The Daedalian Damsel (lake nymphs)
from Skip Morris' book, "The Art of Tying the Nymph, 1993"
One evening, Bob Guard and Ken Fujii decided to construct the perfect damselfly-nymph imitation. It was well that they started early and were willing to stay up late, because even with their years of fishing the damselfly hatch and fly tying behind them it was a formidable task.
They began with these ground rules: It must be easy and quick to tie, durable, simple, and it must have all the most significant features of real damsel nymphs. After trying all the conventional approaches, they explored their most fanciful notions and produced flies that ranged from ornate, exact replicas to ragged bits of green.
They gave up on the idea that any artificial could create the same sinewy sculling motion of a swimming damsel, but they did conclude that a soft, fluffy fly would pulse and look alive in water and in that way, suggest movement. What they came up with is clever, it follows their ground rules, and it works.
In retrospect, it is surprising that they came up with the Daedalian Damsel in a single evening.
Normally it is easy enough to find adequately long marabou strands; just use the ones nearest the base of the plume. Remember that the more fibers you use, the less of their length it will take to cover the shank and the more you will have remaining for wing case and legs; a section covering 1 1/2" to 2" of the stem is usually about right.
Another marabou saver is to slightly spread the marabou turns over the front half of the shank. Occasionally you will get marabou that is short, in which case you can simply wrap the marabou to the eye and then spread it for legs, without forming the wing case at all.
Another trick is to use 3/0 thread and simply leave its end loose at the bend; then you can use the end of the thread as ribbing in place of the copper wire. If you wet the marabou, it is easiest to handle.
Damselfly nymphs swim in a slow, snakelike manner with occasional pauses; make your Daedalian Damsel do the same.
"Daedalian" comes from "Daedalus," a character from Greek mythology. Daedelus created something ingenious - a labyrinth - did something stupid - got himself and his son imprisoned in it - and then escaped by creating something ingenious - wings that strapped to the arms.
So "Daedalian" should mean "something ingenious followed by something stupid followed by something ingenious", but the stupid part and the second ingenious part have been discarded leaving "Daedalian" to mean "ingenious"; for that, the Daedalian Damsel is well named.
Daedalian Damsel
HOOK: Regular to heavy wire, 3X or 4X long, humped or straight shank, sizes 12 to 8 (the hook shown is a Gamakatsu F-16)
THREAD: A color to match the marabou in 8/0 or 6/0
RIB: Fine copper wire
ABDOMEN, THORAX, WING CASE, LEGS: Olive or brown marabou fibers
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fly-tying tools available in our online fly shop.
1. Start the thread about 1/8" behind the eye, tie in the copper wire using a light turn. Hold the copper wire along the near side of the shank as you spiral the thread down it and the shank to the bend.
2. Strip some long marabou fibers from the base of a plume. Using the pinch, secure them at the bend with two tight turns of thread.
3. Lift the fibers and spiral the thread forward to about 1/16" behind the eye. Twist the marabou slightly, and then wrap it up the shank to the end of the thread (about 1/8" behind the eye).
4. Secure the butts of the marabou atop the shank with tight thread tums. Wrap the wire up about three-quarters of the shank in four or five open spirals.
5. Pull the marabou's butts firmly back and secure them with a turn of wire atop the shank (three-quarters up the shank). Continue spiraling the wire forward to about 1/16" behind the eye. Secure the wire with thread turns, and then trim its end.
6. Pull the marabou's butts forward atop the shank and secure them with tight thread tums. Pinch the butts with one hand and use the thumbnail of your other to rip them to length. The trick is to pinch the marabou just tight enough to allow some fibers to break at the thread and others to shear off longer, a ragged, modestly thick effect. A few rips can be easier than one. If you have trouble ripping, use scissors. When you have enough ripped butts for legs, trim away the excess from atop the shank. Remember that damselflies have short legs and that they carry their legs well bent which makes the legs appear shorter yet.
7. Pull half the butts firmly to one side of the shank and half to the other (if you think you have too many butts, trim out some more). Wrap the thread back over the butts to secure them along and projecting out from the sides (it can help to secure one bunch at a time). Build a thread head, add a whip finish, trim the thread, and add head cement.
8. Here is how the butt-legs should appear from a top view.