Weekly Featured Fly

 

In this section we will update weekly with the fly that has been most prominent in the weeks catch reports

The Damsel Nymph

 

 

 

The Damselfly larva(nymph) is an important part of the trouts diet, hatching from the eggs, larva spend typically one to three years in ponds, rivers and lakes and are carnivorous, feeding on Daphnia, Midge larva and various other small organisms and are generally more active during the spring time.

 

The Damselfly larva is usually around one inch long, maybe slightly bigger, which shows that most flies tied as representations of the natural are actually way oversized and more of an olive lure than a close representation of the larva. However there is no arguing that these large representations can be absolutly deadly, possibly because when tied with a goldhead or dumbell eyes at the front and marabou tail at the back, fished with a figure of eight retreive it would give the same erratic swimming motion as the natural or it could be that the fish are used to seeing plenty of bright lures and success can be found by fishing a more sombre fly like a large olive damsel.

 

This is an ideal point fly when fishing a team of nymphs or buzzers on the droppers or fished as a single fly, some days the fish seem to like the slowest possible figure of eight retrieve and sometimes it can be the opposite with a fast, jerky figure of eight being more effective, it pays to experiment. At this time of year any active Damsel Larva will be on the lake bed where they stalk their prey, so thats the place to fish your damsel nymph. Around the spring time is when the larva become far more active and make their way up in the water to climb up the bankside vegetation and transform into adults.

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