Parachute Damsel Fly Tying Instructions by Charlie Craven 

For someone with enough CDL to supply 842 lifetimes, I’m excited about this one. Nice one, Charlie Boy.

what a brilliant rendition

Such an awesome tie, love it

Awesome. Beautiful & great work.

Wow! Love this version, Charlie! Just when I thought I had a lifetime supply of every color of macrame yarn I would ever need, too. Now I gotta find sky blue and royal blue!

Charlie you are the true innovator of fly tying. Where other RU-vid fly tiers just copy other patterns and put a different name on them, yours are unique

I'm sure there are some people who find it hard to believe a trout will eat a damsel adult but I have seen it happen. Thanks!

great fly , i will tie a dozen

I really like this variation of a damsel adult.

As usual a fine video...I know you're as friendly as you sound because I met you in your shop a while back! Great pattern for exactly now ...Aug 1..

Dang man- you made this look so easy! So cool to watch a master of his craft. Thanks for what you do.

The damsels on my local stream are remarkably skinny. Till now, I had nothing to match them. The smallmouth take the naturals readily so I’ll be tying some soon. Thanks for sharing!

That pattern rocks! Looking forward to tying some... Thanks heaps, CC.

That looks like an egg hook. One of my favorite hooks, its like the short nymph hook, but with a better hook up rate and seems to hold the fish better =)

I can totally see myself tying and fishing this beauty. I ❤ this!

That is the best looking and easy damsel! Thanks sir!

Really cool pattern! Thanks, Charlie!

Wow!awesome pattern Charlie.looks great.thanks

That's just frickin cool af

Looks like a very innovative and effective fly Charlie tks 😊

“Not bad” you say, awesome use of materials! By the way even 8” cutties like the Muddler on a #4.

Was out ont he water today and saw a fair few damselflies out. I get back and this is in my suggestions, perfect! The Algorithm Knows All! lmao

My brother and I have seen trout literally jump out of the water for these things. I knew trout ate these and you hear about damsel patterns but it was always toward sundown and you could never quite make out what they were leaping for…took us a month at this one river to finally figure out that it was damsels.

I never caught a trout on a Damsel Fly. I did tie a pattern I got out of fly fisherman, it's a publication that you may have heard of Charlie, back in the mid-1980s. One evening, I found out that large Mouth Bass would eat them in and around the Lilly pads on the edges of Gardners Lake. my old swimming hole as a kid and there used to be a Boy Scout Summer Camp there as well. Back when I had a boat complete with a 10 hp Johnson Outboard. This one is a lot simpler to tie- I used a mono braid that was all the rage for but of leaders at the time, I don't think the even make it anymore, I got some someplace still. It's a fly I tied maybe a couple of dozen and that was it. Right now the Sulpher hatch as been very very good so that is what I have been tying. Soon its going to be the dog days, and its the time of the year I least like

Awesome

Cool use of CDL Charlie. Looks like it will impart a lot of surface motion.

brillant!

Nice! How does it cast?

this version is one of the best i seen. does the tail stay straight after casting and getting wet?

no eyes how can it see the fish coming lol

I will state that you do need a marker for this fly. You gotta have eyes.

So, I’m not trying to be a spoiler, but I was fishing that exact pattern when I lived in Montana. Literally 30 years ago. Great pattern, especially on flat water like Slough Creek in Yellowstone Park, but new or innovative, it ain’t.