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Deer Hair Divers #12677644 03/18/18 02:08 AM
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karstopo Offline OP
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LMB are feeding shallow. Time for Deer Hair Divers. I like tying these more and more almost as much as fishing them.

Re: Deer Hair Divers [Re: karstopo] #12677763 03/18/18 03:44 AM
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Nice work! Great looking flies and great looking bass. Do you use a razor blade for the deer hair or just scissors?

Last edited by DancesWithSquirrels; 03/18/18 03:44 AM.
Re: Deer Hair Divers [Re: karstopo] #12677826 03/18/18 06:54 AM
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karstopo Offline OP
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Scissors

Re: Deer Hair Divers [Re: karstopo] #12678207 03/18/18 06:53 PM
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karstopo Offline OP
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Caught a crazy number of fish on the divers this morning. Color didn't seem to matter. No big fish, though.

Re: Deer Hair Divers [Re: karstopo] #12678964 03/19/18 03:34 AM
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Those look great. What is the tail material? Saddle hackle and marabou?

Re: Deer Hair Divers [Re: McKinneyLonghorn] #12679070 03/19/18 10:17 AM
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karstopo Offline OP
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Originally Posted By: McKinneyLonghorn
Those look great. What is the tail material? Saddle hackle and marabou?


Yes, its a whiting streamer Cape I think, Ill have to look at the package. I cant remember from which vendor I ordered it. Its tan grizzly. One tip on each side is what Ive been putting in. On one diver, I forgot to tie in the grizzly tips, but it seemed to fish just as good.

Im not very picky on these with the marabou and just tie in a decent clump that looks about right. I put a bit of crystal flash in the tail on top after tying in the marabou. Just a few strands of something dark.

Theres definitely a little variation on mine from copy to copy on how high they float and dive. But that seems pretty true on the ones that I bought from the big y that I patterned the ones I tie after. I think mine fish better than the commercial ones, but I might be biased. The stinger hooks I use are much stronger than the very fine wire hooks on the commercial ties. Their hooks are very apt to bend. They put on a mono weed guard. I havent been mainly because the lake I fish has very limited vegetarian like lily pads. The weed guards definitely cause missed hook ups so I dont like to have them unless I have to for heavy weeds.

The water was pretty clear yesterday and I stand in the boat when I fish so I could watch some of the bass follow the divers. A few followed and never committed. Some would come from below and hit the diver as it rested on the surface of the water. Sometimes, Id leave the diver resting for a time well off the lake shoreline while fiddled with the loose fly line and get a surprise take.

I like these divers as they are pretty easy to cast even after getting soaked. Theres no rabbit Zonker to get soggy and heavy and then tough to cast. I was using my 7/8 CGR, but my 5/6 CGR casts them pretty well too. The marabou gives plenty of lifelike movement in the water and doesnt get heavier after getting wet to the degree that rabbit does. The diver shape is pretty aerodynamic so they cast well from that standpoint. I have some big deer hair poppers that I got as a gift that arent fun to cast because they dont cut through the air well at all.

The drill in the lake I live on is to cast whatever you have on, plastic worm, lure, jig, fly, as close to the shoreline as possible and bring it over or around the many submerged logs, cypress knees, and trees. Almost all the structure is within 30 feet of the shoreline and these old oxbow lakes are basically river channels that got cut off in some prehistoric flood. The deepest area weve found by depth finder is 11 feet and most of the about 100 yard wide, 77 acre lake is about 10 feet deep and it drops to about 8 feet within about 30 feet of the shoreline. The ends of the lake are shallower. The divers work well as they can be brought over barely submerged logs without getting hung up.

Re: Deer Hair Divers [Re: karstopo] #12679306 03/19/18 01:39 PM
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karstopo Offline OP
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The tail is rooster saddle hackle, tan grizzly. I bought a whole whiting cape. Its very long.

Re: Deer Hair Divers [Re: karstopo] #12680573 03/20/18 01:36 AM
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8 pounds on a olive diver. I'm pretty pumped.

