A couple of weeks ago Harry Abbott caught a very nice barbel on a dry fly. When I asked him what pattern he used he told me it was a little floating ant.
I have relied almost exclusively on nymphs for the last few years when fishing for gipsy barbel on my local river although there was a time, a few years back, when I fished dries nearly all the time. Back in the day, the barbel were often attracted to the little splash created by the fly landing on the surface. Often they would turn to take a look at the source of the disturbance and, more often than not, they would take the fly. Harry´s success has prompted me to think about dries once again and so I tied up a few little ant patterns of my own.
Ants have a silhouette which is unmistakable. They show the typical insect body plan (a three part body) far more distinctly than most insects. The three body parts – head, thorax and abdomen, look as though they are held together only by a thread.
Their slim waists separate the components of a rather curvaceous figure. A woman shaped like an ant might be considered pretty desirable if you were happy to overlook her two extra pairs of legs! Continue reading
