Fly Fishing Forum banner

Dragonflies (by Orvis)

5K views 3 replies 3 participants last post by  Quentin 
#1 ·
OK, so I didn't tie these and I don't have the recipe, but they look pretty good :cool: . They're from the Orvis shop in Manchester, VT. I've tried the pink one a few times and had some sunfish nipping at it but haven't gotten a chance to cast it to an active largemouth yet. The wings do create some problems: they make a sound similar to having weeds on the hook, they limit the casting range a bit and they tend to twist the line. But they look awesome when the fly is on the water :D . I'm guessing that the body profile is more important anyway, so I might decide to trim the wings partially or completely depending on how the fly performs.
 

Attachments

See less See more
1
#2 ·
Pretty, pretty

Q,

Nice looking flies but my Chilean guide proved to me that these ugly dragons catch big trout when I was there fishing last November. I went through a dozen of these flies in a day on decent rainbows and browns that had a knack for finding underwater logs to wrap around.

See attached. I tied these uglies and I was amazed at how much the trout loved them. All that mattered was the profile and the color of the fly. Some days they wanted black, others gray etc. The tie uses foam that you cut with a pair of scissors and a little deer hair for wings. You double over the foam and wrap around the double layer to make a head. This guide claimed that dragon flies have translucent wings that cannot be seen very well when they are in or just above the water (especially if the wings are moving).

And these bad boys were a dream to cast.

Just throwing this horrible looking fly into the pile.

Best regards,

Mike
 

Attachments

#3 ·
Having played with draggon flies for a couple of years on warmwater fish a few years ago and eventually came to the conclusion that a gurgler worked as well as anything I came up. Tie it on a #12 hook with an extra long tail, and trim off the bottom hackle.

From those experiments I found that to hook sunfish you need a flexible tail that lets it bend enough to get the hook into the fishes mouth. Other wise lots of hits with ~ 5-10 % hooked. A stinger hook in the tail might work but I always figured it would hook me as often as fish.
 
#4 ·
Mike, I can see how those flies would attract some fish. Ugly is not a bad thing when it comes to flies :cool: .

John, I think I got one of your white dragonflies in a fly swap a while back. Not sure if I still have it :confused: .

I don't expect to catch many small fish on that pink dragonfly because it's tied on a bass bug hook and has a heavy mono weed guard. I'm hoping to try it out on some fish that will just engulf it rather than nip at it. The damselfly is tied on a smaller hook and would probably nab some of those little fish, but I'm not sure how durable it is so I'm saving it for a good dragonfly day when I can see bass jumping for them.

Q
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top