FALL ANTS
“You should be out on the creek about 4:30 or so tomorrow evening. The big carpenter ants are flying and I saw lots of them tonight. You and Dee should have good fishing until dark.”
When my nephew, the professional fly fishing outfitter, gives me a hot tip on a potential fly fishing opportunity I tend to pay attention.
“It’s supposed to be hot again tomorrow which should be perfect for a flight of ants. We’ll get out there and give it a try.”
Ants are non-aquatic insects that belong to the order Hymenoptera which makes them a relative of the bees and wasps. Like bees and wasps they are considered ‘social insects’ since they live in colonies which often consist of several thousand members. Ants are found on every continent except Antarctica.
All ants are too some degree social, and most species live in a nest consisting of a series of tunnels which may be constructed in the soil or trees. The social structure usually includes three castes: the winged, fertile females or queens, the wingless infertile females called workers, and winged males. Certain worker-types may become soldiers and in some cases may develop in other specialize castes.
In our area new queens and males mature and they leave the colony on a mating flight. The queens and drones [males] form a large swarm and the mated pair falls to the ground. The males die and the female [queen] bites or scrapes off her wings, and proceeds to find a suitable place to start a new colony.
It’s during the mating flight that these ants land on the water. Only a small number may land in the water, but under certain situations large numbers may carpet the water.
All ant bodies are divided into three distinct parts; head, thorax and gaster or abdomen. The connection between the thorax and the gaster is very slender and is often referred to as a “wasp waist.” When tying ant imitations it’s important to emphasize this defining characteristic.
There are a variety of ant species across the country, and fortunately it is not necessary to know one species of ant from another. They range in size from #12 down to #28 or smaller. Most are solid black, red and black and solid red. The key to getting a proper imitation is duplicating the distinct shape of the natural and then size.
Unlike aquatic hatching insects it is impossible to precisely predict when you may encounter ants on the water. Ants may be encountered at almost any time during the warmer months of the year. The workers fall into the water as the forage along the banks and in the vegetation near the water. Windy conditions will often dislodge them and deposit them into the water. Fish seem to relish ants and will often take one even when they are feeding a specific hatch of aquatic insects. If you are unable to match a specific hatch giving the fish an ant pattern is an old trick that may elicit a rise. For this reason it’s wise to stick a few ant patterns in your fly box for just such an occasion.
The flights of queens and drones usually occur in the late summer or early fall of the year in the Northern states, and they normally occur in the afternoon when the temperature has reached its high point for the day. The favor sunny days with light winds, but they will fly in less than perfect conditions, especially if inclement weather has delayed the flight. By some mechanism that we don’t understand, most of the ant colonies in a given area will fly their queens and drones at the same time. In an area where there are numerous colonies this may result in thousands of flying ants being in the air at one time. If only a small portion of these insects hit the water it will likely result in a bonanza for the fish and the angler that is prepared to fish them.
As I indicated, unlike aquatic hatches an ant emergence is impossible to predict precisely. The Ladyfisher and I loaded up the fishing car and struck out for DePuy Spring Creek about 4:30 in the afternoon as my nephew had suggested. It was a beautiful late summer day with clear blue skies, temperatures in the upper 70’s and no appreciable wind. The creek is a short drive from our Montana home and we arrived to find a few fish rising. Aquarium net in hand I stuck my face down close to the surface of the stream to see if I could detect what was causing the fish to rise. Oh my, the water was carpeted with winged ants but not quite what I had expected. These ants were miniscule. They made a size #28 look like Gulliver among the Lilliputians, and there were thousands of them! Hoping that this was just a prelude to something bigger we geared up and got ready to fish.
I had some small - #20 – black ants and I tied one on Dee’s leader. I tried a similar pattern on several nice rising trout that were rising along a grassy bank. Cast after cast produced noting and the fish continued to rise. Since I did not have any ant patterns smaller than size #20 I dug around in my midge box and came up with a size #24 or #26 black midge emerger with small white wings that sort of resembled the tiny winged ants. A few casts brought a positive response and after a spirited struggle a respectable Yellowstone Cutthroat came to hand. Perhaps he took my fly by mistake because repeated cast with the same fly produced no further results.
Meanwhile Dee did manage to convince a couple small trout to take her too large ant imitation. On a whim I decided to try a large flying ant imitation with a small black soft hackle pattern as a dropper. Although not exactly a killing combination I hooked and released several small brown trout on the dropper. Gradually the surface action slowed and I put on a small spring creek bugger pattern and fished my way back down to the car, hooking a few more fish in the process.
When we stopped fishing the sun had dropped below the western horizon and the coolness of a late Montana summer twilight time began to settle in over the valley. Although the ants were smaller than we had anticipated we managed to fool a few fish. We got to spend a couple hours in a beautiful place, the fishing was challenging but not impossible, and who can ask for more than that?