Melt Glue Wood Ant

Here I have made the two most characteristic body parts with melt glue, that shine just like the natural in the summer sun. I have also coloured one half black and the other red, I have found that this works under both colours of ant swarming.

This pattern has an in built drowning effect. Right after an ant has crash landed on the water, the rear body part begins to sink, while its legs and wings hold it afloat a short while. If you are going to fish this pattern ‘dry’, I recommend that you that you impregnate it well with floatant.

For those of you that are not familiar with melt glue and Dyneema tying thread here´s a little technical information that should help you get started:

Melt glue:
Tying with melt glue does require a little more practice and patience than most regular materials. Melt glue is a material that one has to get used to using. Once it’s mastered, it can be put to use not only in developing new patterns but also as a substitute in existing ones. Melt glue guns come in various sizes from hobby to industrial, I find the hobby size not only the cheapest but also the easiest to employ. Another advantage with the hobby gun is the amount of different glue that is available. Although for this pattern I use a coloured glue, in most patterns I use the transparent or “regular” glue that can also be coloured with waterproof felt markers. The regular glue is also much easier to handle and shape than the coloured. In most cases, It has a lower melting temperature and a shorter drying time than the glues with added colour and glitter.

After tying with melt glue for over a decade and a half, nowadays I seldom use my gun to apply the glue, only for patterns where a large amount of glue is required. Otherwise I melt the glue directly from the “glue stick” with a lighter, or I first cut the required amount of glue from the stick with scissors, hold one end of the glue fragment with needle nose tweezers and warm the other end with the lighter and apply it to the hook. I then continue to melt and form the glue with the lighter on the hook. The clear glue can also be coloured by applying a foundation of coloured tying thread over the hook shank before you apply the glue.

Dyneema:
For the past five years I have used only one tying thread for all my fly tying, for everything from the smallest size 28 drys to the largest salt water patterns. There are so many advantages with tying with Dyneema it would require an article all on its own.

Secure you dry fly hook in the vice. Make sure that the hook shaft is horizontal. Attach your tying thread and run it from just behind the eye of the hook all the way along the hook shank and a little down the bend. Make a couple of whip finishes and remove your tying thread.

Cut a small piece of black melt glue and hold at one end of the glue in a pair of needle nose tweezers. With a lighter carefully melt one side of the glue. While the glue is hot, stick it to the hook in the correct position for the rear of the ant body.

Once the black part of the body is dry, you can repeat step 5. but this time with a little smaller piece of red melt glue.

Take a small bunch of CDC and tie this in up on top of the hook shank tight into the red body segment. The wing should be the same length as the whole body.

Apply a little black Antron dubbing to your tying thread and dubb the rest of the hook shank forward to the eye of the hook.

Make a couple of whip finishes and remove your tying thread. Varnish.