Streamer · Stillwater · Trout · Intermediate · 1 version
BCFlyguys
Hook Daiichi curved nymph hook
Materials
Bead Black bead (1)
Marabou Blood/claret (Tail)
Ultra wire Red wire (One length)
Arizona Simi Seal dubbing Blood Leech (Body)
How to tie it
Seat the bead with its small hole facing the hook eye. On leeches that orientation leaves you more room behind the bead to tuck everything in, with chironomids you do the opposite.
Start the thread with a jam knot: push the thread against the shank, wrap over the tag back to the barb, trim the tag, then come back up. Spin the bobbin counter-clockwise before you pick the thread up and it jumps to the correct side of the hook, which makes tying material in much easier.
Tear marabou fibres off the stem, pluck the very tips out, trim to size and lock it in with a pinch wrap. Bind it down with even wraps and take a couple underneath to prop the tail up. A smooth body now makes everything after it easier.
Pinch the tail to about one body length and tie red wire in alongside the shank back to the rear.
Spin Blood Leech Simi Seal onto the thread a little at a time, always spinning in one direction and letting go, never back and forth. Too much dubbing at once will not grab; small pinches build an even body in three passes.
Open-spiral the red wire in the opposite direction to your dubbing wraps, secure it front and back of the bead, and helicopter it off rather than cutting.
Whip finish, then scruff the whole body hard with a Velcro dubbing brush (a popsicle stick with Velcro on it works fine), raking it out and sweeping backward. That loose dubbing is what swims, and the swimming is what the trout are attracted to.