Bivisi-Bomber Step By Step

Chartreuse Explosion Bivisi-Bomber

It's been a while since I have posted here so I figured it was about time to put up a step by step on tying my latest surface steelhead pattern, the Bivisi-Bomber.

I developed this pattern in the fall of 2019 as I went through a phase where my goal was to come up with a steelhead dry that used all natural materials, but that stayed on top consistently, and was highly visible. My unconventional and deviant pattern, the Little Wang, has proven itself many times over, so I was ready for a new challenge and my buddy Adrian Cortes may have given me a complex with his in hand, traditional, all natural tying.

I had experimented with Bombers and found that I could get them to stay on top sometimes, but they often bobbed under. Due to my tendency to want constant eye contact with my bug on the surface, aka the dry or die mentality, the bobbing bomber frustrated me.

I realized that with my goal of "holding the foam", I needed more stiff surface area at the front of the fly to keep it riding on the surface. My thought naturally went to incorporating cow elk into the pattern as it is the stiffest and highest floating natural material that I could think of.

As I pondered how to incorporate cow elk into a bomber, the idea came about to cinch down a bunch of cow elk at the front of the fly, squeezed between the spun deer hair body and forward facing split wings of calf tail. I was hoping that the stiff butts of cow elk pushing forward against the calf tail wings would provide the rigidity needed to keep the fly planing across the surface under tension. The cow elk would also add more visibility and contrast to the pattern.

A couple prototypes were quickly whipped up just in time for an evening session on my local ditch. As I had hoped, my newfangled contraption floated like a cork and waked like a champ under tension. I was thrilled that I had finally achieved my goal of devising an all natural pattern that wakes consistently without relying on foam or glue.

Of course, over time, I have come up with numerous color variations in tying this pattern along with some additional color combos that have been requested by folks who have bought flies from me. Most recently, I have added hot butts of fluorescent yarn to my Bivisi-bombers and once a guy starts doing that, these flies seem naked without them... Anyway, you get it, the possibilities for color blends on this pattern are endless so for those who tie up their own renditions of this fly, show me what you come up with. You can email me at toddhirano@yahoo.com and I could post up your versions of the Bivisi-bomber.

Materials list:

Hook: Mustad S82 (1xl, nymph hook) or the Gamakatsu bait hook with shank Barbs flattened, or your favorite bomber hook. I typically tie these flies in sizes 6 & 4.

Thread: 100 denier Veevus gel spun, typically black

Tail: Squirrel tail, color of your choice

Hot butt: fluorescent wool yarn, I most commonly use chartreuse or orange

Body: spun deer, trimmed to a tapered shape, flat on bottom.

Front facing wings: calftail or squirrel tail, split and divided.

Over wing: cow elk, color of your choice. (Nature's Spirit has been the best source of cow elk that I have come across, good quality and good selection of colors).

Body hackle: appropriately sized saddle hackle. Whiting Wooley bugger packs have been perfect - nice long hackles and lots of feathers in the size range needed for this pattern.

In the step by step below, I am tying the "Bleached Blonde" version of the Bivisi-Bomber, but as mentioned, color combos are endless so have fun with this pattern.

Steps:

1. Start with a tight base of thread, starting from the eye, down the shank just past the hook point, then back to a position just behind the hook eye. To prevent the thread and materials from spinning on the hook shank, I roughen the hook shank with an emery board prior to laying down the base of layer of thread. I love gel spun thread for it's strength, but it can be slippery stuff. Applying zap a gap to the base layer of thread can also help prevent the body from moving on the hook shank after the fly is completed.

2. Take a bunch of calf tail or squirrel tail and place in a hair stacker to get the tips as even as possible. Measure the length to be a bit short of the length of the body. Tie in the bunch of hair facing forward, leaving just a tiny bit of space behind the hook eye. Because of the need to push materials forward, this pattern calls for "crowding the head". Cut the butts about halfway down the body in a slant and tie over the butts and back to the front. Part the hair in half and put some figure 8 wraps through the hair to split the wings. Alternately wrap up each wing post with 5-10 thread wraps to reinforce the divided wings. Figure 8 a couple more times to lock down the divided wings and push them forward.

3. Take a bunch of squirrel tail and place in hair stacker to even the tips. Measure the tail to be equal to the length of the body. Tie down and cut butts where they meet the butts of the forward facing wings.

4. If desired, tie in the hot butt at this point. Tie in the flourescent yarn starting at the end of the butts of the forward facing wings, and to the end of body, wrap thread forward. Take 3 wraps forward with the flourescent yarn and tie off, cutting the yarn even with the starting point.

5. In preparation for tying in the deer hair body, take masking tape and tape over the forward facing wings and tail, if desired, for protection when the time comes to trim the deer hair body.

6. Tie in deer hair with bunches about a half inch in diameter, remove underfur and spin / flare each bunch on the shank starting just in front of the hot butt. I typically end up using about 4 bunches of deer, packing each bunch tightly against the other. Maintain firm thread tension once each bunch is spun/flared around the shank. Add deer until you are at a point just behind the forward facing wings, leaving a little room for tying in the body hackle and over wing. At this point, I do a manual 4 wrap whip finish at the point between the deer hair and the forward facing wings. This keeps the thread secure while I trim the body in the next step:

7. Trim the deer to the tapered shape as seen below and trim the bottom flat to keep the hook gap open.

8. Select a saddle hackle sized appropriately to the size of the hook. I like Whiting Wooley bugger packs for the hackles on these flies due to an abundance of appropriately sized hackles for these flies and their luxurious length. Strip off some of the webby section of the saddle and tie in by the stem, right behind the forward facing wings. Then take your thread and spiral wrap through the spun deer body to the point just in front of the hot butt.

9. Spiral wrap the saddle hackle through the spun deer body to the point just before the hot butt. Take a wrap around the tip of the saddle and spiral wrap forward through the body hackle to the front of the deer body to secure the body hackle. Trim the tip of saddle hackle and trim the stem of the saddle as well.

10. Take a bunch of cow elk, remove underfur and place in a hair stacker. Measure wing to be even in length to the body. Take 3 firm wraps around the cow elk, seeing that the butts run between the forward facing wings. Bring thread forward and take 3 wraps behind the hook eye. Then, while pulling upwards on the butts of the cow elk, do a 5 turn whip finish, then do another 5 turn whip finish to ensure everything is secure.

11. Gather the butts off the cow elk and pull upward. Trim the butts of the cow elk so they will just short of the length of the foward facing wings.

12. Remove tape, cut off thread and take in the view of your completed, labor intensive dry fly steelhead killer that will stay skating, sans foam, for guilt free surface fishing.