Daves Damsel No1

braveheart · #1 (**permalink**) 24-05-2006, 10:06 AM

Reproduced by kind permission of Dave Downie (Daver)

While I was tyeing these damsels for Toshy I decided to do a step by step for them also.

The First one is pretty deadly on small stillwaters and I believe was devised by Arthur Wilkie of Wilkies flies.

The Second one on the other post is the one I devised and has won many competitions and caught many fish. I do prefer to use my own Damsel but if it slows down I change to a Red BEad version of mine or this one here.

Dressing: -

Hook: - size 8 or size 10 B175 (I prefer and 8)
Tail: - Damsle Olive Marabou from FlyFishingWorld (Definite Advantage Range of Materials)
Rib: - Red Wire
Body: - Angel Hair Dark Olive or Emerald Green
Hackle: - Dyed Honey Olive Grizzle (Definite Advantage)
Bead: - 4mm Fl.Red Painted Bead. (Definite Advantage)

Step 1

I usually prepare anything up to 30 hooks at a time and leave them in some foam for later use. Push the bead onto the hook shank with the smaller hole first.

Step 2

Offer up a good amount of Damsel Olive Marabou about 2.5 inches long, you can go longer if you wish. Not too thick though about 1" worth off the plume of marabou and tie in.

Step 3

Now tie in your red wire about medium thickness for your rib.

Step 4

Dub onto your thread your angel hair or flashbrite as long as it is shiny and olive in colour or emerald green. Darker colours are better than the more lighter olive dubbings for this pattern.

Step 5

Wind up your dubbing to right behind the eye as you can see in the picture it is a very nice cylindrical shape to the body of the fly.

Step 6

Tie in your honey olive grizzle hackle. I dye these myself so that I get the right shade everytime. The hackle barb size should be big enough to just go beyond the point of the hook gape.

Step 7

Now run down the body of the fly palmering the hackle with 5 turns only, and then catch in the hackle at the bend with your red wire and only use 4 turns to secure the hackle down as seen in the picture.

Step 8

Tie off the wire and trim the hackle and wire back, whip finish twice as I do not varnish these flies as the thread is too close to the bead.

I hope you all enjoy using this pattern, but the next one I am going to post is awesome for rainbows.

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