Hello, I’m usually on a nine foot six weight.

Hi Matt. All feathers do that when they’re out of the water. They’re supposed to. Never judge what a fly looks like out of the water. As soon as you put it back in the water, these feathers spread out again. It’s a common mistake to think of the wings on the Harvey Pusher as oars. They are not. They should not be impenetrable. I’ve tried this myself, coating the wings with various substances to keep them firm and push more water. It only lessens the effectiveness of the fly. For me, there was no doubt about this.

Good feathers function as they should in the water without wax or anything else.

The deer hair head will change the fly substantially. Maybe it’ll be a good, new fly. But it will change what the Pusher is and what it does.

Those are my thoughts. Love your thoughts and innovation.
Dom

1) I coat the feathers with dubbing wax

2) a small dear hair head. I add some lead wraps to offset the added buoyancy from the dear hair. I am not sure exactly why this keeps the feathers from collapsing but the difference is pretty impressive. Maybe it is keeping some of the water pressure from affecting the base of the feathers. I am going to try tying a small dear hair “ball” behind the feathers in place of the head to see if that accomplishes the same thing without changing the profile of the fly.

Got it. Thanks Dom.

Hi Ed,

Honestly, no. I have not put much time on the Pushers in the daylight. I did fish them for a couple days when I first started tying them, because I wanted to see how they moved in the water. That might add up to just ten hours or so, though. And I never got a look from a trout.

Hi Matt. I’ve seen flies tied that way, yes. I wouldn’t say it’s a bad way to do it, but I just don’t. I feel there’s enough motion and performance from the front feathers without adding a second set as the tail.

And for the record, I don’t fish pushers on the surface. I feel like I have better flies for that.

Cheers.
Dom