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Cinnamon Flying Ant
A terrestrial, tied #16–20, a summer pattern. It is tied against 1 named insect in this book — August–September.
A terrestrial tied on a standard dry-fly hook in sizes 16–20 with rust 8/0 thread, the body cinnamon-brown dubbing or foam in two segments, wings of white or light dun poly laid flat and swept back, and a sparse brown hackle. The two-segment body and the flat wing are what the fly is: an alate ant on the water, the winged form of Formicidae, which the pattern is tied against for August–September at water temperatures of 58–78°F. The fall comes on one or two humid afternoons in late August, and when it does every fish in the river eats them and nothing else will do. A few carried through summer covers it. The fish are trout, and the fly is fished dead drift as a dry, small and low in the film the way the naturals lie once their wings have wetted. Outside those afternoons it has no other job, which is why it is carried in small numbers rather than large.
- #16–20Hook size
- terrestrialType
- SummerSeason
- 1Hatch matched
What it looks like
A drawing, not a photograph, and not traced from one. Its proportions were read off 5 independent reference photographs of the pattern and written down as 5 measured characteristics — wing angle, tail length against the shank, how far a hackle fibre reaches — every one of which had to hold across more than one of them before it could be drawn. What survives across many photographs of a fly is the fly.
What it imitates
Each of these is the same hatch record the app's own panel reads, so a pattern recommended on a river card in the app is recommended for one of the insects below.
Tying recipe
In tying order. This dressing is the standard one — these patterns have been in the publicrecord for decades — and materials substitute freely: the proportions and the silhouette are the pattern, not the brand of dubbing.
| Hook | Standard dry-fly hook, sizes 16–20 |
|---|---|
| Thread | Rust 8/0 |
| Body | Cinnamon-brown dubbing or foam, two segments |
| Wings | White or light dun poly, flat and swept back |
| Hackle | Brown, sparse |
When to fish it
One or two humid afternoons in late August, and every fish in the river eats them. Carry it and be ready.
A summer pattern. The insects it matches are active august–september, in water from 58°F to 78°F.
Target species
- Trout
Rivers it fishes well
Rivers with a page here that sit in the regions where the insects this pattern imitates are recorded. It is a claim about coverage, not a report of a fish caught.
- Au Sable River northern lower Michigan · July mean 72.1°F
- Catawba River the North Carolina mountains · July mean 76.7°F
- Jackson River the Virginia mountains · July mean 66.3°F
- Muskegon River northern lower Michigan · July mean 71.0°F
- Escanaba River the Upper Peninsula · July mean 68.3°F
- Saint Croix River northern Wisconsin · July mean 77.2°F
- Smith River the Virginia mountains · July mean 51.9°F
- Tygart Valley River the Virginia mountains · July mean 74.6°F
- Kalamazoo River southern lower Michigan · July mean 71.3°F
- Aaron Creek the North Carolina mountains · July mean 76.7°F
- Aaron Run the Virginia mountains · July mean 77.1°F
- Aarons Run the Virginia mountains · July mean 74.2°F
Related patterns
Same type of fly, or tied for the same insects.
- Parachute Ant terrestrial · #14–20 — The visible ant. Same fly, but you can see it at forty feet.
- Black Foam Ant terrestrial · #14–20 — Floats low, which is how a real ant sits. Small water, tight to the bank.
- Foam Beetle terrestrial · #12–18 — Black foam, a bit of flash on top. The most reliable summer dry on wooded streams.
- Foam Inchworm terrestrial · #12–16 — A length of bright green foam and nothing else. Cast tight to overhanging hardwood; the natural arrives from above, not from upstream.
- Japanese Beetle terrestrial · #12–16 — Green-bronze back. Worth carrying where grapevines overhang the water.