catch all fish, just about everywhere, all the time. Prime examples are Russell Blessing's Woolly Bugger, in 1967, and Bob Clouser's Clouser Deep Minnow, in 1987. Most experienced fly anglers would agree that you should never hit the water, anywhere, without a few of these in your fly box.
I've used this pattern for warmwater species and trout. Its a GOOD ONE!
That is certainly an exceptionally well written introduction to this version of a chernobyl ant, and the step by step pix and narrative are excellent.
I don't have it any more because I gave it away with a couple hundred other flies to a fellow in New Mexico to give to a local Project Healing Waters group, but I did have an original Chernobyl Ant tied by Allen Wooley at Jimmy's All Seasons Angler about six years ago, maybe seven.
Allen's original as he demo'd it at that time looked nothing at all like any of the proliferation of foam flies with some number of rubber legs that are commonly called chernobyl ants. Allen's original was one piece of black 5 mm foam tied on a size 10 ( as I best recall ) standard dry fly hook. I can't recall if he tied the butt end of the foam to the hook or if he only attached the foam to the hook at a forward tie in point. The fly had four black round rubber legs, two on either side, tied in at the forward foam tie in point.
Basically, it was a pretty simple and ugly fly - kind of like a big wedge of thick foam with floppy legs.
Allen didn't go into some of the history that Joel has presented. But he did mention that one of the really good uses of the fly was at Silver Creek after the hatches turned off. His suggestion was to wait until the bugs were gone, the fish were down, and the other anglers were off the water - and then go splat that ugly thing down and wait for the big guys to come for it. :shock:
John