Dragonflies

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TexasJim
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Dragonflies

Post by TexasJim »

At certain times in the marsh, it looks like every reed or blade of grass has a fat dragonfly on it. I see videos of bass and freshwater trout jumping out of the water to eat them in mid-flight or off a low perch in the marsh grass. Does anyone know if Specks or Reds eat them? There are lots of dragonfly bass and trout lures, large and small. I wonder if they would catch saltwater fish? TexasJim
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Ron Mc
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Re: Dragonflies

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If they will, the same small #6 surface popper that imitates a shrimp or baitfish will work just fine.
One of my favorite Japan lure companies, Imakatsu, makes the Qoop popper for salt finesse tackle.

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That red salt popper was deadly during a plague of rhinoceros butterflies - couldn't keep bass off the hook, and their bellies were distended from already eating so many.
Another time on Fence Lake, wading back to the boat and lazy letting the same popper troll on his fly rod, my buddy caught a slot red.

Many times wading rivers, high-sticking my cats whisker on Teeny line to get it down in a chute or slot before swinging it to imitate baitfish,
big carp and bass will take it on the dead drift.
They're almost certainly taking it for a dragonfly nymph.

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One of the biggest problems fly fishermen have is thinking fish food looks to fish like it looks to us in the air.
If's how the food looks and behaves in the water that matters
e.g., this is a kicking, evading shrimp -
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- toss it into jumping shrimp, and a spec comes out
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and especially on the surface, fish see how their food interacts with the water surface tension.

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Last edited by Ron Mc on Fri Dec 02, 2022 7:08 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Dandydon
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Re: Dragonflies

Post by Dandydon »

Beautiful flshing flies you've got there, Ron. That's a great point you make about how we see lures much differently than fish. Reminds me of my fly-fishing glory years in Colorado, 1992-1995. Yeah, too bad I broke up with that girlfriend... Image

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Ron Mc
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Re: Dragonflies

Post by Ron Mc »

don't tell me -

- you caught her on a Pistol Pete.

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Dandydon
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Re: Dragonflies

Post by Dandydon »

Ha ha. Wish I could remember.

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TexasJim
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Re: Dragonflies

Post by TexasJim »

Yeah, Ron, I'm always amazed at the art, and decoration that lure makers put on the tops of their poppers and topwaters, but if you look at the bottom of almost any lure, they're pretty lackluster. Maybe a red cut-throat. Goes back to the statement that "Lures are made to catch fishermen, not fish". Interesting to see your underwater pic of a lure footprint. Maybe when the water warms up, I may need to get my mask and chunk all my topwaters in my pool and look at what they look like to a fish. I'm intrigued by what a bass or trout can see from underwater that lets them jump out and catch a flying insect?

I suspect DD's old girlfriend was smart enough to get away! TexasJim
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Ron Mc
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Re: Dragonflies

Post by Ron Mc »

Jim, if you read my Round-Up posts from last month, I had a 1/8-oz prop-tail shrimp topwater finesse plug from Japan that was my trip-lure -
- my name for the color is Serious Sunrise.
It was one of those nearly automatic things several months ago, rounding out a line and leader order at Plat.jp, check the bargain basement - saw the closeout lure, looked cool, threw in two colors that looked useful to me.

Shown next to a blue one, rotated so you can see the shape.

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Note the floating front of the lure does 3 things. Noses the lure up at rest, the flukes make the lure dive, and the nebulous clear shape makes the flukes look like a shrimp tail.
I did best fishing it as a wakebait, steady retrieve with steady sharp twitches.

Also, the clear front dome is a major lens, collecting any available light and blowing it through the lure body.

It was a blast on sunrise spec blowups, and caught my trip-fish 24" red.

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Unfortunately, on the second day, I double-hooked the next red and must have opened my titanium bite-trace snap - lost it in the bay.

First thing I did on the computer when I got home was order more from Japan
Threw in a Black Dark.

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I use a proxy shipper, noppin.com (and have used them for 20 years), that lets you place small orders, especially from shops that don't ship direct to US, store them up to 2 months for free, and then pack it all in a DHL package. Masamichi at noppin can be really helpful - he has great English, and will take the time to get questions answered for you.
I found this hot color on Rakuten (dirty water sunrise).
Again, buying and shipping needs a broker like noppin.com or zenmarket.jp

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And if you notice, these are opposite of your topwater lure complaint - all the color is on the bottom.
The blue? If I hear any slurping snook at Arroyo in Feb, I'm going to throw it at them.
Last edited by Ron Mc on Fri Dec 02, 2022 8:25 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Dragonflies

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Jim, my ex-girlfriend got away, married a worthless rich guy, and set me free to fish more and chase younger women. That happened 30 years ago. Funny how we end up living the lives we deserve.

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Ron Mc
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Re: Dragonflies

Post by Ron Mc »

TexasJim wrote: Thu Dec 01, 2022 8:47 pm ... I'm intrigued by what a bass or trout can see from underwater that lets them jump out and catch a flying insect?
Jim, I suspect this action is mostly myth. Though bass are opportunity feeders, and will even take a bat on it's skimming drink of water if they're there at the right time.
I've fished quite a few tailouts where endemic river bass were queuing on trico hatches and damselfly hatches.
They'll take a popper or even your cats whisker when it first hits the water. I've also seen schools of white bass in a cove, and pods in the river queuing on trico hatches, and you couldn't buy a strike without a dry fly.
Most of the time, they're looking for this surface tension pattern, where the female has landed on the water to drop her fertilized eggs.

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I'm sure you've heard of blue wing olive mayfly (BWO) - they're a staple on the Guadalupe tailwater, making white clouds in a swarm where they "hatch" (from underwater), breed and die.
Hatch is a misnomer - they should have called it an orgy.
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They're a blast to fish underwater on the swing, because they actively swim when they hatch. The nymphs cling to rocks in fast water with their big frog legs - this is how they spend most of their life.
This is where they do all their eating - when they "hatch" they won't even have a mouth.
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Here's the fly to fish on the swing in fast water.
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Here's a male dun (done = fully hatched and flying).
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It's the eggs that make the females olive, and this is why a bass (trout, etc.) will will make the effort to eat one,
which add up to a thousand during a hatch.
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