Damsel Nymph

When summer arrives and classic streamer fishing goes sluggish, Damsel Nymph is often the answer. The fly imitates the larva of a damselfly, a slim, swimming insect larva that rainbow trout eat in quantity during the warm part of the year. Precisely because it matches natural food so well, it can be outstanding when the fish have become selective.

A larva the fish recognise

Damselfly larvae are active from late spring through summer, and when they swim toward the bank to hatch they become an easy catch. Rainbow trout quickly learn to recognise the slim, swaying silhouette and can become truly locked onto that food. A Damsel Nymph in olive with a soft marabou tail captures exactly that movement, which makes it one of the most reliable summer flies for anyone fishing imitatively.

Colour and size

Olive is the obvious base colour, because it matches most damselfly larvae, but brown and a paler olive also work. Size 10 to 12 is about right. The key is a slim body and a mobile tail, often of marabou, that pulses and gives the fly life even on a slow retrieve. A small gold head can help you down to the right depth without making the fly bulky.

How you fish it swimming

Real damselfly larvae swim with a clear, swaying movement, and that is what you want to recreate. Fish with an even, slow retrieve in small, soft strips so the tail works. Keep a calm tempo and avoid hard strips, because it is the natural, creeping gait that fools selective fish. Try different depths — the fish often hold some way down — and aim your casts toward reed edges and shallower water where the larvae swim.

Summer’s imitation fly

Damsel Nymph complements the searching flies by offering something natural when the fish have tired of loud patterns. It belongs in summer fishing when the water is warm and the fish are fussy, more on that under put and take in summer. The basics of presentation we cover under nymph fishing, and more choices in flies for rainbow trout.