Coming to a water near you ... soon ... Flying Ant Day

by Richard Fieldhouse

Flying Ant Day

Have you noticed many ants around just lately? If not, you soon will, the ground will be crawling with winged ants in the not too distant future (especially with this warm weather we are experiencing). A friend called me earlier this week to tell me that he spotted some in the city, so they will soon reach the rivers (and appear on the trout's dinner table), generally flying ants are first noticed in the cities as the average temperature is much warmer.

"Flying Ant Day" - There’s no exact date every year, but flying ant day usually happens towards the end of July and the beginning of August. It is thought to be when a spell of wet weather is followed closely by hot humid weather, and Queen ants take this as their cue to leave their nest - with the males following close behind.

Flying ants are known as 'alates'. Here in the UK, particularly in urban areas, the winged insects you see are almost always the sexually mature queens and males of the black garden ant, Lasius niger. The larger ants are the queens. They can be up to 15mm long.

To get you ready for the big day, we've just had these ants delivered to us - we've only got 20 selections available, so you will need to be quick:

How to fish these flies:

  1. Tie them on as a dropper 12 inches behind a bead head nymph or a weighted wet fly; such as a mayfly nymph or emerger.
  2. Free line them on a long leader from a floating fly line and allow them to slowly sink through the water column.
  3. Lastly, these ants are deadly fished under an indicator. Try them paired with one of our dinkhamers (see below) - they are phenomenal!

*** Rivers or Stillwaters - fish eat ants all the year round ***

Descriptions of the ants can be found below:

Black Ant - Tied with a black acrylic and thread body, with a black hackle wound around the centre of the shank of the hook. Drift these under any overhanging vegetation, and hold on! This selection contains three each of sizes 14 & 16.

Black CdC Ant - Tied with a black acrylic and thread body, a white CdC sighter and a natural hackle wound around the centre of the shank of the hook. Drift these under any overhanging vegetation, and hold on! This selection contains three each of sizes 14 & 16.

Hi-Float Ant - Tied with a slim black thread and foam body, with a black hackle wound around the centre of the shank of the hook. Drift these under any overhanging vegetation, and hold on! This selection contains three each of sizes 16 & 18.

*** We only have 20 of these selections available ***

Ok, you've sold me on them, "What's the price?" I hear you ask - we are making our selection of 18 Ant flies available to you for only £24, including free delivery - in our eco-friendly packaging.

(for more detailed images please visit our website by clicking on any images or buttons above)

Fish Your Ants Under These

A version of the popular Klinkhamer. Tied with a colourful post and dull bodies (they can be easily seen when fishing into the late evenings) and a tippet ring in the tail.

Image of Adams Dinkhamer

 

 Image of Adams Dinkhamer

 

 Image of Black Dinkhamer

Go on ... you know you want to!

As always, all of our fly selections are delivered free of charge, anywhere in the world.

 

Here are a few tips to help you when fishing with ant flies, which we hope you find useful:

  1. Use the most flexible and limp tippet material you can find, often in 6X & 7X. If possible, do not use fluorocarbon, as this will sink and cause even more drag.
  2. Make the tippet length form about 30% of the total leader length. This can make the tippet pile up when presented, which may give you a few more seconds of drag-free drift.
  3. The majority of the time you will lose sight of the ant once you have cast it. One option is to de-grease your leader, but leave the last foot near the fly, this should then allow you to see the leader and then track it to your fly.
  4. Another option to indicate where your fly is positioned is to use a minute yarn sight indicator, place it about 3 feet up your leader.
  5. Alternatively, why not fish with 2 flies (an ant and a dry), about 18" apart. Use one with a visible sighting post in size 18 and then maybe a size 20 ant as a point fly.
  6. Don't worry if your ant sinks, still keep tracking it, the majority of ants are taken just sub-surface.

Tight lines & keep cool.

 

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