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I got the first leech on me
at the age of eight, the summer I’d amassed enough sand to swim from the family
dock out to the island in the center of Tucker Pond. A nice one. About two
inches long. Noticed it there, dangling alien spade-headed wormlike critter,
undulating from the center of my chest as I emerged gasping from the pond
aiming to claim the island’s fabled blueberries. I ripped it away & a drop
of blood streamed down. That was ikky, I thought. Took the celebratory juice
out of my right-of-passage swim-to-the-island victory for a minute.
That was also the summer of
my first truly big bass, taken on a black/blue flake rubber worm, a new thing. And
I later learned that a lot of other fish besides largemouth bass like the
black/blue combination.
The rabbit ‘leech’ (DNSR
Leech) pattern featured here has become one of my staples for dredging Eastside
Washington lakes, I like a #4, makes about a two-inch ‘leech’, & I doubt
that it is taken for a leech, in that size, as the real leeches I’m seeing in
the local lakes are under an inch long – which accounts for the popularity of
mini-leeches, I think – & this pattern can be tied on a #12 & fished as
a mini-leech. But I like the big ole #4 tied on a TMC 200R drop-bend hook
(which serves to keel the fly – lake fish don’t want to see it rolling & screwing through the water) fished
deep on a full-sinking line or 15’ sinking head.
Size & silhouette reminds
me more of a dragonfly nymph or a sculpin than a leech…
Good smallmouth bass fly.
Brookies & browns too. And it does travel to running water as well.
DNSR Leech
Hook: #4 TMC 200R
Thread: wine UNI 8/0
Tailing: black rabbit fur
(taken from a strip or whole hide) layered with 2 strands blue flash/2, red
flash – tie in ahead of the hook point – apply a drop of penetrating cement at
the tie-in point (I keep saying it: tailing is the simplest way to achieve articulation.)
Body: black rabbit w/guard
hairs mixed with chopped red & blue flash, on a dubbing loop of the tying
thread, or wine 3/0 or sewing thread on larger sizes, if you like
Collar: black rabbit fur
spread around the hook shank as a collar ~ & finish.
Flyfish NE Washington with
Steven Bird: http://ucflyfishing.blogspot.com
