deer hair bugs

[sniksoh 0]

i have a few questions about deer hair bugs:

 

when do you steam a deer hair bug?

what does steaming do?

 

also last night i coated one of my bugs with sally hansens and i dont know if i should have done that cause it has a finger nail polish odor now...will bass still bite it?

 

should i even be coating by bugs? if so is sally hansens ok to coat it with?

 

thanks,

sniksoh

:flex:

[flytire 0]

why do you need to steam them???

 

why are you coating deer hair flies with sally hansens???

[jeepclown 0]

The only place you should be coating the deer hair bugs is on the head (and possibly the body prior to applying the hair depending on type of bug), I also use Sally Hansens for some applications, it does not eminate odors indefinately. I never have problems on trout with Sally Hansens. Also, I never steam deer hair. Once it's tied on, it's good. If it gets so messed up by fish that it no longer works correctly... it's time for a new fly.

[SkinnyPole 0]

Here is some info that might help

 

http://www.warmwaterflytyer.com/patterns1.asp?page=2

 

Good Luck

 

Skinny

[Fly Tyer Guy 0]

I don't steam my deer hair flies.

 

And I rarely add any glue or anything to the faces of my poppers.

[Bruce Derington 0]

sniksoh,

1.) some bass bug guys steam their creations after stacking and B4 trimming, this helps "bring back" the deer hair that may have got mashed or messed up during the tedious stacking process.

2.) Coating your Bugs, are you saying you applied Sally Hansons over the entire Fly? I hope not. Dave Whitlock sometimes coats some of his bugs with Daves Flex cement. Normally you wouldn't coat an entire fly with any thing other than floatant. We sometimes coat the very front of Bass Bugs (poppers) with a flexable cement as mentioned above. Its ok to to use Sally Hanson on the thread wraps and I always add a drop after completing each "stack", followed by packing.

3.) The best way to preserve your fly's is to let them dry out after getting them wet, another words don't put them away wet

[JSzymczyk 0]

Sometimes, it depends on how I feel about the bug, I steam the spun deer hair head after the initial rough trim. This does serve a purpose- it "expands" each individual hair fiber somewhat, and makes them stand perpendicular to the hook shank as much as possible. It increases the appearance of "density" too.

 

Do you NEED to? absolutely not.

 

I always use some fairly thin flex-cement on the spun deer portions of my deer bugs. I do NOT use it thinned "nearly to the consistency of water" as I have read over and over. I have found that if I thin it that much, it tends to wick back into the tail materials and stiffen them somewhat or a lot... I put a little of this cement right along the "belly" of the fly, where I trimmed the hair nearly down to the hook shank. It soaks in all the way through the thread windings from there and locks it all together. I also usually paint on some all around the spun deer head, or at least the front portion. This also does a few things- It coats the hairs with an extremely thin layer of waterproof synthetic "rubber" when it dries. I pretty much never need to use floatant on my bugs. It makes the head of the fly much tougher when dry, so it doesn't get ruined by fish as fast. It makes the rubber legs I string through with a needle hold much better. Finally if I'm making a popper style bug, I place a flat piece of plastic over the hook eye while the cement is still not completely dry- this causes the face of the bug to dry into a stiff, very flat surface. This also increases the density of the front of the bug- the hair tends to want to arc all the way over at the eye of the hook most of the time for me. Pushing all the hair back at a right-angle to the hook keeps the hair dense.

 

A long time ago, last year some time, we had a thread going about making your own flex-cement out of GOOP adhesive and Toluene solvent. You can have a lifetime supply for about $12.

 

I usually always put some Sally Hanson on the final thread wraps when the fly is completely done. I personally wouldn't coat the entire head of the deer bug with it.

 

I usually take forever to make my deer bugs, and it is not all necessary... you can make perfectly good fish catching bugs just by making a tail, spinning up the hair, and trimming it to whatever shape you want.

[arkfisher 0]

I only steam flies that I am using to display...it serves no purpose to me for fishing. When I do steam, I begin my trimming and get it just about done...then heat up some water and hold the fly over the steam. It causes the hair to expand and a few hairs that weren't fully extended will protrude and you can trim those.

 

As far as coating the fly. I coat all of my deer hair bugs that I fish with. I put "flex seal" on them. It's a trade name, but you should be able to google it or find it in the fly shop. It makes a good seal on the thread which keeps it from coming loose as well as repels the water. I find that it works very well.

 

I said that I used it on all flies...I take that back. I do put a coat on the bottom side of my divers to keep the string from breaking or coming loose. Hope that helps.

 

Richard