In the warm water lake that I have done most of my fishing for the last few years, damselflies are prolific and I beleive one of the most important food sources for all of the fish, Blue Gill, Red ears, Crappy, bass and maybe even the catfish. I expect that many if not most of the fish that I have caught on olive HEN’s thought they were biting damsel. Maybe I should just be happy and keep fishing Olive Hares Ears…
Thinking that I would be smart, I have tied up all manner of damsel imitations, everything from Marabou damsels, to any number of others, and none of them have made me very happy, nor have they impressed the fish.
So while looking around on Troutnuts site I took a closer look at damsel nymphs… the following recipee is what I came up with… I sure it isn’t original, but I am really looking forward to giving it a try. It is tied kind of half back style, and I coated the turkey strip with sally hansons just for an extra bit of flash. If I get one that is good enough to show anybody but the fish I will take a picture of it.
Hook #6 2x nymph hook.
tail 3 black goose biots
rib copper wire
back mottled turkey feather fibers
body olive hares mask
legs olive hackle layed flat over thorax
Thorax olive hares mask
Like I say, probably nothing new, but thought I’d share.
I like the sfas.net patterns, Greg H. I may have to take a harder look at those so thanks for posting the links :D. The natural damsel nymphs we have here in this part of Florida where I am are black, not olive. I typically use the Marabou Damsel Nymph black color in a size 10 (close to the predominant size I’ve seen here) with good results since it closely duplicates our natural with good tail action. The only real change I make to Al’s MDN version other than the color is to use small black metal beadchain eyes to get the fly deeper or for a lesser drop rate, I may use glass beads on burnt mono ends for glass beadchain eyes. I also mostly tie it as a flashback with a silver wire rib. I have not found a good dragonfly nymph pattern yet that produces good results here yet but I’m still looking. Our natural dragonfly nymphs are brown top/tan bottom in about a size 8 (close to the predominant size I’ve seen here).
The dragonfly nymphs that look the best to me are basically like these http://www.flyfishusa.com/flies/dragon.htm (NOT the Carey Specials). However, I suggest you make a woven body with the ‘Granny Knot Weave’ and put the same wingcase, legs and eyes as in these examples. Ultra chenille or larvae Lace (or one of each - chenille on top) work well for these nymphs. You need a bit of an underbody of dubbing but not much as the weave creates a thin wide body. {My apologies that the thread has become hijacked}
Al & Gretchen Beatty in Salmon Trout & Steelheader presented “Newbury’s Wiggle Damsel”.
I have not tied it nor fished it but someday I’ll get around to doing so. It seems to me it addresses the motion issue mentioned above.
It also seems to me the Gary Fontaine’s flex hook would be a good one to try.
I am sure that you are all correct regarding the action of damsel nymphs. And I am going to have to give some of the marabou based damsel flies another try, it may have been my poor tying skills that have been my undoing.
Still, if the pictures I was looking at are indeed damsel nymphs I wonder if there isn’t something yet to be invented/discovered that will be a bit more literal representation of the bug while incorporating the requisite action of the nymphs.
Of course it is also entirly possible that I have spent way too many hours in the office lately, and am suffering from a bad case of cabin fever, and this is all just an excuss to dream about the day when the water will not be so hard, and fish will be feasting on damselfly nymphs again.
In Flyfishing Mag…Spring 2006,"Tying a realistic Damselfly Nymph by Phil Whillock…interesting approach after the author observed trout “stunning” damsel nymphs.
Another is "Brown Drake Wiggle Nymph … A New Pattern " by Ernest Schwiebert…in Fly Fishing Quarterly…sorry I don’t know when…
