Spinning elk hair in anticipation for the ice to melt

Well it seems to be time for a real post on this blog. This will be somewhat of a tutorial (though this is my first time spinning deer hair) and somewhat a following of what flies I tie, which ones work and which ones just flop (if you want to skip to the tutorial skip to the first picture). I liked tying this fly, although it definitely isn’t as good as it is supposed to look but I do think it will still work (fingers crossed). This particular fly called a bass bug or a popper uses something I’d never done before which is spinning hair (elk in my case).  For the most part I fish in small creeks, small lakes, and at the edges of lakes for small fish (I generally catch from about 6” to 12” fish but only keep from 9” up). These fish are generally trout of the rainbow variety but I do have my places for cutthroat, bull trout, kokanee (landlocked salmon) and dolly varden.  

            This year however I have some new fish in mind. I'm lucky to live in a place where I can fish for just about anything I please. Though sometimes getting to these fish takes a bit of a drive, it’s not nearly as bad as if I lived in a city. This year my goals for catching fish are to get a walleye (which is something I’ve never caught before), catch some perch for a fish fry, and most of all catch a whole bunch more BASS!

            Last year I caught my first bass ever and have been hooked ever since. The first bass I caught was a 2lb largemouth and about two weeks later I caught a little smallmouth bass. During the last winter I have been buying and learning how to use all kinds of bass lures such as stick baits, crank baits, tube baits, soft baits and all kinds of other things. The one thing I really want to do this year though, is not only catch bass on my new bait caster rod but to catch one on my fly rod. This is what takes us to the fly I tied last night in anticipation for the upcoming bass season. It is called (or I know it to be called) a bass bug and the tutorial starts here!

 

So that’s the bass bug I tied has got green up front and a green and yellow tail to somewhat look like the perch that are in pretty well every lake around where I live that has bass in it.

Pick a good heavy thread as u will break a light one with ease spinning the hair. Put the thread on a good heavy gauged hook so you won’t lose that bass when u set the hook.

Next pick what you want to use for your tail. you can use pretty much anything u would normally use for tails. I chose to use two colors of bucktail for a slightly more perchy look.

Now tie the tail on just as you would any other tail and trim to your desired length and shape. I personally tied on the yellow first.

Then I proceeded to tie on the green (in hindsight I would recommend tying the tail on further up the shank of the hook.)

This is where the fun begins. This is where you chose the elk or deer body/ belly hair you would like to use for the spun part of the fly. I would have used multiple colors but I only have the couple, though I plan on buying more colors next time I get the chance. I chose the bright green I have.

Cut off about a pinch of the hair. Make sure u have enough so the hair looks thick after spinning.

Then you want to lay it on the shank of the hook and lay two light wraps of your thread over the hair of the hook. 

Then pull tight and watch the magic of spinning hair.

Pull the hair back and repeat the last step.

Continue until you have just enough room to finish and tie off. At this point it looks like quite the crazy hairdo.

Next tie off the thread and cut it off. Then trim this crazy “hairdo” to your desired shape.

Always finish a fly with clear fly lacquer to keep it from falling apart after a long time of use.

My preferred method of applying the lacquer is to use a small piece of wood such as the small pieces that break off of kindling. Dip the small piece of wood into the lacquer.

Apply the lacquer to the fly where you tied it off and you’re finished.

Well there’s my tutorial on how to tie a bass bug. Good luck, have fun, thanks for reading and don’t forget to get outside!