St. Vrain Angler

At the outset, tying bass bugs is intimidating. It's spinning and clipping deer hair that's the problem. In fact spinning deer hair is not all that hard. It just takes some practice and the willingness to get deer hair all over you in the process!

A few tips are in order. First, be sure to get good deer hair. The hair should be clean, the color(s) you want and long enough to spin what needs covered with clipped hair.

When the hair is clipped away from the skin - be sure to clip it close so you get all of the butts - clean out all short pieces and fluff from the base of the hair. It won't spin well if it has stuff in it. All we want is the long hair.

To spin a clump of hair, cut away the tips and leave the base and middle portion of the hair in tact. That's what will be spun.

Be sure to use good thread. I'd recommend either 140 or 3/0 monochord for the job. Other stuff is usually too heavy or too light. Put a hook in the vise, start the thread and pull until it breaks; do this several times, then never pull that hard again when you spin the hair.

There are two things with spinning: one is spinning, and the other is flaring. When we spin hair it goes around the hook shank; when we flare it it stays in place. Be sure to practice and do the one that works.

1. Remove the barb; mount the hook in the vise. I use white 140 thread on this fly, so that's what you are seeing. Start the thread about 1/2 down the hook shank and wrap back until it hangs over the point of the hook, as shown here.

2. Next is something to keep the feathers apart. I used bucktail in this case; use calf tail, marabou or some other material. We like craft fur, which has lots of colors. Select fibers and tie in on top of the hook, as shown. Note the tie in position is still in front of the point of the hook; nothing is going to be tied in behind that spot.

3. Now we select feathers. Use the color you like. Strung saddles will work as long as they are wide enough. The large feathers from a cape are great, as are bass bug and saltwater cape feathers. Select four feathers that are about even in width and length, more or less. This does not have to be perfect. Take two feathers; place them so they are curving in the same direction and align the tips. Repeat with the other two feathers. Now, tie on one set on the side of the hook closest to you. The tips should extend beyond the bucktail, as shown. The feather stems are on the side of the hook shank.

4. Turn the fly over in the vise, or rotate your vise, and tie in the other set of feathers, keeping the tips even with the feathers on the other side. Do not move the thread behind the tie-in point of the feathers on the other side as the thread will rotate the feathers around the shank of the hook.

5. Cover the tied in butts of the feathers so they are secure. There are tiers who will put a drop of head cement on the thread at this point; I don't find this necessary, but it's fine if you want to do so.

6. Take a few strands of flashabou or krystal flash - or several of both - and tie them in over the wing. Clip at various lengths to make it interesting. When the flash and wings are complete, the fly will look like the shot shown above, at right.

7. Now I tie in a set of rubber legs. Two pieces of rubber on each side of the hook. The color should contrast the color of the wings and the hackle that will be tied in later. As you can see, I tie the legs in on the front side of the hook, then pull them over to the other side and tie them in there. As with the feather wings, I like to keep the legs on each side of the hook shank.

8. Select another feather or two in the color of choice. I like long, webby feathers such as shlappen for this. A contrasting color is a good thing, in my opinion, as it will help the fish better see the fly. Tie the feather or feathers in by the tip and wind them forward. With each wind of hackle fold the fibers back so they flow to the back of the fly.

9. When the hackle is wound forward and tied off, push the thread back over the hackle a bit so it really flows to the back. Now, add another set of rubber legs, as explained in step 7, above. When this is complete, the fly will look like the picture at right. Not bad, huh?

10. AT this point, you may decide to sip a cold beverage and take a short break, or continue. Actually, some tiers will tie this portion of the fly several times so they have three or four back ends of the bass bug done, before beginning the hair spinning. That's what we're going to do now, though. Enjoy!

11. Deer hair. Select the color or colors you'd like to use. We're using three - yellow, olive and orange. I start with yellow, keeping the tips to create a collar over the back of the fly, covering all the tie-in thread used to create the back portion of the fly. See the two pictures below, which show the measurement of the tips - to the back of the bend of the hook, you see - and the butts, which are shorter. Note the position of the thread which is where it will be for this spin. Actually, this spin is a flare. We're going to get the hair into the position shown relative to the hook shank and the thread, and then make a loose wrap of thread around the hair, being careful not to move it.

