Fly Tying Recipes

Turck's Power Ant

Turck's Cinnamon Power Ant

Hook: Tiemco 103BL, sizes 9-15 (or any standard dry fly hook)
Thread: 8/0 Uni-Thread, Rust Brown
Abdomen: Rabbit fur, rust blended w/some rust goat hair
Wing: White Calftail
Hackle: two furnace or brown saddle feathers, slightly oversized
Legs: Brown rubber, medium
Head: same as abdomen

Tying Tips

• The Tiemco 103BL is a light wire dry fly hook. Whatever hook you choose to use, make sure it's not too heavy.
• Try to use rabbit fur with plenty of guard hairs and mix with a little goat hair. "Spikey" is good.
• The best hair for the calftail wing comes from the base (as opposed to the tip) of the tail. This becomes especially important on smaller sizes.
• You could certainly use neck hackle instead of saddle, but it will increase bulk at the hackle tie-in point.
• Use plenty of hackle. Try to get 5 or 6 turns on each fly. Slightly oversized hackle will aid floatation.

Fishing Tips

• The concept behind the design of this fly pattern was to provide an ant pattern that was easy to see and floated well enough that it could be fished more often, and in faster water, than "standard" ant patterns which tend to be hard to see.
• A slight twitch can be very effective at times
• The Power Ant is a very good lake pattern, especially if flying carpenter ants are present.

 

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