Apart from being pestered by a noisy, nosey neighbor, there is nothing more annoying than being plagued by a swarm of malicious, malevolent mosquitos and flies when fishing, crabbing, clamming, et cetera. Before I go any further, lest I be accused of being a cranky old man, I should make it quite clear that neither Donna nor I ever suffered the likes of a noisy, nosey neighbor

There are those who seek BIG fish and are only happy when they achieve their objective. Then again, there are those who are more than satisfied with catching and releasing fingerlings (very small trout: brookies, rainbows, browns, along with a plethora of panfish) employing light angling equipment

Beginning with last month's report on May 1st, in which I presented a guideline for hook sizes and weights referencing both wet- and dry-fly thread-body ant patterns, a couple of folks contacted me and commented that the listing proved very useful. Since we were tying a dry-fly hopper yesterday, I figured I'd offer a general guideline concerning those deadly flies as well as depicting popular size hooks and patterns for two of my favorite terrestrials anent the fly rod for saltwater and freshwater angling: ants and hoppers

As with the ant imitations we tied earlier while employing foam bodies, let's tie a deadly foam hopper that is at home in both fresh water and salt water. Materials NeededHook: Mustad-Octopus Beak 2/0 or 1/0Thread: Danville's Flat Waxed Nylon ~ blackBody: Two strips of 2 mm-thick foam ~ 3/8 inch wide ~ one yellow, one light brown (6-inch lengths are easier with which to work)

A treat is in store for those who savor seafood, steaks, and fowl—served at their finest. The fare is simply fantastic

Last month [April 1st and 2nd ~ Part Two and Three] we left off tying both wet- and dry-fly winged ant patterns on a Mustad-Octopus Beak 1/0 hook utilizing foam bodies for both saltwater and freshwater applications. In a moment, we are going to tie a wingless wet-fly ant pattern while employing thread in lieu of foam, using smaller size hooks for fresh water

Employing a Mustad-Octopus Beak 1/0 hook (generally used in saltwater fishing), we had used a single 2 mm foam strip for a wet-fly application. Today we'll need to tie in two strips of 3/8" wide foam (one atop the other) in order to create a dry-fly version

Picking up from where we left off last month, here are the materials you will need to tie a deadly winged wet-fly foam ant: Hook: Mustad-Octopus Beak 1/0 Thread: Danville's Flat Waxed Nylon ~ blackBody: 2 mm-thick foam strip ~ 3/8" wide ~ cinnamon or dark brown (6" length is easier with which to work). I'll show the finished fly in both colors

It is a fact that most fish are caught on or near the bottom of the water column, be it in the suds, a deep freshwater pool, a still pond, or a fast-moving stream. It's also a fact that Donna and I are all about catching fish for fun, virtually all to be carefully released to be fooled and foiled another day

It was many moons ago when Donna and I started fishing the Peconic River, somewhere between the formally named Indian Island Clubhouse Restaurant and the Route 105 Bridge in Riverhead, Long Island, New York. Donna and I were working a medium action spinning outfit and a fly rod: she, with ten-pound test monofilament line, tossing a 3/4 oz