First Attempt at Spinning Deer Hair

[BassMouth87 0]

One technique that has always intimidated me was spinning deer hair. Some of the beautiful bass bugs, poppers and other creations that members here post boggled my mind and I figured if I ever want to get good enough to create such things I must jump in with both feet.

 

Here are my first few somewhat successful attempts at spinning. There are at least 3-4 other flies that did not work out today but that gave me lessons and helped me know what not to do.

 

Bomber:

 

 

It took me a few tries to get the deer hair back far enough but not so far that it closed off the hook gape. This is the best out of all the ones I tied today. Others have patchy areas where I did not pack the hair thick enough, and others have issues with the hook gape having started spinning to far back.

 

 

Bass Bug:

 

 

This started out as a popper but the hair at the front was not long enough so I adapted and made a sort of popper bug. The bottom is flat and coated with fleximent and I plan on soaking this fly in some watershed dry fly floatant to give it a bit more buoyancy.

 

I think I have several hundred more deer hair flies to tie before the finesse kicks into play, but I must say that shaping the hair after spinning it on is very fun.

[Jimr1961 0]

Nice job. I like the shaping as well. To keep the wife happy, I clip the fly with forceps and sit outside on the grass to do my shaping. First with scizzors, then a final with a razor blade. One of my cats loves to sniff around whenever I'm out there trimming deer hair.

[BassMouth87 0]

For trimming I used my fly tying scissors over top of a large trash can that I sit beside my desk for catching scraps(pictured below). It is a very messy ordeal and even with the trash can my tying tray was still covered in hair. I have a few utility knife razors kicking around that I may play with...but I feel they may not be sharp enough.

 

 

I plan to look for a few deer hair popper patterns and give them a shot, my fly boxes are filled with very few poppers and I am hoping the change that.

[Bryon Anderson 0]

Your bugs look good -- maybe not just like the pictures but certainly good enough to hook some fish. I've been trying to perfect spinning hair for quite a few years, and I've got a few to go before I'm "there", but I've stumbled upon some helpful tidbits along the way, one of which I'm happy to share now: The best advice anyone could give or take when it comes to spinning Deer Hair is to familiarize yourself with the works of Mr. Chris Helm. He is the Yoda of spinning hair bugs, the acknowledged master, or certainly one of them. He has written several books and done a series of DVDs on the subject; the DVDs are part of a larger series called "Hooked on Fly Tying" -- if you Google "Chris Helm Spinning Deer Hair" all of the ones he's done should pop up, as well as many, many articles by or about him. Here's a particularly helpful one for those just starting out: http://archives.flyfisherman.com/content/how-tie-better-deerhair-flies.

Chris is not only The Man when it comes to techniques, but he really has the tools and, most importantly, the materials down to a science. All deer hair, as you probably know, is not alike--it varies greatly depending on the type of deer (or elk or caribou or whatever), where on its body the hair comes from, what time of year the hair was harvested from the animal, etc. Chris knows this stuff forward and backward. As an added bonus, he's a super, super nice guy -- I know at one time you could call him up at home and he'd answer questions and walk you through tying problems (he used to run a tying materials/tools business out of his home). I don't know if he still does that anymore, but regardless, availing yourself of his wealth of knowledge will carry you a long way toward learning to spin hair the way you want to.

Chris's website is www.whitetailflytieing.com

 

Hope this helps. Keep spinning.

[variant 0]

Two tricks will help with the hair catching on the gape-

1. After every turn of thread, stop and sweep the hair past the gape with a tool such as a bodkin. I use my scissor tips, as they're always in my hand. Only slows you down a little bit.

2. With a little practice you can trim the deer hair to just a little less than double the gape, and mount the clump right in the centre. Once flared it should spin freely.

[troutsmasher 0]

Bassmouth, not bad at all.....way better than my first tries! I still have my first attempt at a mouse pattern....let's just say it's not picture worthy

[Bruce Derington 0]

Looks like you have grasped the technique, just watch the crowding of the eye and youll be fine, get a hold of some wide gap hooks

[Capt Bob LeMay 0]

My best (and only) tip for guys learning to spin hair isn't in the spinning at all - it's in the trimming.... Like you I tried scissors and worked my way through (all the while thinking there has to be a better way...). That was well over thirty years ago. Finally someone set me straight and I've used razor blades for all my deerhair work ever since. Not the nice, easy to find, single edged blades... what you want are the old fashioned double edged blades that are so thin that they'll cut you if you look at them. Once you have some double edged blades you need to crack them in half lengthwise using a small pair of nippers, resulting in two separate blades (be careful working with double edged blades... flies don't look so nice with all that red stuff on them...). I learned the hard way only to use the sharpest blades and discard any that don't slice right through that hair without any effort at all. Hope this helps (and you need less band-aids than I did, starting out).

 

Tight lines

Bob LeMay

(954) 435-5666

[perchjerker 0]

bassMouth...

 

You are off to a great start!!

 

In response to some of your comments, I would like point out that with respect to your first fly, a Bomber, you have more than adequate gape clearance. This issue seems to be more critical when you have a solid bodied bug, as the body can't 'give' like a hair body can to the strike of a fish.

 

With respect to your second fly, the bottom of the body is round; not flat. When we talk about a flat bottom, we are referring to 'table top' flat. This is achieved by cutting straight back from the hook eye to the bend using a double edge razor blade while holding the bug upside down and the bend of the hook held between between your fingers, and cutting as close to the hook shank as possible without actually cutting the wrapping thread. To learn how to do this, we strongly encourage the students in our spinning/stacking course to do nothing but attach natural hair to the hook, and then trim the bottom; repeating as necessary until you get the 'feel' for it. GO SLOW! Once you get the 'feel' for it, you can do it in your sleep!

 

Like all beginning tiers, myself included, you have overcrowded the hook eye on your second fly. This can generally be corrected by very hard packing of the hair at the front of the fly. Pack it until it won't pack anymore, and then pack it again! Once more, practice will solve this.

 

Keep up the good work!

[BassMouth87 0]

Thank you for all the tips guys!

 

I am planning on getting myself a hair packer in the near future, I bet it will help me get an even tighter pack. I am also going to look into getting some double edged blades and some wide gap hooks. I burnt through most of a patch of white deer hair today playing around...good thing I have an entire box full of the stuff.

 

I appreciate the constructive criticism and will be sure to post a few pictures as my spinning starts to get better.

[nick2011 0]

i always use my beard trimmer to make quick work of deer hair flys..

[mybadhabit 0]

The best hair packer I've seen was a deer antler that had a hole drilled in it, with the drill hole smoothed out so it doesn't cut the hair or thread when packing. I was told by the person that taught me, that most hair packers can cut the hair and or the thread even when used correctly.

 

Blane

[coinman66 0]

Looks good for first time. I havent done a lot of these either and from what i gather it must take time to get it right. Keep at it!