I've always thought of the damsel as a really good imitative fly yet it seems to get called a lure.
Robbie's picture of a nymph in the gallery made me think about posting this.
[attachimg=1]
Cheers
Ardbeg
It depends on the dressing and the way it is fished, in my view.
A real damsel nymph is what? an inch and a half long if it is lucky and it has a tapering abdomen and a slow wriggling swimming motion.
Many "damsels" have too much marabou in the tail and this doesn't slim down to be an effective true to life imitation, so in that sense it becomes a lure in my opinion.
They will all catch fish though.
Alex
I'm not sure it matters to be honest. A parachute Olive with a McFlylon wing post does not look much like any living fly I have seen. It's not the size that matters, its what you do with it. :D
Quote from: haresear on March 27, 2009, 11:44:00 PM
..........A real damsel nymph is what? an inch and a half long if it is lucky ..........
And a real tadpole is about a centimetre and a half long.
They're all just woolly buggers with or without the palmered hackle, and with or without weight at the front. Names of artificial flies often mean next to nothing.
.D.
Quote from: admin on March 28, 2009, 09:52:58 AM
I'm not sure it matters to be honest. A parachute Olive with a McFlylon wing post does not look much like any living fly I have seen. It's not the size that matters, its what you do with it. :D
And you could easily fish a no-hackle Elk Hair Caddis on a size 14 in the coming week and pick up plenty of trout feeding on LDOs.
Freds right. put a size 10 orange hopper on a hi-d and strip it and it's a lure. Tie a minky on a size 14 hook and fish slowly and its a nymph..
OK.
I finally got around to knocking up a few of these much vaunted TTs on LS 8s and 10s. Not really the kind of fly I generally tie, so it's not perfect. A bit of a pain to throw together as well, hence the blood on the vice :tears;.
(http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u178/_d_07/2009/tt.jpg)
I suppose they get lots of big stoneflies and "hoppers" on the kind of rivers it was originally devised for. They're not going to be a big part of a trout's diet at the surface on my local river.
So, If I fish that fly as a dry on my local river, is it a lure? :worms
And does it matter? :P
.D.
PS - I've read a few accounts mentioning stripping it in really quickly as a streamer, but that's a different matter.
Quote from: .D. on March 28, 2009, 04:03:00 PM
And does it matter? :P
not a
fuck bit...................... :D
All flies, like good looking women, are lures that may or may not lead some unfortunate creature to its doom.
Nice fly BTW .D. I wish I had you tying skills.
Here are photo's of one of the damsels I tie, I would think that it's far from being called a lure.
(http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/ww43/gpbataille/damsel02.jpg)
(http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/ww43/gpbataille/damsel01.jpg)
I also tie some others using micro mink zonker instead of the woven marabou tail
QuoteHere are photo's of one of the damsels I tie, I would think that it's far from being called a lure
That is an excellent tiying Southfly and much more realistic than some "damsel nymphs". What size do you tie them, overall?
Alex
It was tied on a size 14 grub hook, unfortunately my damsel patterns were in a fly box that I forgot in South Africa when I moved up to Scotland. I guess the total length looking at the hook size is maybe a little more than an inch in length.
Usually I'm lazy, I take a piece of mink zonker for the abdomen. I shave off the hair (I keep this to dub the thorax) except for a little tuft for the gills. Then using a needle, I lay a few turns of olive thread over the abdomen to try an acheive a segmented look. It results in a much more durable fly than the Flemmish woven marabou body of the one I've posted (though the woven abdomen does look more impressive ;-) )
Quote from: SouthFly on April 02, 2009, 05:03:41 PM
It was tied on a size 14 grub hook, unfortunately my damsel patterns were in a fly box that I forgot in South Africa when I moved up to Scotland. I guess the total length looking at the hook size is maybe a little more than an inch in length.
Usually I'm lazy, I take a piece of mink zonker for the abdomen. I shave off the hair (I keep this to dub the thorax) except for a little tuft for the gills. Then using a needle, I lay a few turns of olive thread over the abdomen to try an acheive a segmented look. It results in a much more durable fly than the Flemmish woven marabou body of the one I've posted (though the woven abdomen does look more impressive ;-) )
If your fly is just over an inch long, that makes it an even more impressive tying.
Any chance of a photo of your mini zonker version. It sounds interesting, especially to a lazy git like me :)
Alex
It's about 1 1/4 inch total length, so it's not too small, beats trying to tie a size 22 kinkhammer ;-)
Like I mentioned, I forgot my damsel box back in SA so I don't have any to photograph, I'll try and get round to tying one up, just need to check if I can find suitable zonker (the leather can't be too thick)
The most painful thing about moving to Scotland was that I didn't want to risk flying in with all my skins and capes with the bird flu restrictions, i donated 2 tesco's bags full of capes and skins to a group that I use to be involved with, we use to go to schools etc to do fly fishing development to get the youngsters involved in fly fishing and fly tying, at least it went to a good cause. Thus, I donated all the zonker I had, most of it really big stuff for tying things similar to pike flies.