reproduction of damsel flies…

humor: damsels spooning

Damsel fly…

a photo taken by my son, Tony Muncy, of an adult damsel fly setting upon his waders.

Last night…

my usually OCD dreams, gave way to a more meaningful, less fraught with frustration, event. I moved my way along the surface of a lake, and I walked the shores of a river casting the fly line with ease. Someone in my dream even asked me how I learned to cast so well. In my dream, I seriously thought of a fellow blogger, the Limp Cobra, and tried to demonstrate…this is a good sign, a signal of good things to come (not right away, because my dream didn’t factor in my pending ankle surgery in a month).

Here’s a nice little lake pattern, the Deer Hair Damsel, I tied/photo’d a few years ago. 

Damsel basking…

Damsel hugging….

Damsel’s: Sleek and Seductive

While on Stillwaters fly fishing, we often see the delicate cousins of the more aggressive Dragon flies…the Damsel fly flitting about in the reeds and shoreline structures. Newly emerged they are often pretty blues, browns and greens. The subsurface life of these attractive insects is equally appealing for the fly fisher too.

Rio Products Image re Brian Chan Interview

The above photo of the Damsel ‘nymphs’ provides perfect detail for the fly tier looking for exactness or simplicity. Sleek, segmented, bulbous eyed, long legged and tailed one can see the proper proportions and just where the undulating damsel would have appendages,etc. 

My suggestions re Damsel nymphs (Instars) is to fish them slowly amongst the shoreline structures and picture intermittent propulsions like a fish would move…wiggling, undulating. The materials you use to tie (or someone else used) will help facilitate the suggestion of life. Here is a BC piece re Damsel nymphs.

Tie up some sleek, life like Damsels and fish them with confidence. Tie them in the  length range of 3/4″ to 1″ and keep them slender. Floating or Intermediate lines work best. Present them parallel to the shoreline or even swimming toward the shoreline or reeds as opposed to out into the deeper part of the lake. Study up on how the Damsel moves/propels itself. Also, imagine the journey to emerge out of the water and how you would present your pattern amidst the climbing nymphs.

This beautiful trout was caught close to a shoreline of cat tails this past Summer. An olive colored, size 10 damsel nymph fished on the drop near the reeds did the trick.

Big Gulp: Damsel Dry Fluttering By

I mentioned after a recent stillwater (lake) fishing trip that I had particular fun fishing a Damsel dry pattern. In all my years I never used a Damsel dry. So good was the damsel ‘nymph’ patterns that I just stuck with them. But, a few years back, I had witnessed my son using a Damsel dry to good effect and decided if ever again in that situation I was going to give it a try.

You can barely see the Damsel Dry sticking out of the Trout’s mouth (left side)

On this recent trip I had three Damsel dries. I lost one to a tree; one to the reeds and one to a fish. Several memorable fish came to the fluttering dries before I finally lost the last one. The flies are wind resistant and make that noisy fluttering sound as they zing past your ear. The wing material (Spirit River’s Wings Mottled Lt. Dun) is air resistant. But, especially in the mornings and again in the evening, the pattern was very productive and durable.

Different wing materials could be used whether feathers or synthetic. I have just used the ‘zing wing‘ like material because it looks more realistic to me. The wings, although swept back in the photo, similar to a Damsel at rest (Damsels to rear; Dragons to the side), the wings flutter about and as the fly lands the wings take different positions in the water’s surface. I also made the wings larger than normal for floatation and attraction. In the fish photo above, the protruding fly has that bright blue hackle. I don’t have any of that right now, but I think I might add a turn of that just behind the eyes soon. I will also make more of an effort to splay the wings slightly to the side…at least for the photo op portion.

Black, 8/0 thread…size 12, 2x fine dry fly hook…Hairline Damsel Blue braid for extended abdomen…Hairline’s Senyo Laser Dub (black/blue)…wing Spirit River’s Wings & Things mottled light dun…eyes by Spirit River black mono eyes, medium size for attraction quality.