12. Once the thread is around the hook shank and the clump of hair, we're going to hold the hair by the tips in the left hand and pull down on the thread, flaring the hair around the shank, but not spinning it. From the top view, it will look like this shot at right. Note the length of the tips relative to the length of the butts. This makes it easy to separate them when trimming. Now, the hair is on top of the hook, and we have to put some on the bottom to fill the gap.
13. From the same patch of hair - so it is the same color, you see - clip out a smaller amount of hair than we just used. Clean it as explained above and clip away the tips. All we need is about a 1-1/2" length of hair. Turn the fly over or rotate the vise. See the blank spot on the bottom? Place the hair in that spot so the length of the fibers is parallel to the hook shank. Hold the hair in your right hand with half the hair behind and half in front of the thread. Push the hair against the hook shank and make a loose wrap of thread around the hair. The thread will go through the first spin of hair; don't worry. Now flare the hair as before, filling in the blank area. Two or three wraps of thread are all that are required. Pull tight. Don't break the thread, though.
14. Pull the hair back and make a few wraps of thread in front of all of it. When the yellow is done, the fly should look like the picture at the right. Note the tips are on top; the butts on the bottom and around the shank of the hook. Cool beans, and really not that hard. See the position of the thread, just in front of the spun yellow hair? That's where it needs to be for the next spin. Note that the hook shank is now covered with thread. Do that.
15. Select the olive hair; trim away from skin - enough to do the job at hand, which you will figure out - and clip away the tips. We have a tube of hair, now, with all the fibers parallel to one another. Lay these fibers so they are parallel to the hook shank, make a wrap of thread around them, then another and another, each one slightly tighter than the previous one. Now, let the hair go while you continue to wind the thread. Make several wraps of thread through the hair, moving the thread forward and back slightly. The hair should first spin around the hook, then stay in place. When it's done, it will look like the picture, more or less.
16. Now we have a bit of bare hook shank remaining. We'll push the olive hair back, make a few wraps of thread in front of it to dam it up, and then move the thread forward so it splits the remaining blank area. Got it?
17. Prepare and spin the red, following the same principle as we did with the olive. Pull the hair back, pushing it along the shank of the hook so the area behind the eye is free of hair, and whip finish and cut the thread. The hard part is done. Now, we trim!
18. When trimming remember this: once it is trimmed, it is gone. OK? I turn the fly over in the vise and trim the bottom of the fly flat. Be careful not to cut hackle or rubber legs. Just cut deer hair. I'll be honest when I say that all that I'm doing is trimming this part flat on the bottom. That's it. Then I turn the vise over, angle my scissors so they will create the general shape I want, and start trimming and turning the vise, keeping the scissor blades in the same plane.
19. Once I have the general shape complete and like the size and shape I'll trim the back of the butts so just the tips of yellow are showing and even the rest to the point my obsessive nature  is temporarily sated. It's only a bass bug, and I'm going to fish with it, right? It doesn't have to be perfect, does it? When it looks about like this fly, it is good enough for this old tall fat gray bearded guy, I'll tell you that.

The next step is to separate the rubber legs so they flare. I just stick the tip of my whip finish tool in there and take care of that job right now. Sometimes I'll add a few drops of head cement to the flat bottom of the fly, gluing the hair to the thread to the shank of the hook, which might keep the hair from spinning more. If I hook a bass or pike on this fly, it is good enough. Time to tie more!

How long to tie this fly? It takes me about 6 minutes, but I'd say at first it takes about a half hour, then twenty five minutes and so on until you reach the speed that works for you. Be sure to lay out all the materials and have a clean work area with good light. Do each step, one step at a time. Most of the time that is wasted when tying flies is spent trying to think of the next step, then locating the materials. Be consistent on this front and tie enough of this pattern to get used to where stuff is on the table.

Most of all, have fun and enjoy the process - then fishing with your flies!

Thanks for tying with me!