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Dragonfly Nymph
A nymph, tied #4–10, a summer pattern. It is tied against 1 named insect in this book — all year.
- #4–10Hook size
- nymphType
- SummerSeason
- 1Hatch matched
What it looks like
A drawing, not a photograph, and not traced from one. Its proportions were read off 5 independent reference photographs of the pattern and written down as 5 measured characteristics — wing angle, tail length against the shank, how far a hackle fibre reaches — every one of which had to hold across more than one of them before it could be drawn. What survives across many photographs of a fly is the fly.
What it imitates
Each of these is the same hatch record the app's own panel reads, so a pattern recommended on a river card in the app is recommended for one of the insects below.
Tying recipe
In tying order. This dressing is the standard one — these patterns have been in the publicrecord for decades — and materials substitute freely: the proportions and the silhouette are the pattern, not the brand of dubbing.
| Hook | Short-shank heavy hook, sizes 4–10 |
|---|---|
| Thread | Olive 6/0 |
| Body | Olive-brown dubbing or wool, broad and flat |
| Legs | Brown rubber or partridge |
| Eyes | Bead-chain or dumbbell |
| Weight | Dumbbell eyes plus wire |
When to fish it
On the bottom with long slow strips and long pauses. The natural jets forward and then sits still.
A summer pattern. The insects it matches are active all year, in water from 55°F to 78°F.
Target species
- Trout
- Bass
Rivers it fishes well
Rivers with a page here that sit in the regions where the insects this pattern imitates are recorded. It is a claim about coverage, not a report of a fish caught.
- Au Sable River northern lower Michigan · July mean 72.1°F
- Catawba River the North Carolina mountains · July mean 76.7°F
- Jackson River the Virginia mountains · July mean 66.3°F
- Muskegon River northern lower Michigan · July mean 71.0°F
- Escanaba River the Upper Peninsula · July mean 68.3°F
- Saint Croix River northern Wisconsin · July mean 77.2°F
- Smith River the Virginia mountains · July mean 51.9°F
- Tygart Valley River the Virginia mountains · July mean 74.6°F
- Kalamazoo River southern lower Michigan · July mean 71.3°F
- Aaron Creek the North Carolina mountains · July mean 76.7°F
- Aaron Run the Virginia mountains · July mean 77.1°F
- Aarons Run the Virginia mountains · July mean 74.2°F
Related patterns
Same type of fly, or tied for the same insects.
- Girdle Bug nymph · #6–12 — Rubber legs on a chenille body. The cheap ancestor of Pat's Rubber Legs.
- Cranefly Larva nymph · #6–10 — A fat pale grub. Best in the day or two after high water.
- Damsel Nymph nymph · #10–14 — Slim olive body, marabou tail, small bead eyes. Retrieved in short pulls — the natural swims in a side-to-side wriggle.
- Egg Fly nymph · #10–16 — Behind spawning salmon and steelhead in fall and spring. Not a hatch — a food source.
- Golden Stone Nymph nymph · #6–12 — A three-year nymph, so it is never out of season. Heavy, and fished on the bottom.