DHE - Wyatt

[sewinbasher]

For some reason I just cannot tie an acceptable Wyatt's Deer Hair Emerger and I'm getting fed up, does anyone know a good commercial tyer for these?

[arkle]

Private message sent.

[Spider]

Overrated fly, overly hard to tie. Deer hair is a pain in the herl....

[t1978d]

Originally Posted by Spider

Overrated fly, overly hard to tie. Deer hair is a pain in the herl....

Showshoe Rabbit is alot easier to deal with, the thorax is as important for flotation in this pattern.

[spidersplus]

Sewinbasher,

I have been tying the DHE for clients for a good number of years now - a great pattern to fish with in the right conditions and, contrary to Spiders' comment, they really are pretty simple once you get the hang of handling deer hair (and the RIGHT type of deer hair!)

As t1978d says, the more spiky the thorax, the better they float.

I will tie a couple for you today and put them in the post on Monday.

Kind regards

[sewinbasher]

Many thanks for the very kind responses and PMs. My problem has been with getting the deer hair looking right, no matter what I do it just looks wrong. I've not used these extensively yet but it is one of the "fishiest" looking patterns that I've seen.

[Kevin Muir]

One way of getting to grips with the wing of this fly (the difficult part) is to lay down a thread base on a bare hook towards the bend but just past the wing tie down point, then take the tread back towards the eye of the hook to a point where you will tie in the wing.

Only select about 20 strands of deer hair to start with and tie in the wing with the tips facing over the eye of the hook (comparadun style, very similar wing), hold the waste butts in a vice like grip ON TOP of the hook, do not allow the hair fibres to move to the sides if you can help it. Take a few extra turns of thread working back towards the bend of the hook for 4 or 5 wraps to make sure the wing is firmly attached then trim off the waste butts at a sloping angle tapering towards the bend of the hook. If you choose, you can now take your thumb nail and press it into the base of the wing at the back of the wing to make the fibres splay around the top portion of the hook, side to side.

Take the thread to the end of the abdomen and dub the threadfor the abdomen, wrap this all othe way to the base of the wing.

Now take the thread in front of the wing and force up the wing to a more upright position, this is where the spikey hare dub helps to support the front of the wing, dub our the tho0rax and then whip finish.

The big point here is only tie wings on bare hooks for a start until you are happy with the shape, size and volume of the wing then gradually increase the number of fibres of deer hair until you get comfortable with the correct amount of deer hair for the chosen hook size.

After 10 flies on bare hooks you should be well on the way to cracking this pattern.

Hope it helps.

Kevin.

[t1978d]

Originally Posted by Kevin Muir

One way of getting to grips with the wing of this fly (the difficult part) is to lay down a thread base on a bare hook towards the bend but just past the wing tie down point, then take the tread back towards the eye of the hook to a point where you will tie in the wing.

Only select about 20 strands of deer hair to start with and tie in the wing with the tips facing over the eye of the hook (comparadun style, very similar wing), hold the waste butts in a vice like grip ON TOP of the hook, do not allow the hair fibres to move to the sides if you can help it. Take a few extra turns of thread working back towards the bend of the hook for 4 or 5 wraps to make sure the wing is firmly attached then trim off the waste butts at a sloping angle tapering towards the bend of the hook. If you choose, you can now take your thumb nail and press it into the base of the wing at the back of the wing to make the fibres splay around the top portion of the hook, side to side.

Take the thread to the end of the abdomen and dub the threadfor the abdomen, wrap this all othe way to the base of the wing.

Now take the thread in front of the wing and force up the wing to a more upright position, this is where the spikey hare dub helps to support the front of the wing, dub our the tho0rax and then whip finish.

The big point here is only tie wings on bare hooks for a start until you are happy with the shape, size and volume of the wing then gradually increase the number of fibres of deer hair until you get comfortable with the correct amount of deer hair for the chosen hook size.

After 10 flies on bare hooks you should be well on the way to cracking this pattern.

Hope it helps.

Kevin.

Good advice, another way to kick the wing up is after tying the loose strands down take the thread to right behind the wing and pull the wing back in small clumps and do a tight turn in front of each clump. Do you tube search
for a comparadun, it's the same overall style.