Damsels

[danhunt]

I sat down at the vise last night to tie up some damsels and as I was picking through my marabou looking for the "right shade of green" it occurred to me that in lakes where I've seen a damsel migration I've often seen the nymphs in various shades from dark olive to almost chartreuse during the same event.  Has anyone else noticed this and/or has anyone noticed an appreciable difference in effectiveness using different colors? I think Dave Whitlock had a two tone light & dark olive pattern, maybe this is the way to go and save some space in the fly box instead of having multiple patterns?

[Frenchcreek]

I do mine in a two tone version, dark on top and lighter on bottom. I use PT for the top and mini wing case and marabou for the bottom and tail

[SilverDoctor]

I do mine with 2 mixed colors of Olive marabou for the tail and body, and a flashback using Flashabu. Mixes it up nicely.

[DonAndersen]

Dan,

ive seen the same thing. Lots of colours but mostly on the light green colour. I wonder if it related to the adults. There are dark olive and bright blue. They seem to be of either sex if using “who is on top” criteria.

 

Don

[monger]

Blue ones are the males

[Current]

Brian C figures fish become more fussy about size, shape, & colour as the larval emergence progresses. 

Good little article here: http://www.gofishbc.com/Blog/Fishing-Tips/Blog-5-(3).aspx

[ericlin0122]

i have very good luck with small and slim damsel nymph (size 12 c49s/gold rib/marabou/bead) in mountain lakes. light green is the colour i have most success with. through out the past years fishing ab/bc lakes, most common damsel sampled from fish were baby damsel in light green - to pale or almost transparent colour. 

[DonAndersen]

On 7/15/2019 at 12:27 PM, monger said:

Blue ones are the males

Monger,

lib that case, there are a lot of gay ones particularly in southern Alberta.

Don

[Sparkplug]

 

5 hours ago, DonAndersen said:

Monger,

lib that case, there are a lot of gay ones particularly in southern Alberta.

Don

 

Figured that suggestion was inevitably going to be made sooner or later in this thread...

Been seeing a lot of adults in past week in Calgary (damsels that is), not going to speculate as to male or female, almost all of them blue.

I would guess that regardless of adult coloration, the nymphs are all in that light green - dark olive/brown color?

 

 

[DonAndersen]

Some years ago on CBC I learned that damsels have two colours which can be either male or female. The researcher believed it was a defensive move to confuse predators. 

Females are better groceries due to egg mass.

 

Don 

[monger]

Looks like they are lighter soon after molting. I guess you would have to see how they are joined together to ID sex. Sorry for the bad info