Nice one Sean

I've Emailed you article to a friend in SA by the way who is one of the top authorities on flies in that part of the world

The Montana nymph is a pattern I've caught lots of fish with over the years, yet those you buy from shops are absolutely horrid.

One of the fish i caught on at the Trout Fish-In was a montana tied more as a traditional nymph with a few marabou fibers as a tail. me and a mate came up with this over 20 years ago as we always thought that the standard montana was for to big for this country.

The problem with many flies that we use as nymphy lures (or lumphs!) is that they are much too big to be a real imitation of anything in our waters. I believe the Montana was originally a western American Stonefly nymph pattern and was probably originally tied quite large. By using a size 14 or 12 lure hook and tying in olive the pattern does become a very effective damsel fly immitation. Its still very effective in the black with lime green thorax that we normally see it in.

The best damsel nymph imitation I have ever used is my SA Damsel, even though I say it myself. My fly is about the same size as a true damsel and due to the rabbit fur tail, ir wiggles just like the real thing.

The horrors you see perporting to be damsel nymph imitations these days are no more than lures. Sure they catch a few daft fish, but it's not really imitative fly fishing is it?

I caught 6 fish yesterday on Thryberg, all taken with SA damsels. It's a sign that the nymphs are moving to the surface. In a little while, they will be crawling out of the water onto rocks and rush stems and ecloding into the fully adult imago.

Lovely insects they are.