Chernobyl Ant   

Hook:   Mustad 9672 or Tiemco 2312 # 6-8

Thread:   Black 6/0 or 3/0 or stronger

Body: Closed Cell Foam Black and Beige

Legs: Rubber Black

Dubbing: Peacock Coloured Synthetic

Indicator: Yellow Closed Cell Foam

1/ First off wrap a nice even base of thread starting from near the front of the hook and extending to the point where you are going to tie in your first part of the fly, the tail. This point should be roughly level with the barb on the hook. Also cut two sections of foam as shown and then move to step 2.
2/ Place these two pieces of foam on top of each other, black over beige and tie in as shown. Wrap a number of turns of thread in the same plane until the foam is securely anchored in place. If using 6/0 you will find it difficult to get the foam as secure as desired and we would recommend using at least the 3/0 preferably A+.
3/ This photo shows the same as Step two but from a different viewpoint. This is how the fly should look from above now. Once the fly looks like this we are ready to start adding legs. You can also tie this without the beige coloured foam and plain black is one of the most popular styles.
4/ take a section of rubber legs from your occy strap or from the packet if you have bought them from a fly shop. Tie in as shown so that the legs flare out. It might take some fiddling initially to get it right but after a few goes you should be able achieve this with very little effort. Once you have done this add a second set of legs on the opposite side of the body.
5/ Now we are back in the horizontal plane. See the pair of legs tied in. Now add some of the dubbing to the thread and wrap a small ball of dubbing. This is not a must do it's just something that we have been shown and have used on our CA patterns ever since.
6/ Pull the foam body over the top of the dubbed body with your right hand while pinching a small hump in the foam with the thumb and forefingers of your left hand (for right handed tier). When your fly looks something like the photo to your right tie in using several tight wraps in the same plane as in Step 2.
7/ Viewed from above we can now start adding the second set of legs. Take a piece of your rubber leg material and tie in as shown. Don't worry if it is too long at the moment as we will be trimming them later on. Notice the clearly defined segmentation of the body that we have now.
8/ Add a second set of legs just as in earlier steps. The fly as seen here could be pulled straight from the vice and fished as is but we will do a few little things to finish off. Add a few more wraps in the same plane for strength as we want this fly to be pretty much indestructible.
9/ This is the same as the previous step only viewed from the side. Again notice the segmented look of the fly and the oversized rubber legs that give the fly an amazingly lifelike appearance when on the water. Next step is to add a small sighting indicator as this can be a tough pattern to see in rough water.
10/ Cut a small piece of Yellow closed cell foam. Tie in as shown in the spot where you have just tied in your front set of legs. You only need a few wraps to anchor this securely to the fly and once again you don't have to add this to the fly. I tie some with/without although it must be said you can always trim it off later if need be. Whip finish in the same plane.
11/ The last step involves trimming the wings to shape. Use your own discretion here and don't worry too much about getting them exactly right. These insects sits on the surface with their wings all fouled up and it is more the presentation and reasonably accurate size, shape, profile that is most important. Have a look at the next two steps for some different views.
12/ Grab the tips of all the legs and pull it upwards away from the fly body as shown. Trim them roughly evenly making them a little longer than the hook shank (we want that wiggle). The legs will fall down and settle in the X position.
13/ Here it is from above. The legs are crossed over and will move around and dance on the currents. The sighting indicator is also very obvious from above and from the side which will aid in seeing this fly as it is black and low sitting and can be very difficult to see.
14/ Last view shows the finished fly from below. Again we can see the clearly segmented body and the large dark legs. The dubbed body is also obvious and as I like to use a longer stranded dubbing can also add some movement. As it is made almost entirely from foam it floats all day and will not fall apart.

The Pattern

" There is a giant cricket in Eastern Utah affectionately called the Mormon Cricket which migrates in very thick hordes. This huge cricket tries to cross rivers such as the Green, but in doing so becomes dormant due to the temperature change created by the cold water, and floats helplessly down river. It doesn't take too many of these to fill even a large trout's gullet, so you must hit it at the upstream end of the migration. Downstream, there will be no fish moving at all unless a Rolaid drifts past. The Chernobyl Ant's silhouette imitates this Stone Age looking cricket very nicely.

Much like the Mutant Ninja Cicada, the Chernobyl Ant makes a very good attractor. An advantage of this pattern to a guide fly tier is that the synthetic materials used to tie this fly make it durable, very buoyant, inexpensive and quick to tie. When a guide gets off the water, he doesn't have a lot of time to devote to fly tying. He must tie his stack of of flies for the next morning as quickly and as easily as possible. Quick and easy doesn't detract from the effectiveness of this pattern. During the late 1991 season on the Green River, the Chernobyl Ant was far and away the number one pattern for pulling fish. 

I attribute the invention of this pattern to two Green River guides. First, Mark Forslund came up with the design. His pattern was called the Black Mamba. It was a very good fly in it's own right, but it was hackled. Next, Allan Woolley took Mark's pattern and replaced the hackle with rubber legs to create a lifelike wiggle. The finished Chernobyl Ant isn't pretty, but it is a real winner when it comes to catching trout."     (Emmett Heath)

When we first saw this fly in it's current form we couldn't believe they were serious. Visiting angler Jeff Currier from Jack Dennis's store in Jackson Hole fished it from our rafts many years ago and to our amazement, brought fish up to it. He left several for us to copy, as well as sending the basic materials over to us after he had returned to the 'states'. This fly has earned a spot in our guides selection. As the quoted passage above suggested it is easy to tie, durable (read indestructible) and floats all day. When quizzed as to why the name, Jeff replied with "take a look at it! It's a total 'effing' disaster!" Since then we have recounted this story to hundreds of anglers who stare in disbelief at them in our fly cabinet. Suffice to say it works from our drift boats, it works extremely well in rivers such as the Big where those in the know have been catching 30 fish a day on the one fly and believe it or not has taken a number of large fish from our private stillwaters. And it doesn't look a thing like the Caenis and Midge that are so prolific on our lakes.

Regards

Antony, David and Geoff