SPUN DEER HAIR DRY FLY BODY
Spun deer hair is used on many dry fly bodies. This type of body is bulky and is not a good representation of a slim mayfly body, however, the hollow deer hair helps the fly float better in rough water where a trout has less time to inspect the fly and refuse it. All hair is thin and stiff at the tips but as you get to the base of the hair, it gets thicker and has more of a tendency to flare which is what we want for spinning. Some hair flares easier than others. You want a piece of hair from a deer that has been shot in the winter and up north so the hair is longer and thicker. Half the battle with spinning deer hair is selecting the proper hair. Some hair just will not spin no matter how good you are. The below instructions can be used for the Irresistible series of flies, hopper bodies and other terrestrials.
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1. I like to use 3/0 waxed thread or bigger for this operation. Leave thread hanging right in front of tail material butts you tied in earlier. Use a thread that is the same color of the hair so that your mistakes are not as obvious. Cut off some deer hair and comb out the short hair and fuzz, see Stacking Hair. Do not stack hair as we are going to use the base of the hair and not the tips. Hold the hair by the tips and lay against hook shank at an angle.
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| 2. Make a loose wrap of thread. |  |
| 3. Make two more wraps using a little pressure to force hair bundle on top of hook shank. Keep a tight grip on hair tips. |  |
| 4. Trim the hair at the rear of hook shank so that it is even with the tail material tie in point. This will help the hair spin better without catching on the hook point. This also reduces the amount of time and frustration trimming the hair around the tail material and possibly cutting off some of the tail material. |  |
| 5. Take your forefinger and place on top of hair bundle. You may also want to keep a little tension on the thread. |  |
| 6. Push the hair bundle down so that it surrounds the hook shank. |  |
| 7. Tighten the thread to spin the hair using heavy thread pressure. |  |
| 8. Immediately start wrapping the thread with heavy pressure forward to the wing tie in point. This should take about three or four wraps. |  |
| 9. Pull hair back with left hand and build a small thread dam in front of hair bundle. |  |
| 10. Whip finish here to keep thread in place so it will not unravel as we trim the spun hair. |  |
| 11. Trim the spun hair to a tight, rounded and slightly tapered body. You will need to take the hook out of the vise and you may want to cut the thread to make trimming easier. You can start the thread again later. You are now ready to: Tie In Hackle Tip Wings
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