foreign [Music] it's called a glitter bug a real common uh fly here in Newfoundland
fly that many associate with top water action but can also be fished as a wet fly is the glitter bug
also known as a green ass bug four years ago I caught most of my salmon on the gander on this
fly swung beneath the surface like a wet fly fairly simple to tie is sort of a variation on
a bomber and it starts with uh this I'm just going to use a size 8 salmon hook here real
important here in Newfoundland barbless looks only so I'm going to mash the Barb just get
that flattened down real nice and then get the hook firmly secured in the jaws of my tying Vice
just like that all right just for for tying thread a little uh light light gel spun thread I do
like the gel spun for for tying deer hair it's nice and nice and uh strong a little slippery
doesn't cut real well with scissors that's why I'm using a little razor blade to cut it
just kind of filling in the space behind the the hook eye return there
kind of very traditional salmon fly and so the reason it's called a glitter bug
is it's got a a little bit of a Crystal flashing a pearl Crystal Flash but I'm
going to tie that in second or just over top of some some calf tail calf tailor Kip tail
I'm gonna keep this tail fairly short
just strip out the lower fuzzy stuff make it a big old mess of tying table
and I I am going to stack this just to get the tips aligned that the tailing is fairly short and
you want it to look somewhat even I usually don't stack for flies like this
what we're going to here
so what I'm going to do is get that I only want it to be about a hook Gap in length for that
for that little tail and I I greatly prefer to to trim to length before I tie in rather
than after the fact I get my little my bobbin a little counterclockwise spin it's going to make
that thread jump rearward in and catch that calf calf tail and then just wind all the way back
right to the start of the bend which is about halfway between the hook point and and what
was the Barb then I'm going to go back up and I can do this because of that that hook return
I'm just trying to fill in the space along the shank of the hook not much flash you don't you
don't really want to overdo it with the flash here Crystal Flash shows up really really well
on the water in the water and and uh too much is just too much so I got four strands there going
so kind of the same thing set it there right at the return
I'm going to do is I I pull the Crystal Flash up and toward me
and what that does is it allows the Crystal Flash to land right on top of the shank as
opposed to being pushed by the tying threat to the far side of the hook
really helps out the other things just to kind of save on Crystal Flash I don't like wasting
materials one of the things I do is I'll use plunger style Hackle pliers get hold of the
material right there and then snip the crystal flash off to length and that way I keep keep those
strands all together and I can easily find them on my tying bench use them for the next glitter bug
okay the butt of this fly you can use chartreuse or light green deer here if you like a lot of
people use very fine micro sneel that's what I'm going to use here I'm just gonna get that
secured I'm going to put this right on top of the shank you don't want it all that long
and I'm going to try to just keep the chenille together in a bunch
again just so I'm not wasting materials this way I can just snip it off and
have the rest ready to go
just about like that
okay there are so many different ways to tie bombers my method is is a little different
than most people but but bear with me um and I'll kind of try to explain why I do what I
do I am going to start at the rear of the fly uh with with d with the deer here this is deer
belly hair it's very Hollow so it flares makes a nice kind of floaty body on the Fly and it's a
nice Clump into your hair very traditional deer belly hair traditional color green
um anyway I'm gonna take a fairly ample clump of it really hard to tell you exactly how much I'm
snipping off here anyway some deer here has a lot of wispy stuff in it this is this is
pretty good I I'm not even going to clean it believe it or not I'm just going to start to
um spin it on hook Shanks so I'm going to take a nice little wrap a little tension on it take
my second wrap same spot and then just let that deer hair spin around the hook shank like that
now the next part you you can use all sorts of different things you can use a a whip finish
a little half hitch tool if you will um sometimes you can use the end of a Bodkin
to fit over the hook I don't think that one will but I just have these little tools
that I've made they're just just hollow tubes and it just helps me to pack that
pack that hair on there get it swept back and then bring my thread
up in front so I'm ready to tie in the next Clump basically
well it's all nice and packed together too see if I can do this with just two clumps
you guys may notice I'm using larger tying scissors here when you're cutting a lot of
material like this you don't want to use your your really fine fine point scissors like that
it just dulls them very very quickly so I'm going to pull some of that fluff out of there
and again same procedure lay the bundle on the near side of the hook kind of a
loose collecting wrap and then another one which flares and Spins the hair all the way around the
