Anting We Will Go
With two more road trips under my belt, it’s time to stay off the road and fish. During my trip to northern Wisconsin and on to in northern Michigan, the ant swarms were epic. This time of year if you drive through concentrations of bugs that “ping” of the wind shield, they are likely ants. After jury duty (the prosecutor was bad and the plaintiff was innocent) we got a late start north and drove through a few little towns as the sun was dropping. That backlighted the bugs in the air let me see how heavy the swarms were. I stopped to check under the wiper blades to see what color the ants were and found it was a mix of blacks and cinnamons.
I tie wings on all of my ant patterns other than the wet ant pattern. I have never found it to matter. If a fish will not take the fly because of wings, I didn’t want to catch it anyway.
One great thing about ants and trout is the fish seem to “remember” what an ant looks like. Even when a trout has not seen an ant on the water for some time, they will still eat a good ant pattern.
As with most terrestrials, a low rinding pattern is usually more effective than one that is heavily hackled and high floating. If you take a live ant or beetle and drop it in the water, it is instantly drowning, stuck part way through the film.
I carry a box of ants with back ants from #12-#24 and cinnamon patterns from #16-#20. I hit a Carpenter Ant swarm on the AuSable years ago in September, and it was like Hex fishing during the day. All the big fish fed.
The warm days of September into October can produce great ant fishing. What a great way to spend a lovely day during Indian Summer.
Yippee Tie One On!