If you’ve prowled any fly shops recently, you’ve noticed a growing number of bins holding terrestrial patterns. It’s like they are reproducing and mutating, morphing into strange and garish Frankenstein-like creatures of foam, Krystal Flash, and twitchy, multi-hued rubber legs. They look more like they hopped out of a horror film than an old-school fly vest.
We are indeed in the midst of a terrestrial revolution. Creative fly tiers have increasingly turned their attention to a realm that used to be somewhat stodgy and overlooked. Going back to flyfishing’s earliest days, the marquee attraction has been matching aquatic insect hatches—mayflies, caddis flies, stoneflies, and midges. While never entirely ignored, terrestrials were often an afterthought—something to tie on if nothing else was happening. The reality is that even on great trout streams, fishable hatches aren’t occurring most of the time—especially during the summer.
Terrestrials, on the other hand, blunder into streams throughout most of the prime angling season. While hoppers are usually associated with late summer and fall, ants and beetles are active whenever temperatures are warm enough to stoke their metabolism. What’s more, terrestrials are often effective during challenging hatches, when a more precise imitation may not clinch the deal. A large brown or rainbow, for example, will sometimes inhale a size 18 ant after studiously refusing the more accurate Trico spinner pattern you’ve repeatedly laid down.
Given these advantages, let’s explore what a modern-day terrestrial fly box might hold. Some of these patterns are hot off the vise, others are more venerable. All will consistently put a sharp bend in your rod.
Ants
Ants help anchor the food chain, feeding everything from hungry trout to lizards, birds, and bears. They inhabit nearly every place on the planet, and are socially complex, numerous, and varied. At current count, there are more than 13,000 species and subspecies that have been scientifically named, with the total likely being at least double that.
Because of their prolific and roaming nature, ants often find themselves floating temptingly over a trout’s snout. They are consistent, season-long producers across the country.
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Ant diversity extends to size, so flies range from big busters exceeding a No. 12 hook to midge-size specimens size 20 or smaller. So, in contrast to hoppers, ants offer opportunities for spring creek–like finesse. Go long and fine with leaders over 10 feet, tapered to tippets of 6X or even 7X.
Ants are usually associated with dry-fly fishing, but they also drown, making subsurface patterns effective. And they don’t just crawl: Some winged species take flight in prodigious swarms.
Another often-overlooked feature is that ants can be deadly on still water. Cast one to likely stretches of water and you’ll be surprised how many fish you didn’t know were there suddenly rise up and slurp it down like a piece of candy.
1. Logan’s Ant Misbehavin’
The bug’s catchy name plays off the 1929 song by Fats Waller and the Broadway musical of the same name (Ain’t Misbehavin’). This foam concoction creatively employs bent, wiry legs that look they are dancing in the surface film. ($2.25; flyshop.com)
2. Egan’s Bionic Ant
I have caught more trout on basic black foam ants than any other terrestrial pattern. This new creation builds on a time-honored chassis by adding a leggy look and a gauzy tuft of wing over the back. It works as either a standard or flying ant facsimile. ($2.25; flyshop.com)
Grasshoppers
https://www.outdoorlife.com/blogs/gone-fishin/2014/06/fly-fishing-12-best-extra-terrestrials-flies-trout/