Fishing Terrestrials

It's summertime, and as the glorious spring hatches fade into memory, it's time to remember this: Trout like ants.

There are those veteran anglers who divined knowledge of the trout's affinity for the ant by luck or by keen observation, and know that trout will take an ant pattern when all other patterns fail.

Common sense tells us, then, that if the trout likes ants so much, why not skip the other patterns and start the day's fishing with an ant? In the absence of a hatch, I often use a hard-shelled ant as my dropper under a more conventional dry fly. And it works.

Terrestrial populations are important food for the trout, much more consistent year-round in their availability than some other insects like stoneflies or hexagenia mayflies or craneflies. This holds true on most streams, big or small.

Ants and grasshoppers and beetles and inchworms and crickets, to name a few terrestrials, are fat and juicy meals to the trout. For years, Harry Murray has been touting the virtues of fishing the Mr. Rapidan Ant on small mountain streams.

Rainstorms wash ants them into streams in great numbers, and after a shower, trout will often eat ants and nothing else. On the Guadalupe River in Texas, the trout key in so intently on ants, an estimated 20,000 of them died a few years ago when they feasted on deadly fire ants, which poisoned the trout when digested.

Hoppers, Beetles and Inchworms
Most anglers are familiar with occasionally fishing with grasshopper patterns. They limit this practice to meadow streams mostly. What a shame. Hopper patterns are big and fat, easy for the angler to see, and make excellent searching flies.

Hopper patterns come in all shapes and sizes and colors, and so do grasshoppers, so I tend to carry numerous patterns in a box devoted solely to terrestrials. Try hoppers anytime it's windy; these leggy insects are often blown into the water, even in canyon sections.

Try floating a fat beetle through rising fish gobbling up all the Tricos on the water, except for your #24 pattern. You would also be surprised at how many times a trout gulps down the beetle pattern too plump to pass up.

Beetles work well on all kinds of water, but don't be without several colors, patterns, and sizes on slow-moving clear streams and especially on spring creeks where they are deadly. Today's patterns are often foam with a bright orange spot on the back, making it easier to follow the fly.

Try an inchworm fly (there is such a thing, called "the Inchworm," although you can always use the classic fly, the Asher) where you have overhanging limbs and brush. Trout will often lie in wait for the worms to drop.

Make a Splash
When you fish hoppers and beetles and crickets, try to cast them so they splat when they hit the water, just as the naturals do when they land.

Make sure to carry terrestrial imitations in many sizes, even as small as size 14. Most anglers think of terrestrials as big insects, and they often are, but there are many times when it is necessary to downsize your fly to get an interested fish to take.

So make sure to fill your box with a variety of terrestrial patterns. Try using these fat flies more often. Ants are your new secret weapon. Tie on an Inchworm when faced with overhanging limbs.

And the old standby hopper pattern can be used more frequently, especially when prospecting and fishing blindly. But I will say that I have caught few fish on a cricket pattern and have seen few crickets on the water. But I do carry two different cricket patterns just in case.

You never know, right?

Article © Mark D. Willliams, 2000