A couple of my friends at Chopaka last week reported they had to resort to
fishing damsel nymphs on the surface, after getting numerous refusals to the
previouslly effective blue and brown damsel adults.
Damsels do require something solid and dry to emerge on. Tules, lakeside
rocks and stands of vegetation along the margins of lakes all seem to serve
well this purpose well, but we've all seen numbers of pre-emergent nymphs
swimming along the surface of lakes, hundreds of feet from the nearest solid
object. Theoretically, the nymphs should migrate from the deeper mid-lake
waters to the shallow, tule lined shallows days or even weeks prior to
emerging, but I think at times (perhaps due to rapid warming of the lake
water, sudden occurence of favorable weather conditions) some of these
nymphs get caught in deeper water and are forced to swim to the surface
regardless of whether or not there's adequate opportunity to climb out and
pop the husk. When these critters reach the surface, they're forced to head
for the nearest shore (or floating object - such as your float tube),
becoming ideal prey for trout. Under these conditions, a floating, or
semi-floating nymph makes sense.
As far as the 'cripple' part, I don't know. "Cripples" are fairly common in
mayfly emergences, the result of the mayfly's failure to completely get free
of the nymphal shuck, failure to extend or dry wings or various other
emergence malfunctions as well as the effects of adverse weather (rain
driven or wind-blown cripples). If you observe damsel shuck strewn tules
carefully, you will see the occassional "damsel cripple" as well, but these
are not easily accessible to trout. Personally, I've never seen true open
water emergences of damsels, so have not seen any open water damsel cripples
as well. I suppose its possible though; if nature calls and it's a long
haul to shore (or someone's float tube) I guess they would have to pop,
right there in the middle of nowhere. If that happened, I'm also guessing
you'd have a *lot* of cripples, since they'd have no way of successfully
extricating themselves from their nymphal shucks.
-Wes
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Richard Embry [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Wednesday, June 13, 2001 12:15 AM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Re: dragonfly and damsel fly emerger cripples?
>
>
> Just what is a "dragonfly emerger cripple" or "floating dragonfly emerger
> cripple"? I had someone last week at Lenice tell me he was
> catching fish on
> a 'damsel fly emerger'. I thought both of these critters do
> their thing on
> shore, not in the water. I guess I've missed something in that
> stage in the
> life-cycle of a dragonfly or damsel fly . . . ? Please explain.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Richard
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Andy Towell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Date: Tuesday, June 12, 2001 7:16 PM
> Subject: Re: sunfish at Lenice
>
>
> >My two cents on Sunfish and Hoppers...
> >
> >(also, Les had asked about the streamer that I was using - if interested
> see
> >http://www.northshoretu.org/white_streamer.jpg )
> >
> >My opinion on the hoppers was that the fish were taking them as dragonfly
> >emerger cripples. Not having any hoppers with me (or floating dragonfly
> >emerger cripples...) I did not get to participate in the dry fly action
> >(damsel dries were not the ticket). I did notice that the
> substantial wind
> >and wave action pushed a decent number of dragonfly shucks and
> at least one
> >dead dragonfly nymph out of the reed line and on to the surface
> film of the
> >lake, so maybe the fish were seeing enough of this floating out of the
> weeds
> >to readily accept the large hopper pattern - or maybe it was just a good
> day
> >to be fishing any large attractor, wet or dry. Any thoughts on this from
> >anyone? In either case, I guess I need to start throwing some
> big dries in
> >the normal lake arsenal.
> >
> >As for the sunfish, I wonder why WA DFW does not play around more with
> >various rainbow strains, like BC is doing, instead of jumping straight to
> >the idea of Browns or Tiger Muskies. I would be happy to
> participate in any
> >trips up to BC to borrow some Blackwater strain rainbows for DFW
> to use...
> >Alternatively, I remember hearing from a UW fisheries grad
> student a while
> >back that the Donaldson strain (steelhead/kamloops cross?) fish were
> >extremely aggressive. Maybe this applied only to lures and not potential
> >bait fish meals.
> >
> >Tight Lines (and keep those Island Park Reports coming - only 15
> more days
> >tell my vacation starts!),
> >
> >Andy
> >----- Original Message -----
> >From: "Patrick Petersen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> >To: "Fellow crusaders" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> >Sent: Tuesday, June 12, 2001 7:29 AM
> >Subject: sunfish at Lenice
> >
> >
> >> A couple of weeks ago while fishing the west end of Lenice I pulled up
> >next
> >> to a small island and next to me were two 6" sunfish or perch.
> Not quite
> >> sure what kind of fish they were but they were not a trout.
> Hopefully the
> >> browns will keep there numbers to a minimum or perhaps WDFW could
> >introduce
> >> some tiger muskies like they did in Green lake(probably not).
> Also fished
> >it
> >> again on Saturday amongst the howling winds with fellow list
> member Andy
> >> Towell, we managed a few fish but the surprise of the day came when the
> >fish
> >> started taking size 4 giant hoppers on the surface.No hoppers even
> >hatching
> >> yet though.
> >> Enough of trout, time to start thinking about the Steelies and
> Kings. If
> >> Justin Teagarden is still lurking on the list I would love to get a
> Kalama
> >> report.
> >>
> >> I'm not an animal, I just like peanuts. The Elephant man.
> >>
> >> Patrick
> >>
> >
>
>
>
