Spinning Deer hair on bombers?

[Will Atlas]

I've been tying a lot of summer flies as of late. I'm pretty decent at spinning deer hair on the whole, but I have one problem. How the heck do you finish spinning the front of a bomber once you tie the wing in?. So the back of the body looks great, I slide the clumps of deer hair down from the head trying to make sure the hair is distributed evenly around the body. About 2/3rds of the way up the body though, I have to tie the wings in, so I cant just slide the hair down the shank anymore, with the wings in the way. What I've been doing is just putting the hair on top, and then trying to sort of slide some to the bottom before/during the spinning process, but the results have been so so. I'm just wondering if anyone has any tips for that last clump of hair?

Thanks in advance,

Will

[Cameron Derbyshire]

Will,

If you have Dick Talleur's book "Pretty and Practical Salmon Flies," he has a chapter on tying bombers. This chapter was also published in an issue of American Angler or Fly Tyer sometime around 1999 and also in Wild Steelhead and Atlantic Salmon.

If you can't find these, my advice may or may not work for you. You have two options in regards to when you tie in the wing. I've tried tying in the wing before and after spinning the body. When tying in the wing after I'm done spinning hair for the body, I don't usually have much room left up front, unless I make sure to leave room for a riffle hitch. I usually use elk mane for my wing and leave the body untrimmed before tying in the wing. Tie in the wing. Trim body. Not much of a problem. Just be sure you're thread wraps for the wing are tight and/or well coated with head cement/super glue/nail polish/epoxy.

As for spinning the hair after having tied in the wings, the method that works best for me is to stack, not spin, the hair. Use about the same amount of hair as when spinning, use the same two loops of thread before tightening, use the same tension on the thread when tightening, but don't let go of the hair until you've tightened down all the way. The hair usually still likes to move even when tightly gripped by you. So tie in the hair a little more towards you (more over towards the side of the hook shank closer to you). As you apply tension by tightening the thread wraps, the hair will flare (good, that's what you want) and rotate in the direction the thread is applied to the hook (away from you, not necessarily what you want). Then give an extra wrap or two through the hair. In this way you can "spot spin" the hair in the gaps you need to fill: underneath the hook shank, on both sides of the hook shank, on top of the hook shank (between the wings if you split the wing). Packing the hair is more difficult this way, but you're guaranteed your wings won't move as you've previously left plenty of room to tie in the wings well.

Give it a try. Let me know how it works. I don't recall if Skip Morris has a page or two about stacking deer hair in any of his tying books.

[Matt Burke]

Very well said Cameron. Is Derbyshire a real name? First time I've actually thought about changing my last name.

[FT]

Bombers are not that hard to tie once you learn how to spin deer hair, which you have done. The problems folks run into when tying Bombers have to do with wanting to tie in the hackle before they start spinning the deer hair body and tying in the wing before spinning the body. Fortunately, both tying in and palmering the hackle and tying in the wing are very easy if done after the body is spun and trimmed.

The late Warren Duncan (he just died a month or so back) wrote an article years ago on how to tie Bombers, and his method is what I use. And an added benefit to using this method is that you can tie Bombers all the way out to Alec Jackson 3/0 Spey Hooks by simply adding more hackles once one is used up.

For those who haven't learned how to tie them yet or who are having trouble, I will start from tying the thread in all the way to wrapping the hackle.

1) Tie in the heavy thread needed to spin the deer body (I like Danville's Flat Waxed Nylon, but any suitable heavier thread works) just in front of the hook point and wrap to the rear end of the shank.

2) Tie in the tail after first putting some flexible cement (such as Dave's Flexament) on the thread base you made when you tied in the thread to hold the tail hair from moving.

3a) Tie in and spin the deer hair body all the way up the hook until you are 2-3 hook eye lengths behind the hook's eye (necessary to have enough room to tie in the wing). 3b)Before you tie in and spin each bunch of deer hair, put a good-sized drop of flexible cement (again I like Dave's Flexament, but any flexible one works) on the hook shank right against the bunch already tied in. 3c) After each bunch is spun, take two turns of thread just in front of the bunch and then push (or compact) the bunch of deer hair back toward the tail with your thumb and forefinger nails or a hair compacting tool.

