Damsel fly nymphs

[richarda]

Just thiunking of tying up a few damsel nymphs but could not decide on the best patten or hybrid patten.

Any ideas?

[Braveheart]

My all time favourite Damsel..

Hook.. Kamasan B175 #10
Tail.. Olive Marabou
Body.. Wound Olive Marabou
Rib.. Pearl
Head.. quite large Fluorescent Green Thread.

Weighted or unweighted it's a killer ;D

[buzz]

As above,however, a gold head seems to increase my catch rate.

[Daver]

Go have a look through this section, i have included 2 step by step dressings with pictures for my top 2 damsels

cheers

Dave

[Gander]

The "Secret Squirrel".

Hook - 12# Wet fly (eg Kamasan B175 or B170)
Thread - Danvilles Olive. (Has a brownish tinge to it).
Tail - Pinch of Brown Olive Rabbit or Marabou.
Body - Brown Olive Squirrel dub.
Rib - Copper wire.
Throat hackle - Pinch of Brown Partridge hackle fibres.

Flashback version has a shell of Pearl medium tinsel.

I can't understand why the majority of anglers stick ridgedly to green olive for this type of pattern. The naturals colouration varies greatly, but in my experience a brownish olive is more the norm than green.

Easily one of my best patterns, especially the flashback.

[tomstone]

i must admit to trying differant shades of olive green-brown maraboo/grizzly maraboo for my damsels as they do change colour depending on the time of year darker in the winter lighter in the summer
pattern wise i haven't got a lot more to add apart from it is worth having a brighter area around the head of fly as they do have a slight candesen glow around this area, a fluro yellow silk or fluro yellow dubbing added to the thorax i have found to be ideal for me personally

[Dougie]

Try this fella, works on the same principal as the Nomad in it's action.

Hook - FM Comp Heavyweight #8. Slide on a rainbow bead, then wrap 8-10 turns of fine lead wire to give weight. Superglue the bead onto the lead wraps but leave a gap of 2mm between bead and eye of hook.

Tail - (under) small pinch of Chartreuse Wing n' Flash. (over) Olive marabou.

Body - Olive Glister mixed with olive squirrel, about 70:30

Rib - Clear mono

Hackle - Olive partridge IN FRONT of rainbow bead.

Give it a go - works a treat.

Dougie.

[Hambo]

I'm with Gander on this one.
I've always found a brown damsel deadly.
I generally tie them with a marabou tail, either marabou wound round the body or flexifloss, a gold rib, gold head and sometimes also use a marabou wing.

[richarda]

thanks for these replies I will try to tye up a few.

[buzz]

I have information that was not previously available to me.
Davers web site has a small comp size Damsel that Kills. I tied a couple up a week ago and it has now caught me a bucket full of fish. I tried it earlier in the week and i caught 3 on it. Today i tried it on a different water and i caught 8 on it in less that 4 hours. I even tried it on three positions on the cast and it caught every time. What makes it all the sweeter particularly today was no one else was catching. It seemed to work by letting it drift then a couple of small twitches or a very slow figure of 8, all on a floating line. All the takes were super confident and i think i only missed one or two.
If you know Daver buy him a pint fro me!

[Daver]

What do you mean buzz you aint too far form me and I spend a lot of time on the clyde up your way

Cheers

Dave Downie