Depends. There are lots of different kinds of ants...cinnamon colored, black ants, some winged, many not, and some carpenter ants are pretty good sized. But many are small as you have indicated. On my waters my feeling is that a lot of anglers are throwing bigger say #8 sized hoppers along the bank, and by using a #12 ant, that is large, it is still often more accepted than the bigger stuff guys are casting. A popular ant I tie is on a short shank scud hook in a size #14 that gives me a #16 sized ant, and a bigger hook gape than a standard #14 hook...like a sized #12 hook gape.

Showin'um something different I guess. I think about colors that show up on the surface when fish look up...black often contrasted against the sky, and lately purple as been good, although nothing has been very good out my way...frustrating.

Absolutely... I just get very humbled when I get outsmarted by a critter that has a brain the size of a pea...what does that have to say about me?

Don't know how old your nephew was, but some youngsters have good concentration, and many others have very little attention span. You have to go slow, and not over teach with those that can't stay focused.

And we tend to underestimate these youngsters, and don't see their potential. I am in HS all the time, and am amazed when I see a student I think has totally slipped through the cracks, and then experience them working for a shop owner. They seem like a totally different person with polished social skills.