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Why ant imitations might be your ticket to trout this summer

This colorful brook trout hammered one of the author’s ant patterns. Trout in small streams see fewer aquatic insects than trout in rivers encounter, but they see a steady procession of ubiquitous ants. Duffy prefers to fish traditional ant patterns (above right), ones tied with a couple of balls of dubbing with some wraps of hackle between. It’s simple to fish them under a dry fly and to use the dry fly as a strike indicator. (Photos by Andy Duffy)

The best aquatic insect hatches are over for the year. We’re squarely in terrestrial season. For a lot of trout anglers, terrestrial season means fishing with grasshopper imitations. Perhaps they should go to the ant instead – especially if they’re fishing small streams such as the northern Lower Peninsula’s Black, Pigeon, Little Manistee, Boardman, the Fox in the Upper Peninsula and similarly sized rivers.

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