Great Flies for the Broonies!

[Steve_Mack75]

Hi all.

Two flies that figure largely in my wild broonie fishing have to be the versatile Half Hog (a Stan Headley soon to be classic) and the Deer Hair Emerger.

Both of these flies have accounted for well over 50% of all my catches in the wilds over the past two years.  

The Half Hog can be fished as a wet, or ginked up when the fish are rising (or you think they are looking up!).  Fish them slow, fast or static, I promise you will catch fish.

The emerger is fantastic in a wee ripple, and caught me my finest wild brownie ever on Cam Loch two seasons ago (just over 2lb by the odd ounce).  I sometimes fish the (ginked) emerger on the point with two halfies on the droppers (xinked) and let the wind do the work with a floating line - deadly!

The patterns are available in back issues of Fly Fishing and Fly Tying and I recommend that you dig them out or order the back issues from the girls in the office. :wink:

[Wildfisher]

Steve,
I too am becoming a ?convert?  to these flies. The ? hogs are a bugger to tie though. Last year when up fishing Watten I bought some in Hugo Ross? shop  in Wick. They are not easy flies to find   commercially  tied. Guess I?ll have to practice my tying technique.

[Wildfisher]

ive heard loads about these flies and I wondered has anyone got the pattern for them. Hugo Ross's shop is well woth a visit its a mine of information and well stocked however its a bit far to go for flies its about 750 mile round trip for me.

Steve (pocaman)

I have taken the liberty of reproducing Stan Headley?s method of HH tying here as it is not easy to find on his web site.  Re-worded and edited some of it, hope he does not mind. The body  material choice is yours but Stan insists on VERY dark Roe Deer hair for the wing, and any I have used have certainly been dark. Olive and claret bodies seen to work well though.

Hooks e B170's  or  K14ST's

The tying  of the wing is the  same technique as for a  Sedgehog i.e a small tuft of hair followed by a tiny dub, followed by hair ??.etc

Start the thread about one-third of the way down the hook shank  the fore end of the body will end there  and take the thread down to  where you want the body to start (just slightly round the bend on a B170). Most  HHs have seal's fur dubbed bodies. Tie in a length of rib  and then sparsely dub the thread and wind up to the mid point. Rib the body.

Tie in two short lengths of medium holographic tinsel for cheeks and leave them unattached at the fore end for the moment. Tie in a sparse bunch (approx. 30 fibres) of  very dark roe deer hair as the first of a two bunch wing.

Sparsely dub the thread again with a tiny pinch of seal's fur and wind this over the roots of the deer hair to hold them tight and on top of the hook shank. Tie in the 2nd and last bunch of deer hair.

If you want a sparse hackle on the fly, bring the holographic strips up along the sides and tie in, and then wind a sparse hen hackle over the cut & trimmed ends of deer hair (cut the hackle fibres off flush with the bottom of the fly as you would a dry that you want to sit down flush with the surface). If you want a hackle-less fly, take a turn of sparsely dubbed seal's fur over the roots and cut ends of the 2nd bunch, then bring the holographic strips up to the head and tie in. Varnish and finish.

[Wildfisher]

Here is Allan Liddle?s variant on Bob Wyatt?s  ?Deer Hair Emerger."  Sorry to both gentlemen for the crap tying and photo.  This may not be 'exact' but it works well for me. This may be darker deer hair than the original, but you can use lighter stuff if you want, Elk or grey deer hair may be better as this is, I believe, an imitation of an emerging olive.



Hook  : Kamasan B170
Wing  : Deer hair tied forward
Rib : fine gold wire or round tinsel
Body and thorax : Olive rabbit fur.

Not sure why the pattern calls for rabbit as opposed to seal fur butt may be that it ?sooks up the waater? better and sits in the film with the wing ginked.

[Steve_Mack75]

Hi guys.

Thanks for the feedback on the flies.  I probably use these flies too exclusively these days - but they are proven fish catchers for most of the season!!

The deer hair emerger with a body of hare's mask (or lug!) is my most deadly variant of this fly.

