"Two Wrongs Do Not Make A Right, But Three Do" - Unknown
I love ants! Not your crawling around garden variety but the Winged guys that show themselves on the last week of August and the first week of September every year! All over New England the ant colonies will split up and move to a different location and for some odd reason they are attracted to water which is odd for a land insect. They will cover the stream surface and the trout will go nuts!! Here are my best two encounters with these guys.
Backcast to the early 1990's on the last week of August and I'm on the Farmington (first trip) and it was nothing but black ants!!! I caught a bunch of browns and went through my ant supply in one day. The lesson of this trip was "never run out of ants!!!"
Then there was a trip to the EB on a September afternoon. I walked to the Bliss Pool and saw trout hitting the surface after a small (size 20) insect that had bluish wings. "BWO" I thought until I noticed the ants crawling on my waders. Their wings had that hint of blue. I did ok with what I was using but the goal was to build that fly with a hint of blue.
.jpg)
That blue came from some size 18 to 22 grizzly hackles dyed blue. They work!! Also, the ants are tied on scud hooks which causes the fly to "sit" on the water with its butt below the surface and its head above, just like a real ant.
Hook - 18 to 22 scud
Thread - 12/0 black
Rear - a few turns of peacock
Waist - Black thread
Thorax - a few turns of peacock
Hackle - wind it over and through the front peacock
This ant replaced my favorite ant pattern that used thin narrow hackle points for the wing BUT they don't make hackles like that anymore!!
I guess that this fly would work as a BWO emerger too!!
.jpg)
I love skillet cooking. All kinds of ingredients and spices does it for me. But there's one problem. HOT weather will put the damper on this cuisine like yesterdays 90 degrees but today it's in the mid 60's so full steam ahead.
Chicken gets cut up, treated with garlic power, seared in olive oil and then come carrots (cut into shards and not wagon wheels) broccoli, a half an onion, and a can of chick peas well rinsed. Stir in a healthy amount (I'll let you decide that) of Jamaican Jerk Sauce and then let simmer for an hour.
Fishing
From now through the weekend we will have mostly cloudy weather with an on and shower. Best Best - The Millers on a cloudy day or on any evening.
Ken
2 comments:
Ken thanks for another recipe ! I've never had much luck with the flying ants perhaps it's the timing, on the swift before the sulphurs hatch I've used larger ant patterns tied with foam that seem to get a lot of action although I think they look like the caterpillars and inch worms that sometimes fall from the trees this time of year I have it written in my log that June is when they have worked best
Paul,
I seldom fish regular ants but winged ants just bring the trout to the surface. It's more important to me than a Hendrickson hatch and it always happens at the end of August/beginning of September.
Ken
Post a Comment