A few weeks ago we featured CCG & Regal Vise pro staffer Tim Geist's variants of the Deceiver, with promises of a step-by-step tutorial. Well, we here at CCG deliver on our promises. Enjoy!
I’m not a very innovative fly tyer. I think a lot of tyers think they are (and are told they are) but honestly we are all just replaying what we’ve seen in our fishing lives. Most of the baitfish in my box are variations of a Lefty’s Deceiver. Those were the first big streamers that hit my hands when I was a kid and it became the base for so many flies along the way. I’m sure Lefty was influenced by somebody else but for me – Lefty’s was THE FLY. I’m sure I’m not alone.
The Deceiver is the jack of all trades when it comes to baitfish patterns. At times I feel bad for perverting Lefty’s inspiration with globs of sticky goo and big plastic eyes. Yeah, I’ve really done a job on The Deceiver. Over-dressed wet mops that need a two-hander to hurl, or under-dressed hooks with a feather and 12 bucktail fibres; some were hard on the eyes, but they caught fish thankfully.
Sometimes one may have to look hard at my baitfish to see it, but the Deceiver is there. I think it’s safe to say that everyone knows how to tie a Deceiver: there are plenty of videos and step-by-steps. So rather than a traditional step-by-step on how I tie deceivers, I'll discuss certain “deceiver” techniques I have learned over the years and how I have melded those techniques with CCG. Then I’ll tie one up and show some of the techniques I use to make various types of deceivers.
“Tim, Where’s the recipe?”
I get a number of emails asking for recipes of certain patterns that I've tied, or other patterns that I have photographed and entered into
the Flybrary. Although the German blood in me agrees with those requests for rigidity and formal organized recipes, I really don’t operate like that as a tyer. Recipes are for dry flies and salmon flies.
I may use a recipe to understand the components of someone’s fly and look further into what techniques he or she employed to get a particular look. Also, I don’t sit down and fabricate a dozen or two of a particular pattern. I am a free tyer; with a certain trip or body of water in mind, I usually sit down (the night before) with a handful of materials and certain colour combinations in mind and go from there.
When I get to the water, I have many variations of a theme that I can fish throughout the water column as the conditions permit. I start with the base design that I’ll show you here, and change the head to give the baitfish different looks and different fish-ability. You could finish these with traditional jungle cock eyes or CCG eyes.
For my small snake flies (Size 2-8), I take a deceiver base tail and spin hair up front to keep the fly high in the water column – almost neutrally buoyant. Lately I’ve been stacking deer hair and Congo Hair over the synthetic CCG dumbbell eyes. You could even stick a section of CCG Flex tube over the front to create a long sand eel like body that will get down a little further. The choices are endless.
With that in mind, here are a few of my influences over the years, and how they are incorporated into my versions of the Deceiver:
- It’s a Deceiver; we have to mention Lefty Kreh. Lefty developed this pattern to imitate various baitfish in many types of water. The pattern is based on bucktail and saddle hackle and a little flash. I think it’s safe to say everyone is familiar with this pattern; if not, here’s one of Lefty’s Deceivers.
- I've incorporated a spine in my patterns since seeing David Skok’s Mushmouth. The idea of a spine is critical to non-fouling. Many of you have heard Skok say, “If a fly fouls once, it's useless”. I scream at my computer screen every morning when I see beautifully-tied flies that have the worst thing in common: THEY WILL FOUL! How often have you dragged a fly back to find it twisted up? At that point you're no longer fishing - you're retrieving. If the fly fouls on the final forward cast, the entire presentation was for naught. Designing flies that are foul proof is critical! For me, some sort of spine always does the trick. Skok made a spine with Softex, but that stuff is nasty and has melted many brain cells. We’ll use Hydro and not fall off our chairs.
- Flat-wings: Lefty put his feathers on the side and then surrounded them with bucktail to keep them from fouling. I've always liked my friend Ed Janiga’s sparse take on Ken Abrames' flat-wing; his flies are shorter than Abrames', and very sparse. But the whole 'pillow' and such was tedious. I probably wasn’t tying them right and they fouled a lot. Before CCG, I would glue the feathers together with Sally’s Hard As Nails to make a stable platform and a hard spine, which worked well. A few years later, Ted Patlen showed me a bunch of flat-wings tied by Bill Peabody (which pre-dated and actually inspired Abrames). Peabody leaves the hackle fluff on the side of the fly, giving extra breathing action. Also note the blending of colors over a lighter belly.
- Bob Popovics’ tied a featherless Deceiver; his techniques for using bucktail had a huge impact on my flies (I'll even tie synthetics using his methods). For a sleeker design, I will usually tie bucktail 180° on the top or bottom of the shank. But if I want to widen the profile of a fly, I'll use Bob’s reverse / hollow method. Using Hydro allows me to hold the shape of the fibres at the desired location and gives me a wider (or tighter) profile without giving up movement.
The Tutorial
First off, try not to get hung up on the steps and the recipe. These steps are various tricks you could omit or rearrange to get a baitfish of your liking.
For the intent of this tutorial, if I mention certain materials, I beg you to look for substitutes to create a pattern with your own signature. You might substitute Kankelon or any other synthetic fibres for bucktail. I prefer synthetics over bucktail: they're cheap, readily available, and can be trimmed to shape. Have you ever been to an African hair-weaving supply house? You should go. Really.
