Adult damsels? Need help!

fkajwg said:
I recall some one on the old forum where, after catching enough fish on damsels, just started picking apart live damsels and throwing parts on the water to see what minimum was needed to attract takes. In his telling, just the blue abdomen that day. So just a body and hackle has appealed to me, although I can’t claim any specific success myself, except w sinking.green patterns. Jay
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I had forgotten about finding what "pieces" of adult damselflies it took to get trout interested....

Apologies to @Wade Rivers for story telling: Darc and I were camped at that very popular mountain lake near Loomis. Fishing had been epic the first morning when caddis were coming off but once they stopped emerging we found it difficult to catch trout. We noticed interesting bulges and occasionally some noisy rises in the reeds. Trout were in the reeds eating damselfies (naturally we assumed only adults as that was the "noisy rises"). Neither of us had anything close to an adult damselfly in our boxes, however, Darc had a blue bucktail in his travel tying kit. He managed to tie up a couple adult damselfly dries - tedious doesn't begin to describe those ties. The "key" that day was winding blue thread back and forth along a clump of blue hair tied onto the hook and then adding a little head cement to stiffen the tail. They took a long time to tie (and dry) compared to most flies we tied back then. Of course the flies worked and worked really well. For about one or two seconds until the trout broke the fly off.
 
Wade Rivers said:
OK, here's an update on my personal growth...I need to learn to tie better knots now! :rolleyes: Finally rose a pig to an adult damsel and promptly broke it off.

Using the Shane Stalcup deer hair pattern got a couple fish interested. The little wings make a funny noise in the air but don't spin too bad.

www.caddisflyshop.com

Stalcups Deer Hair Damsel

Stalcups Deer Hair Damsel fly pattern is a lightweight realistic damsel pattern. Caddisflyshop.com stocks great flies from Montana fly Company, Solitude Flies, Dreamcast Flies, and Umpqua Feathers Merchants. Orders ship fast and free everyday at Caddisflyshop.com.
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...baby steps
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Glad you got some action!

btw, those are the flies that made me really start hating those type of wings. Sounds like those trucks going down the interstate that have the plastic tarps ripping apart. Haha! I did catch some fish on them though.
 
From Jeffs report at East last week

"The beetle worked all day but there was a time the fish were keyed in on Blue Damsel Adults and we had a great hour and half or so on Damsel Dries"
 
Personally I've not done very well with the blue ones. Honestly I've rarely ever seen a fish eat them. I've had some success with green, brown, or grey and even black ones. I don't think trout like the adults much really. They sure like the nymphs though. Maybe the places I fish have more readily available preferred food sources.
 
Those look great! I'd be tempted to take a black marker to 2 or 3 of them and then compare the results to the blue only ones. I share Dustin's experience, at least when it comes to just blue.
The marked up ones always do better whether blue, white or gray. Good luck!
 
RCF said:
Everyday I watch fish leaping completely out of the water going after damsels. Sometimes the fish are larger too. I find it way more enjoyable waiting for the next fish to explode out of the water than trying to catch them with a dry imitation. IMHO emerger or nymphs are way more successful than dries... So why not do both ---> watch leaping fish while fishing an emerger? Best of both worlds :)
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I tossed an ant pattern over a pool in a small stream…and before the fly hit the water, a nice 16” cutthroat launched itself about 18 inches and nabbed it.
FISH ON…!!
Was the coolest thing to watch it rise from the depths. 😁
 
damsels were and about yesterday, trout taking a few on the surface so switched from beetle pattern to a damsel floater...no takes when a bruiser brown explodes from the water, dives over the fly and disappears....20 casts later went back to casting beetles against the shoreline under the overhanging bushes, caught another bow', changed position, cast alongside a large log half in the water, a bruiser brown explodes from the water, dives over my beetle and disappears...a bit later I'm about to pass the only other flyfisher on the north side of the lake (very light boat traffic on the lakes past week) when he starts fighting a big fish...stop and watch the battle until he puts one big unit of a brown into his net.
"nice friggin fish, what'd you get him on?
"damsel dry"
uh, way to go"
 
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I saw one that was red in my driveway yesterday.
 
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