Bodkin / Patterns

Deer Hair Popper

Nymph · Largemouth Bass · Smallmouth Bass · Panfish · Intermediate · 1 version

Reference Recipe

  • Hook Wide-gap bass bug / stinger hook, 1/0-6
  • Thread Yellow or black Flat waxed / GSP

Materials

  • Tail Yellow/white material (2 pairs splayed saddle hackles)
  • Tail Flash/Collar Krystal Flash + grizzly (Few flash strands plus grizzly hackle collar)
  • Body Yellow/chartreuse material (Spun and packed deer hair)
  • Legs Barred rubber legs (Rubber legs, 2 per side (optional))
  • Weedguard Mono (Hard mono loop (optional))

How to tie it

  1. Mount the hook and start thread at the bend on a bare, waxed base for spinning hair.
  2. Tie in a splayed saddle-hackle tail about a shank long, add a few flash strands, and wind a grizzly hackle collar in front.
  3. Spin a clump of deer hair, pack it tight, and keep spinning and packing clumps forward to the eye. Pack hard, half the hair you think per pinch, so the body is dense enough to carve.
  4. If adding legs, work a couple of rubber strands into the spinning as you go.
  5. Whip finish at the eye and remove the fly to trim. Shave the belly flat and carve the body into a cylinder with a broad, flat, slightly cupped face at the front.
  6. Trim the face square and vertical so it grabs water and pops when stripped.
  7. Cement the thread and, if desired, add a mono weedguard.

Tying videos

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