Re: Deer Hair Divers [Re: karstopo] #12680646 03/20/18 02:27 AM
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Great fish! Thanks for all the info. I've tied muddlers and deer hair poppers but never tried tying divers. I'll have to give them a shot this week.

Re: Deer Hair Divers [Re: karstopo] #12685409 03/23/18 02:23 AM
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Talk about a surprise. Got home from work today and had a package in the mail from karstopo. I assumed it was the Redfish Crack flies he offered to send me. While they were in there, also included were some balanced leaches and some of his deer hair divers. Decided that must be a sign so I tied on one of the divers and headed out to Bethany Lakes to give them a shot. The wind made casting a bit difficult at times but three bass decided they liked the flies as much as I did. I also missed a few more hookups so it could have easily been 5-6 fish in a little less than an hour. Karstopo ties great flies and I am glad I was able to try them out.




Re: Deer Hair Divers [Re: karstopo] #12685623 03/23/18 11:03 AM
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karstopo Offline OP
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Thats great, Im glad they worked. I think the divers kind of hit the frog idea when they swim, but maybe to the bass they just look like dinner.

Re: Deer Hair Divers [Re: karstopo] #12685666 03/23/18 12:10 PM
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I could definitely see them imitating a frog. Two of the fish I caught and the ones I missed hit it on a steadily stripped retrieve right under the surface. The other fish hit it when it was stationary on top of the water after I had stopped stripping to shoo bugs away from my head. The fish nearly came out of the water hitting it when it was stationary. Somewhat surprised I managed to keep my cool and not rip the fly out of there before he had it.

Re: Deer Hair Divers [Re: karstopo] #12686799 03/24/18 01:51 AM
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Some light wire 1/0 hooks came in today and I did a couple of divers on them. They are a daiichi hook and said to be designed for divers. The hook shanks are longer than the stinger hooks and they have a upturned hook point. Im supposed to go out and fish in the morning and Ill see how they work.

I did 10 more redfish crack in the olive and Black and Tan. I realized I was about out. I Cant be going out into the marsh without any.

Re: Deer Hair Divers [Re: karstopo] #12686841 03/24/18 02:18 AM
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Re: Deer Hair Divers [Re: karstopo] #12687587 03/24/18 09:21 PM
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The new hook was great. Went out on the lake this morning and used a yellow and olive diver tied on the 2720 1/0 daiichi hook. Caught a lot of bass to just over 4 pounds on the new hook and the hook seemed to set better than the stinger hook.

Re: Deer Hair Divers [Re: karstopo] #12688771 03/25/18 10:40 PM
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Still on divers. Fishing in the boat yesterday was great. No photos, but I caught fish to a little over 4 pounds on a yellow and olive one.

Walked the shoreline today and caught some good ones on a chartreuse and olive one using the 2 weight. The short 2 weight works great in tight conditions and casts the diver well enough. Tied a few more while watching March madness.

Re: Deer Hair Divers [Re: karstopo] #12708257 04/08/18 07:23 PM
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These are so much fun to fish and tie.

Re: Deer Hair Divers [Re: karstopo] #12716246 04/14/18 09:02 AM
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It surprises me when these crappie hit a topwater pattern. But it's happened a few times now.

This bass has been hanging out around my dock. Hardest fighting 4 pound bass around! The white diver is my favorite color to fish. It's easy for me to see and the fish like it.

Re: Deer Hair Divers [Re: karstopo] #12729869 04/25/18 12:38 PM
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I keep experimenting and tying and fishing these. One thing Ive noticed is that on some days, the smaller loosely packed and low floating olive divers way out fish the tightly packed more elaborate ones. Most of the olive ones are one size 2 stinger hooks. The others are mostly on 1/0 hooks.

The olive ones arent layer on layer of deer hair or packed much. They barely float and barely rise after the strip. The layered ones with several colors are mostly very tightly packed and float high and rise quickly after the strip. They pop and make more noise than the loose ones.

