Davis Lake Damsel are back

[gene goss]

The water temp. is 60 deg; and one of the biggest Damsels fly hatches is coming off....with last year Eagle Lake trout swirling on the damsel at the usually places.....some of the trout are very large...... a 3x leader and a stout hook will help land these prime Eagle Lake trout in a timely manner for next year.

[OceanSunfish]

Great report and glad to hear the damsels are alive and well.

Thanks for sharing.

[Rick J]

I've heard several reports from others as well. When Don and I were out two weeks ago we did not see one damsel. But the weed beds were aready close to the surface in a number of the bays we checked out

This makes me very happy that the damsels did not get hit. Just hope the same holds true for the blood midges!

[gene goss]

Rick what is you favorite Damsel nymphs.......I ran through my Damsel fly box twice last weekend and nothing stood out as the number one fly.....I caught a couple of very nice trout a day......but none of the flies stood out.

[Rick J]

I prefer to crazy glue one of the little bast..rds onto a bare hook

Acutally I have several and sometimes they work and sometimes they don't but likely my favorite is tied on a short shank scud hood and I use a long sparse marabou tail (I sometimes tie thread near the end of the tail to keep the slim profile). I use burnt mono eyes and a wing case.

One of the things that seems to work pretty well at times is I use a very tiny piece of cork slipped on the leader maybe just a few inches from the fly (tie a surgeons in the tippet to keep the cork in place). I can't even see the cork but this keeps the fly suspended right in the surface where I often see the nymphs swimming. Seems that casting it near working fish and letting it just hang with very small twitches works better than fast strips most of the time.

But in the end, when there are several thousand damsels competing with your bug and the fish are moving fast, it is just a crap shoot - but an exciting one for sure!!

[gene goss]

Thanks Rick I'll try that with a small cork float. A couple of years ago i talk to Don Rotsma about a good damsel fly.... He gave me a red eye damsel fly and told me to use a indicater to fish it. I think my indicater was to big and bright.

[Rick J]

Gene - That red-eyed damsel works pretty well and I still use red mono eyes sometimes. Go figure but about 3 years ago a black damsel was just killer!

A few years ago was when Don and I came up with the tiny piece of cork to try and keep the fly right in the film. That is still my best producing method most of the time. I am not sure where I found the cork but they are small round tubes maybe 1/4 inch in diameter and 1/2 inch long - I usually cut them in half so it is only about 1/4 inch long - thread it on with a needle. I can put this even a couple of inches from the fly and it just blends in but keeps the fly right in the surface.

I normally put a strip of lead on the underside of the hook shank near the head. This gives the fly a bit of a jigging action and helps undulate the tail some when I twitch it and the cork still keeps it in the film where I want it

[mike N]

Here is a damsel fly pattern I used to tie for Davis. I have only fished Davis a few times, but I have given a few of these bugs in damsel colors to a few people and most have given it good reviews. My success with this style fly was good, too.


MN

[FRSam]

I'll back you on that one Mike. I fish Davis quite a bit and Mike's damsel is one very effective pattern.

Pete

[gene goss]

Mike thats a very nice looking Damsel i like the tail.....what type of retrive would you use to make that tail work....or would you fish it with a small float and just let it sit.