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..!

Did you find the above interesting?
People who looked at the above also looked at these pages: Illustrated knot table A test in the print magazine Fly Fisherman showed the Trilene an... Rod Building Section: For those who build their own rods Jan's Emerger Another new pattern from Jan Grandal-Johansen, this time a buzze... GFF podcasts Section: The sound of The Global FlyFisher Rod care The first part of a three part harmony about maintaining your pr...	This other story related to "dry flies" might also interest you: A.K.'s Fly Box Best: A.K. should be fairly well known. The term 'production fly tyer' is very suitable for him. He counts his flies in hundreds of dozens and has before demonstrated his ability to write books about this kind of tying. In this book he reveals the contents of his own fly boxes. They contain a lot of brown trout flies - no salt water patterns, no poppers, no bass flies. There are a few hoppers and ants, but apart from that it's mayflies, stoneflies a caddises. Go to the story Click to see other stories with the keyword "dry flies"
A few random articles for your entertainment Shooting head talk Shooting heads give a couple of advantages, which GFF partner Martin Joergensen will try to explain in this podcast episode. You can join him on the Danish coast in his usual pursuit for sea trout while he introduces you to the world of shooting heads. February 21st 2006 Global FlyFisher Summit 2007 So there will be a GFF Summit this year! At long last Martin Joergensen has found the time to get some facts together and start working on the dates and practicalities. It will be in September and take place on Fyn, Denmark like last year, June 21st 2007 Mart´s Bibio A nice thing about this Bibio is that it's versatile. Play with it, use lighter of heavier hooks, fish it with or without floatant, wrap a thinner or denser hackle, and so on. But make sure you have some Bibios in your flybox spring suddenly is here. October 27th 2006 My Favorite Dad In Virginia, the rivers are full of crayfish. Author Michael Smith AKA Rybolov went last week to the South Fork of the Shenandoah, and in a meter-square area along the shoreline, there had to be at least 30 crayfish. That may be why Skip's Dad works so well there. June 29th 2006