Its really like its two separate patterns rather than one on different sized hooks. I think Ill do some on size one hooks and moderately packed with maybe a couple of layers. Sort of an intermediate step.

I ordered some of the double sided razor blades off Amazon. They do make trimming the divers easier than scissors alone.

Re: Deer Hair Divers [Re: karstopo] #12877243 08/26/18 06:33 PM
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Finally got around to tying some deer hair divers of my own. Haven't got a chance to fish them yet but might get out tonight. The ones Karstopo sent me work great, and I basically just copied his pattern, so I am hoping these work as well. These are tied on a size 1 B10S.


Re: Deer Hair Divers [Re: karstopo] #12877246 08/26/18 06:37 PM
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karstopo Offline OP
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Looking good! I havent been tying or tossing them much lately. Ive done a bunch of different colors and combinations, but olive outperforms the others. White with Chartreuse might be a close second.

Re: Deer Hair Divers [Re: karstopo] #12877268 08/26/18 07:07 PM
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Where I fish olive seems to be the best color for pretty much all flies, so that is the color I went with first. Since I took this picture this morning I have tied up a few in all white, plus one that is all white with the final deer hair bundle being red. I'll give the white/chartreuse a try. Like you said, these are fun to tie. I have been tying a lot of Lunch Moneys lately, another pattern I really enjoy tying.

Re: Deer Hair Divers [Re: karstopo] #12877309 08/26/18 07:57 PM
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https://vimeo.com/214226939

Ive never tied or fished a Lunch Money. I found a video of one. Do you have a favorite recipe/video?

Re: Deer Hair Divers [Re: karstopo] #12877399 08/26/18 09:58 PM
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Here is one from the creator himself. Fairly simple pattern using only a zonker strip, rubber legs, dumbbell eyes and laser dub. Here is a link to Matt's website that has the recipes for a lot of the color variations he sells. I have tied them in olive/yellow, craw and tan, and all three look like fish catchers. One of the things I like about the Lunch Money is it fishes equally well hopped/drug along the bottom as it does swam through the middle or upper portions of the water column. There really doesn't seem to be a bad way to fish it. https://www.flygeek.net/shop/lunch-money


Re: Deer Hair Divers [Re: karstopo] #12877568 08/27/18 01:50 AM
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The good news is the divers I tied up swam beautifully. The bad news is I didn't catch any fish. But with them having a nice action, the fish will come.

Re: Deer Hair Divers [Re: McKinneyLonghorn] #12877656 08/27/18 03:54 AM
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Originally Posted By: McKinneyLonghorn
Here is one from the creator himself. Fairly simple pattern using only a zonker strip, rubber legs, dumbbell eyes and laser dub. Here is a link to Matt's website that has the recipes for a lot of the color variations he sells. I have tied them in olive/yellow, craw and tan, and all three look like fish catchers. One of the things I like about the Lunch Money is it fishes equally well hopped/drug along the bottom as it does swam through the middle or upper portions of the water column. There really doesn't seem to be a bad way to fish it. https://www.flygeek.net/shop/lunch-money


So much truth to this. I don't think there is a fly that looks sexier in the water. The way it moves really isn't comparable by any other pattern I've seen. A close second is a craft fur bait fish, but the combination of zonker strip and laser dubbing really can't be matched. The versatility of this pattern is extremely underrated IMHO. It's a fantastic searching pattern for the fly rod because of it's crazy movement, you can strip it fast and find fish in large bodies of water. Once you find them, working it slow can produce some huge fish because it's so realistic in movement and appearance. I love the muted bluegill pattern in the warmer months. Crawfish pattern worked slowly on the bottom as McKinney said in cooler months. Oddly enough, a brown trout brunch money produced my PB Guadalupe bass when I packed the wrong flies in my fly box one dark morning.



I honestly can't say enough good things about Matt Bennett's fly patterns. There's really no reason to stock your freshwater box with anything other than a riogetter, carp-it-bomb, and lunch/brunch money. It covers any prey species from the tiniest nymphs to damsels, to the biggest baitfish.

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