Dragon dreams

Dragon Dream

On my last two trips fly fishing for bass I watched sizable bass leap a full body length or more from shoreline waters in an attempt to capture dragonflies hovering overhead. One would think there must be something very appealing about dragonflies for a fish to expend that much energy on a venture so unlikely to succeed. Actually their success rate may be higher than you imagine. I have caught bass whose stomachs were full of dragonflies. I've attempted to imitate the dragonfly with various forms of poppers but never with much success due mostly to the fact the summertime shallows frequented by the dragonflies almost always contain weeds and/or moss making a weedless fly an absolute necessity. Weedless poppers that are actually weedless are hard to come by. Necessity being the mother of invention the solution pictured came to me in a day dream. This simple pattern is made from craft foam, lays hook up in the water, is virtually weedless and the bass love them. The wings are made from crystal flash but other similar materials should work just as well. The downside, due to the wings, the fly tends to twist your leader during the cast so you have to keep your false casts to a minimum. The craft foam comes in numerous colors and is very inexpensive. If you fly fish for bass give it a try on your next summertime bass fishing adventure. I think you will be pleased. If your are not a fly fisherman perhaps you should be.