Are These Damsel Fly Nymphs?

[dcfoster]

I've been trying to figure out what these flies are. Are they Damsel Fly Nymphs?

One is quite large with a deer hair body and wings coming out the side...

Could someone tell me the names of the flies and what box I should put them in (My trout box, bass box, panfish box etc.).

And lastly, how should they be fished? Under an indicator? Swung? Slow retrieve or erratic? Still trying to figure this out!

Thanks kindly.

 

[dillon]

They would pass for damsel and/or dragon fly nymphs and be good Stillwater flies for trout and warm water fishes. I would cast and strip them experimenting with various retrieves and speeds and depths. My line of choice would be a full sinking intermediate, but a floater or sink tip would also do.

 

[Lewis Chessman]

If you want to try an imitative retrieve have a look here (YouTube) at a real one swimming.
It's a good fly to fish with a steady figure-of-eight retrieve rather than a strip, i.e. keep it moving.

I'm not sure about the deer-hair fly being a nymph as deer-hair usually floats.
Could it be more of a cricket fly?

 

[philly]

I think first one is definitely a damsel fly nymph. The second could be a dragon fly nymph, but the more I look at it, I wonder if it isn't an attempt at a crayfish imitation. Either should work in lakes or streams.

 

[silver creek]

This video is from Bugs of the Underworld by Ralph and Lisa Cutter.

YouTube

Note the side to side swimming motion of the abdomen and tails and also the pauses. I suggest the strip/tease retrieve.

Gary Borger describes it in this June i989 Issue of Field and Stream on fishing damsel nymphs.

Field & Stream - Google Books

 

[flav]

Both are stillwater flies. Top one is a damsel. When they migrate to shore to hatch they swim just under the surface, otherwise they're pretty common around weedbeds. The other is a dragonfly nymph. It is made to fish with a sinking line, and because it's buoyant, it floats above the weeds.

 

[dcfoster]

This video is from Bugs of the Underworld by Ralph and Lisa Cutter.

YouTube

Note the side to side swimming motion of the abdomen and tails and also the pauses. I suggest the strip/tease retrieve.

Gary Borger describes it in this June i989 Issue of Field and Stream on fishing damsel nymphs.

Field & Stream - Google Books

That was an amazing video and a great article. Thanks so much for passing them on. I’ll never look at damsel flies the same ever again!


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[Rip Tide]

The second one is definitely a dragon fly
We've been regularly timing a trip to seek out the dragon fly hatch for the last 3-4 years.
To find the hatch on the first or second day is a guaranty of success, much like fishing a Hex hatch.
One thing that you need to understand about both damsels and dragons is when the hatch is on, they're always moving toward shore
Trout know that.

It's hard to see, but there's at least a dozen newly hatched dragon flies on these irises
.... from a float tube perspective...

 

[Lewis Chessman]

Both are stillwater flies. Top one is a damsel. When they migrate to shore to hatch they swim just under the surface, otherwise they're pretty common around weedbeds. The other is a dragonfly nymph. It is made to fish with a sinking line, and because it's buoyant, it floats above the weeds.

I get you.
dcfoster, lets say the lake has a weedy bottom with the weeds about a foot high. Make up a short leader, 3 or 4 ft only, so that the sunk line takes the fly down with it (the fly will 'want' to float because deer-hair is hollow and buoyant).
Give the line time to reach the bottom by when the fly should be suspended a foot or so above the weeds. A single longish strip retrieve will make the fly dart enticingly towards the weeds, then wait a few seconds for it to rise upwards again, as they do in silver creek's video, and repeat. It can help to actually count the seconds it takes for your line to hit bottom - and if you find yourself getting taken on the way down it can suggest fish are feeding at that particular depth at that time, so try it again for a few casts.
I'm sure there are many ways to present this fly, but that's how I would start with it.

 

[dcfoster]

Thanks for all the great details guys. This is like being in school!


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[silver creek]

This post is not about damsel fly nymphs, but about adult damsel fly patterns. View the video I posted earlier and look at how adult damsels lay their eggs at about 2 minutes in the Bugs of the Underworld video below.

YouTube

Notice that the females lay their eggs underwater and after they lay their eggs, the float back and die UNDERWATER!!!

Now google adult damsel fly patterns and you will find that the most popular ones like the one Charlie Craven ties are tied with FOAM!!! What does foam do? It prevents a fly from sinking under water!

Parachute Damsel Adult

The most famous blue damsel pattern and the pattern that Charlie Craven gives credit to is Gary Borger's Blue Damsel which did not use foam. Gary's son, Jason, was once asked about this, This is his reply:

"One question that I/we often get about this fly (inspired by a pattern that my father saw in New Zealand back in the 1980s) is, “Why don’t you use foam for the post, it floats better?” The answer is based on years of observing damselfly hatches and is fairly simple: because sometimes we want the fly to sink. If that sounds odd, keep in mind that “dry flies” (or perhaps more accurately “dry insects”) sometimes aren’t so dry…."

Indeed! One part of their adult life cycle requires that they are not only not dry, they are drowned. And how does a foam bodied fly ever imitate that trapped under the film presentation?

Tying instructions are below:

Gary Borger » Braided Butt Damsel

I wrote about my approach to damsels on this post.

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