Bodkin / Patterns

Brent's Blue Damselfly Adult

Dry Fly · Trout · Advanced · 1 version

Tyer Recipe

  • Hook Gamakatsu S10 2XS nymph (light wire), 12
  • Thread Blue (black also fine) 6/0

Materials

  • Mono eyes Black mono eyes small (1 pair, small)
  • Semperfli dry-fly polyyarn (floating) Blue damsel (1 length, twice the finished body length)
  • Parachute foam post (Rainy's float foam) White thin fly foam (1 post)
  • Dry-fly saddle hackle Grizzly hackle (1 feather)
  • Antron yarn (wing) White poly yarn (half a strand, split)
  • UV resin (Solarez Bone Dry) Clear uv resin (small amount on post)

How to tie it

  1. Start the thread at the front and X-wrap a pair of small black mono eyes just behind the hook eye.
  2. Cut a length of the blue damsel floating polyyarn twice the finished body length and tie it in at the rear of the shank.
  3. Furl the body: twist the yarn tightly, fold it back over itself so it counter-wraps into a braided-looking extended body, and tie the free end down at the rear tie-in point.
  4. Bring the thread forward and tie in the foam parachute post upright behind the eyes, trimming the butt at an angle and binding it down.
  5. Tie in the grizzly dry-fly saddle hackle at the base of the post.
  6. Tie in half a strand of white Antron across the shank for the spent wing, then figure-eight the yarn between and around the mono eyes and bind the wing so it splits to the sides; trim the underside flat. The bottom profile matters more than the top.
  7. Coat the thread post generously with Bone Dry UV resin, wind the hackle down the post parachute-style through the wet resin, then cure it with the UV light. The resin locks the hackle so no tie-off wraps are needed.
  8. Cut the thread away, trim the wing slightly shorter than the furled body, and split it with a bodkin so it lies back over the body like a natural damsel's wings.

Tying videos

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