Harrison Steeves' Los Alamos ants just plain damn work.
Harry Steeves and I go way back. I think we've known each other for maybe fifteen years. We are neighbors of sorts. He lives and works down in Blacksburg, VA. He is sort of retired fromVirginia Tech, where he has been a professor for years. His first love has always been fly fishing, though, and fly tying and terrestrials and ones made from foam first and foremost. His is not a quiet name. If you have read at all in our avocation, you have read Harry's works, probably several of them. He is a terrestrial and foam creation authority. All that said, I really didn't come to his flies first hand.
My good friend Dr. Rich Alexander of Baltimore first put me onto them years ago when he did a short article on Harry's Firefly in a local fly fishing publication. He sent me a copy of the article and a dozen of the flies to try. I gave them a shot, but Rich apparently didn't use the right kind of foam for them, and they didn't float all that well. I set them aside where they probably remain. Since then I have marveled at just what Harry Steeves can do with foam and ingenuity and creativity and an in depth knowledge of what trout think looks good floating above them.
My first real experience with just what his flies can do came last year on a quiet meadow stream I have to walk a long distance to get to and that has wonderfully strong cutbows waiting at every deep turn and slow meander. I had been working a consistent riser with my usual Tweeter Caddis and got one turn from him. Thinking he was looking for a mouth full, I put on my hopper go to pattern, a Madam X with brown legs tied on a long shank #10 hook. That one put him down, and I was fairly sure he was done for the day. Getting ready to move on, I cut the Madam X off and returned it to the box and got another Tweeter out, but then saw a big foam and deer hair hopper pattern Harry had given me the previous spring when we had fished Mossy together. On it went, and a good left turn over cast put it down with a splat a foot above the big boy. He charged the fly and I spent the next few minutes keeping him out of the roots. He was the best fish of the day. That fly got me nine other strong fish before evening light got me on the long trek back to the car.
I'll admit I was a believer, but I had only two of the flies, with Harry gone on his summer jaunts and no pattern or materials to keep me in business the rest of the summer. I used it and it's mate sparingly for just those special fish that refused my understandings. That got me into Fall and back home and my concentrations went to rods and work and winter and longing for Spring. I saw Harry at the shows, told him about the successes with the big hoppers, and looked at his latest creation, the Los Alamos ant.
You might well have read of his successes with the new fly last summer. He caught most of the fish in Colorado with it and featured it at the shows this winter. At Charlotte he gave me several, and, when my summer fishing came along, out they came. When a big Tweeter or Madam X failed, I tied on one of the ants with performance similar to the hoppers he gave me a couple years ago. The damn things worked. They worked better than anything I had in my fly box.
If you've seen big stone flies and hoppers on the water, you'll surely remark that they look awkward and unnatural and out of their element. Fish are suckers for easy prey. The Los Alamos ants have that same awkward look. They twist around and fumble and toss in the current and act like something looking for land to crawl out on. Trout get them before they can escape. They're big too. Trout see them from the bottom of a five foot deep run and will turn and rise to them taking them coming back or off to the left or well to the right if they have to. That is why they work, in my mind.
Well, I had to have some to start out the day with and finish the day with and catch all the fish in between. Feeling my way along tying them wasn't all that difficult. He seems to be using some peacock hurl over the body. I tried that, and it not only looked good but kept the foam from turning on the hook. I didn't need to glue the damn thing like the fly shops do with those horrible wayward Russian ants. I tied the bottom foam just back from the eye and bent it back, bullet style, like Harry does and tied the cover foam over top of it. The legs are a terrible chore for me. They twist all over the place and I have a terrible time getting the rear ones to flair, but I get them on. I tie the fly off on the rear wrap. I don't know if Harry does it that way or not, but it works for me. Bottom line is, I can tie one in about fifteen minutes and get nearly a day's fishing from it. I use 4x tippets with them and never lose them, so they are a permanent answer.
They are not all that difficult to cast either. Recently, I was using some huge foam creations to lure the big fellows up from the bottom of a mountain monster of a stream in Idaho. I tried casting them with my usual 4 wt. and found I was swinging a golf ball on the end of my rod. The Los Alamos ants in a size 10 cast like any big attractor. I can cast them fifty feet to picky trout on my meadow stream all day and get the kind of accuracy I am used to. They are not a lob and a plunk. They work like a dry fly should. They float without floatant or cleaning all day long, too.
Three days ago was a supreme test. I was fishing a difficult meadow stream pretty far up. The water is tough, the fish big. It was late morning. I started in with the ant and started getting good performance on rainbows. I landed a half a dozen or so, then the cutbows started. I looked closely and noticed a good emergence of blue winged olives on the water. The cutbows were keyed in on them and worked them hard next to the bank of several deep runs. I immediately put on a small sparkle dun and had pretty good luck with it. About half way up is a long beaver dam hole. The beavers have dammed up the whole stream creating a hundred yard glide with absolutely calm water. Two good fish were working the BWO's steadily. I crawled up on my knees and sat still for several minutes to be sure the fish weren't put down. They continued to sip the bugs, moving here and there for them, with big, open white mouths closing over them every couple minutes. I got off a careful cast to the lower fish letting the small sparkle dun land a foot or so above him. He ignored it. Again and again I cast to him with not even a nod. He was obviously put down now so, I cast to the upper fish and immediately put him down. I was frustrated.
I was sure my chances for the two big boys were pretty well spent. I put the Los Alamos ant back on and prepared to finish out the day with it, in spite of the BWO hatch. Still on my knees, I gave it a cast to the lower fish, that was still holding two feet deep in the same spot. I could see him finning there. The fly hit with a splat just above him and he rose to it carefully and opened his mouth and closed on it. I worked him hard to keep him from spooking the upper fish and landed him right where the water broke through the branches of the dam. The upper fish was a much larger fish and a fair reach with a big fly, but I got it up to him, but off to the left a couple feet. He charged the fly without hesitation and I had him, all eighteen inches of deep bodied strong cutbow. What a treat, what a triumph.
You can tell I'm a believer. I'd like to share my enthusiasm with Harry, but he is gone on his summer jaunts and finding him is like a heathen finding God. I don't put links on my site, but I think it is only fair to include a link to an article by him about his flies on the Global Flyfisher. Those guys are my friends and even have some of my stuff on their site. Take a look at "The Loco Story" on their site. Take some time to look around on there. It is good stuff and they are good guys.
Till I see Harry in the winter, I'll just pass along a big thanks for great ideas and much generosity for sharing them with all of us.