Dahlberg divers

It must have been sometime in the late 1980’s. I watched this badly copied VHS video called ‘Fly Fishing for Pike with Larry Dahlberg' about fly fishing for pike using floating bugs. Although the image quality was awful what I saw really caught my attention. This fly nowadays known as the Dahlberg diver (the original pattern and name Larry used for his diving bug is Mega Diver and was tied with a long haribou and flashabou tail rather than hackles used these days which mimics frogs) was making those pikes go nuts. By strip retrieving, the bug dived like a plug and came up if you stopped the retrieve. This action was achieved by the unique way the head of the bassbug was shaped.

Many years later I found the article called Super Fly! in Fly Fisherman magazine (September 1983 issue) where Dave Whitlock writes about Larry Dahlberg introducing the Dahlberg Diver to him on a fishing trip on the St Croix river in Wisconsin.

During the early 1990's I watched another video called Tying Bass Flies with Jimmy Nix. Jimmy Nix is a well known fly fisherman and tier of largemouth bass and saltwater species. I’ve watched this video endlessly. Another video I can recommend is Fly Tying Bass Flies with Dave Whitlock.

During the early 90's I also met Chris Helm. Chris is, besides being a very nice guy, a master with deer hair. His tying video's are world famous. Chris also runs a business selling quality deer hair. He sent me patches of deer hair I couldn't get here in The Netherlands. I started experimenting with muddlers, hoppers and humpies. Bassbugs was just a logical step.

So, what's so great about this bug? It's just plain fun to tie these colorful critters. Using different colors of hair you can make very colorful creations, only limited by your imagination. Especially using the stacking technique, very realistic (or wild, depending on colors used) color patterns can be made. Using a good pair of sharp scissors (I love those ice tempered scissors) and razor blades you can shape the ball of hair to any shape you want.


Here are some essential tools I use when tying my bass bugs:

• A pair (a curved version as a second is nice) of ice tempered scissors (I use Thompson scissors which are no longer available. Anvil makes good scissors too).
• A long nose bobbin (I prefer the Materelli bobbin).
• Tying thread I prefer Danville's Flymaster Plus (a good alternative is Uni-thread's Big Fly, which is a bit thicker than Flymaster Plus). Some prefer gel GSP thread.
• A large hair stacker.
• Double sided razor blades.

Here is an excellent article by Chris Helm about selecting deer hair for various purposes.


Update May 2012:
Here are two of the Dahlberg Divers shown above now framed together with a little deer hair mouse I tied for Rudi Heger. The framed box hangs on the wall of the fly shop.








Update Nov 2, 2018:
Larry Dahlberg himself approved the diver