Flying Ant

The Flying Ant, or Winged Ant, is an important pattern to have in your box, especially during the summer and early fall months. At these times, terrestrial bugs find themselves in the water, and the fish will take them. Start your thread just ahead of the midpoint of the hook (this is a good visual indicator of where you will want to end the thorax) and lay a thread base back to the hook bend. Get a wisp of black Superfine dubbing and a wisp of rusty brown Superfine dubbing. On this pattern, I prefer to lay one color on top of the other rather than blending them together. Dub your thread and begin creating the abdomen. The abdomen should be longer than the thorax, so establish a base to the width you want your abdomen, and then build an elongated abdomen tapering down toward the hook bend. In front of the abdomen, create a space with thread wraps to imitate the segmentation you typically see in an ant. On the other size of the space created, add the same mixture of Superfine dubbing to your thread and begin building the thorax. The thorax should not be as long as the abdomen, but it can be more bulbous than the abdomen. Take most of your dubbing wraps in the middle to create a pronounced ball of dubbing for the thorax. Next, on the other side of the thorax, tie in a piece of shiny, white antron yard on the top center of the hook, with the majority angled back toward the hook eye. Remove the excess. Once secure, cut the yard at a steep angle to create and slanted wing. This can be done by pulling the antron tight and low, and then cutting the antron with your scissors parallel to the hook shank. The wing should extend to the back end of the abdomen. Finally, tie in a grizzly hackle at the base of the wing. Then hackle the front of the fly using touching turns of the hackle. This pattern isn't heavily hackled. Once done, secure the hackle and whip finish.