Tying The Egg Sucking Mini-Leech 16May19

I employed the effectiveness of leeches on my recent swing through Wyoming and caught a number of bigger fish with them. Bigger meal - bigger fish. I tie Mayer's mini-leech in black, brown and natural and I show a variant here with a leading salmonid egg - which leeches do abscond with on occasion and for which trout tend to hate them and taste them as a result. When tying without the bead I use a TMC 2488H in #16; when tying with a leading egg I tie using a TMC 3457 in #16 (which is also heavy) for the added hook shaft length. One real trick here is finding a suitable bead; fly shops tend to carry larger "egg" beads not suitable for the mini-leech (I found some at a local bead shop). Here we go...

Recipe...

• Hook: #18 TMC 3769
• Thread: Black UTC Ultra Thread
• Bead/Eff: 8-10mm salmon-colored orange bead
• Body: Black 3D mylar
• Thorax: Black ostrich
• "Wing:" Black micro pine squirrel zonker

Place bead and bind on thread; Sometimes the bead
 hole is too big and you must put a thread idam n front
of bead to stop it from blocking hook eye

Bind in black 3D mylar to hook bend

Overlap wrap mylar forward to 2/3 point

Select micro pine squirrel and strip to 1/8"
and trim to a point (for trimmer binding)

Tie in pin squirrel assuring the hairs stand up
and the material sits right on top of hook

Select black dyed ostrich herl from stick;
prepare it by cutting end and stripping

Bind in ostrich with flare facing backwards

Wrap ostrich ~4X; bind in, snap of excess
and whip finish

Cut pine squirrel zonker to 1" length;
that's it! A tasty meal for bigger trout.

La Cumbre's superior Project Dank
Experimental Ale is back for Spring;
so good