Mart's Parachute Ant

During the warmer months of the year, they are just about anywhere... Ants.

By Martin Westbeek

	Ready for summer!  Martin Westbeek

Early in the season flying ants swarm, and many are blown onto the water. Others are carried uphill by warm air currents and drop into higher streams or lakes, which is called ‘upslope blow-ins’.

Later in summer ants will be on leaves and in branches of streamside vegetation, looking for food. They live in dead trees by the streams, and lots of them drop into the water. In these ants trout and grayling have a constant supply of food all season round.

So whatever hatches, or if no hatch comes off at all, or if you're fishing in the heat of a summer day... an ant is a useful thing to carry.

Many ant patterns are made of foam. They look great, and are fast and easy to tie, too. The problem with these foam ants, however, is that they float quite high. Real ants don’t. They only float for a brief moment and then slowly sink. Enter the parachute ant: a low-riding parachute ant with a submerged body and a post of poly yarn and two strands of pearl Crystal Flash for visibility.

About Mart's Parachute Ant

Type	Dry fly
Originator	Martin Westbeek
Year of origin	2007
Difficulty	Medium
Target species	Brown trout Grayling Arctic char

Materials

Hook	TMC 102Y, #17
Thread	Hyperfine, brown (or black) or any other fine, strong thread
Post	White poly yarn
Flash	One strand of pearl Crystal Flash
Abdomen and head	Brown (or black, or cinnamon) Superfine Dubbing
Waist	Thread wraps
Hackle	Whiting Saddle, brown, grizzly dyed brown (or black)
Marker	Felt tip, brown, black or cinnamon

Tying instructions
Click on the images for more detailed tying instructions

1 - start poly yarn  Martin Westbeek

2 - Abdomen and flash  Martin Westbeek

3 - Fold yarn  Martin Westbeek

4 - Waist  Martin Westbeek

5 - prepare for hackle  Martin Westbeek

6 - Tie in the hackle  Martin Westbeek

7 - Wrap the hackle  Martin Westbeek

8 - Dub the head  Martin Westbeek

9 - Wrap the hackle  Martin Westbeek

10 - Finish the fly  Martin Westbeek

Go to article start ^ User comments

From: Nomad · nomad·at·vliegvissers.nl Submitted May 11th 2008 I'm gonna try this one too. Looks catchie. From: hans · hansfrumau·at·home.nl Submitted May 11th 2008 Nice piece of work, Mart I'll try to tie some of them this holliday..!

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