Shove,Shave,Singe and Sand Technique
My Shove, Shave, Singe and Sand technique for the tightest deer hair bodies.
Probably the most frequent question I am asked at shows and demos is how do I get my small deer hair bodies so tight. Well heres my secret in full step by step tuition.
This is one of my very early patterns the deer hair pupa that was inspired by a meeting with the late Gary LaFontaine many years ago and his own deep sparkle pupa pattern. The first requirement for tight bodies is the correct deer hair.
Although I acquire most of my own spinning hair from late season hunting here in Norway the best hair I can recommend is the spinning hair from Natures Spirit and the natural roe deer hair from Veniard’s. The hair should be dense, straight with little under fur and fine well marked tips. Although the tips are not required for this pattern they are useful to have for sculpting nicely marked wings on others.
You will also need a hair stacker, a good hair comb, a Wilkinson razor blade, I specify Wilkinson because I have tried many cheaper blades over the years but it’s a false economy, I have found none that are as sharp and last as long. You will need a lighter and some fine sand paper.
1
Secure your dry fly hook in the vice with the hook shank horizontal.
2
Attach your tying thread and cover the whole hook shank.
3
Cut and clean a small bunch of deer hair by combing out all the under fur and shorter hairs. Stack this bunch not by the tips as usual but by the butt ends as shown.
4
Tie this bunch in just a little down the hook bend. Make sure that each wrap of tying thread is tight and doesn’t trap any hairs unevenly.
5
Repeat this technique with another bunch of hair.
6
Take a hair packer, the one I am using hear is a Brassie on larger patterns I use Pat Cohen’s Fugly packer. Place this over the hook shank and push and twist at the same time, you may need to hold your thumb and finger of your left hand at the rear of the hair so you don’t push it along the hook shank. This will pack the hairs tight into each other.
7
Once the required amount of body is covered with tightly packed deer hair, whip finish and remove your tying thread. Now comb the hair to release and free any hairs that may not be standing 90 degrees from the hook shank, this is important for perfect results.
8
Take a razor blade between your finger and thumb and bend it to the shape of the body and slowly push it through the deer hair from the front towards the rear of the hook. If you haven’t done this before take your time it takes a little practice.
9
The body at this stage doesn’t have to be perfect, just sculpt it to a basic body shape. You can use your scissors here too if you feel more comfortable using them.
10
Now take your lighter and carefully ‘singe’ the deer hair body, take your time or the whole thing will go up in smoke if you get too close and burn it! This will even out the whole body.
11
Take a piece of sand paper and carefully sand off the soot and smooth out any un-even parts.
12
The result should look something like this, and feel rather like a cork.
13
To imitate the gas bubble of the hatching pupa’s shuck I like to use Spirit Rivers UV2 Sparkle Yarn.
14
You only need a small amount of the yarn.
15
Split your tying thread and spin the yarn into a dubbing brush.
16
Wind the yarn to form a vail over the whole surface of the deer hair body.
17
Sin a little hares hear hair into another dubbing brush.
18
Wrap this on as a collar make sure that its spiky and buggy.
19
Take a natural beige CdC hackle and place in a magic tool clip. Spin this into another dubbing loop and wind at the head of the fly again as a vail over the body.
20
Whip finish and your deer hair pupa is finished.
PS.
As a note on fishing this pattern I find the most effective methods is in combination with a floating line and a heavy sinking leader. When pulled it will dive and float slowly up to the surface when you stop the retrieve, creating the desired affect of a ascending pupa.
Burrowing Mayfly Nymph
Burrowing Mayfly Nymph
Hook Mustad R73 9671 # 8-12
Tying thread Dyneema
Tail Olive ostrich herl
Body Olive brown Antron dubbing
Rib Olive Ostrich herl
Thorax Olive brown Antron dubbing
Wing case Floss or Antron body wool
Legs Olive CdC
Although many nymph patterns today are intended to imitate a much greater spectrum of aquatic foods, rather than the nymphal stage of one specific, this pattern imitates the final nymphal stage of the largest burrowing mayflies Ephemera guttulata (Green Drake) and Ephemera simulans (Brown Drake) and the European relatives Ephemera danica and vulgate.. These nymphs prefer soft organic or sandy and muddy bottoms, where they can live more or less buried for up to several years, only appearing occasionally to feed on decomposing vegetable and plant matter. They have been known to burrow as deep as fifty feet. These large nymphs that range from 12-32 mm in length, can be easily recognised by the breathing gills along the sides of the rear body, and over sized fore legs that are adapted for burrowing. The gills however are not only used for breathing but also function as a ventilation system for the tunnel they burrow keeping water flowing through it, which in turn keeps it open. If the nymph leaves its burrow or stops the undulating movement of the gills, the burrow collapses shortly afterwards. These nymphs, are for most of their life, unavailable for the trout, but one of these on your leader at the correct time can make the difference between great sport and no sport. When the time is right and they leave the safety of their burrows, swimming quickly with an undulating body movement, (something that ostrich herl and CdC imitate beautifully) towards the surface, trout can feed on this ascending nymphal stage for several hours before turning on to the subimago winged stage. The weight that is placed under the thorax of the nymph helps emulate this undulating swimming action when pulled through the water with short pauses.
