Northern Idaho Flying Ant

This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is a Northern Idaho Flying Ant.

This fly is one from a box of old flies I borrowed from my friend Jim Fisher. He learned to fly fish in Northern Idaho. This fly is probably from the 1950’s or 60’s.

Here is the top view of the fly.

The following is information he shared with me about the fly:

“There was a large hatch of flying ants in mid to late May on Coeur d’Alene Lake. Most likely, they were termites because of the large number of logs stored on the lake for the sawmills. The cutthroat trout would concentrate on them and we would fish them like gulpers. It may not be know today, but the cutthroats would migrate down the rivers and streams into Coeur d Alene Lake for the winter and wouldn’t go back up the rivers and streams until spring runoff to spawn.”

Jim Fisher

Here is a sampling of a few other posts I wrote about from the information I received from Jim:

• Ray Bergman Beauty
• Herter’s No. 4 Fly Tying Vise
• Herter’s Whip Finisher

In addition, other TBT posts includes several of his Atlantic salmon flies.

Jim Fisher was recognized as the 2011 Stan Walters Memorial Tyer of the Year from the Oregon Council of Fly Fisher’s International. I spent a few hours with him for a tutorial on selecting materials and techniques used to tie wet fly wings.

Enjoy…go fish, stay safe!