Some scientists say there are 100 trillion ants on Earth and that their combined weight approaches the total weight of all humans on the planet. That’s good news for trout, which eat ants, and nowhere is that more evident than in lakes and streams in and around old burns, especially when there are downed logs in the water. But ant “hatches” are hard to see and even harder to time.
A few years ago, a group of us fished a wilderness river in an old burn in Montana’s Bob Marshall Wilderness, riding horseback on the old Indian trails. After we tied the horses, my friend Tracy Wilson and I spent some time working a slide hole with a long, deep run and a lot of boulders. On 10 casts with a hopper pattern, Tracy got six grabs. Then the trout wised up. When
