Jazzed Up Damsel Nymph

[albannachxcuileag]

This little feller has been good to me since leaving the vice a few months back and is well worth inclusion in your box for still water fishing for Browns and Rainbows. A nice easy tie and effective to boot!

 

Materials:-

 

Hook - Partridge Big Mouth Nymph Size 14

Thread - Olive UTC 140 Denier

Tail Flash - Mother of Pearl Crystal Hair or similar

Tail - Olive Marabou

Body - Veniard's Olive Ice Straggle

Eyes - 3mm Plain Silver Dumbbell painted with yellow glass paint. (I have used Lefranc & Bourgeois No. 144 Sun Yellow. This make is the better of the two brands commonly available in craft shops, the other has a tendency to harden in the pot after a while)

 

The tying

 

Mount your hook in the vice. I have taken a liking to these hooks for mini lure styles as they give you great hooking capability on heavily dressed flies. Their quoted size belies the actual appearance resembling an ultra short shanked 8 rather than the size 14 it really is.

 

 

Start your thread at the eye and run it back along the shank for about 4 mm in preparation for attaching the eyes.

 

 

Tie in the dumbbell eyes with figure of eight tyings, you can secure this further by applying a drop of liquid super glue or varnish if required.

 

 

Run your thread along the shank to the start of the bend ready to construct the tail.

 

 

Fold a single strand of Crystal Hair or similar material twice and tie it onto the hook returning the thread to the start point at the bend. Trim this to about two hook lengths, if longer you will get fish nipping at the tail and miss the take.

 

 

Take a medium sized clump of marabou and prepare it by stripping the flue from the stems using your thumbnail, this avoids bulking up the body too much.

 

[albannachxcuileag]

Tie this in securely and again return the thread to the start point ready for the body material. Trim the length of the marabou to that of the Crystal Hair by pinching the excess off with your nails.

 

 

I use Veniard's Ice Straggle here but you can use any similar product. Tie it in and run the thread up the body and leave hanging below the eyes as this will keep it out of the way.

 

 

Wrap the straggle in touching turns up the body stroking the fibres back to avoid trapping them with the next turn.

 

 

Cut the excess straggle off and secure well behind the eyes. Make a whip finish in front of the eyes and varnish the thread.

 

 

Using your dubbing needle take a small drop of the glass paint and cover the domed part of the eye on both sides. The eyes I use have a very slight ridge on the edge and I ease the paint into this. This glass paint is the translucent type and does not require a thick covering as you want the reflective property of the silver to shine through the paint.

 

 

Your completed Jazzed Up Damsel should look like this at the end. When the glass paint dries the effect is much more pronounced on the eye.

 

 

Fish as you would a normal Damsel over the weed beds and along the margins using a jerky figure of eight retrieve, vary the speed during the retrieve for effect.

 

Another variation of this uses black marabou with strands of Krenik metallic thread in the tail and a black UV straggle by Veniard's with the eyes painted red.

 

TLs

 

I need to learn to spell properly and avoid all the mods!

[bulltrout]

pretty slick...mind if i tie some up with a slight modification (adding a rib over a plastic shellback like a scud)?

[albannachxcuileag]

dbt,

 

I have no objections at all to what anyone does to something I created, that is what fly tying is about. Create an idea, throw it out and see what happens. There are too many who try to 'patent' flies' for their moment of fame and I am not one of those.

 

I might give your idea a whirl too!

 

For the people by the people!