Termite    Learn to tie a termite pattern

Hook:   Tiemco 100 or 101 #16

Thread:   Orange 8/0

Silk Over Body: Orange to match natural

Wings: Swiss Straw/Raffia in colour to suit (smokey grey if avaiable)

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. Once this is completed and you have a good bed of thread proceed to step two. Termite Step 1
2/ Take a small piece of the silk you have chosen to over wrap the thread body you will construct. It should be flat and reasonably wide for best results. Try to match up to the colour of the  natural with this silk as this is the reason we are using it and not just making the body out of thread. Trim any excess. Termite Step 2
3/ Now build up a body of thread as shown in the accompanying photo. Notice how this is done to take on the shape of the the abdomen of the ant. This will allow us to then wrap the silk over it and get the exact colour needed with the exact shape needed which you couldn't do by just using silk. Termite Step 3
4/ Wrap the silk in a clockwise direction around the hook shank (away from you) Just one nice, even layer should be ample to get the desired look without adding too much bulk. Once this is complete and you see something similar to the photo to the right tie off and trim any excess. Now go to step 5. Termite Step 4
5/ This is the only tricky part. Take a piece of straw approximately 3-5 mm wide and 5 cm long. Bend it back over itself as shown in the photo so that you have an inside angle of approximately 90 Degrees. This will form your fouled up wings that are such a dominant feature of this particular insect. The way this wing is being held in place is the way it should be tied in. Termite Step 5
6/ This is really just a different view of the previous step. In the horizontal plane it attempts to highlight the fact that the wind should be tied in flat with the body. Tie in over a slightly wider fashion than usual (i.e. not the same plane) and do so with a few gentle turns to start allowing you to move the wing to and fro making sure it is perfect before tying in with tight wraps. Termite Step 6
7/ Once again we are still on the same step but we are now viewing it from above with the wing tied in as desired. Notice the tie in point is over quite a wide area as opposed to a normal, in a single plane, tie in. When your pattern looks like this move to Step 8 where we will repeat the process on the other side of the hook. Termite Step 7
8/ Take another piece of straw roughly equal in dimensions to the first piece. Fold as we did earlier to get that right angle in it and then tie in as in the previous step with the first wing. Once again use the the first wings tie in point to match it up and start with loose wraps to make sure the wing sits correctly. The photo shows what your pattern should look like. Termite Step 8
9/ Now tie in one more piece of silk to finish off the forward section of the body. Once this s done trim the excess and wind the thread forward building up another bulbous section over which the silk can be gently wrapped in the next step. When you have done this add a half hitch for strength and move to Step 10. Termite Step 9
10/ Wrap this silk forward over the forward section of body you just made out of the thread. This is very easy to do but some car is needed to make sure you retain the body shape of the thread. Once this is done add a couple of half hitches and remove any excess. Trim to finish and for those that just feel that they have to add a whip finish. 
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. Termite Step 11
12/ From below you can see the obvious ant like profile of this fly. The colour is spot on and the wings are a dominant feature as with the natural. This body will sit just in the film and give the fish a very good look at it and with many of the features being spot on this makes it very effective. Termite Step 12
13/ This shows how the fly will sit in the water. The wings have a large surface area and therefore the pattern is hard to sink when everything lands right. These wings keep it on top of the film just like the naturals.

 

 Termite Step 13

The Pattern

We had some mild thunderstorm activity last night and our minds all turned to a possible termite hatch. We therefore are featuring this humble little pattern for all of you who like to tie your own. 

Antony developed this rather basic fly this Spring in response to the massive hatches we had during the the extremely muggy conditions we experienced. This luckily coincided with low water levels on the Goulburn and some pools had 25 fish rising. One thing that was noticed was that a large number of these insects were sitting in the surface film or above with their wings fouled up. This is something that we tried to mimic with these straw wings. While this means it doesn't float well for long periods it does mean an accurate imitation for a rising fish which will usually mean only one or two drifts anyway. On average it should be dried out but gently squeezing the water from the wings every dozen casts. Sometimes it sits all wings spreadeagled and sometimes they get twisted and contorted like many of the naturals. The key thing is that the fish like it and that it has all the major triggers of the natural. Segmented body, large soft wings and the correct colouration.

While it isn't the perfect fly and it doesn't work all the time it is another one to have in the box for those few and far between days when termites are the only thing the fish will look at.

Regards

Antony, David and Geoff