Parachute Blue Damselfly

Parachute Blue Damselfly

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Tying Instructions

1. Attach the thread and layer the front half of the shank. Bring the thread to the midpoint of the shank.

2. Clip a section of dyed Deer Hair, clean the fuzz, and align the tips. Secure the clump at the midpoint of the shank. The butts should extend just beyond the hook eye. Wrap the hair bundle towards the bend of the hook with evenly spaced spiral wraps.

3. Bring the spiral wraps extending beyond the bend of the hook to near the hair tips. The extension should be about 1 1/2 x’s the shank length. Wrap spirally back to the original tie-location at midshank.

4. Bring some wraps around the base of the butt tag and uplift the butts. A thread dam in front of the hairs will help.

5. Attach a hackle by the base to the wingpost. The hackle should be about 1 1/2 the size of the hook gap.

6. Wrap the hackle around the wingpost and secure in front , behind the eye.

7. Bring the parachute forward, twist slightly, and secure with some thread wraps.

8. Clip the excess butts from the front and the rear. Wrap a small head just behind the eye and whip finish. Apply some head cement to the trimmed hair fibers to help secure the wraps.

Materials to Order Material, click the link
Hook	Tiemco 5212, #10-14
Thread	Danville Black 6/0
Body	Dyed Blue Deer Hair
Ribbing	Danville Black Thread
Wingcase and Wingpost	Dyed Blue Deer Hair
Hackle	Med. Dun Hackle

Parachute Blue Damselfly

The Parachute Blue Damselfly is often tied with bundled deer hair for floatation and to create an extended body. The pattern utilizes the deer hair as a wing post and a thorax by bringing the post forward, after the hackle is applied, and securing with thread wraps just behind the eye. The parachute hackle helps support the fly as well as the hollow deer hair used for the body. Since there are no wings on the fly, casting is much improved, particularly on the windy days when this pattern is most effective. This pattern is also effective in Tan and Green colors. Dress the fly with floatant and allow the fly to lay on the water with just a few twitching actions.

Gary Borger

Gary Borger

Gary Borger came up with his Braided Butt Damsel around 2009. The body consisted of braided monofilament from Cortland that Gary colored with markers for alternating Blue and Black segments.  The braided material is now commercially available as Adult Damsel Body.  He used Antron Yarn for a wing post that the hackle was wrapped. Then the yarn was pulled over the thorax region and tied off behind the hook eye.

Charlie Craven

Charlie Craven ties a similar pattern utilizing Adult Damsel Body for the body. However, he uses foam for the wing post which provides additional floatation. The foam is pulled over the dubbed thorax once the parachute hackle has been wrapped. Again, no wings needed.

Borger’s Braided Butt Damsel

Hook	TMC 100 #10
Thread	Danville 3/0 Black
Body	Blue, Adult Damsel Body braid
Thorax	Kingfisher Blue Angora Goat dubbing
Wingcase and Wingpost	Blue Antron Yarn
Hackle	Light Dun Neck Hackle

Craven’s Parachute Damsel

Hook	TMC 101 #12-16
Thread	Uni-thread 6/0, Blue
Body	Blue, Adult Damsel Body braid
Thorax	Kingfisher Blue Angora Goat dubbing
Wingcase and Wingpost	Blue 2mm Fly Foam
Hackle	Grizzly Hackle