About the Blue Damsel Trout Fly

This is arguably my No.1 weapon against those infuriating summer - leapers that chase the real ones and the Dragon Flies. A bit of effort tying this one, but the results can be very dramatic. Often worth fishing with short floating lines ie pick-up and replace often; leave only a few seconds on the water.

Expert Tip:

Creator of this trout fly: Roger Butler

Tier of this trout fly: Roger Butler

Country of origin for this trout fly: Tasmania

This trout fly is designed to be fished on Rivers & Streams, Still Water fish

Dressings

• Hook : 12 (extra long shank)
• Thread : Blue or Green to match the Damsel colour
• Tail : Cock hackle feather approx. 2/3 hook length (Dyed Madona Blue)
• Body : Peacock herl wound on from tail to 2/3rds toward eye - then
• Palmering : Tie in small (6 -8 cm long) blue cock hackle and palmer back to the tail
• Ribbing : Yellow silk (or substitute) from tail to end of herl tying in the palmered cock hackle.
• Head Hackle : made up of three different coloured cock feathers - Blue on first from end of ribbing, then ginger and last Green (dark). These should be half as big again as the palmered feather. ie 10 -12cms long. Just tie in the stems as follows, first (blue) concave facing the eye of hook then ginger and green with the concave of feather facing the bend.
• This helps form a (side-on view) cone effect with the fibres and helps travel through the air when casting.
• Now, wind on Blue to the eye leavind a mm or two to finish off. Then wind the Ginger through the blue and finally the Green through both and tie / whip finish.

The end result should be a thick robust hackle that looks iridescent in the sun light. NB. If you reverse the Green for the Blue throughout the pattern and tie on the #10 B800 with slightly larger hackle feathers the end result seems to work well as a Dragon Fly imitation. Kamasan B410