I'm just going to kind of see where I am at this point whether I may need another smaller clump
that would really compressed on there so I'm gonna
I am going to put another
a little Clump on there you don't want to crowd the hook eye that's kind of a big deal here
leave some room
so third third Clump but a little smaller
you know spinning deer hair like this it it seems like a kind of a hassle it's it's a lot
of you know time consuming and things like that as compared to say other flies but in
the end it really is kind of kind of fun and the end result is always always pretty neat
so we're looking pretty good here what I'm going to do now is I'm going to use
that same little tube tool and I'm just going to run some half hitches
into here and because I I do like taking the fly out of my tying Vise in order to trim it
so I'm going to pull this out and this is where you start to make just a really big mess of your
timing table so I I don't definitely don't want to snip that that beautiful little calf tail off some
people put tape over it which works really well if you want I'm just going to try to be careful here
and generally I just cut kind of a Square rectangular shape I do want to go along
the very bottom of the shank because you don't want to block the the hook Gap here too badly
you can also use a a razor blade to do this a double-edged razor blade they're very very sharp
and work well but but again it's so with that that
it's so easy to uh trim too much and we definitely don't want to do that
so I'm just gonna get that clip to shape
sometimes it's easier to go back to your Vise for the fine work just to get it held steady
I'm going to use a pair of curved blade scissors here
just sneak in there trim that stuff off to make that bright chartreuse Chenille butt more visible
on the Fly it's surprising how how much deer hair you actually have to cut off to
get them down to about the right shape they do not have to be real real big in in bulky
you don't want to cut too far down or you're going to end up cutting
into your tying thread or having that time worse yet almost having that tying thread
be visible through the deer here it's kind of a big No-No with these things
okay we're ready to go Next Step I'm going to change the color of my tying thread I'm
going to go with black just to finish the head of the fly off I had been using
that white gel spun this is just a regular black thread think of vivus 10 ought Maybe
get that started behind the hook eye this is where um you know tying in the Hackle a
lot of people do it differently than I do but but this is just the the way I'm used to doing
it anyway I have a nice nice short brown Hackle from a beautiful hacko Cape right there measure
this for you so this is a size eight hook and we want the Hackle to be fairly short this is the the
Hackle feather measures out to about a size 12. and even though it's that small it's also going
to burrow down into this deer here quite a bit so it'll appear even smaller this fly does not need a
huge Hackle on it in fact it's more desirable to be small and a little tricky to get this tied in
and just make sure that that's lashed down really really well don't want that pulling out
and I'm going to reach in with with my fine scissors and snip that off as close as possible
hopefully not snipping my tying thread in the process now what I like to do here is
I'm going to take my bobbin and I'm going to spin it clockwise as if you're looking down on it and
this this cords up the thread makes it nice and small and strong and I'm just going to take the
thread and wind it kind of wiggle it through that deer hair just a little spiral wrap and
hopefully you won't see any of the thread going through there because it's just burrowed down in
or not that much anyway and then I can take my Hackle and kind of do the same thing I am going
to take one full wrap in front just a flat wrap in front and then start I'm using quite a bit
of tension to pull that Hackle stem down into the deer here get that Hackle stem nice and protected
come up and around right right before we get to the chenille
take three wraps and get that secured back there like that and then most of
the time you say a little prayer hope for the best and and just hopefully
don't do that break that Hackle point off a little easier than going in and snipping it
then I'm going to do the same thing I'm going to wind back through the deer hair
pulling nice and snugly down getting the thread to burrow into the hair and what
we're also doing here real importantly is cross wrapping that Hackle stem and you know if a
trout or a salmon got a tooth in there they could break that
delicate stem so when you cross wrap it you really strengthen it
alrighty almost there guys
just a little little whip finish
three or four turn back to front whip finish
just snip or cut that tying thread free take a look at the other side looks pretty good
and then I'm just going to add a little head cement right to those thread wraps
keep them sealed up and ensure they don't come unraveled I'm going to go all the way around
there we go um and that's the uh that's the the glitter bug ready to fish here at
uh on the gander River and hopefully we get some water coming in next couple of days and a little
cooler temperatures and get the fish activated will be certainly be throwing this fly [Music]