Dragon Flys

[Kimo 0]

Dragonfly Adult.



Kimo

[Fletchfishes 0]

Some of the best video of trout eating Damsel flies ever:

 

[Flat Rock native 0]

Kimo, that dragon looks like a great impression. How does it cast?

[Kimo 0]

Kimo, that dragon looks like a great impression. How does it cast?

Like a pain in the okole!

More of a lob really. Fortunately, the wings are made of fiber

so the propelling is not as bad as solid wings.

The problem is when the bass are really keying in on

dragons this thing kills them.

The abdomen is crimped fly line.

 

Kimo

[vicrider 0]

Fletchfish, this is a direct link to the video I think you wanted us to see. Amazing video.

 

[Bimini15 0]

No trout fisherman here, but awesome nonetheless.

Thanks for posting it.

[Jokey 0]

That video makes me all gooey inside. Just awesome.

 

J

[Fletchfishes 0]

Fletchfish, this is a direct link to the video I think you wanted us to see. Amazing video.

 

Thanks! I thought my link was working - must be just working on my end. In any case you've gotta love that video.

[SilverCreek 0]

Two identical videos, one says dragon flies and the other says damsel flies. They look more like damsels to me especially since the video was shot by Sharptail Media (the Vimeo Video) and Sharptail Media identifies the insects a damsels and not dragons. I've seen this type of feeding behavior on Hebgen Lake to the hovering damsels.

Unlike dragon flies, damsel flies deposit the eggs under water by walking down the stems of the reeds. They are underwater and and the trout take them underwater. See how long the damsels spend underwater in the video below.

Some tiers have used foam to modify the pattern to guarantee a floating fly.

I mentioned this to Gary and he asked me whether the tiers had thought he had not considered foam. According to Gary, the trout can concentrate on the drowned damsels and the foam pattern cannot imitate drowned damsels because they always float. So tie the standard pattern first and add a few foam ones if you want. Compare the Borger damsel with other damsel patterns and you will note how realistic the braided butt pattern looks compared to foam, dyed deer hair, twisted yarn, or dubbed abdomen patterns. None of these adequately match the thin abdomen of the natural insect as the braided mono abdomen.

And use a strong tippet. The vicious take can often break you off.

Borger Damsel tying instructions:

http://www.garyborger.com/flies-and-fly-tying/braided-butt-damsel/

Blue Damsel photo

Borger Blue Damsel below:

Jason Borger wrote in his blog:”"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….”

And use a strong tippet. The vicious take can often break you off.

Another point is that the stage before the mature blue damsel is the brown teneral phase. You can use a brown color marker to match the mono to tie up a few teneral patterns. The brown teneral patterns will also match brown dragon flies.

[Kentuckysteve 0]

Great info Silver and a nice Damselfly pattern from Gary Borger.His pattern does look more realistic than the foam patterns but the braided mono would float also right?I like his pattern and i am going to tie a few of them.I do not have braided mono leader to use so i am going to try using a twisted or furled mono leader.Once i heat seal the end to prevent it from untwisting it should work the same but may not appear as realistic as the braid.Thanks for posting this.

[SilverCreek 0]

Great info Silver and a nice Damselfly pattern from Gary Borger.His pattern does look more realistic than the foam patterns but the braided mono would float also right?I like his pattern and i am going to tie a few of them.I do not have braided mono leader to use so i am going to try using a twisted or furled mono leader.Once i heat seal the end to prevent it from untwisting it should work the same but may not appear as realistic as the braid.Thanks for posting this.

 

 

It will sink if you do NOT put floatant on the fly and you wet the pattern before casting.

 

There is also a technique called "blow line fishing" when you see trout taking hovering damsels. "Blow line fishing" is a technique described by both Gary LaFontaine and Gary Borger. This is an old technique written about in 1857.

http://tinyurl.com/atpchr5

Gary Borger wrote about the modern variation in his book, Presentation pg 286. In Gary Borger's technique you use untwisted polypropylene yarn that is flatten and ironed to straighten the fibers. Then you form a "kite" out of it by whipping finishing a loop into it and attaching it to the end of your fly line and then attaching 2 feet of 2x or 3x mono to the "kite". The heavy tippet material is to prevent break offs. The strikes are vicious.

When there is enough wind blowing from off shore, you raise your fly rod and the use the wind to make the fly hover and dap the water surface just like a hovering damsel fly.

You can read Gary LaFontaine's article.

Gary Borger's kite technique is more adaptable I think and the wind does not have to be gale force.

[Kentuckysteve 0]

Interesting technique.I can see how it would work if you were in the perfect condition's to use this method but it would probably not be so easy trying to get the fly to hover in a certain spot and not be blown everywhere.There definitely would be a learning curve.

[vicrider 0]

There would be a good use of the tenkara type rods. Long, light line, and dapping in moderate breezes should be fairly easy compared to a 7' rod.