Damselflies

For those of you who are grumpy because you do not ice fish, I have a warmer, more springy, summery blog post this Friday.  I often take a little break over lunch hour and watch some fishing videos.  Although I am not a fly-fishing purist by any means, I love watching fly-fishing videos like those that can be found here, Orvis Fly-Fishing Videos.

One of the trailers I found there early this week really caught my attention:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZ3MTaWAyOU

That is just so cool.  Not all of those damselflies get ate, but there ain’t as many escape as I would have guessed.

I have seen bass chase dragonflies and damselflies and even jump out of the water at them, but I have never seen trout do that.  If I ever did, I do not know that you could get me to close my mouth and stop staring long enough to cast for them.  Predator/prey dramas, dynamics, fascinate me; I have watched that “Damsels in Distress” trailer over and over.  I need to see the whole feature!

This past Wednesday night I called my trout-bum nephew.  He just got home from spending the past few months down in Chile guiding fly-fishers.  I could not wait to talk to him; it fascinates me that fishing is fishing, trout are trout, wherever you might go.  They fished some large rivers and lakes down there.  The biggest trout they caught were on a lake, and those fish chased dragonflies and I imagine damselflies.  I had not talked to him at all since he went to Chile, had no idea how they were catching fish down there, but I found that video this week and I think I have the idea.  He said they splat down big foam “bug” imitations in front of emergent vegetation and fished them like they would for bass.  And big, fat brown trout rose up and ate ’em.  That would have been so cool.

By the way, I call him my “trout-bum nephew” with utmost respect.

In case you do not fly-fish, there is always “The Hover Lure“.

I could smell just a hint of spring in the air this morning.  It’s coming.