Bodkin / Patterns

Egg-Sucking Bunny Leech

Streamer · Trout · Steelhead · Salmon · Smallmouth Bass · Advanced · 1 version

AvidMax dressing

  • Hook Tiemco TMC 5263, 4-6
  • Thread Veevus White (Egg), 6/0 Uni Black (Body 6/0

Materials

  • Head (Egg) Mcfly Foam
  • Body Cactus Chenille Medium Purple
  • Body Rabbit Strips Black Ribbed
  • Body UTC Brassie Wire Silver

How to tie it

  1. Start the Veevus White thread behind the eye and lay a short thread base for the egg.
  2. Lay a generous piece of Mcfly Foam over the shank so it drapes down both sides. Take two or three loose wraps, then pull and stretch the foam so the thread bites; add a tight wrap and keep stretching through a couple more turns. The more you stretch it, the better the egg flares.
  3. Pull all the foam straight up, then figure-8 the thread in front and behind it, pulling the foam back as you go, and take one turn around the base. Whip finish and cut the white thread.
  4. Pull the foam taut upward and trim at an angle from the hook eye up toward the center, then back down toward the rear. Tidy the seam underneath and turn the fly to trim it into a round egg.
  5. Start the 6/0 Uni Black behind the egg. Tie in the UTC Brassie Wire Silver on the side of the shank and bind it back over the bend.
  6. Tie in the Cactus Chenille Medium Purple at the bend and bring the thread forward to just behind the egg. Half hitch, then wrap the chenille forward in tight touching wraps up to the egg, capture it and snip.
  7. Take the Rabbit Strips Black, pull the fur back to expose the hide at the tie-in end, and bind it on top of the shank right behind the egg. Half hitch.
  8. Rib the wire forward in 4-5 open turns, parting the fur at each turn so it is not matted under the wire, and tie the wire off. Trim the strip a little longer than the shank, cutting on an angle for a natural tail.
  9. Form a closed dubbing loop behind the egg. Splay the fur of a piece of rabbit strip to one side, set it in the loop, cut away the hide, and spin.
  10. Wet the fibers, sweep them to one side and pull out any loose ones, then wrap the loop as a collar so the fur nests back over the body, working each turn over the last. Catch the loop with thread and tie off.
  11. Whip finish 4-5 turns over the egg with a large-gape whip finisher and trim the thread.

Tying videos

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