Damselfly Lifecycle
Damselflies have a three part life cycle that progresses from egg to nymph to adult. After mating, the adult female crawls down shoreline vegetation (rushes, tules) into the water to deposit her eggs. With time, these eggs will hatch directly into small versions of the damselfly nymph. While maturing, nymphs hide amongst shoal vegetation and under rocks preying on small invertebrates such as scuds and mayfly nymphs. Once mature, damsels migrate towards shoreline vegetation to hatch into adults.
Nymphs swim though the water with a rapid undulating motion and frequently pause on their journey towards the shore. Upon reaching shore, the nymph crawls up out of the water onto shoreline vegetation to transform into an adult. Once in the terrestrial world, the nymph emerges out of it’s nymphal form through a split in it's wingcase. The damsel then pumps fluids into its wings and body to lengthen these appendages. On Vancouver Island, hatches of damselflies can be expected to occur anywhere from early to late June depending upon lake elevation and water temperature.
Fishing this Pattern
There are a couple of ways to fish the nymph. During non-hatch conditions I use an ultra fast sink line to fish the nymph close to the bottom. During a hatch I use a intermediate sink or a floating line to imitate nymphs that are swimming close to the water surface. In both instances I use a hand twist retrieve that is fairly rapid followed by 2-3 quick strips followed by a short pause. This imitates the side to side undulating motion of the nymph. I mostly fish nymphs on shoals and along water depth changes. Along drop offs I cast my flyline out, let it sink to the desired depth and retrieve towards shore.
Alternately I will cast along the depth change and retrieve the fly. On shoals I use a long leaders (15 -20 feet) in conjunction with a floating line. When I observe fish rising near the shoreline or bumping vegetation to dislodge emerging damsels, I will often cast a damsel to the riseform. In these situations the trout usually picks up the fly before you even begin your retrieve. The fly can also be trolled very slowly while the flyfisher wiggles the rod tip slightly side to side to create small S’s in the flyline.
MATERIALS REQUIRED:
HOOK: Tiemco Nymph (200R) or Mustad 9672 #14 to #10
THREAD: Olive brown or to match body colour
TAIL: Marabou (olives, browns and yellows)
BODY: Marabou (olives, browns and yellows)
THORAX: Marabou or dubbing to match body colour
WINGCASE/LEGS: Olive dyed pheasant rump
EYES: Melted monofilament, plastic dumb-bell eyes or glass beads
Tying Hints:
- Imparting fluidity in the fly is crucial to creating an effective damsel pattern.
Although life-life patterns may look more deadly, simplistic patterns that
imitate the motion of a natural are almost always more effective. In essence,
do not get hung up on making your flies look realistic, tie them so that they
MOVE in a realistic manor. Although not included in the tying instructions
I often weight the thorax portion of my damsel patterns.
- Making your own damselfly eyes is easy and inexpensive. I make mine out of monofilament line and glass beads. To do so, melt one end of a piece of mono-filament, place the two glass beads on the open end, trim the mono to the appropriate length and then melt the remaining end to complete the eyes.
Step 1: Position the eyes approximately 5-7
mm from the hook eye and secure with figure eight loops around the eye
axis. Tie in a marabou tail and wind the thread to within 3-4 mm behind
the eyes. The length of the tail should approximate the overall length
of the hook. Next, wind the butt ends of the marabou towards the hook
eye to form a slim body. Next, secure and cut the excess material. I
prefer to trim the body to keep it slim but a fluffy state can be retained
for added movement. 
Step 2: Tie in the olive dyed pheasant rump
to be used as the thorax cover / legs using the same technique as outlined
in 