Richard,
I was being a bit facetious by using the "floating dragonfly emerger"
phrase, but I was trying to come up for an explanation of why Patrick was
having good luck on an atypically cloudy and cold day in early June with a
very large hopper pattern. There were two explanations that I could think
of - one was that the fish were being unselective and anything that left a
large footprint in the film would have worked (but I had no luck fishing
within 50' of Patrick with dry damsels) or that the fish were seeing enough
of something large in the film to be looking for it. Both damsels and
dragons crawl out on reeds, the shore, or float tubes and do not typically
have a surface film emergence phase, except when it is windy and they get
blown off of the vegetation. The situation on Lenice on Saturday, with the
heavy winds and the resulting swells, meant that there were damsel and
dragonfly shucks being blown or washed off of the reeds and in to the water
and at least one large dead dragonfly nymph met he same fate (floated by my
tube.) Therefore the guess that maybe the fish were actually looking for
dragonfly nymphs that had failed to emerge and were thus susceptible to
being blown out of the reeds and on to the lake. I do not know if I will get
back over to the dry-side of the mountains anytime soon to test this, but I
will tie up at least one realistic floating dragonfly nymph to fish on the
downwind side of reed lines during windy days in June in the future...
The "emerging damsel" comment that you heard could also refer to an adult
pattern in the teneral color (not the black striped tan or blue), as I have
hit situations in BC where the fish were feeding on the recently emerged
adults that had fallen/been blown in to the water on the edges of the reeds.
Selective fish in this situation were showing a preference for the freshly
emerged color and would not take the tan or blue adults. As a side note, on
the same lake I encountered a fish that would only take the adults from
above the water line, off of the reeds (would not take an adult or nymph
dropped on his head), but continued to sip or jump and chomp at the adults
emerging lower on the bottom part of the reed. The same lake has also
treated me to the sight of fish consistently jumping out of the water to
take adult dragon flies out of the air, so maybe there's something in the
water...
I just posted a set of damsels emerger photos here:
http://www.northshoretu.org/damsels.htm
Alternatively, my friend Keith has some up on his site as well:
http://www.salmonbaytackle.com/Bug_Gallery.htm
Either of them should give you a good look at freshly emerged damsels!
Tight Lines,
Andy
----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Embry" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, June 13, 2001 12:14 AM
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
> >>
> >
>
>
