The delicate damselflies seen flying over the rivers from late May until October have appeal to the bass. They are 1-2 inches long in various shades of blue and red.
Frequently I get excellent smallmouth bass dry fly fishing with these damselflies fished around brush piles on the Shenandoah River. Farmers often clear brush from the edges of their fields and toss it into the river. These collect in SUV size piles as they drift down the river. There will often be dozens of damselflies resting on each one. I wade down the river from one brush pile to the next and cast my fly tight against the brush. Often I catch a half dozen bass around each brush pile.
Recommended damselflies: Murray’s Bass Damselfly or Blue Damsel Dry
I had a gentleman that was an excellent caster so we went to a stretch of the river where this skill would help. The section was a large pool 200 feet wide and 400 feet long with water running from 3-6 feet deep. The current was very slow and the whole pool was covered with aquatic grass which grew from the stream bottom to the surface. There were open bays from 4-10 feet square scattered throughout the whole pool.
Then I had him wade into the tail of the pool and turn to wade slowly upstream to fish a Damsel on log casts to each of the open bays in the pool. He caught a great many large bass. When we came to water that was too deep to wade, we would simply weave our way upstream through shallower water until we came to the next open bay. The thick grass provided the shade and food for the bass. As we move cautiously, the bass apparently had the security to feed all day.
The abundance of natural adult damselflies available to the bass make them a very important food to the bass.