# Tied My First Fly Today...



## deerfly (Mar 10, 2007)

looks like a Sesame Street character to me. :-? Just messin' with ya, I've tied worse looking flies than that and still caught fish. Of course that was way back when, fish weren't as smart as they are now. So you may have a trouble with that one. 

Seriously, spinning deer hair takes some practice and if thats your first one then you're doing well. I'm sure you could get a feeding redfish to eat it or even a bass. Its got the makin's of a slider but unless thats a light hook I'm not sure you have dense enough hair to keep it on top after the hair absorbs some water. If it were me I'd use saddle hackles for the tail instead of hair too. I don't recognize it as a familiar pattern, were you following a recipe in the book?


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## Spook (Apr 6, 2007)

Looks very similar to a Borski Redfish Slider. Might have to trim the bottom of the deer hair flat for it to ride right, but it looks good. Redfish around here would eat it. [smiley=1-beer.gif]

Elie


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## HaMm3r (Dec 11, 2006)

> Its got the makin's of a slider but unless thats a light hook I'm not sure you have dense enough hair to keep it on top after the hair absorbs some water. If it were me I'd use saddle hackles for the tail instead of hair too. I don't recognize it as a familiar pattern, were you following a recipe in the book?


You are good, man! It is supposed to sink...slowly. When I went to the shop, I told the guy I wanted to make a borksi slider that was darker, smaller and would sink extremely slow. He helped me choose the stuff, so you're right on.  [smiley=1-thumbsup3.gif]

It's tied on a #6, so it's pretty small. I wish I had gone with the #8 now, but he thought the #6 would be easier to tie for a beginner.

Anyway, I wasn't following any recipe. Just trying to get a similar shape and color to a rootbeer/gold-fleck softplastic. I followed the tying techniques in the book for each of the different parts. I was going for a small body originially, but I got this far and liked it. The next will be smaller.


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## deerfly (Mar 10, 2007)

thats great, I love to see new people get into tying. Casting a fly, hooking a fish and landing it are rewarding enough, tying your own flies adds a whole other dimension to the sport. You'll soon realize too that fish will eat some pretty ugly stuff. :

When I tie a fly I try to keep 3 things in mind, the dominant color, in water profile (size&shape) and sink rate. Wind resistance can be a factor too, but like with deer hair bugs and stuff you just have to accept the resistance in order to get the profile and water movement that bulky deer hair bodies or heavy palmoring give you. To me, deer hair sliders is the fly fishing equivalent of plug casting with Zara Spooks. But if you get those 3 basic aspects of the fly close to the prevailing bait you're gonna get your share of strikes even if the finer aspects of the fly are a but rough. 

Borski eh :-? I guess I need to read up on some of the "in vogue" patterns these days. Spook is way more scholarly than me that way.  I'm pretty much "old school" with flies. Been using the same handful of patterns for so many years, clousers, decivers and a few variations on tarpon flies and deer hair sliders for every thing from bass to lemon sharks. They still work too, so I haven't bothered to experiment much.


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## JRH (Mar 18, 2007)

Cool. I just recently started tying. It's quite an addiction, and is an awesome feeling when you hook your first fish on a fly you tied.

You can't go wrong with the guys at Orlando Outfitters. Very helpful. Next time you're in, ask Barco about his 10lb trout.


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## BobFLA (Feb 15, 2007)

Tied in eyes, spun deer hail, good proportions...WOW!!! Great job!

Best regards
Bob


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## HaMm3r (Dec 11, 2006)

Did another one today, this time with feathers and a smaller body. Added some white into the tail, maybe to suggest a lighter underbelly. I like this one better than the first.  

There's some loose bits of hair in the picture, cause it's late and I don't want to wake the house by running the shop vac.  ;D










I'm thinking about trying a spoon fly next, which will give me at least three of my own flies to try out on the reds this weekend.


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## aaronshore (Aug 24, 2007)

Do yourself a favor and trim all the hair of the bottom of that fly. Use a razorblade or your scissors. Trust me!!!


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## deerfly (Mar 10, 2007)

You're doing great, I like this one much better.  If you've seen very many of my fly tying posts here you'd know I love these kinds of patterns. 

