Damselflys

[Fred H]

DSC_0005_2012-04-14.jpg
Here are some deer hair and mono damsels. I used strands of organza ribbon for the wings . These are tied on a size #18 dry fly hook.


Thanks for looking .

Fred

[AlanB]

Very nice Fred, Do you fish these? I ask as I've tied similar but never fished them. Damsels crawl in and out of the water using vegetation or rocks, the adult is rarely available to trout as a food item.

Cheers,
C.

[Silver Creek]

Both the immature tenerals and the mature damsels are effective flies. They get blown into the water. They drown and are taken underwater as sunken damsels.

Damsels have an immature teneral phase and then they undergo a color change to the mature phase. After mating the females must deposit their eggs in the water. Like some caddis they even go underwater to deposit their eggs so they are available to the trout. Being large insects the trout seek then out and they even leap out of the water after low flying damsels.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GtZC...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGJMAGYTcpQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLIGywbbNNk

The foam bodied or foam thorax patterns are less effective than the ones that can sink because you cannot imitate a drowned damsel with a foam bodied fly. I tie both the banded blue adult and the tan teneral phase.

http://www.garyborger.com/2010/01/20...d-butt-damsel/

Here's a version with a foam thorax.

http://www.mwflytying.com/patterns/damsel_fly_page.html

When I mentioned the patterns using foam to Gary, he asked me if I thought he hadn't thought of that. That's when he explained that trout love drowned damsels

[Fred H]

Thanks Alan . Yes I keep some in my boxes for when the LMB's are going airborne after their living counter parts. These were tied on smaller hooks for trout , but I have'nt got to try them yet.

Silver Creek , thanks for the info and the videos.

Fred

[JohnScott]

... Silver Creek, that being Silver Creek ID, Silver Creek flows into the Little Wood River, and more of the water in the Little Wood below the confluence with Silver Creek is Silver Creek water than Little Wood water.

Several years ago while we were exploring the area, we saw the most awesome hatch of damsels and dragonflies I could ever hope to see, on the Little Wood, which really should be called Silver Creek. All the colors imaginable from the freshly hatched green to the brilliant blues for the damsels and the whole range you could expect to see for the dragonflies.

Quite the display, and one I don't expect to see again.

Nice display of your hatch, Fred. Hope you get a chance to fish them, soon.

John

P.S. If you can find some blue antron, you might try a furled extended body damsel. Tom Banyas of Pocatello ID was the first person I ever saw tie a furled extended body fly and it was a damsel. The first FEB I tied was a damsel, which fished well on Horseshoe Lake, just outside the SE corner of Yellowstone.

[Fred H]

Thanks John ,I appreciate the comments and info.
Fred