(My attempt at a) Letort Hopper

[stevekale]

I been wanting to practice small hook deer hair work and so made an attempt at the latest tutorial on Charlie Craven's website. This is what I ended up with...

Hook: Tiemco 100 #12
Thread: Danville 3/0 Monocord
Body: Superfine dubbing, pale yellow
Wing: Mottled turkey slip treated with Dave's Flexament
Collar and head: Bleached fine deer hair



(After seeing some of the work at BFFI today I am almost embarrassed to post a picture of my work.)

[hobble]

Nothing wrong with that mate,

looks the bizz.

Was the tyings good today at the bffi, any of our experts from the forum there??

[AndrewMWalker]

Hi Steve

You are too hard on yourself, whilst you are not quite up to Charlie Cravens standard its really not far off and a 100 times better than my deer hair work!

Good to meet you today, if you ever want to show me how to fish a welsh river drop me a line. I wanted to ask you how to use a brassie but as usual it slipped my mind when we met.

Cheers

Andy

[stevekale]

Well I have to admit that was my fifth attempt! The next 4 were easier.

Andrew, good to meet you as well and I will definitely be taking you up on your invite to a Welsh river. Using a brassie hair packer is pretty easy. They come in 3 different sizes for different hook shank thicknesses. Grab the relevant one. You will see it is basically a set of jaws. Slip the jaws over the hook eye with the grooves around the hook shank. Squeeze (not too hard as they're made of cheap bronze) the jaws tight (it's more about lateral pressure than squeezing your fingers together). With the other hand hold the fly and with about equal pressure from both left and right hand (else you will bend the hook shank or push the materials off the shank) steadily push the brassie forward so as to squeeze the hair away from the hook eye.

BTW I would recommend watching Chris Helm's video for working with deer hair. A half hitch tool comes in very handy also. (I bought a set from Lakeland.)

Hobble, I only met/saw a few people from the forum:

Phil Holding
Chris Reeves
Roy Christie
Arkle

If there were others I missed them or didn't connect the names. Some of the work was simply amazing. There were a bunch of guys doing realistic flies that you wouldn't believe possible. Not my cup of tea (one guy said he takes 48-50 hours to do one fly!) but you had to admire the talent. All 'n all I'd say I spent too much time shopping rather than sitting and learning from the various tiers but the place was mobbed in the morning. Next time I will only go on the second day. I did learn a thing or two though, notably a couple of techniques from Roger Salomonsson which I intend to try over the next few weeks.