TERRESTRIALS..when do you start fishing them?

[BruceC2C]

I noticed some good sized black ants, creekside during a non fishing exercise walk.
Has anyone started fishing terrestrials yet?
What is your key factor when you decide to start?

 

[dryflyguy]

When the weather starts getting warm.
Usually late april and may.
I'll put one on when I have a fish rising occasionally, and not sure what it's taking.
Sometimes it works - sometimes not.

I tried a beetle on a fish doing just that on the little j tuesday, for the first time this year.
It drew a half hearted swipe - but the fish really didn't want it I'm sure.

But I have caught a few fish on them in april - when we've had warmer springs that we've had this year

 

[Sylvaneous]

June

 

[Van_Cleaver]

I got one one a sunken ant last Sat. I figure if you are seeing them so are the fish. Usually by the time there are Sulphers I am fishing ants steadily. This Spring has been cold though and we really need a few warm sunny days.

 

[gulfgreyhound]

After this snow storm. GG

 

[ryansheehan]

Depends on the river. The fewer aquatic insects the sooner a go to terrestrial patterns.

 

[Bamboozle]

July 13, sometime after 3:46 pm...

 

[sgrim]

FWIW, I got a sunny on a beetle while fishing the Brandywine last Sunday.
It just really depends on the weather and the water.

 

[Baron]

I put on a rubber legged bumble bee only to find it sank. I thought terrestrials floated. Do I need to add flotant to it or was it supposed to sink.
White wooly bugger was slamming Pickerel and smaller bass yesterday.

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

I have it on good authority that on a warm winter day, you can fool midging fish on an ant pattern.

I bet a can also fool a brookie with a bare hook.

Follow hatch cycles but sometimes, go " outside the box" by going in your box and fishing more terrestrials.
You would be suprised.
Or not.
YMMV

 

[Dave_W]

I'll fish small terrestrials to sipping trout year round.

Generally, I start with terrestrials in May. I use 'em much more in the autumn months than the spring however.

 

[Dave_W]

ryansheehan wrote:
Depends on the river. The fewer aquatic insects the sooner a go to terrestrial patterns.

This is actually a very good point relevant to this question. ^

There's a reason terrestrial fishing was largely pioneered on Letort and other CV streams and not in the Catskills.

The CV streams don't have a lot of hatches and fish start looking up for terrestrial food sooner on Letort or Big Spring than they do on Penns or Pine Creek.

I think a somewhat more subtle process occurs on infertile mountain freestoners as well with fish keying on ants and inchworms due to a lack of aquatics.

 

[redietz]

Baron wrote:
I put on a rubber legged bumble bee only to find it sank. I thought terrestrials floated.

Many actual terrestrial insect sink almost immediately, and many artificials are tied as wet flies. The venerable McGinty, for example, is a wet bumble bee imitation that has accounted for many a trout a times. Wet ants are common (and one of my go to flies in summer) and there are wet beetle and grasshopper patterns as well.

 

[redietz]

salvelinusfontinalis wrote:
I have it on good authority that on a warm winter day, you can fool midging fish on an ant pattern.

I bet a can also fool a brookie with a bare hook.

I've done both.

 

[Baron]

I've been meaning to get familiar with the McGinty as it looks like a broad spectrum fly.

 

[CLSports]

I start fishing them when most other mayfly hatches are dying down.

An ant pattern during midge hatch probably looks like a cluster of midges as the griffith's gnat was tied to mimic.

Ants during trico hatches works great too.