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Roguerat	August 2nd, 2014, 3:42 pm
Posts: 472	I hauled these out of the archive recently, getting back to some warm-water fishing with my oldest grandsons. I started packing and stacking hair-bugs back in 1993 and caught a fair number of Large mouth and N Pike on critters like those in the attached pictures (lost a few, too- bugs AND fish) although the 'used' bugs really took a beating over the years. The ones in the pics are still in pretty good shape and some got packed away without ever getting cast. A friend introduced me to trout fishing some 6 years ago and I set aside the big bugs for dries and nymphs. BUT grandkids grow and now I'm breaking out the 8-wt more and more, even getting my double-haul back! Sort of ironic but the friend who got me into trout has become a hair-bug customer of sorts, we've horse-swapped my bugs for his older reels and so on to get me started in gearing up for trout. Tight Lines! Roguerat I Peter 5:7 'Cast your cares upon Him..'
Martinlf	August 2nd, 2014, 6:47 pm
Moderator Palmyra PA Posts: 3233	Cool. The top flies are like the one Bob Clouser showed me for pike. Relatively easy to tie, and to cast, they work well! The sunfish is creative; how hard it it to tie?
	"He spread them a yard and a half. 'And every one that got away is this big.'" --Fred Chappell
Roguerat	August 2nd, 2014, 8:24 pm
Posts: 472	When I started tying the Dahlberg Divers I used 1/0 hooks, just like in the videos (VHS!) I learned from. Experience made me downsize to sz 4 and 6 for these guys since the big Divers were tied for Saskatchewan or points north, and some truly BIG N Pike. The reasonable sized flies cast a lot better, not like a wet paint-brush...and they worked fine on the 30-36" Northerns of my part of Michigan. The sunfish were more tedious than difficult. I used sz 4 'Stinger' hooks for these, and the bodies of the fish were spun, stacked, then trimmed in a horizontal orientation so the hooks exited the body on the side (visualize a saucer-shaped fly, on its side). I used a double-edged safety razor-blade to trim the hair with, along with very judicious use of a curved hair-scissors. The tails and fins were black goose feathers, coated with Flexament then trimmed and glued into slots cut into the deer-hair bodies. I know I'm rusty as all-get-out but I've got a sz 4 hook in the vise, and I'm going to do some packing and stacking soon! Roguerat I Peter 5:7 'Cast your cares upon Him..'
PaulRoberts	August 5th, 2014, 8:55 pm
Colorado Posts: 1776	Fun! I had one I called "B-52" a big wide wad of deer hair that I caught both my biggest fly caught SM and LM on. It was a bear to cast lol. Warmwater FF is sure a lot of fun. And I had circumstances bass fishing where the fly rod could match, or outfish, conventional gear -big hatch years of bass on ponds was one.
Roguerat	August 6th, 2014, 7:38 am
Posts: 472	Agreed, it's fun to go after warm water fish when the hardware tossers are scratching their heads- and a well-placed hair-bug is really working! I had to learn an open, lob-type loop to throw the really big bugs, along with a well-timed double-haul for long casts. Is your B-52 online anywhere? Tight lines! Roguerat I Peter 5:7 'Cast your cares upon Him...'
PaulRoberts	August 8th, 2014, 2:46 am
Colorado Posts: 1776	Nope! It was nothing special: A wad of of spun deer hair trimmed leaving some legs along the side. The head is popper like. Oh yes, some marabou for a tail. When cast, it sounded like a swan coming in for a landing. I only made the one. Skittered it around vegetation for LM and the big SM took it dead. I was looking elsewhere, fiddling with something, and when I looked up there was a big ring spreading out on the water.

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