The Cinnamon Toast Ant fly is one of our favorites in the Fulling Mill terrestrial selection. Designer Clark (Cheech) Pierce co-owner of Fly Fish Food got creative when a request came through to come up with a flying ant imitation. Read on to find out how the pattern was created and watch how Cheech expertly ties the Cinnaon Toast Ant.
“The good thing about having friends that are super fishy is that they give you the feedback needed to create killer bugs. Around 2005 Bryan Gregson requested an ant of some sort to take to some small streams that he had been fishing, but you have to know that Bryan has fished about everything under the sun. I looked at a lot of ants online, and I looked at a bunch of fly patterns to make sure I didn’t give him anything that he already had before I hit the vise. I tied up a prototype ant that was kind of similar to the now-named Cinnamon Toast Ant, and sent him on his way. They ran into an unexpected Green Drake hatch that weekend, and since he was there to do some product testing, he followed through with his promise of fishing this cinnamon ant. Well, he was glad that he did, because this ant outperformed all of the green drake imitations that they were fishing.
His feedback was to make it more visible and to make it float better – check and check. Similar to the Unsinkabeetle, this fly has cartoonish wings that stick up and out to sides, making it more visible. I also changed the hook so the back half hangs just low enough in the water, but not so low that it’s hard to see. So far, we have fished this fly for picky stillwater trout and some terrestrial eating river fish. The consensus is that they LOVE cinnamon toast.”
Together with Curtis Fry, Clark “Cheech” Pierce is the founder and owner of the popular website Fly Fish Food.
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