Bodkin / Patterns

Jigged Leather Leech

Streamer · Trout · Smallmouth Bass · Advanced · 1 version

Charlie's Fly Box dressing

  • Hook Umpqua XT500, 10
  • Thread Olive UNI-Thread 6/0

Materials

  • Shank Dressmaker’s pin
  • Bead Copper 1/8" tungsten bead
  • Tail Olive Winkler’s Leech Leather
  • Body Peacock Green Arizona Simi Seal dubbing

How to tie it

  1. Notch a dressmaker's pin where it will extend about half a shank length past the hook eye and chop it off with wire cutters, keeping the pin head. Thread the 1/8" copper tungsten bead on countersink-first so the pin head hides inside the bead and anchors it.
  2. Start the olive UNI-Thread on the Umpqua XT500 jig hook and dress the shank with a smooth even base, back to the bend and forward again.
  3. Lay the pin on top of the shank and bind it down, running the thread off the end of the pin and back to the front. Jump over the hook eye, wrap up to the back of the bead and build a thread dam there to wedge the bead against the pin head, then run the thread back to the bend.
  4. Tie in the strip of Olive Winkler's Leech Leather one shank length long, measured over the hook shank plus the pin. Soft-wrap it so it buckles around the bend of the hook, then anchor it forward to the back of the pin and cut off any extra.
  5. Form a five- to six-inch dubbing loop, bring the thread up to the back of the bead, and load the loop with small pinches of Peacock Green Arizona Simi Seal dubbing pushed right up to the hook.
  6. Spin the loop up good and tight so the rope stays shaggy, then go at it with a wire brush or velcro to free anything twisted or caught and even the loop out.
  7. Work the bare thread back to the base of the tail, then wrap the dubbing rope forward with a slight spiral — palmered rather than butted turns — combing the fibers back out of the way as you go, right up to the hook eye.
  8. Jump around the eye onto the pin and keep wrapping as if you were still on the shank; if it is measured right the dubbing runs out just behind the bead. Tie off with a few turns, clip, sweep everything back, build a small neck behind the bead and whip finish.
  9. Brush the body out aggressively toward the bend, going against the grain and all the way around the hook to release trapped fibers, then trim any strays with a sweeping angled cut to keep the leech shape.

Tying videos

← All fly patterns