Fly Tying: Damselflies

The lake is quiet right now--except for the damselflies, and the fish actively preying on them during the hot afternoons. I have come to the conclusion that the reason for the lack of an evening rise is that the fish are simply too full of damselflies by then.

In fishing the damselfly hatch I have found that on some happy occasions an individual fish on damsels will be frenzied enough to hit any fly that comes into his window, especially if you can get it right on his head. More often the fish are locked onto the damselflies, and will ignore everything else.

I tied this fly awhile ago, and then forgot I had it until I uncovered it on my fly patch the other day. I had been mostly unsuccessful up until then at getting any fish on damsels to give me the time of day. This fly elicited a slashing strike by a good fish, and I caught a little tiny Brown on it. But on subsequent days It has been mostly ignored.

I have been experimenting with presentation--dead drift, twitch, fast retrieve, slow retrieve, drowned, trolled--but finally concluded that until I can make it sit on a reed or fly lazily 6 inches above the surface the look of the fly may be more important.

So I went back to the bench and tied up another version. This one has a much lighter wing and a slightly thinner body. The head is too big, and I might go sparser on the hackle next time, but my hope is the lighter wing will be the trigger.

Will it be? I'll let you know.