Do you think I could use a small helium-filled balloon indicator to make a dragonfly pattern hover . . . ?
Talk about catching some air! There’s about a dozen more photos @ http://www.fieldandstream.com/article_gallery/Airborne-Bass-Chasing-Dragonflies-Above-The-Surface/1
steve
I had one go airborne and snatch my fly out of the air as it was laying down. I about pooped my pants it was amazing!!!
The Russian judge only gave him a 6 because his pectoral fins weren’t flat agains his body. 
All kidding aside - I see this (though perhaps without that much vigor) every year. Occasionally they get one. They usually miss, but sometimes they knock the dragon fly into the water. When they are doing this - immediately toss a popper in anywhere close to where they jumped - and hang on.
Normally I see fish 2 pounds and down doing this but they are still a ball. 
I’ve seen it happen, and sometimes with some good sized fish, but I’ve never seen them get that much air. HideHunter is exactly right about the popper. They’ll turn right around and smash anything that hits the water in the general area.
I have seen steelhead do this as well, and have caught them on poppers after figuring out what they were up to.
Dragon flies are usually close to shore , you could try just suspending one from the rod tip and as they said already , hang on.
Or perhaps use a quick draw rig with a 22 pistol and shoot em as they jump. Train the Bird dog to retrieve them…It’ll keep you and the pooch sharp for bird season.
Once my boy and I were watching a floating log half off on the shore when
all of a sudden a chipmunk came on the log and started eating an acorn.
All of a sudden with great water exposing a bass leaps and gobbles
down the chipmunk, just like in the first photo!!
Steve
not that we hunt birds a lot w/ a handgun in season, but the heat index was 105 here today, so the dog votes for the target practice . . .
steve
Don’t just toss a popper at them when they’re doing this…toss whatever you have on your line.
I saw one jump a couple weeks ago while I was tossing a clouser. What the heck…cast it where the fish landed hoping maybe it’d still be hungry and I’d get a hit as it sank…danged fish smacked the clouser the instant it touched the water!
That’s the first time I’ve had a top-water strike on a clouser!
Don’t waste time swapping to a rod that has a dry fly or swapping flies…when you see 'em jumping, toss whatever you’re already fishing right at them!
I have be intriuged (sp) by bass doing this forever. I have been fishing and catching nothing with them hurdling out of the water for dragon flies. Last year was determined to make a real Dragon Fly. Wow, what a disaster.
My question: does anyone have any luck w/ any of the commerically tied DF or Damsel Fly imitators? I have not. Dunno if it is cuz they lay on the water and not hover. Seems to me watching this forever that the hover is the thing. A Helium filled fly make be closer to the truth than anyone knows!
Great pic! Our’s do this a lot. I’ve tried to cast above the water to see if I could get one to hit a fly I made to look like one… to no avail.
Hi,
I’ve seen trout doing the same thing. A while back I was fishing a small pond that has a lot of red damsel flies and dragon flies. I tied up this as a simple pattern. The tail is pheasant tail fibres dyed red, the abdomen is just the red tying thread tied over the tail fibres, and the thorax is made by wrapping the butt ends of the fibres. The hackle is just a few turns of a furnace hackle.
Anyway, on my first cast to just try it out and see how it floated, it was smashed as soon as it touched the water. Scared the daylights out of me as I wasn’t even trying to “fish” it. I didn’t bother with wings, but I suppose a few hackle tips tied length wise (for damsels) or out from the body (for a dragon) could easily be added. Will try it out again next time I get out that way.
I have a dragonfly fly that came in a fly swap a few years back. I tried it for the first time about a month ago.
It’s blue and the dragon flies we saw near us were all bright red. But there were tiny blue ones (or maybe those were damsels…didn’t matter…the big blue fly is all I had so I tried it).
It got smacked pretty good by a 15" or so bass. Unfortunately, that knocked ones of the fly’s eyes off (it had plastic bead eyes). No interest from anything after that (I think the fly stopped landing correctly once it only had one eye).
Next time I head to that pond, I’m planning to have red dragonfly flies with me. The blue one I used was a slim foam fly and looked pretty easy to tie…