My only concern and its a little one, is how many hackles are in the tail? You might want to try it the sink or something to see how the tail lays down on a short tug. If it flattens out to like coat hanger thickness when you draw it forward you may need to add more hackles to beef up the profile a bit on the next one. For this kind of pattern I never use less than 4, usually 6 and sometimes 8 depending on how thin or translucent the particular hackles are. Maybe 4-6 strands of krystal flash on each side of the tail would give it a little sparkle too. 

One other thing, if it doesn't sink like you want it to, try to trim the hair off the sides and a little off the bottom more so the hook continues to ride down but keeping the profile you want.

here's a few of my favorite deer hair patterns

finger mullet









Fly on bottom is supposed to imitate the tiger minnows we have around in here in the mangrove estuaries where the salinity is real low, close to fresh water. But the reds and snook love'em.









Classic red head


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## HaMm3r (Dec 11, 2006)

I really appreciate the feedback, guys!   Like I said, I'm not trying to tie any known patterns, so these tips are especially useful. I only used three hackles in the tail of this last one. :-[

I do have a  couple questions though, if you don't mind.

First, when spinning deer hair and you pull and tie the front hair back to make way for the next layer, what do you use to pull back the hairs inside the bend of the hook? I have trouble getting all of them and usually stick myself. I end up trying to hold them back with a toothpick, but two hands just isn't enough.

Also, it seems like all the deer hair flies have the head and body trimmed really short and tight. Is there no place for a larger body with longer hairs? They look so nice when first spun, it almost seems a shame to chop it all off.  :

Lastly, do you guys have any tips to minimize the mess? Bits of hair, feathers, thread, etc seem to get everywhere.  

Thanks!


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## deerfly (Mar 10, 2007)

that's too many questions per post. 

First off, there's no hard and fast rules here, nor are there really any new fly pattern's so to speak. Pretty much everything is a variation on a handful of basic designs from many decades ago. Theres newer materials and a lot of different hooks these days, but the basic approach to creating a workable fly is the same now as it was 50 years ago. So feel free to have it. I don't think you'll find many here or anywhere else that will criticize creativity. Starting with simple known patterns is generally a better way to get going, but you appear to have some maverick in you to start with your own ideas. 

Me personally, I try to keep my critique or comments more to a cause and effect kind of thing. I've been screwing around with this stuff at varying degrees of passion for well over 30 years. So I try to use some of that trial and error to help newcomers along. I also have the benefit of being raised and nurtured into the outdoors by a few prominent middle keys fishing guides for a large part of my life and some of their fly fishing knowledge and experience has invariably rubbed off on me. I was a captain and guide myself for a spell too, but aside from having chronic skin cancer, I went back to a more lucrative career in software development. Anyway, fishing and fly fishing especially are just serious hobbies to me now and I try help others get into fly fishing when ever I can. So take anything I say personally. If you do then I either wrote it wrong or you read it wrong.

Now, back to your questions... 

You can use a lot of different tools to push the spun hair back. For many years I used a plastic Bic pen housing. I just pulled the ink-pen part out and used the tapered front end for small eyed hooks and the wider back end for larger eyes. Brass tubing of various ID's can be used too. Any tubular sort of thing that will fit over the hook eye can be used to push the hair back. I usually just use my fingers though. 

Probably the main reason for tight trimming of hair bodies is streamlining for wind resistance and also for the fly to swim evenly or float a certain way like hook up/down or for effect, slider vs popper. The other less known reason is game fish don't eat anything that looks like a porcupine fish. 

As fer the mess, either buy or make a little basket to hang from the vise. That will get most of it. Your wife will point out the rest of it and will no doubt have a number of ideas on how you should clean it up as well as a few suggestions regarding alternate tying locations.


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## capt_gordon (Sep 10, 2007)

> Also, it seems like all the deer hair flies have the head and body trimmed really short and tight. Is there no place for a larger body with longer hairs? They look so nice when first spun, it almost seems a shame to chop it all off.  :


The loose ends are what give it life. Don't bother trying to trim it so tight. That is just for the tackle shop counter. I like my flies to be a bit shaggy. They just look more alive in the water that way. Check out Aaron Adams' new book. You'll see a lot of flies that have that appearance.


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## HaMm3r (Dec 11, 2006)

> The loose ends are what give it life.  Don't bother trying to trim it so tight.  That is just for the tackle shop counter.  I like my flies to be a bit shaggy.  They just look more alive in the water that way.  Check out Aaron Adams' new book.  You'll see a lot of flies that have that appearance.


