Red butt epoxy ants

[brhoff]

Incredible fly...ohiotuber, thanks for sharing the recipe.

BUT! I have to say the picture is stellar!

Really, should be submitted to a magazine or two...warm water fly fishing gets little press and that shot is simply one of the best I've seen......thanks for sharing!

[Sonny Edmonds]

Pardon my ignorance, but is that fished like a wet fly?
Or does it float?
I'm already tying some up in #16 for my fly box. I'm doing the red first, then will come back on the brown second clamping.
I don't have epoxy, so was thinking of using what I do have, Fly Head cement. Do you think that would work OK?

[Gandolf]

Hi Bluegill 222,

The fly picture and pattern description look like the "transpar-ant", to your knowledge is that correct? I am just thinking about the folks who don't tie, and would like to have some of the flies.

(My spelling is highly suspect on the name of the fly. The name sounds like "transparent" only ends with "ant" instead of "ent", the emphasis when saying the name is on the syllable "ant.")

Sorry we didn't catch you on our trip to the NE Kansas area this spring. We had intended to go to the KC area to hit the fly shops, but ended up tying flies on the day we had set asside for fly shops.

Thanks and regards,

Gandolf

[Bluegill222]

brhoff--Thanks

Sonny--as long as the head cement dries clear. It won't be as pretty as epoxy or Hard Head, but it should work. And yes, you'd fish it wet. It sinks real slow which I think is part of why it works so well.

Gandolf-- I'll just have to catch you next time around. At least the time was put to reputable use. And yes, very similar to the "transparant" that you can find in a fly shop near you.

[Eight Thumbs]

I'm sitting down at the tying vise in a couple of minutes and tying up 6 in size #14 and six in size #16. I'll give them the acid test here in South Carolina. Water temperature is getting high and the big guys are headed for deeper, cooler water. Fishing is getting tough. 8T

[AtticaFish]

Has anyone made ants with the acetate floss? I've seen it in my Netcrafters catalog and have thought about trying it out.

Is it easy to make them up? Can you still use the hackle mid-body? Just curious, would like to stock myself up with some and sounds interesting....

[Normand]

transpar-ant by harrison steeves

http://www.flyanglersonline.com/feat...nto/part25.php

heres how to tie them. scroll to page 29 lots of ant pattern too

http://books.google.com/books?id=euN...esult&resnum=5

[ohiotuber]

transpar-ant by harrison steeves

http://www.flyanglersonline.com/feat...nto/part25.php

heres how to tie them. scroll to page 29 lots of ant pattern too

http://books.google.com/books?id=euN...esult&resnum=5

Yep...That is EXACTLY the pattern & his book is my personal favorite. Thanks for posting the online book....it's a great resource & I wasn't aware of it being online until now.
THANKS!
Mike

[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.