In a message dated 3/4/02 4:35:13 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
<< Because it is so simple in design I feel that someone, somewhere must have tied and fished such a fly before. >> ...and you are probably right. The first fly I ever "made up" was a damsel fly using a little snatch of olive marabou for the tail and body. I added wire ribbing, and some small lead Bar-bell eyes, and thought I had really come up with something... until I happened to look in Stewart and Allens book "Flies for Trout" and saw a half dozen damsels tied in the same basic idea. As Tony says "there's nothing new under the sun"... although Gary LaFontaine proved otherwise... with a vengance! By the way, I had a spectacular day with that little marabou fly last year in a lake in Utah's Uinta mountains. Bright, beautiful holdover Rainbow trout were slaming that fly, then dancing and skipping as they fought. A wonderful memory spiced up a bit by a power-bait fisherman who brought his canoe to the EXACT spot where I had been fising (I had taken my pontoon boat to the shore to find some bushes to answer nature's call). He had a kid on board, so I really didn't mind. After doing my business I went out and over 30 yards and started pulling them in again. Each time I had a fish on, the kid would say "Daddy, that man caught another fish" . Trying to be friendly I yelled that they were really hitting Damsel fly nymphs, and would have offered some for his kid to fish with a bobber, but he just glowered at me like I was mocking him. After I caught a couple of more fish, the man, still fishless, paddled away in disgust. I honestly felt sorry for the kid, and would have loved to see him catch a fish, but I still am not secure enough in my own fishing abilities to not enjoy showing up a bait fisherman. Lord knows I've been on the otherside of the story.