Cool! I'll do that. 

On a side note, I bought a couple of new bonefish sliders the other day and used them for the first time this weekend. I had the dumbell eyes fly off one of them after only a couple of casts. Should I take it back or just try to tie on some new eyes? What's the rule with over-the-counter flies? [smiley=1-mmm.gif]


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## deerfly (Mar 10, 2007)

> What's the rule with over-the-counter flies? [smiley=1-mmm.gif]


Depends on where you get them. Fly shops that tie their own for sale are usually very good quality. Mass merchant stuff is usually tied offshore, etc. So you're never sure what you'll get. If you got them from a fly shop I would just call them and let them know what happened. If they were tied in house I'm sure they'll give you a few replacements on your next visit. If they're re-selling them they may tell the supplier about it. Either way I'd wrap some more eyes on them and keep fishing. Could be an opportunity to learn a new pattern too.


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## HaMm3r (Dec 11, 2006)

Thanks Deerfly.  I'll just fix her up then, but I'll let the shop know next time I'm there. I believe they tie them themselves...


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## HaMm3r (Dec 11, 2006)

Ok, today I was throwing one of the other borski sliders I bought, and the same thing happened. The eyes flew off. I'm not feeling too happy with the quality of these now. Does this happen a lot to anyone else?

For $6 each, I just think they should last more than 10 casts...


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## aaronshore (Aug 24, 2007)

> Ok, today I was throwing one of the other borski sliders I bought, and the same thing happened. The eyes flew off. I'm not feeling too happy with the quality of these now. Does this happen a lot to anyone else?
> 
> For $6 each, I just think they should last more than 10 casts...


I hope you didnt pay $10 for these two flies you posted pictures of. If you did you got ripped off. My one year old could spin deer hair better. Unless you tied them, and since you just started tying I would be happy if my first ones came out like that. I have never had a fly fall apart on me that I bought unless I caught quite a few fish on it. But especially not just casting. Thats crap!!!


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## deerfly (Mar 10, 2007)

What kind of eyes are they, glue-on or bead/barbell style? I've never heard of tied on barbells coming off unless the threads are cut by slimy things with teeth. Glued on eyes, especially when glued to spun hair are another story. They will come off from casting or getting beat up by fish.


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## HaMm3r (Dec 11, 2006)

> What kind of eyes are they, glue-on or bead/barbell style?


They are/were the lead barbell style, with painted ends. The top one in the picture has about two hours of use on it, the bottom one is practically brand new. In fact, if you look closely at the top fly, you can see the loops of thread that were holding the eyes on. The threads aren't broken or anything, they're just empty loops now.



> I hope you didnt pay $10 for these two flies you posted pictures of.


Yes I did. Live and learn.  I'll take them back and show the shop what happened...

Do you think I should buy the materials and try to tie some of these myself? At least if they fall apart, I'll know why.  :


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## deerfly (Mar 10, 2007)

I would definitely take them back to the shop, especially at that price. Most of us hate to be ball-busters but I think you have a valid case here. Hopefully the guys at the shop will do the right thing and I expect they will. 

As far as tying the pattern yourself, if you like it then why not? There really aren't many saltwater patterns that I can think of that are difficult to tie, in fact the simpler ones tend to be the most effective. Thats the beauty of tying too, once you've made the initial investment you can tie all you want at material cost, which in many cases is less than a dollar per fly.


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## HaMm3r (Dec 11, 2006)

Hey, I think I'm improving.  ;D

I made an attempt to tie a bonefish slider today. I wasn't trying to exactly duplicate the pattern, but I wanted it to be similar. This is my first fly with lead eyes, krystal flash, hand-drawn hackle stripes and a weed guard. 









Decent? Still pathetic? What do ya think?


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## deerfly (Mar 10, 2007)

looks really good to me, but then again I'm not a fish.  

Seriously that fly looks good, nicely proportioned and I would think should produce strikes if you get it front of a feeding fish, red's or bone's. Looks like a great estuary bait imitation in general. Nice work tho, you are coming along great on your tying skills. - eric


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## HaMm3r (Dec 11, 2006)

Another variation. I think my favorite so far.   If I have time, I want to try and see if bass like any of these tomorrow...


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