Bob Popovics flies

[jmccall]

Recently I have been experimenting with the patterns in Bob Popovics book, and two questions have come up.
1. The bucktail deceiver - Reading the directions it seems like no hair is placed on the bottom of the hook, however the pictures appear to have hair on the bottom of the hook. Does anybody know for sure?

2. The Jiggy fly - I can't get the head to lock in place again any suggestions would be appreciated

Thank You in Advance

John A McCall

[tommat]

Let's see. First off on question#1. The bucktail is all around the hook. Take a couple of loose wraps and then use your thumb to force the material to spin around the entire shank. I like some flash to extend beyond the material.

Qustion #2. Once the head is in place and the material is in place, just use some epoxy to fill the void behind the head. The epoxy will end up being about the same width and shape of the jiggy head. Will try and post some pictures. On the jiggy, you can see the epoxy directly behind the head.

Hope these help....

[tommat]

Jiggy

[tommat]

Bucktail deceiver

[striblue]

Another way to do the Deceiver is to place the bucktail on top of the hook and "squeeze' the the fibers around the hook by rolling your fingers....or you can add small amounts around the shank..say 4 small clumps,360 degress around the shank. Although the spinning will also revolve it around the hook...if you use too much pressure you will have too much splay of the fibers.

[rwolson]

Like Tommat and Striblue said, you roll the bucktail around the hook shank applying loose wraps at the rear of the tie down point to prevent the bucktail from flairing.

The jiggies, I always add some wraps behind the lead head to lock it in then with the bucktail butting against the lead wrap the bucktail in locking the lead head from moving back. The expoy locks it all down.

[PhilDKreal]

I like to put a few wraps of thin lead directly behind the hook eye. Enough wraps that will extend just slgihtly beyond the jiggie head, then I put a drop of zap-a-gap, on the lead and push the jiggie head up over the lead befoe the zap-a-gap dries.

The extra diameter that the lead adds, plus the zap, will hold that jiggie head securely while you tie in materials and also after the fly has been bitten up severely.

[Nauti Buoy]

When I tie a jiggy (those having the flat sides for prism eyes) I use a jewelers file to file a small horizontal slot across the face of the jiggy so that will fit in snuggly behind the eye. This aligns the jiggy with the eye and keeps it from rotating. I then tie it to the hook shank in the manner described by BobPop (lead wraps & epoxy).

For regular jiggy heads, the slot isn't necessary; just wrap lead and epoxy as stated above. Works for me! ;)

[LarryM]

On the jiggy heads - I've used a low wattage (15 watt tip) to melt the lead wire inside the jiggy head. This also allows you to adjust the angle of the head on the hook shaft. You can do this with either a regular conehead, or the slotted jiggy heads.