Tying Challenge: Week 3

[David Knapp]

Thanks again to all the new participants who joined in last week. For this week, I want to focus on something that everyone can fish regardless of water type. Ants are important to trout and panfish and this is the time of year to be fishing them. Let's see your best Ant Patterns, dry or wet or both! I've had many great days on the water in the Smokies fishing a sunken ant. One of the biggest browns I've caught on the Caney came on a sunken ant as well. Out west, fishing still waters with ant dry flies during the afternoon rise can be killer. If you aren't tying and fishing ants, you should be!!! Next week we will return to a specific pattern to focus on...

[Stonefly]

I'll go first and get this out of the way.

[AL trout bum]

Originally Posted by David Knapp

I've had many great days on the water in the Smokies fishing a sunken ant.

What exactly is a sunken ant? I have only seen dry ants and the like.

[NDuncan]

I have some of these tied up, maybe I'll jump in this week, but I won't post them until Sun or Mon since I am out of town now, I haven't used them much but I wanna see how they stack up. I tie them in black and in a very dark red.

[David Knapp]

Originally Posted by AL trout bum

What exactly is a sunken ant? I have only seen dry ants and the like.

I'll try to tie up a couple and post a picture if any of them turn out...

[buckeyetrouter]

dont have an ant pattern so I will try this and then enjoy what others post so I can try some real ant patterns........

[tlshealy]

I tied a few of these thread body ants up to use as a dropper for my July and Sep. trips to the park, and was pleasantly surprised at it's effectiveness. no weight so you can drop it from a very small dry.
#16 Dry/Nymph hook
Black thread
Black flashabou legs
Tad

[David Knapp]

Some great patterns so far guys! Tlshealy, those thread bodied ants are killer! Love the flashabou legs...


I tied up a hard-bodied sunken ant pattern that is probably my favorite ant. I fish it tandom with a nymph or green weenie. If I have time I'll do a dry ant or two also.

Hard-bodied ant

Hook: #14 TMC 3761
Thread: Black 8/0 UNI-thread
Body: Thread and dubbing to build up and then coat with Loon Hard Head (black) or epoxy. If Loon Hard Head is used, I like to finish it with a layer of SHHAN...
Hackle: Black

[AL trout bum]

Looks good David. I have some of those, just didn't know they were called sunken ants.

[David Knapp]

Originally Posted by AL trout bum

Looks good David. I have some of those, just didn't know they were called sunken ants.

Not sure but others may call them something else. I just refer to them that way to differentiate between a dry ant pattern and one that sinks since it would not be proper to refer to them as nymphs. Maybe someone will jump in and tell us what to really call them. I would consider tlshealy's ant pattern to be in the same category in that it isn't meant to float...