This makes sense to me, in fact two weeks earlier I was fishing a floating
dragon nymph in almost the exact same place and landed several fish with a
full sinking line dragging it through the weeds in about three feet of water
with two feet of leader. Interesting.
----- Original Message -----
From: Andy Towell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, June 13, 2001 6:22 PM
Subject: Re: dragonfly and damsel fly emerger cripples?
> 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
> > >>
> > >
> >
> >
>
