12/September/2k4
a few tips of Anting

Anting
(I call so, Anting is my original way of the fly fishing using my ant-fly like above)
==a trout likes an ant as a kid likes a candy==

The water is clear and still in a pool or in a pond.
You will often see the occasional gentle dimples of rising trout
during late morning and afternoon.
Such rises tend to be subtle and irregular.
There are no hatches and you can't see what the trout are sipping.
The trout are well educated, having already seen thousands of artificial flies.
You will have a lunch or take a rest in such situation.

I usually start fishing in the afternoon and I often have to do fishing in a tough condition.
I carry out my tactic of the Anting at that time.
The key is to move the ant more faintly on the water.

Chapter 1
My tackles

1-1)Anting fly (fly for Anting)

I tie my ant on the hook of size#26 and #32.
My ant, Takeshi-ant is here
Please visit JADG concerning details of real ants

Anting is one of the method of midge fly fishing and
The tackles for Anting also must be suitable to midge fly fishing.

my favorite (with flexi-stripper)

1-2)Anting-rod (rod for Anting)
Anting-rod must be suitable to midging.
I use my favorite rod for #2 line system.
Bamboo is best for the material of Anting rod.
My Anting-rod is the Noodle built by my dear friend, Bjarne-san.
I quote " What is the Noodle" from his site

The Noodle
Originally designed for midge fishing, over the years this rod has become one of my personal favorites, and now I use it as much as possible for most of my fishing with the dry fly. Fishing this rod has taught me much about one of the main characteristics of bamboo: Flexibility is not weakness, it is strength!
Like all good, soft rods it is absolutely killing during the fight with a fish. Big trout from Silver Creek in USA to the South Island of New Zealand never found out what hit them before being released, when they met the Noodle for the first time!
Many of my customers wonder why I gave the rod this strange name, so here comes the short story:
Back in the early nineties I was fishing the Silver Creek in Idaho with one of my friends. It was during the Trico hatches and we found the fishing so exciting and challenging that we fished there for 10 days instead of the originally planned 2-3 days. One morning we happened to meet a fishing guide waiting for his customer. He was surprised that we fished bamboo rods, and after a while he asked me if he could hold my rod. I handed my rod to him and he waved it in his hand. After a few seconds he looked at me in disbelief and said: “Oh boy, that’s not a fly rod, that’s a noodle! You can’t fish with that!” When I told him that the night before I had caught a brown trout of about 24” with this Italian dish, spiced by a touch of spent spinner on a hook 16 attached to a 6x tippet, he did not believe me. I still can read his thoughts about crazy European fishing tourists!
Anyway, an unknown, friendly but disbelieving American fishing guide baptized the Noodle!
Site Bjarne Fries

I think the Noodle is the most suitable rod to midging, especially to my Anting.

The bending curve of the Noodle in the fight
with 22 inches rainbow trout at Marumi fishing area last March

1-3)Anting-reel (reel for Anting)
Anting-reel also must be suitable to midging.
Anting for big trout is the most exciting sport-fishing than any other fishing.
I must catch and release hooked trout as fast as I can.
I like an anti-reverse reel best of all but there aren't any anti-reverse type for #2 line.
My Italian elder brother, Geppetto-san, Dallari Giorgio can make it.
His beautiful wooden reel has absolutely smooth drag-action.
This reel is necessary for catch and release of big trout in Anting.

I think the Dallari reel is the most suitable reel to midging, especially to my Anting.

