"I have a vivid memory of when I first witnessed, at age 14, a brown trout leap out of the water and snag an electric blue adult damsel out of the air. It was jaw-dropping!
Ever since that experience, I have had the occasional awesome take here or there, but I could not find a damselfly that would float like a cork and appear natural.
Trout are more willing to take a large dry fly like a damsel when it surfs in and out of view with a big fish chop.
Then one day it hit me—take some of the features of the best floating attractor dries ever, the Chubby.
With a slim 2mm foam body, black synthetic legs like the adult. Instead of a second pair of legs, the bared flake silly legs represent the wet wings on the surface like stabilizers on a canoe.
The poly yarn tuft is a great sighter for tracking the fly. While the extended damsel braid tail completes the realistic look with the tip coated in resin to prevent fraying.
The “Chubby Damsel” in olive and blue is now my mothership for dropping the Mini Leech Jig, Mini Leech Jig Radiant, and Mini Leech Jig Damsel."
- Signature Tyer Landon Mayer
