I bought 2 12 x 12" sheets at the Dollar Tree yesterday. I figure that is at least a 1000 flies. Very easy to tie and looks so real. Thanks Rick for a fantastic pattern. I got black and brown, now to find some red. John
FYI
The stuff seems to take a Magic marker real well…I’ll probably get the light stuff and use the marker…right now we …note I said “we” only have a deep almost purple blue…
Some brand patterns vary a little but should work fine…
If you want to go to the trouble you could cut so the head has a little tag on each side…ants do have eyes don’t they?..I doubt if the fish care…
Costco has brown, black, tan, and blue…they didn’t have the price marked…the rolls are big enough to wallpaper a house…
The Dollar Store here didn’t have any…
What about an indicator?
Is the waist a weak point…that is …any trouble with the thread cutting through?..guess I’ll try cinching down real hard and see…
I have tied about 2 dozen and have not had thread cut through any of them. John
Forgot to ask…anyone have trouble with the bodies twisting …mine do but a drop of super glue takes care of that.
Mine also twisted a bit but like you a small drop of glue fixed it. John
I found by making a few wraps that were not as tight over the middle and having some thread on the hook shank under seems to help the twist.
Rick
Thanks Rick, I will try it that way. John
It just occurred to me this material could be used for eyes…I often use a flip flop plug when I don’t want weight…or for a certain look…
I had to much time today. I was tying up some ants and had a larger feather come off with the one I was going to use. I looked and the ant and tied the smaller feather on.
On ethe next one I tied the feather on the hook and then the ant body. I then wrapped the hackle paracute style. I did find that it worked better to tie in the hackle over the hook eye and make one wrap. A little more time consuming, but it looks better.
I also found that if I left the material in a long chain it was easier to wrap the body with no twist. IT is easy to then cut the extra off.
It might be dangerous to let me play.
Rick
Rick,
From what I am seeing, it will only be dangerous to the fish!
Nice job and a great idea! Hope you get a lot more free time!
Those look great Rick thanks for another great idea. John
A friend at the hospital gave me a huge bag of anti-slip matts used in surgical tool trays and such. A little flimsy for hard use and orange, but it is coated fabric like the other stuff, but smaller slubs. A dozen size 16 ants took no time at all to tie and a quick check with a Sharpie proved color was no problem…
art
looks simple… haha . ya am gonna make me some! I make a spider thats just as simple too.
Here is a three segment ant - posted with Rick’s permission. Hook is Mustad 3366 #12.
Tim
You know, if you painted these Simple Ants, either the two section or the three section (that really looks good by the way) black and yellow you would have a great looking Yellow Jacket fly or a Bumble Bee, or tan and black, a Honey Bee…makes me wonder what else?
A three part --dark green/red/dark green Royal Coachman?
A two or three part in Orange with a white hackle–egg pattern?
There are a lot of possibilities…:tieone:
Larry 
—sagefisher—
It may have been in another thread but someone mentioned these get torn up by the fish rather easily. I haven’t fished them yet but currently have some of the diagonal strips hanging to dry after dipping in colored or clear nail polish…both to strengthen and also for coloration… e.g.dipped the black I have into black nail polish and it gave the bodies a sheen and hopefully will also be stronger…also dipped a tan color into a gold sparkle nail polish.
Now Ive got to find an orange…we’ve got an ant here that has an orange body and a black thorax…or was it the other way around…guess I’ll go ask the fish;)
Has anyone fished these yet to determine if they float? The foam looks like it would absorb water and sink. Just wondering and nothing more…
Warren …Before I tied any I threw some of the material in the water and it seemed to float like the proverbial cork…but I didn’t leave it in very long.
Addendum:
Warren…it’s almost an hour later…I threw a string of it in the water right after posting above and even squeezed it in the water…still floating nicely.
Thanks,
Please let me know how they float after tied on a hook so that I will know how I want to tie them up and if I will be fishing them as wets or dries…
When this thread started I tied up one of Rick’s originals and then one of the paraschutes…both floated fine .