1-4)Anting-line (flyline for Anting)
Anting-line also must be suitable to midging.
I have a DT2 Phoenix silk line made from Japanese silk thread.
Silk fly line has not only beauty but also great function.
intermediate;
My silk line can be used as a floating line and also as a slow sinking line.
There are no #2 sinking line of plastic fly-lines.
When I want to sink my line I insert the tip of the rod into the water.
Then my #2 line starts to sink from the part near the rod tip
and I keep inserting rod tip into the water till all of the line goes down.
I retrieve the line after it.

moderate buoyancy;
It is needed in the wind. Silk line is able to control its buoyancy by quantity of mucilin.
In still water fishing such as in a lake, small fly and light line easily drift with the wind.
As silk line has a effect like an anchor on the riffled surface in windy day,
my ant does not drift easily together with riffle made by the wind.
I think my ant drift slower than the speed of riffle because of the effect of silk line anchor.
In this point trout would be able to find my ant easily in the wind.
I like Anting in the windy day.
I used to cast my fly to the direction of 45 degree downward the wind.

*

Chapter 2
how to fish by Anting
Dedicated to Mr. Frank Sawyer
I have been learning my flyfishing from his style written in his books.

2-1)No action in the wind
I only keep holding my rod and let my ant to drift on the current of riffle made by the wind.
My ant drift like above and of course I can not see my ant in the riffle of the water
but trout rise and bite my ant easily. I like this moment best.

*2-2)Short and slow skating*
After presentation of the ant toward the ring of the rise,
I lift the rod tip slightly and prepare to let the ant skate.
As soon as the ant land on the water I lift the rod tip a little more
and let the ant skate as slowly and shortly as I can.
Trout chase my ant and rise and bite it slowly. I like to see this scene too.
My ant will catch the center of a trout upper lip.

2-3)Move an ant faintly
taking a pause to prepare for twitching after skating
I take a pause until the ripple of ant-landing disappear.
I lift rod tip again until the ant twitches, then lower the rod tip
I take a pause to let the ant drift quietly again.
My ant is less buoyant and it needs to be twitched more gently and
the smaller the ant, the shorter the distance of the twitch.

I use skating and pausing ant in a stream too.
I cast across the current of the stream and I lift the rod tip.
Then the ant start to skate on the surface of the stream.
I lower the rod tip when the ant comes onto the current and
then the ant naturally run on the current.
I lift the rod tip again and the ant starts to skate again crossing the current.
I repeat lifting and lowering the rod tip as slowly and shortly as I can.

Chapter 3
report

I use same tackles in stream-fishing and still water-fishing both except the tippet length.

My ant catch a heart of trout, from 2 inches under to 20 inches over
as candy catch a heart of someone, from infant to adult.

*
Anting report
1) in a lake or a pond

Date	Weather	Wind	Water	Area	2-1	2-2	2-3	note
10/07	sunny	1~3 m/s	clear 15.4'C	Pine Lake	3rainbow	8	4	comfortable sunny day between rainy days by an autumn rain front, Temp 25'C~ 15'C from 12:00 to 17:30 Ant hooked 35~50 cm rainbow total 15, average 45 cm almost no rise from 12~16:30,some rises 17:00~17:30 Wind became a little bit stronger in the evening and I could get 2 rainbow and 1 brown by no-action in the wind, my favorite 2-1 method Ant casting range 15~25 yds, most hooking range 20 yds
11/07	sunny	no wind	not so clear 9.4'C	Pine Lake	-	3	10	Very fine sunny day! so that I went fishing and seeing autumnal colors of the leaves. The leaves will turn red perfectly in a few weeks. fishing from 12:00 to 17:30 , no rise the half day, very tough condition. All were hooked by moving ant faintly,i.e. 2-3 method. I have a sore wrist of the right hand.
12/11	sunny	3~4m/s	not so clear 7'C	Pine Lake	-	6	-	fishing from 13:00~17:00 very tough condition,

2) in a stream

Date	Weather	Wind	Water	Area	result	note
10/24	sunny	almost no wind	high & clear	Youzawa	see note	comfortable sunny day, To keep hooked yamame is prohibited in Youzawa stream in October. (No fishing here from November to next February.) Autumn yamame were so beautiful that I released them after taking photos as soon as I could. some photographs attached here.

please feel free to send an e-mail with your comment to me, but please never send any crank e-mail.
to go to Anting tackle 2

other tips
2k2,2k3,2k4
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