Draggin' Foam

With some unbelievable chironomid hatches coming off this time of year, the dragonfly hatches often get overlooked. June is prime time for dragonflies to migrate from water to land and for the fly angler, that can mean a day spent with constant action. There are hundreds of dragonfly patterns out there but in most recent years, tiers have been using foam as a way to suspend their patterns off the bottom, giving these patterns the needed buoyancy to hover above weeds and bottom debris. A favorite tactic of mine during late spring, is to use a type 5 sinking line and tying on a damselfly nymph (taking advantage of the damselfly migration also taking place) about four feet from the fly line, then a foam dragonfly pattern on the point, three feet from from the damselfly.

This is usually the first set-up I'll go with, an experiment if you will, on which pattern is getting more attention. If the damselfly is taking the most trout, I'll change to a two fly damselfly set-up but if the dragonfly is drawing more attention then I'll generally change the set-up and replace the damselfly with a dragonfly sprawler and keep the foam darter on the point. Of course if I'm being lazy, I may just keep the damselfly on even if it's not catching (which tends to happen). The idea here is to set yourself up on the shoal, casting beyond the drop-off and stripping your presentation up the drop-off onto the shoal and getting your patterns as close to the bottom as possible. For shallower lakes that don't offer the drop-off transition, casting into deeper water and stripping your presentation up into shallow water using an intermediate sinking line also works well. Give it try, when the trout are hungry the action is awesome.

Here are some dragonfly nymph patterns you can tie up.

Fly Craft Angling
(Foam Sprawler)