The fly box · No. 16 of 36
Foam Ant
Ants blown or fallen onto the water, especially during late-summer flights.
- Kind
- Terrestrial
- Hook sizes
- 14–18
- Season
- Summer, autumn
- For
- Trout and grayling
- At the vice
- An easy tie
The dressing
| Hook | Standard dry fly, barbless or barb flattened, sizes 14–18 |
|---|---|
| Thread | Black, 8/0 (70 denier) |
| Tail | None |
| Body | A narrow strip of 2 mm black closed-cell foam, tied down to form a rear lump and a smaller head with a thin thread waist between |
| Rib | None |
| Hackle | Black cock, two or three turns at the waist |
| Wing | None |
| Also | Optional sighter: a tuft of white or orange poly yarn tied on top at the waist |
Tying it
- Cover the shank with thread and return to a point above the hook point.
- Tie the foam strip in there with the long end pointing back over the bend.
- Fold the foam forward and tie it down at mid-shank to make the rounded abdomen.
- Tie in the hackle at the waist and wind two or three turns; add the sighter here if wanted.
- Take the thread forward under the foam and tie the strip down again behind the eye to form the head.
- Whip finish beneath the foam and trim the end short over the eye.
Fishing it
Most useful from July into September, on warm afternoons, under trees and along grassy or wooded banks. Fish it dead drift on 6X (0.13 mm), tight to the bank and in the slow water behind obstructions where drifting insects gather. During a flight of winged ants the rises are gentle but persistent; match the size carefully and be accurate. On an ordinary summer day, an ant is a sound answer to a fish that has refused everything else.
Where it comes from
Fur and hackle ants are old patterns; closed-cell foam simply made them easier to tie and impossible to sink, and the foam version has no one author. Ants reach the water all summer, and on the still, humid afternoons when winged ants swarm, trout can become so preoccupied with them that nothing else in the box will be looked at.