The Bug Eyed Damsel                                          

 

     My favorite pattern to fish is the Damsel. For years I went skunked when the damsels were hatching but a chance discussion with a fellow fisherman who encouraged me to "not forget about the damsel" fueled a desire to find a pattern that worked. Many years ago I lay on a foot bridge to an island at the crack of dawn watching nice trout pickoff the damsels that let go of the piles. I tied on the closest thing I had, a hairs ear and watched trout rush it and stop short and look for the telltale wiggle. I never had a fish spend more than a few seconds inspecting my offering and left discouraged. I was sure that motion was the key but could not think of any way to impart that seductive wiggle.

    With my friend's words pushing me on I started to read and was surprised to see in the years I was gone others had gotten interested in damsels. I studied the various patterns in Philip Rowley's book 'Fly Patterns for Stillwaters" and tied them all. I was not really happy with any of them and began to experiment and ended up with an amalgamation of all of them.

   I think the key to my pattern is a light hook and the hen hackle that helps slow the descent of the fly. Damsels sink very slowly when not swimming and that was my main aim, to have a fly that sunk very slowly. The seductive wiggle of the marabou and bug eyes help finish the illusion. I fish this fly on an intermediate line and retrieve very slowly, just fast enough to get the marabou waving. This takes a lot of self discipline as it feels like I'm doing nothing, takes are not hard but rather a tightening of the line. I hope you try it and give it a fair shake, that means retrieving slowly and not rushing. Good luck!!

 Materials are Daiichi 1550 hook size 12, Waspi Woolly Bugger marabou, fine olive dubbing, a thin thread, olive latex scud back, a hen hackle and eyes made from small beads and 30lb test mono.
  

     Heat one end of a short piece of mono to melting and press against the vice to create a stop for the beads, slide two beads onto the mono and then cut to a length that will allow another stop to be created and heat and stop. Tear a hank of marabou off the side of a marabou feather and tie in, aim to keep the overall length of the fly a one inch. I think it's important to use marabou off the side of the feather and keep the natural ends of the fibers, I'm not a fan of torn marabou as I feel the action is not the same as the natural ends. Next the eyes are figure eighted on the front of the hook, leave a little room to finish the fly at the end.

 

 

 

Tie in the 1/8" scud back material and dub a small thorax.



 







  

Prepare a hen hackle feather by cutting the end off and the pulling about 8 fibres forward.

 

 

 

 

Loosely bind the feather with two wraps of thread.

 

Pull the rubber over, not much tension and apply one wrap.

 

 

 

  

Gently pull on the feather until you have the desired amount of feather sticking out and then tighten and lay a few more tight wraps.

 

 

  

Cut the feather and pull the scud back between the eyes and secure at the front of the hook, whip finish. Color the mono that is sticking out of the beads a dark color.

 

 

The finished fly.

 

 

I also tie this fly with a larger single bead eye, this works better for commercial tying and I don't notice a difference between the two success wise.