4) Clip the body into the classic cigar shape it has; but keep the bottom straight with the sides and top rounded.

5) Tie in 6/0 or 8/0 tying thread (I use either Danville's Flymaster or Uni- 8/0) right in front of the body. (The small thread allows you to bury it in the body and bind down the wing with minimal bulk.)

6) Wrap the 6/0 or 8/0 thread through the clipped body by zig-zagging it (this keeps the thread from binding down the flared deer hair and allows the thread to sink through the spun deer hair to the hook shank) through the spun deer body until you are even with the hook point.

7) Tie in a hackle with barbs just a tad bit longer than the hook gap by its tip (you can use either saddle or neck hackle, although saddle is easier since only one is needed instead of the two usually needed with neck hackle) after you place a drop of flexible cement (I use Dave's Flexament) on the tip with not more than 3 turns of thread (Don't worry, the flexible cement will hold the hackle into the spun deer body so it won't pull out) because more turns of thread will mash down some of the deer hair and create a gap in the body.

8) After tying in the hackle by its tip, run the thread up the body by zig-zagging it through the body and stop when you get almost to the front end of the body (You want to stop before exiting the body, in other words, you don't want the thread to stop in front of the body.).

9) Make a complete wrap of hackle at the tie in point and then palmer it up the body until you reach the thread.

10a) Once you reach the thread with the hackle and make a complete turn of hackle at that point: 10b) strip off the barbs from the hackle right down to the body (You want a bare stem); then 10c) put a drop of flexible cement (I use Dave's Flexament) on the hackle stem right at the body; 10d) wrap the hackle until the stem just enters the body; 10e) Wrap 3 truns of thread over the hackle stem which is now inside the very front edge of the body; and 10f) Clip the hackle stem and zig-zag the thread to just in front of the body. (Don't worry about the hackle not being tied in securely because the flexible cement will bond the hackle stem and thread to each other, the hook shank, and the body.)

11) Wrap the thread in nice even wraps to the hook eye (fill in the eye gap with thread if not using a loop eyed hook).

12) Put a drop of flexible cement (I use Flexament) on the thread wrap base and tie in the calf (elk, deer, moose, etc.) wing with 5-7 nice tight turns of thread. (The flexible cement is needed to bind the wing, thread, and hook shank together and it keeps the wing from pulling out or moving around.)

13) Clip the butt ends of the wing so they are not touching the body.

14) Cover the butt ends of the wing, make a nice smooth thread head, and whip finish.

15) Put several coats of head cement on the thread head (make it glossy) to protect the thread from the leader when riffle-hitched.

I purposely broke tying it down into the smallest steps for clarity and ease of following for those unfamiliar with tying Bombers. Although it looks like a lot of steps (it is), tying Bombers this way really doesn't take all that long. Once you get used to it, you can tie 6-8 of them in an hour provided you tie all the bodies first and toss them on the bench followed by clipping all of them before finiishing a fly.

[hedburner]

What style or brand of hooks do you use for these?

[FT]

I prefer to use Daiichi #2220 hooks in sizes #1-#6 for Bombers because they have a nice ballance of shank length to hook gap, and the down eye this hook has helps keep the wing located properly while making it easy to tie it to the tippet. But any loop eye salmon/steelhead hook or heavy 3XL or 4XL hook you would use for Woolly Buggers or Muddlers works. In short, use whatever loop eye salmon/steelhead hook or Woolly Bugger hook you prefer to using. Heck, you can even tie them on large Carlisle hooks, 3XL saltwater hooks, or Alec Jackson #3/0 Spey Hooks if you want really huge ones.

[floydiology]

I have a tutorial for tying an Air B.C.Here (http://www.flyfishnw.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=7) It might help with the bomber.

[Will Atlas]

good replies fellas. Cameron, I think I'm doing it like you are. Anyone intersted in joining my skater swap? sounds like you guys all know how to tie.

[seanengman]

I'll check out your swap.