Fugly Packer How well do these work?

[johnnyquahog 0]

I use and like the big Fugly. I also have two sizes of the Brassie and like those too. Pat deserves every penny for his innovative design. I can't imagine anybody producing the flies he does with the barrel of a bic pen but I suppose it is possible.

[TheCream 0]

I was waiting for your reply, Cream. You probably use yours more than 99% of the other tyers on this site.

Your bugs are proof positive that the tool works, and works exceptionally well. Maybe your skill has something to do with it?

 

All credit goes to Cohen, IMO. I think the reason it works so well is the way in which it doesn't just push the hair back, but it's grabbing the thread wraps in front of the deer hair (and behind, I'd suppose) and pushing it ALL back. I think that's the shortcoming of a pen tube or the Deadfly style tool. A hollow tool can't grip around the shank as tight to grab the thread wraps simply because it has to be large enough in diameter to fit over the hook eye. I use both now on almost every bug, a Fugly to pack the hair and a Deadfly style tool to half-hitch in front of the final stacks of hair by the hook eye. It's a great tool for that and valuable to have at the bench, even if it's just for that purpose.

[Bruce Derington 0]

I have a Brassie. I don't love it. I saw that someone had taken a large decorative wooden spindle about 6 inches long and drilled a hole in the end. May try that first, or the ballpoint pen.

The idea with the brassie and fugly is the notches, they will grab hookshank and push threadwraps back much more effectively, better compression, where a ball point pen can't compress as well because your pushing the hair.

[Poopdeck 0]

Excellent point on packing the thread as well.

[Mike West 0]

Im a bit of a gadget/tool nut. I bought the Fugley about a year ago just to check it out. Does it work? Yes very well.

Is it big and take up a lot of room on the tying desk? Yes.

And for that reason I dont care fore it much. If it was have its size it would be a lot nicer. Plenty of things work just as well.

 

The thing that makes it and the Brassie work so well Is the notches in the jaw so you can get right down on the hook shank but like Mikechell said the Brassie its too soft and bends. In my opinion its only good for like Muddler minnows and Humphys

 

For years and years and years I used pens and still do.

I heat the end with a lighter and then smashed flat on a flat surface...Then you heat the hook eye with a lighter and slide it in the pen creating a slot that fits that hook size.

I have four of them right now. To get down to the hook shank you just raise the back of the pen up or down as you pack.

 

All that said my favorite hair packers are made by Dyna-King.

https://www.dyna-king.com/product/hair-packers/

This is what I use 90% of the time.

If I had a Wood Lathe Id make my own out some nice exotic woods.

 

Edit:

I see some you guys responded while I was typing all this up.

I agree about getting down to the thread wraps and pushing them back too.

But with practice you can do that with the hollow type packer also its all about the angle

The notches do work better though.

As far as stabbing yourself.... done it many times myself, Put a small cork on the hook point or an eraser from a pencil.

[mvendon 0]

I posted this here before, but it's been a while. This is what I use for my deer hair packing. It's made from a pair of reversed tweezers. You cut the tip ends off, bend each one to about 90 degrees, and I filed a small notch on each tip where it clamps onto the hook. It works extremely well for trout flies and small bass flies. The hook in it is around a size 6. It's different then most since you squeeze them to open and they clamp onto the hook. Since they do that, you just press and push at the hinge area to pack your hair with no worries about your fingers slipping forward. They work all the way down to a TMC #32. I made them around 1999, or 2000.

 

Regards,

Mark

 

 

 

[Mike West 0]

I think one thing that needs to be mentioned that I havent seen yet in this thread is that is not always desirable to have hair packed so tight you can sand it with sandpaper. Like Cohen,The Cream,Crackleback and Bruce along with some others can do.

If you want them to float like a cork Yep thats what you want to do but in my experience wet sloppy dear hairs poppers seem to catch more fish when they ride low in the water and are waterlogged. You get that when theyre not so tightly packed.

 

Ive been tying flies for 50+ years and spinning deer hair for about 30.

Every once a while I have an accident and I can pack it as tight as the guys mentioned above but for the most part I cant consistently pack hair as tight as those guys and it pisses me off. Ive been spinning deer hair almost as long as some of those guys been alive.

And I cant figure it out. I think I dont put enough deer hair on the hook but I think I put a lot of hair on the hook.

Id love to sit down with any those guys for an hour at the bench,actully all I need is 15 mins.

Cohen tied about 75 miles from me awhile back but I had to work that day. I regret not calling in sick!

[Bruce Derington 0]

I think one thing that needs to be mentioned that I havent seen yet in this thread is that is not always desirable to have hair packed so tight you can sand it with sandpaper. Like Cohen,The Cream,Crackleback and Bruce along with some others can do.

