Now we are going to form the marabou collar. To do this we tie the marabou in by the tip and palmer it forward, keeping the wraps as close together as possible, while at the same time stroking the fibers backwards, so they aren’t trapped by the following wraps. Sound difficult? It’s actually quite easy, let’s give it a try!
In the picture you see a strung marabou feather. Its fibers are organized so it is all set to be tied onto the shank. To get it to look like the one pictured here, take the fibers and pull them to the sides so the fibers that are coming out of the left side of the feather are going to the left, and the fibers on the right side are going to the right. Now we'll separate the tip from the bottom of the feather so we have a easy spot to tie it onto the shank.
Tie the marabou feather on top of the shank at the base of the zonker strip. After it is secured, trim the tip portion of the feather. Check out the picture to see how it should appear once this is completed.
Next, palmer the feather forward, stroking the fibers rearward to avoid pinning them down with the quill as it is palmered forward. After you have made about 4 to 6 turns, tie the base of the feather in, and trim any excess.
Step 6
Grab another feather and repeat Step 5; Once you have two marabou plumes palmered forward, cement the thread wraps.
Now I want you to tie a couple half-hitches, cut the thread and set the fly to the side.
Step 7-How to Spin Deer Hair.
Alright - that wasn’t too bad, was it? We have completed the tail and collar.
Now we want to form the head by spinning deer hair. Go ahead and take another hook, and start your thread in the middle of the shank. Snip a small clump of deer body hair. Until you are comfortable spinning deer hair, try using clumps about the size of 2 toothpicks. Put the clump in a hair stacker, tips facing down, and pound it until the tips are even. Carefully take the clump of deer hair and hold it between the thumb and index finger of your materials or non-dominant (right or left) hand.
You will notice there is light fuzz at the tips; take a tooth brush (one that you aren’t gonna use again) and comb out the fuzz. Hold the hair between your thumb and index finger directly above the hook shank, with the tips facing back.
The tips on the first bundle of deer hair will form our deer hair collar. There are many different ways to do the following, and I’ll share the way I prefer to spin the deer hair.
Take one soft loop around the clump. Make another loop around, but this time you want to put a little bit of tension on the thread. After you do this the hairs will start to point all over the place. Now make another wrap, but this time put some pressure on it, and notice how the hairs splay all over and spin around the hook shank. Take 2 more turns with as much pressure as you can put on the thread without breaking it. While you are doing this, keep hold of the rear half of the clump so it stays above the hook shank. After you have finished spinning the front half of the hair, the rear half will stand up to form the collar.
Now, stroke the front halves of the hairs backward so they are standing straight up, all the way around the shank; wiggle the thread towards the eye, through the spun hairs in the front, and make one (1) wrap around the shank. Tie a half hitch. Add a drop of head cement to the half hitch.
Now cut another clump of deer hair and repeat.
You want to pack the second clump of hair tightly against the first. I cannot stress this enough: YOU CANNOT PACK THE HAIR TOO TIGHTLY! It also helps to use your materials hand to push from the rear of the first bundle towards the front, at the same time you are pushing the front towards the rear with your working hand. You can go out and buy a hair packer or use the fingernails on the thumb and index finger of your hand to do this, or you can make one from a Bic pen. I use the hole from the middle of the bottom section from a pen (see photo below.)
Now cut off another clump and tie it in directly in front of the last clump; repeat until you get to about 1/8” from the eye of the hook. Remember to half-hitch, add a drop of head cement, and pack the hair towards the bend after adding/spinning each bundle of deer hair. If you are having trouble with the instructions on spinning deer hair, here is a link to the Search Results at FTF on spinning deer hair ; this topic has been discussed numerous times;, there are 18 pages of topics that at one point or another discuss this, and I’m sure you will be able to find the info. You need to figure out what you’re having trouble with. If you couldn’t figure it out, and are wondering what you’re gonna do with the half-finished fly staring back at you, that’s okay. Reattach your thread to the hook and build up the thread to form a head. Go to Step 11 and see how we finish tying in the weed guard. Tie it in and glue on eyes if you wish and you will have tied a Barr’s Bouface.
It’ll look something like this.
If you got the "feel" for spinning deer hair, Congratulations! You can use this technique to tie all sorts of sweet looking topwater and streamer patterns!
Go ahead and reattach your thread to the fly we started earlier and form the collar; spin hair 'til you’re about 1/8” from the hook eye. Once you have spinning down try and use larger clumps. I am comfortable with spinning deer hair now that I make my bundles as big as I can so that they still fit in my hair stacker.
Step 8
Once we have spun the hair to a point 1/8” from the eye of the hook, whip finish, and trim thread.
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Hatches Magazine Subscription
Price: $6.95 for each issue
The Premiere issue is ready for shipping & the Fall 2008 issue will be available September 1st.
