The "Transparant" — originated by Harrison Steeves — is very effective at getting the attention of trout during a selective feeding response, such as when a flight of flying ants fills the water's surface.
photo by Umpqua Feather Merchants

I REMEMBER a hot August day on Michigan's fabled Pere Marquette River, we were floating from the Green Cottage down stream and planning to fish not only the day but on into the evening. The morning was bright and clear and the water was just about as void of aquatic insect life as it could be. My alternate fly box was assorted with various terrestrials including damselfly patterns, grasshoppers, crickets, jassids, spiders and many ants. Noticing an abundance of damselflies, I armed my 8-1/2 ft., five-weight Winston with a large blue/black damselfly pattern and began working the banks with some success.

Later on in the day we came across a long, wide and flat run that was created by a sharp bend in the river. There was a large dead tree at the head of the run that had fallen from the bank leaving a large root ball exposed. For the first time all day we observed trout feeding in the run on a regular basis. After much scrutiny, we deduced that they might be feeding on ants since we could not identify any other possible alternative.

Terrestrial feeding is certainly opportunistic for trout based on the irregular availability of terrestrials. Ants however, can create a selective feeding response in trout when they are present in abundance, such as with a flight of flying ants. Ant selectivity will find trout feeding not only on color and size but also body shape. Such was the case that day on the PM. We tried various colors, sizes and shapes until we finally hit on a pattern that the trout liked. We managed to take very four nice browns out of that run in a matter of twenty minutes and all on the same size #16 red ant pattern fished just under the surface. As it turned out, that was our best fishing of the day based on the consistent size and quality of the fish. Ant fishing is most productive within quiet pools or in slow runs where it is highly possible that the naturals are present.

Prevailing Winds

Terrestrial fishing requires a different mind set than that of the normal "match the hatch" thinking where the angler must read the water to better understand the aquatic insect activity both above and below the surface. Matching the hatch also requires us to observe a stretch of stream for feeding trout to pinpoint exactly which life stage form i.e., nymph, pupa, emerger, dun or spinner they are feeding on. Armed with some basic knowledge and a good dose of "stream-sense" the fly angler can begin to make the proper decisions necessary to start the process of elimination necessary to choose the right fly pattern.

Well, much of that gets thrown out the window when we turn to the chapter of the book that deals with terrestrials. To begin with, there are no hatches to look for and for the most part no real consistent feeding pattern that give us trout to identify. Terrestrial feeding in trout is very much an opportunistic pattern that is based on the inconsistent availability of terrestrials as a food source. There are however, land features that give us an educated starting point from which to work with. Meadows are perfect type of stream margin that can produce a good supply of the various types of terrestrials that trout feed on. High banks with tall and dense layers of brush and grass can be the right type of habitat that will render a semi-constant supply of terrestrials into the flowing stream water. Add an undercut bank for the trout to lie and we begin to fill in everything necessary for a terrestrial feeding station that trout move to for opportunistic feeding. The last part of the equation involves the prevailing winds which are needed to blow the terrestrials off the grass and into the stream. On many streams west of the Continental Divide the prevailing winds blow from west to east on a fairly consistent basis. This means that a stretch of stream that runs north and south with a high grassy bank on the west side can possibly be a terrestrial feeding station for trout on a regular basis during late summer. Find such stretches on your favorite stretch of trout water and you will expand your active trout fishing season through the dog days of summer.

Matching the Fly Line

In the case of most fly fishing, the fly line itself is the critical part of the system that delivers the goods to the surface of the water. In other words, it is the fly line that carries the weight (or lack there of) of the leader and the fly to land softly on the water. Logically speaking we can deduce that the lighter the fly, the lighter the fly line and conversely the heaver the fly the heaver the fly line needed to balance the system. In theory this is dead accurate and in practice it is an axiom that can be stretched, but not too far under normal circumstances. In the case of fishing ant patterns on a spring creek out West, a small freestone stream in the Midwest or a limestone creek out East the theory is sound: small rods and line weights for small flies i.e., 1-2-3 weights are ideal and 4-5 weights are very workable.