When it comes to tying these large nymphs your hook choice should reflect the natural body length, so a 3XL or a 4XL hook in a size 8-12 works well. The dubbing used for the rear body and the thorax should be one that absorbs water and not a water repellant dry fly dubbing. Another trick that helps to get the nymph down is after you have tied it on your leader give it a few seconds in the water and then squeeze it hard between your finger and thumb to press out any trapped air that may be caught in the dubbing and CdC. I also like to use a UV treated dubbing and Ostrich herl. Although I have not had the same marked results that show trout prefer the UV patterns in fresh water, unlike the results I have had in salt water, it does no harm in giving the pattern that extra edge that may make a difference. Previously I have used golden pheasant centre tail fibres for the wing case but these have proved to be a little too fragile for the small sharp teeth of trout, so I have substituted it with Antron body wool.
1
Secure your 3 XL or 4XL nymph hook in the vice making sure that its horizontal.
2
Attach your tying thread and cover the whole shank until the thread is hanging between the hook barb and point.
3
When it comes to weighting flies I like to use a lead free alternative.
4
Wind on a short length of lead free wire under the thorax, covering approximately one third of the hook shank.
5
Once the lead free wire is wound and packed tight trim off the surplus.
6
For the tails of the nymph you will need some olive ostrich herl, here I like to use a UV treated herl to the the nymph an extra edge.
7
Select three herl’s with even tips. Tie inn the first herl on top centre of the hook shank. Again this should be about one third of the hook shanks length.
8
Now tie in the other two herl’s one each side of the centre tail.
9
Tie down the remaining herl along the whole hook shank and cut away the excess herl.
10
Now select another long herl with nice long fibres for the ribbing that will represent the nymphs gills.
11
Now spin some Antron dubbing tightly onto the tying thread. Make sure that this is tight so the finished body is dense.
12
Continue with the Antron dubbing and build up a tapered rear body along 2/3 of the hook shank.
13
Wind on the ostrich herl as a rib over the rear body part, making sure that the herl fibres stand out at 90 degrees from the hook shank. About 6-7 tight even turns, and tie off at the thorax.
14
Remove the excess herl and carefully trim off the herl fibres, only on top of the body as shown. This is not necessary but gives a little more realistic look to the nymph.
15
The trimmed rear body should now look like this from the side.
16
And like this from above with the gills prominent along each side of the body.
17
Now cut four lengths of floss or Antron body wool and tie these is as shown along the the top of the thorax these will form the wing case later.
18
Trim off the ends of the floss behind the hook eye and tie down. Wind the tying thread back towards the rear body.
19
Dub the whole thorax quite heavily and return the tying thread once again to the junction between the thorax and the rear body. Take care that you leave about 2-3 mm space behind the hook eye to tie off the wing case later.
20
Place a large CdC hackle in a magic tool clip, notice how the CdC fibres taper in length from long on the left side getting shorter to the right.
21
Transfer the CdC to the second Magic tool clip ready for use.
22
Now spin the CdC with the longest fibres at the top of the dubbing loop, these are to be wound in the thorax first for the longest legs.
23
Wind on the CdC dubbing brush in open even turns through the thorax to form the leg hackle.
24
Taking hold off all four pieces of floss, fold them over the thorax and secure with a couple of turns of tying thread. Once the floss is correctly placed pull once again to tighten up the wing case and secure properly with a few more turns of tying thread.
25
Trim off the excess floss and tie down the ends. If you are using Dyneema or another GSP thread you can colour it black with a permanent felt marker.
26
Whip finish and remove the tying thread. Finish off with a drop of varnish.
27
The finished olive mayfly nymph.
28
The finished brown mayfly nymph.
29
The finished grey mayfly nymph.
3 minute Glass Eel
This pattern is an absolute must if you fish for sea run browns. Extremely quick to tie and very realistic. This pattern I developed to imitate the small glass eels that in the past couple of years arrived in huge numbers around our coast line, and the sea trout feast upon them. If you use the blue/ silver mix legs from the squid bait these also make a great sand eel pattern.
