Red butt epoxy ants

[Bluegill222]

Ohiotuber gave me a few of these when I was up in Ohio a while back. I came back and proceeded to clean house with them on my home water, especially on sunny hot days when everything else is getting kind of iffy. I just find an overhanging tree (doesn't even have to be that close to the surface) and chuck it in. Very rarely do the gills ignore them, and I have also had bass, small to medium sized catfish, and carp scarf them up as well. I've been tying them up in size 12-16. I do them in all black and all red as well, and they work, but not as well as the red butt version.

Thanks again, Mike!

[steveks]

You really shouldn't tie any more of those. I might try some just to see if they really work.

[ohiotuber]

Tim,
Thanks for the kind words.
It's almost scary how well those work, isn't it? I've done well with them on trout too, & you're right.....the red butt wins "hands down", especially in the heat of summer. I fish them in either a size 16 (preferred) or 14. Simple tie too...Tiemco 101 14 or 16 hook. red thread butt, bare mid hook shank, then slightly smaller black thread thorax...coat both with epoxy, turn to prevent epoxy from sagging, then when dry, just sparse black hackle.
Dot Man...If you're reading this, I haven't forgotten...just too busy with the wedding...then top priority is a batch of these for you!..
Mike

[AtticaFish]

Those are killers here in OH for sure and don't see why not anywhere else! When smallie fishing is slow, I put one of those on - brown thread/black hackle - and go after some carp. Great for thru the ice as well, just tip em' with a wax worm.... might need a shorter pole tho....

[dpenrod]

how bout some pics? also, what kind of epoxy do you use? is there a suitable substitute? i am tying impaired and need all the help i can get.

[ohiotuber]

My baby girl Maggie gets married tomorrow & lots of family in town for the weekend, but I'll tie some up & get pics posted Monday or Tuesday (hopefully).
As far as epoxy goes, I use one of two....Devcon 2 ton to turn on my powered turner, or 5 minute stuff (97 cents at Harbor Freight) if just turned on a rotary vise. Actually, the Harbor Freight stuff (due to price) would be all I would use other than the very limited working time, so I use Devcon if I'm tying up several.
Mike

[Bluegill222]

I went for an epoxy substitute for mine. I'm finding Loon Hard Head or Hard As Nails works just fine with les mess.

[Gandolf]

Hi All,

We have a small backyard pool, and last week the main new insects that I saw in the pool was ants.

The pool has a skimmer, and my wife also cleans it fairly often, so each week, I see what I think are the current crop of insects in the pool. We are not close at all to any water, so the insects I see are terrestrials.

When I think of it, I log the date and isects that show up. I try to do this once a week or so, but don't always do it.

Last week there were quite a few winged ants in the pool. Most of the ants were small all black ants, #16s to #18 or #20 or so. However, there were some large red ones. These had a dark brownish thorax and an amber to reddish amber abdomen. These were #10s.

There were other insects too, mostly midge types of #18 or so, and small beetles about 3/16th inch long and maybe 1/8th inch wide.

My point is that there is a lot of activity with new queen ants flying around. It should not come as a surprize that fish are eating ants.

Regards,

Gandolf

[Bluegill222]

I'm not seeing the big swarms here quite yet, so I haven't broken out the winged ants yet. Most of what I'm seeing here so far is of the tipped and fell off thebranch variety of klutz ant. Just enough of them to keep the fishies looking for them. We usually start seeing winged ants in August so it's real close. The thing that caught me by surprise with this pattern was that before this I fished my ants dry and usually did okay. Never realized how much better they might fish wet until now.