Ant Flies

Ants are the most numerous of all insects. They live in large colonies which are family bands who conduct themselves with strict social organization. Ants have only one or two queens per colony and they that do all of the egg laying. When new queens are born they have to leave and start their own colony. At this stage they are winged, and they fly to new territories. On the west side of the

Cascades it starts with the Queen Carpenter Ant exodus. At the 1,200' elevation near our store, the air is filled with big glossy black queens during the first hot days in April. Emergence progresses up hill and is still going on in August at Frog Lake, which is about 3,500' in elevation. Ant "hatches" are of major importance to the angler. Ants are clumsy fliers. Wherever ant queens are migrating around water, there are fish eating them. Carpenter ants make their living by consuming dead conifer trees. There are a lot more of them in old growth forests. A Carpenter Ant fly is an especially good fly pattern to have when fishing mountain streams. Try our foam body Carpenter Queen. It's the best we've been able to come up with. The Carpenters are only one of many ant migrations that happen in the region. Next time you are fishing a desert stream, stop and examine how many kinds of ants inhabit the barren landscape. There are a multitude of sizes and colors. Most seem to forage around water. Some do fall in. Trout and panfish love ants. Foraging ants are always wingless. But, remember that each specie probably has a queen exodus sometime during the year. Be sure to carry a few winged and wingless ant patterns to cover a variety of situations. The Twilight Parachute Ant is an easy one to see and an effective searching pattern for everything from blue gills to sea run cutthroats. The Winged Ant Fly is an essential fly to have in all sizes. If you are fishing for any specie of fish that eats insects of any kind, the probability is that they eat ants whenever they are available.

Antron Wing Ant, Black Angling entomologists haven't studied and documented terrestrial hatches, such as queen ant flights, with the same interest as has been paid to aquatic insect hatches. Because of this, there isn't a readily available source of information on species or hatch timing. The Antron Ant series of flies are designed to fit the size and color of ants most usually found in the Pacific Northwest. The white wing is easy to see in many light conditions. It is easily colored with a water proof felt marker. We suggest you carry dark gray and brown markers. You man also easily refashion or remove the wings with your leader clipper.
Item	Description	Size	Price	To Top
8000-12	Antron Wing Ant, Black	12	3 for $5.25
8000-14	Antron Wing Ant, Black	14	3 for $5.25
8000-16	Antron Wing Ant, Black	16	3 for $5.25

Ant, Foam Body The queen removes her wings by chewing them off at the base. After the initial construction of the nest, eggs are laid, and after a period of incubation they hatch. These new ants are all females, but will never breed. Instead they become nannies for future generations of ants, which too, hatch from the next laying of eggs by the same, original queen. They are the workers. Much of their work is foraging to feed the queen and her young. Many of these wingless ants end up in water where they become fish food. This foam pattern is unsinkable and very durable.
Item	Description	Size	Price	To Top
99255-14	Ant, Foam Body	14	3 for $5.25

Winged Ant Fly, Black Often new winged queens leave a colony by the hundreds. When this happens there can be an explosion of fish food equal to many aquatic insect hatches. Fish can become very selective when it comes to the size of ants they will feed on. Most ants are small. One day many years ago, a friend and I visited the Kilchis River, not far from Tillamook, OR. It was late September and the water was very low and clear, clear enough to see dozens of Sea Run Cutthroats in a big pool under a bridge. There fish were on the move, coming upstream
into the pool through a shallow riffle. They were going out the top end, also through another shallow riffle. We fished under the bridge to fish that were easily visible, trying many flies and different presentations without success. After more than an hour I gave up, and decided to explore upstream from the bridge. The river was very shallow for a several hundred yards. It deepened only slightly under a jam caused by an up-rooted medium size cottonwood tree, and the other woody debris that had collect on it. At first I passed it by. Wading through extremely shallow water I kicked a sculpin out of the gravel and up onto the low bank. It flopped around and I seized it, examining it closely. I selected a fly out of one of my boxes that looked similar, and to the end of my leader. It was then that I saw a fish rise under the log jam. Upon re-assessing that piece of water, I realized it was much larger than my first impression. A second fish rose and then a third. There was much more room between the water and the wood than I first thought. The sculpin fly was sent under the jam. The reaction was instantaneous and a very nice cutthroat was landed. It was killed for dinner and its stomach contents were autopsied. It was full of small black winged ants. It was then that I noticed the cloud of tiny queens hatching from the log jam. Fortunately there matching flies in one of my boxes. Many nice sea runs were landed that afternoon. It still ranks as the best day of sea run cutthroat fishing I have ever had.
Item	Description	Size	Price	To Top
06250-12	Winged Ant Fly, Black	12	3 for $5.25
06250-14	Winged Ant Fly, Black	14	3 for $5.25
06250-16	Winged Ant Fly, Black	16	3 for $5.25
06250-18	Winged Ant Fly, Black	18	3 for $5.25

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Antron Wing Ant, Black	Twilight Parachute Ant
Ant, Foam Body	Winged Ants
Carpenter Ant Queen

Carpenter Ant Queen This ant produces some of the most important hatches of the season on our local lakes and streams. The ant specie that produces this hatch is the larges ant in our region. Expect to see carpenter ant queen flights from April through August. Carpenter Ant Hub Carpenter Ant Photos
Item	Description	Size	Price	To Top
8010-10	Carpenter Ant Queen	10	3 for $5.25

Twilight Parachute Ant This is an easy to see "wingless ant" pattern. It is a good searching pattern for both lakes and streams. Ants are active throughout the daylight hours. This is when most ants make contact with trout water. The day-glow parachute post on this fly is easy to see for the angler, but inconspicuous to the fish.
Item	Description	Size	Price	To Top
8003-16	Twilight Parachute Ant	16	3 for $5.25