For the Tobis (sand eel) pattern I use two longer legs tied in at the side of each other this give great movement when fished.
The Bee’s Knees!
The feather benders home grown and hand crafted fly tyers wax scull’s.
It’s not that long ago that pre-waxed tying thread was not readily available, and tyers, especially of the more classic stile patterns resorted to various types of wax to make tying more easy and the natural threads such as cotton and silk more durable. Because the majority of tying threads available today are pre-waxed, the practice of waxing your own tying thread has been somewhat neglected or almost forgotten for most fly tyers.
Apart from the obvious advantages as mentioned above, waxing your own thread makes easy work of applying and attaching materials to the hook, creating better friction between thread and material and anchoring them in place with only a couple of wraps of thread. Its also extremely useful when dubbing, if a little is applied to the thread before spinning your dubbing it will render the thread ‘Tacky’ and make the adhering of the dubbing material easier.
After recently starting keeping bees, primarily for honey production, I have also a surplus of natural bee’s wax which when mixed with three other totally natural ingredients is the recipe for my own exclusive tyers wax. A limited amount of sculls will be available for next to no cost, so if you are interested in obtaining one of these hand made tyers waxes, please contact me on, barrycl@online.no
Stingsild bucktail streamer
Although the recent tendency for tying and designing sea trout flies has gone more towards imitation patterns, some of which are extremely realistic, I am constantly drawn back to some more traditional styles of tying, that never stop producing fish. This is one of them! This extremely simple pattern is so effective on autumn sea trout that for the past few years at least a couple of dozen have to be tied for my box. During the summer months the Mickey Finn, another classic buck-tail streamer, is an outstanding pattern on bright sunny days, but falls short when fished in the autumn. I wanted a pattern that would fish as well in the dark grey autumn months, this was the result.
Stingsild Buck-tail streamer
Hook Mustad S71SS salt water streamer # 4-6 http://mustad.no/catalog/na/product.php?id=193
Thread Dyneema
Body Holographic tinsel
Throat White buck-tail https://www.spiritriver.com/materials/hair-fur/select-bucktails
Underwing Four strands of gold Gliss n Glow https://www.spiritriver.com/materials/flash/gliss-n-glow
Wing Light brown buck-tail with darker brown buck-tail over https://www.spiritriver.com/materials/hair-fur/select-bucktails
Topping Five or six strands of peacock herl
Eyes Edson brass eyes http://www.whitetailflytieing.com/
Head Black http://www.veniard.com/section154/cellire-head-cement-and-thinners
1
Insert your salt water streamer hook in the vice with the hook shaft horizontal.
2
Run your tying thread along the hook shank until you come to a place between the hook point and barb.
3
At the tail of the hook tie in a length of holographic flat tinsel. Unlike salmon and exhibition flies this tinsel body should be uneven, I want to achieve the most reflective multi faceted surface as possible. So the foundation of thread doesn’t have to be flat!
4
This is also a fishing fly so strengthen the tinsel body by coating the thread foundation with varnish before you start wrapping the tinsel.
5
Wrap the tinsel over the whole length of the body and wipe off any excess varnish that may flow on to the tinsel. tie off.
6
Turn your fly up side down and tie in a small bunch of prepared white buck-tail. This should extend about one half of the hook length beyond the hook bend.
7
Trim off the excess buck-tail and tie down the butts with a few turns of tying thread.
8
Tie in four short lengths of gold Gliss n Glow on top of the hook shank.
9
Now clean and stack a small bunch of light brown or tan buck-tail and tie in on top of the Gliss n Glow.
10
Repeat stage 9 but with a darker brown buck-tail That extends a little longer than the light brown.
11
Cut five or six lengths of peacock herl from just under the eye on a peacock tail feather. Tie these in in one bunch for the topping, again a little longer than the buck-tail wing.
12
Take two Edson brass eyes, you can substitute these with jungle cock but the effect is not the same.
13
Trim down the brass eyes with wire cutters as shown.
14
Secure the eyes one each side of the head with a few turns of tying thread. Before you continue to tie in the eyes apply a drop of varnish to hold everything in place.
15
Wrap the head with tying thread and whip finish. Coat the head with black varnish. Now wet your fingers and soak the entire wing and pull it back to give it shape.
16
Once the wing is wet and shaped let it dry, it only takes a few minutes.
17
Once dry the wing will hold its shape.
18
A batch of Stingsild soon ready for the salt!
