Clark’s Damselfly
The twisted-body technique came accidentally one day from
one of my high school students. It was my preparation
period and I was in the process of clearing off my desk. All
that remained were a couple colored pencils, an old dictionary,
and some short pieces of poly yarn. Brad Weigandt strolled into
my classroom as he often did just to talk. He had a habit of
picking up something off my desk and playing with it. This time
it just happened to be a strand of yarn, but I wasn’t aware of
what he was doing with it until the bell rang to end the period.
He quickly dropped the yarn on my desk and said, “See you
later,” and out the door he sped. I looked at my desk to notice
that the strand of yarn Brad was playing with was now very
different - it was spiraled instead of a loose strand. Wow!
I thought to myself. What a great idea for fly tying! Guess
what I did as soon as I returned home?
After designing the Big Yellow Mayfly I thought about other fly
patterns I could tie using the twisted technique. Other adult
insects with long, narrow bodies came to mind; caddisflies,
grasshoppers, dragonflies and damselflies. I just happened to
have a nice color of damsel blue poly yarn so I began to study
the major characteristics and shape of the real insect. The
following summer I was at one of my favorite trout lakes ready
to test my new damselfly. While sitting in my boat about forty
feet from shore, I observed something I had never seen before.
Around six damselflies, like a squadron of war planes, were
flying inches above the water. Then I heard a couple of splashes
from fish feeding off the surface. It didn’t appear they were
rising to damselfies but I decided to try my new pattern anyway.
I placed my cast in the vicinity of the rising fish. Crash! A
small rainbow took it. What a thrill in dry-fly fishing. There
is nothing more exciting than to go through the process of
creating your own fly pattern and being rewarded with the sight
of a rising fish taking your imitation!
Materials
Hook: 2X long, 1X fine, size 10.
Thread: Blue 6/0.
Body: Light blue Mylar or polypropylene strip and
blue poly yarn.Wing: Dark Ducktail or deer hair.
Hackle: Dark Saddle.
Wingcase: Blue poly yarn from body.
Head: Same as wingcase.
Tying Steps:
- Cover the hook shank with thread from the front
to the bend. Tie in the blue Mylar strip and cover
about 2/3 of the hook shank. [like tinsel]
Originally published March 19, 2001 on Fly Anglers Online by Lee Clark.