Step 1: I'm using a Mustad C68SS here; they're an inexpensive, heavy gauge hook and have never opened or broken on me. If I’m spinning a deerhair head, I might go for a longer shank C71SS or 34011.
I start my thread above the hook point. Note I don't wrap the whole shank with thread, for two reasons: one, I want everything to slide back to this anchor point; two, if I decide to spin hair, I need a bare shank. However, if you need some grip, feel free to base wrap the shank.
Step 2: Take a small clump of bucktail and tie it above the gape of the hook. At this point you have to decide if how sparse your deceiver is going to be. For the purpose of this writing, I tied this fly heavy (and with some bright colors) so you could see the moves a bit better, but typically I might use 25% of the amount of materials you see here.
Take 5 or 6 purposeful wraps and clip the butts. I'll also make a wrap or two under the fibres to tip them up, like a Mushmouth’s Ultrahair spine.
Step 3: I brush a light coat of Hydro on the fibres beyond the bend of the hook – a hook shanks length, not the whole tail.
Step 4: Cure the Hydro. I pull tight on the clump, but you could take the tension off and cure to widen the tail. You might add some mylar or flashabou before curing. I’ll typically add some green angel hair here.
Step 5: Pull a short saddle off a neck, probably not one you would use for anything else: short and webby, with lots of side fluff. Tie it in curve-up.
Step 6: Clip the butt end.
Step 7: I dab a tiny bit of Hydro along the stem, but hold off on curing.
In this picture, you can see the darker lavender – that’s where I run the Hydro, but not too much or it will screw up those fluffy fibres. You want to work quickly here because the Hydro could bleed out and work its way out away from the stem. It can get messy with too much Goo.
Step 8: Two saddles and they are longer (note I haven’t yet cured the Hydro on the first feather).
Step 9: I lay those feathers on top of the first and tie down.
While tying them down, I press my thumb down and smooshing the Hydro up through the other two feathers.
Step 10: Now cure the Hydro.
The CCG Pro Light is more powerful and can penetrate further through the feathers.
Step 11: Flip the fly over and tie in a clump of lighter bucktail right under the trimmed quill butts from the last step.
Step 12: Push the clump with your fingers so the bucktail spreads evenly around the underside of the shank.
Step 13: I tied a clump of light blue bucktail over the feathers to lock them in.
Step 14: Add another saddle.
Step 15: This is where the traditionalists laugh at me, but these flies are going to be tossed in the suds and attacked by toothy critters: they need to stay together and not foul.
Apply some Hydro around the base of that blue grizzly saddle. Wait; don’t cure it yet.
Step 16: Add a little flash.
Step 17: A little more Hydro. Try to go easy on the Goo: a little goes along way.
Step 18: Cure it.
Step 19: Flip the fly over, tie in some more lighter coloured bucktail just in front of the last step on the underside.
Step 20: Tie in some Chartreuse (or “it aint no use”) bucktail on top. Make this clump a little heavier, as it's going to support a few more hackles.
Step 21: Tie in two long, thin grizzly saddles. They are tented slightly.
Step 22: Similar to those blue saddles, give the yellow ones a little goo – approximately ¾" back.
Step 23: Here I added blue flash and purple buctail, and cured it all.
Step 24: The last belly clump is reversed. Note: you could reverse-tie the entire fly, if you wish.
Step 25: Before folding the bucktail back, put flash over the wraps. You can hide a lot with some shredded mylar, and if you add too much you can pull some out at the end.
The peach flash will make the bait belly look bloated and imitate gills.
Step 26: Why not add the slightest little bit of Hydro? Hold off on curing just yet...
Step 27: Fold back the reversed fibres and pinch with your fingers.
Step 28: Cure the belly. If you get a shape you like, brush a little more Hydro in, and cure again.
Step 29: Here I'm taking two colours of shredded mylar and mixing them with my fingers. This will be the topping of the baitfish’s back; in this case, purple and blue.
Step 30: Tied in similar to a Mushmouth.
Step 31: Add a little more Hydro before folding the mylar back.
Step 32: Mylar folded over. Your Deceiver is starting to look like a fish.
Step 33: Another light coat of Hydro to lock the fibres in place...
Step 34: ...and cure.
Step 35: This photo was taken just after giving the fly a hot bath under steaming tap water for a minute or so. I do this with all my flies; it's a critical step because it relaxes all the fibres to a more natural shape.
Step 36: I’ll rotate the Regal on its side, grab an eye, put a little CCG Thick on the back side and set in place (work quickly here).
Step 37: Cure in the eye, and repeat for the other side. I like to fill in the empty space between the eyes with CCG Thick, rotating while curing to ensure an even set. The Regal is nice for this type of work.
Step 38: Brush the head with a generous amount of CCG Tack-Free or Brushable.
Step 39: Rotate until you get a nice, even head, and cure. Sometimes I'll take a needle to push the Goo into the fibres evenly.
Step 40: Another light coat of Hydro here…
Step 41: ...and here. Cure.
Step 42: Finito!!
Once the fly dries, it will regain some shape. But, as you can see, despite all the Goo loaded on, the fibres still have a tremendous amount of movement.
And that’s the point: better living through chemicals; the Goo keeps the fly from fouling, but allows you to build a good profile without making you feel like you’re fishing with a Sluggo (
gasp!).
Thanks so much to Tim for putting this comprehensive list of tips, tricks & steps he utilizes.
Be sure to check out more of Tim's flies and photography over at the Flybrary.
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