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Something unusual happened this time last year. River dragon fly feeders. Maybe it happens elsewhere all the time but last year was the first time I came across fish working hard in riffled water chasing dragon flies. It was both exciting and exasperating fishing with fish, including large ones, launching themselves into the air and crashing about. Trouble was they wouldn’t sit in a feeding lay but would dash and weave about at high speed actively hunting. It made presenting a fly near impossible so you had to try predict where they might head to next. It only lasted a couple of weeks but now this season its starting up again. Swarms of mating Dragon flies and fish locked onto them crashing and leaping in pursuit.
We get this on the lakes in Tassie. Any generic, size appropriate fly will do and just try and get it on the fish’s nose when it’s hunting, hard fishing but can be done for sure
Yep I have seen it on stillwaters here in Vic as well. Last year was the first time I really saw it in a river, not just the odd fish working in a backwater, but pods of fish over a couple of kms of river up and hunting dragons. Had some, very limited success with a King Julian last year. I have been tinkering with a larger deer hair headed extended body fly that I can skate to try elicit a chase and take. No joy so far :-(
Hi micmac, the KJ is really designed to represent damsels crashed on the water, rather than dragons. I’ve not had much success fooling dragon slayers with the KJ or any damsel pattern. The pattern is too small, plus the dragon slayers seem to prefer to take dragons in the air. Perhaps it’s the movement of the dragons that spark the fish. I’ve watched fish happily mop up crashed damsels on the water and ignore the crashed dragon. I wonder if the damsels taste better. Last season I dropped a KJ alongside a dead dragon thinking the dragon might attraction the attention of a trout below. The trout took the KJ and left the dragon. Interestingly, we’ve just had quite a nice period of still, warm conditions in the Eastern Tiers, almost 20C. The slender ringtail damselfly was about in reasonable numbers, a good month ahead of normal. However, the trout haven’t tuned in yet.
Yep I tied up the KJ’s larger as a step in the process (ongoing) of trying to nut out these dragon chasers.
Agreed the movement of the dragons is a key with many fish getting airbourne trying to take them as they zip along above the water. But every now and then they dip, perhaps egg laying, and the fish crash them on the surface.
The problem is getting it in front of a chaser and getting them to switch targets….. playing with the idea of a fast skate 0.5-1m and then a drift, rinse repeat but no joy so far.
micmac, you might be on the right approach. I recall a dragon pattern from about 40 years ago, quite a bushy fly that didn’t really look like a dragon, but was designed to sit high on the water. The method was to cast, pause, skim a few centimetres, lift, repeat. The method supposedly imitated the dragonfly dancing across the surface as it laid eggs. That fly and method never worked for me. I suspect I just scared the fish. I wish you good hunting with your method. Note: dragonflies seem to fly completely erratically. However, they do hunt in set areas. Males are particularly territorial, and patrol set beats to defend their territory while also hunting. They will often stop and hover a set locations. Working out and targeting the beats may improve your success.
I have found that the key to get the attention of a trout feeding on dragons is to slap the fly hard on the water,wait about 5-10 seconds then employ a couple ot twitches,give it another 5 seconds if nothing happens then recast in the vicinity of another leaping fish Any fly with the right profile will do.The fish tend to throw caution to wind to some extent as they tend to make up their mind quickly.I have employed this method with success over the years
So, here’s a different take on river dragonflies. I’ve never seen the fish get onto them the way they do on the lakes here in Tassie, but I have had a couple of experiences fishing twig water in summer, plopping a black beetle or nymbeet down here and there in search of a trout, and as my cast goes out, and the leader turns over, and the beetle starts descending towards the surface, had a dragon zoom out from bankside and seize it in mid-air. In one case it did me a favour; the cast was errant but the dragon carried the fly until it felt tension on the leader tippet, then dropped it – right where I had been trying to place it. Result? one nice hungry half-pound brownie beached and released! True story!
I’ve had a dragon attack my dry fly (over a nymph) and get itself caught up. It was amazing. Its jaws got caught somewhere in the material and here I was looking at this spectacle wondering if one of the large nervous brownies in this private lake would get the memo. I think it just spooked them. After realising this wasnt going to attract a dragon eater I retrieved it in and got a wee nip for my efforts to unhitch it.
Well the current cold fronts and heavy rain may see the dragon river bonanza window closing for this season (wait and see what the warmer weather next week brings).
Recent experiments with extended bodies and deer hair heads looked promising to me, far less so to the fish. I think I got distracted by the big obvious dragons buzzing about, but watching with more care it looks like the smaller, duller and maybe “slower/lower” dragons are the main targets. A larger tied KJ repeatedly cast into the zone where fish are feeding has met with some limited success. I hope this phenomena continues in coming seasons as its as exilerating as it is exasperating.
Hi micmac, thanks for your report. My experience is the dragonslayers are harder to catch than the damsel chasers, but I love the challenge. What is fly fishing without the challenge? I’m looking forward to this year’s dragon and damsel air show.
For anyone interested there is a recent article by Phil Weigall on the Flyfisher(shop)website regarding dragonfly feeders.Also shows some simple patterns that have had some success.Personally i’ve only chased them on lakes(mainly Toolondo) and had some success stripping big bushy dries fast.Also been lucky enough to catch two mid air while hanging and dibbling flies at the end of the retrieve.
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