What are the Trout feeding on?

With the temperatures soaring into the thirties and the water levels low, fishing the evenings can be a break from the heat of the day for the angler but also the variety of fly life on the river offers the feeding trout a large and varied menu from Sedges, Olives, Knats and Caenis. Now on most trips out the sedge patterns will take a few fish close to dark but you couldn't be guaranteed a large catch of fish. However there is another treat on the menu for the fish and one that gets over looked quite a bit on our rivers. Flying Ants can be seen all over the country at the moment and the trout love them. I began fishing these flies several years ago in Norway and they have had a permanent place in my dry fly-box for this time of the year. I tie them in several colours mostly black, red and my favorite pink. Here is a simple dressing to match the hatch and its well wort having them in several colours. 

Begin by placing a size 14 fine wire hook in the vice and using black twist thread for the black ant, red for the red one and so on for different colours.

Take a strip of black foam around 3mm in with and point the tail end of the body. Trap down the foam a third of the way down the hook.

Here add in several strands of Krystal flash for the wings and bring forward the thread up to the second third of the hook.

Trap down the second segment of foam and tie in a small cock black hackle to act as the legs.

Wind on two turns of the black hackle and secure with a few turns of thread. Pull the last piece of foam to the front of the hook and finish off the fly.


This is a really simple and quick tie, its a little fly that will catch those fussy fish during these hot days, while it floats great, the fly sits lovely in the surface film just where the fish want them. Don't forget to try the pink ones closer to the fall of the dark.  

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