The half hogs I have experimaented with a bit and the best and most regular catchers are the claret nymph-wrap (aka flexifloss)with gold wire rib, and also one tied with a black seal's fur body, orange throax and gold tinsel rib.  

I have seen some half hogs for sale without the tinsel cheeks - don't bother - I reckon the cheeks are the major trigger for the fish.  Persevere with tying them - I am a relatively novice tyer - I just follow instructions in mags and repeat until I manage a fishable fly!!  Admittedly, I am a bit of a 3 trick pony - Halfies/DHE's and Spider patterns (also deadly on the hill lochs).  I get by with them tho'!!

Later folks...........

[Steve_Mack75]

I know that Stan Headley recommends that you tie in two bunches of deer/elk (the darker the better, I most certainly agree).  However, this is a right pain, especially if tying on my favourite size 12.  In this case I opt for one bunch and it works well enough for me.

The size 10 version work supremely well in a bit of a wave, pulled back with steady, long retrives.

Steve

[Wildfisher]

Steve,

I?ll try the single bunch of hair on the smaller HH?s and see if I can produce a neater fly. Size 10?s is no problem but smaller is a pain. Getting  the holographic ?cheeks? in the right place is also a  bit of a fiddle.

[Steve_Mack75]

Hi all.

Had a great days fishing on a Loch called Glen Quay on Saturday.  It is a private loch run by the River Devon Angling society.  It is in the Glendevon system, about 8 miles east of Dollar (Clackmanannshire).  Only cost.  Only cost ?109 for the whole day.

Very wet and cold, but the Half Hogs came up trumps once again.  4 lovely broonies all on the same one (a bit chewed by the end!!).  It was a size 12 - black seals fur body with a gold tinsel rib (same tinsel used in cheeks).  All retrieved on short sharp pulls.  Largest fish was just over 1 1/2 lbs.

Will be going back soon.  Sorry no photos - wife had camera for a bleeding Westlife consert!!!  Oh the shame of it...................

Later

[Bob Wyatt]

Been looking around the site and came on to this thread.  We had a discussion about it up at the Crask in this week and it might be a good idea to post some of the ideas that developed.  

One of the interesting things for me was to learn that some folks have been pulling this fly.  It's not designed as a pulling fly, and would probably spin like a boomerang underwater.  Fish the DHE static or just moved by the wind on the line, at most.  If you can't keep that left hand from stripping line, the no hackle Deer Hair Sedge is a better 'wake' pattern, by far.

First , how to tie fish it.  Unlike Fred's version, I always tie in a spiky thorax of hare's mask ahead of the wing.  I think this is important for a good profile and helps the fly's posture in the surface film. It also helps float the fly, with some gink.  Leave some room for the thorax, or the DHE will hang like a shuttlecock.

I like hare's fur for the abdomen, but sometime add seal's fur for some color.  Be careful not ot get flaotant onto the abdomen, biggest reason for a lop-sided DHE. I touch only the wing and top-side of the thorax with gink, so the abdomen is well sunk.

Don't tie the wing too long or thick.  Years ago, I started with a high wing as an extra trigger, but it can topple the fly onto its side if it's too heavily dressed.  Allan Liddle had this problem for a while - called it his Lazy Emerger.  It works!  Keep the wing sparse, so you can tie a slim abdomen over the hair butts.  On small sizes (16) I like Snowshoe Hare fur for the wing.

The DHE is tied for ruggedness.  Other sunk-abdomen emergers work but aren't as tough.  A simplified emerger that has really done the business for us is the Dirty Duster.  My pals love it because it's even easier to tie than the DHE.

When fred gets back I'll post an image of the DHE and Dirty Duster the way I like' em.  

Hope this helps. Great site!  Tight lines.

[Bob Wyatt]

I sent Fred some images of the DHE and Dirty Duster by Hans Weilenmann.

Be sure to check out Hans' site at

http://www.danica.com/flytier/

Lots of good tiers and flies there.