TheCream

Great stuff Cream as always but if I used premade legs/bodies around here I would be scolded by the "purists".... I saw somewhere where somebody used a woven cord or like that for a buggy looking body. Later DL

I'm one of the type that simply doesn't care what people want to say or think. If it works for me and it helps me catch fish, I'll use it. I've had carp guys give me the old "you don't need to use an indicator for carp" garbage before. Well, they aren't fishing where I am, with no ability to see the fish eat the fly. In a game where you might only get a few eats a day, I'm not about to risk missing them for pride. But that's me.

These are on size 10 B10S hooks.

This is a size 8 Daiichi 1730

 

I never thought deer hair mice floated as well for me as they should so I added a life jacket to the back.

 

Great stuff!

 

Kimo

 

Thanks, Kimo! Much appreciated!

I never thought deer hair mice floated as well for me as they should so I added a life jacket to the back.

 

Man!, I want one!Way cool. What size/type, weighted/dumbell eyes?

 

It is a lizard (in my head, anyway). This is on a size 6 Daiichi 1730. The weight is some non-lead .020 and one 1/8" tungsten bead on a scrap of mono on the bottom of the hook right in the back of the deer hair head. It's just enough weight to sink it and keep it point-up.

It's Feb 1 but I tied this last night in January.

I added a few modern materials to a bend back.

Seeing patterns you created through hard work and testing posted by other people passed off as their creations with their names on them.

Cautery tools are great, but I got sick of mine eating batteries like candy. Look into a corded wood burning tool if you (and you probably do) have a close wall outlet. It works pretty much the same way as a cautery and no batteries to ever replace. I use mine around hook eyes on deer hair bugs. I used to recess eye sockets on hair bugs but don't do it anymore. I just glue right to the side of the bug with gel CA and that's plenty durable enough without making the house smell like burnt hair.

 

 

Is this a version of a balloon caddis or one you've come up with? Any link to tying it. Can see it doing well on the loch.

 

It's a spinoff of Zimmerman's Clown Shoe Caddis. I have since ditched the Exo Skin on the body for Razor Foam and swapped the hackle for CDC. Seems to float a lot better without as much maintenance that way.

From the woods

To the bag

To the collar of a nymph

(Meat went to the freezer)

Simple little grubs for panfish.

I only buy belly hair from Pat Cohen at www.rusuperfly.com. I have not had a bad bag yet from him. Other online places seem pretty hit or miss, with a lot of misses.

I finally got my rosewood fly bowl done and put it to use last night.

A family friend saved some pheasant feathers for me from a recent hunt. I put some to use last night on a little carp/panfish bug.

I'm a very amateur wood turner. I've made a few things.

This is a Teeny-style hook removal tool. Works great on bluegills and panfish.

Deadfly-style packing/half hitch tools, these are really handy for deer hair work and working with hollow tied bucktail. I've made them in multiple sizes to better fit different sized flies.

And this is something new, unfinished here, a "fly bowl" to toss completed flies in after tying. I always end up with piles of flies on my desk and I don't like it. My thought is, with the bowl, toss flies in there before boxing. The smaller area in the middle for smaller bugs, bigger bugs in the bigger/deeper section.

I'm playing with using Krystal Flash in a dubbing loop as "flash hackle." These are intended for bluegill. If the hard water melts today I may get to test them tomorrow morning.

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.