If you want them to float like a cork Yep thats what you want to do but in my experience wet sloppy dear hairs poppers seem to catch more fish when they ride low in the water and are waterlogged. You get that when theyre not so tightly packed.

 

Ive been tying flies for 50+ years and spinning deer hair for about 30.

Every once a while I have an accident and I can pack it as tight as the guys mentioned above but for the most part I cant consistently pack hair as tight as those guys and it pisses me off. Ive been spinning deer hair almost as long as some of those guys been alive.

And I cant figure it out. I think I dont put enough deer hair on the hook but I think I put a lot of hair on the hook.

Id love to sit down with any those guys for an hour at the bench,actully all I need is 15 mins.

Cohen tied about 75 miles from me awhile back but I had to work that day. I regret not calling in sick!

The quality/type of hair make a big difference, for me. I try and find nature spirit dyed cow elk, generally offered once a year, but i haven't ordered in some time.

[rstaight 0]

As I mentioned earlier I don't do a lot of hair. If I can substitute foam I will.

 

But when I do use hair it takes me awhile. I try to keep my clumps no larger than the size of a pencil. After it's spun I place my thumb at the back of the hair. Then I use whatever tool from the eye side and push like a SOB.

 

I don't know if my hair packing is tight, loose, or somewhere in between. But I have been told it's more tight then loose.

 

Anyway that's my theory, less is more regarding the clump you start with.

[BobHRAH 0]

Mike C: What size Brassie did you try. It comes in 3 sizes, and absolutely, the small one is flimsy. But then, even the largest is nowhere near as substantial as the Fugly.

 

Thanks, Bob H

[mikechell 0]

I honestly don't know what size I had. I bought the only one the store had when I was there.

[TheCream 0]

I think one thing that needs to be mentioned that I havent seen yet in this thread is that is not always desirable to have hair packed so tight you can sand it with sandpaper. Like Cohen,The Cream,Crackleback and Bruce along with some others can do.

If you want them to float like a cork Yep thats what you want to do but in my experience wet sloppy dear hairs poppers seem to catch more fish when they ride low in the water and are waterlogged. You get that when theyre not so tightly packed.

 

Ive been tying flies for 50+ years and spinning deer hair for about 30.

Every once a while I have an accident and I can pack it as tight as the guys mentioned above but for the most part I cant consistently pack hair as tight as those guys and it pisses me off. Ive been spinning deer hair almost as long as some of those guys been alive.

And I cant figure it out. I think I dont put enough deer hair on the hook but I think I put a lot of hair on the hook.

Id love to sit down with any those guys for an hour at the bench,actully all I need is 15 mins.

Cohen tied about 75 miles from me awhile back but I had to work that day. I regret not calling in sick!

 

I won't argue that loosely packed poppers catch fish. My early ones did. And then they got damaged, waterlogged, started sinking, or D) All of the above. I basically had it with hair bugs not lasting, and that's when I found Cohen and his tricks. I have hair bugs that have caught dozens of fish that practically still look like new. They work great and they last. Rubber legs can be threaded through them and won't come out because of hair tension holding them in place. I'll lose those bugs before I have to "retire" them, and that certainly wasn't true of my early deer hair bugs.

 

I went Fugly tight and I won't go back.

 

 

And it's not just for big bugs.

 

[Mike West 0]

Show off

😉

[Poopdeck 0]

Well I found a couple hours and made my Poopdeck Packer. It only took about an hour to make after an hour of mulling it over and searching the shop for material. It's 3/4" by 1/8 plated mild steel and the hinge is an old torch striker that I cut the striker cup and striker off of. My cost were $0.00. Since at one point the stuff was bought I guess the flat metal would cost about 2 bucks and a striker cost 3 bucks so let's put the build cost at 5 bucks. I'm pretty sure mild round steel could be shaped into a spring and it would work fine and lower the build cost.

 

 

I bent the metal by putting two screw drivers in my bench vise, one handle up and the other down. The one with the handle up was the one The bending force was applied to so it was easy to keep the screw driver from moving by holding onto the handle. I made one side with fugkey packer bump outs for the fingers to push on but decided I wanted bigger bump outs to accommodate my 3X hand and sausage fingers. Since I only had enough metal to make three handles I scraped the small bump out handle and made two with larger folds. Then it was a simple matter of welding the striker spring to the handles, drilling a small hole and hitting it with a little spray paint. The welds are pretty crappy just like my hair packing but here's hoping the latter changes for the better with Poopdeck Packer. There is no doubt this will work as well as the fugley

[mikechell 0]

Looks functional.