Adult Damsels

[Buzzy]

I caught a fish on a damsel dry fly pattern at Rocky Ford in June of 1992. I was 22 years old. It was awesome.

This is hilarious...in it's own right, but also because one of the best 30 minutes of trout fishing I've ever had was at Rocky Ford in June of 91 fishing dry damsels. Me & my buddy had multiple doubles in that 30 minutes. We still laugh about that one. We had just spent a week in Montana and the best fishing of the trip was our brief stop at Rocky Ford on the way home.
This was followed by about 3 minutes of terror running back to the truck hoping to avoid death from a lightning strike. I was 23 so tempted the storm quite a bit longer than I would now.

Hope you get to catch another fish on a damsel dry. Haha!

I too have had fun with adult damsels at RF. In that I live about 20 minutes from the crick, perhaps I should go try it this week....

 

[Ron McNeal]

Just wondering how many of you have sat in your tube/toon/pram/canoe....whatever, in the middle of a prolific damsel emergence, picked one or a dozen newly emerged adults off your leg, carefully plucked the wings off, tossed the wingless experiment into the water and marveled at the resulting "BAM!!"? The wings are effective at attracting the flyfisher, not so much the fish..... No???

 

[Sam Roffe]

I seem to have better luck for the bigger picky fish with a very simple adult that I tie that looks very close to this one:
View attachment 26707

I don't fray the cord in front since it's a pain in the ass when tying a knot. I also use smaller eyes. And I'm better with the pen than this pic.

I get more overall action with the bright blue ones, that also happen to have actual wings, but the more drab one seems to work better for the pigs.

Super simple to tie and def one of my favorite ways to catch trout. So fun.

I could never keep that type of damsel floating at that famous lake people speak of. i would tie a foam head on my fly. Cut my teeth catching trout on a damsel fly at that famous lake.

 

[Merle]

I too have had fun with adult damsels at RF. In that I live about 20 minutes from the crick, perhaps I should go try it this week....

I was really new to flyfishing and had gotten these damsels at a Flyshop in downtown Renton (The Royal Coachman). I think they were tied with a bundle of dyed blue bucktail for the extended body. I thought they looked so cool!

It was like magic, I just walked up to the creek, saw a fish in the shallows and splashed the fly down on the water. The fish cruised right over and slurped it up. So easy, I thought I had the flyfishing game all figured out! But soon learned that they don’t all come that easy.

Years later I learned that slow stripping olive damsel fly nymphs (about a month earlier in the season) worked well at the Ford also!

 

[Kilchis]

Templates.

 

[Cowlitz Bottomfeeder]

I could never keep that type of damsel floating at that famous lake people speak of. i would tie a foam head on my fly. Cut my teeth catching trout on a damsel fly at that famous lake.

Everyone is right! The braided ones work better in flat water but they don’t float well. The foam body ones don’t work in flat water but they float like a cork and catch fish when the lake is rough.

 

[Cowlitz Bottomfeeder]

Does anyone fish a tandem damsel pattern? On the real ones the front one is blue and the rear one is white. It might help to avoid hooking fish so deep. Two of the Rainbows I caught this year took it so deep that they bled out.

 

[Sam Roffe]

Everyone is right! The braided ones work better in flat water but they don’t float well. The foam body ones don’t work in flat water but they float like a cork and catch fish when the lake is rough.

I actually used the braid tail and foam head. Made a good compromise. And that's what I was taught to tie so,... I don't have many left. Might be time to tie some more up, after I tie my Clousers and poppers...

 

[Ron McNeal]

I actually used the braid tail and foam head. Made a good compromise. And that's what I was taught to tie so,... I don't have many left. Might be time to tie some more up, after I tie my Clousers and poppers...

Bingo!

 

[Travis Bille]

There’s a lake I fish once or twice a year that is lined on three sides by horsetails. One time several years ago and another time last month I encountered fish taking damsels off the reeds. I could hear them, but only occasionally see them. I have a couple damsel patterns that I have only used on those two occasions. Cast back into the reeds where you think the fish is, twitch the fly, and be ready. It makes for really fun fishing!

I've seen this at Manzanita Lake in Lassen Volcanic National Park. This big old brown would launch itself out of the water and go flying in to the reeds, knocking damselflies in to the water, and then it would circle back around and slurp them up. It was one of the coolest things I've ever seen!