Overview
This Charlie Craven pattern from Charlie's Fly Box was born from necessity during a flying ant fall on a high mountain lake. Traditional flying ant patterns suffer from poor flotation and visibility - the Spant addresses both issues with its buoyant spread deer hair wings and broad hackle legs. The key to tying this pattern is maintaining a prominent thin waist between the front of the hackle and the head section, which accurately mimics the distinctive ant anatomy. The rear dubbing ball should be a tight, prominent sphere representing the gaster. The wings are tied sparsely to reflect the translucence of natural ant wings. Craven typically wraps a five-turn hackle collar to create surface area for flotation, reducing to three turns on smaller sizes. The pattern can be tied in black and rusty brown (as shown), all black, or all rusty variations depending on local ant populations.
Related patterns
Behavior & presentation
- Natural Behavior
- Winged ants crash onto water during mating flights, lying spent with wings splayed flat in the film after exhausting themselves. Mass falls create feeding frenzies.
- Where Trout Eat It
- Cruising fish in lakes intercept spent ants scattered across flats. In streams, focus on eddies, foam lines, and bank edges where wind deposits them.
- How to Fish It
- Cast ahead of cruising fish and let it sit motionless. The slightest twitch often triggers takes when static presentation doesn't.
- Best Water
- Work foam lines in eddies, bank edges under overhanging vegetation, tail-outs with calm water, and lake flats during ant fall events.
- Strike Type
- Expect deliberate rises or confident sips as fish inspect the realistic splayed-wing profile.
Fishing strategy
- Rigging Suggestions
- Fish on a 12-foot leader tapering to 5X-6X fluorocarbon tippet. The deer hair wings and hackle provide good flotation but apply a light floatant to the hackle and wings for extended fishing.
- Seasonal Timing
- Most effective during when flying ant falls occur. These events are unpredictable but typically happen during windy conditions when ants are blown from trees onto the water.
- Pro Tips
- The spread deer hair wings provide better visibility than traditional ant patterns while the hackle collar creates surface area for reliable flotation. Position yourself to track the fly against the background rather than relying on seeing it directly.
Where to fish it
Rivers anglers pair with this fly, with local shops that stock it.
River details and fly shops from River & Run, our sister site.
Entomology
Flying ants swarm during mating flights and frequently crash-land on water surfaces, their wings splayed and bodies trapped in the film. Fish feed voraciously during ant falls because these terrestrial events deliver massive protein influxes where hundreds of insects become available simultaneously.
- Order
- Hymenoptera
- Family
- Formicidae
- Common name
- Ant
- Organism
- terrestrial
- Life stage
- adult
Pattern details
- Moving Water
- Stillwater
- Rocky Mountain
- dead-drift
- hopper-season
- classic
- searching-pattern
- spring-creek