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UNI Products Fly Tiers Corner
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COLD WATER
December 2025
Article and photos by Steve Hudson
I have a confession to make. I am fascinated by hardware stores. I love to wander the aisles, evaluating what I see with a fly tyer’s eye – you know, considering possibilities. What tying applications might there be for, say, this window gasket material (topwater bass flies!) or that weather-proof house wrap (wing cases!) or even those fancy brushes in the paint department (tails and wings for all sorts of dries!).
But none of those treasures are as full of potential as are some of the goodies you find in the epoxy department – for example, that little package of five-minute epoxy that’s on sale for $3.99.
Epoxy is fascinating stuff. Unmixed, it’s just two thick and gooey liquids. But once you blend them, chemistry happens and the mixture turns into a glass-like solid. If you can control the shape while it cures, you open the door to creating all sorts of buggy-looking things.
Might some of them end up looking a lot like ants? Could be.
Join me, then, as we explore one of the more interesting ways to use epoxy on the tying bench. Let’s sit down at the vise and make some Epoxy Ants!
The Epoxy Ant
Materials and components
Of course, you’ll need the basic material. Two-part epoxy is available in just about any hardware store. Different mixes have different cure times, and you want one with a cure time in the 5-minute range. Even shorter mixes are available, but they don’t give you enough time. Go with the 5-minute kind and you’ll be good.
You’ll also need a suitable hook. Epoxy Ants are usually designed for subsurface fishing, so use heavy-wire nymph hooks. I like regular or 1XL versions in size 12 to 18.
What about color? Well, one truly useful thing about two-part epoxies is that they’re easily colored. The colorant, should you choose to use one, needs be no more exotic than a $2 bottle of vinyl fabric paint. I like black or yellow (or even glowing chartreuse). Just add a tiny dab of it as you mix your batch of the epoxy. Other colorant possibilities are powdered pigment like those available in large craft stores or even very fine glitter. Experiment!
Feel free to experiment with colors.
After the epoxy bodies are made, add hackle, wings or legs. For that, use the same feathers and wing/leg materials you’d use on any other pattern. You’ll tie these in at the waist of these flies, using 6/0 thread (or smaller) thread in a color that matches or complements the color of the body. You can find a variety of such threads on the UNI Products website.
Finally, apply a drop of head cement once the threadwork is completed. Then you’ll be ready to go fishing!
Mix and apply…and watch the clock!
For your first few Epoxy Ants, let’s make the body segments one at a time.
Start by mounting your hook in a rotary vise or, lacking that, by gripping the back of the hook bend with a set of hemostats.
Then squeeze out a bit of epoxy onto a suitable mixing surface. I use a pad of sticky notes. This is the time to add your colorant. Then use a toothpick to quickly and thoroughly mix the epoxy and the colorant, blending until the mix is uniform. It’ll take about a minute or so.
Applying epoxy to the hook shank
Once its mixed, the epoxy will begin to cure immediately. That means the clock is ticking and you’ll need to work fast. Using a toothpick, pick up a small amount of epoxy and apply it to the forward part of your hook’s shank to form the front body segment. Be careful not to get epoxy in the hook’s eye.
Once on the hook, the epoxy will tend to sag as it cures. Managing that sagging is the hardest part of creating these flies. A rotary vise makes this easier to do, though you can also hold the hook with hemostats and manipulate it by hand. Many tyers like the glue to sag slightly toward the top of the fly, though I don’t think the fish care much one way or another.
It may take a few tries to figure out how much epoxy to apply – and it will certainly take a little practice to master the art of manipulating it while it cures. Give yourself permission to experiment and to make a few mistakes as you learn. If you miss the mark on your first few tries, just adjust your technique and try again.
Finally, is it possible to form both body segments at the same time from a single batch of epoxy? Yes, it is, but it’s easier – especially at first – to form those body segments one at a time.
Watch your spacing
As you’ll quickly discover, the key to making Epoxy Ants is to be sure that the two body segments are separated from each other. You want to make them from two separate dabs of epoxy, and you want to be sure that the two dabs do not touch each other. If they do, they’ll flow together and create a blobby mess.
Remember: you want a short length of bare hook shank between the segments, not only to better define the segments but to give you a place for tying in legs or hackle too.
Fishing Epoxy Ants
How do you fish these ants? The epoxy body segments are relatively heavy and tend to sink well, so the easiest approach is to use an indicator and fish them like you would a nymph. Takes can be subtle, so set the hook anytime you even imagine that there might be fish on the other end. After all, like the man said, you miss 100 percent of the fish you don’t hook.
Another approach, and one that’s a lot of fun with smaller Epoxy Ants, is to leave off the indicator and fish them near the surface on the end of a fine 5X or 6X tippet. That allows the fly to drift along just beneath the film. This works especially well in spring and summer when ants are everywhere. The end of your fly line becomes your indicator, and there’s a good chance that you’ll soon develop a sort of sixth sense that tells you when to set the hook.
