Not that salmon season is over, but I’ve started thinking more and more about fishing big water for steelhead and maybe even a few late season kings.
There is still time to fish our Comets, Bosses, and Clousers. But it makes sense to carry some Intruders and Leeches for big water, low visibility, and low light conditions. Rob Russell is the Intruder Jedi. His flies make my eyes sparkle and my imagination soar.
Me? Haven’t yet ventured into Intruder Territory yet, so I go to big nasty Rabbit Leeches.
I like the MOAL tying style developed by Derek Fergus, but I use dumbbells instead of cones. I like the cones, but have not been able to thread my trailer line in and out of the cones and the hook eyes as quickly as I would wish. So – dumbbells do the job in short order for me.
Like Derek and other MOAL enthusiasts, I like the full rabbit coverage created by wrapping cross cut rabbit around the trailer line. Unlike many tyers, I do not make my trailer long enough to replace the hooks. Ouch.
Why? I think that makes the hook more prone to fouling. Someone please enlighten me. For now, though, I tie-in my cross-cut so the hair tips almost reach the hook bend and get busy wrapping. When my hook is dulled, the fly is forcibly retired. Sad but true.
Remember to cut-off the lead hook after securing all the materials. These flies should be fished with a single Octopus-style trailer hook. Oh yes, I really prefer Tear Mender over Super Glue. I’ve watched other folks tie with Super Glue and know it works too. I just seem to glue my fingers to my face, so I’ve given up on it.
I like to use contrasting colors for the butt section, the head section or both.
I am very partial to Flashabou Mirage tied in about where the trailer line meets the lead hook-shaft. The front of the fly may be constructed of cross-cut rabbit, Schlappen, marabou, or some combination. These flies come alive in the water and they are killer salmon and steelhead attractors in big water. The Leeches pictured here are in the 4-5” range. I will go to 6” if I am specifically targeting king salmon, but theses smaller Leeches get eaten as often as the longer flies.
The Caddis Fly crew can help select the materials, hooks, glues and other goodies you’ll need if you tie your own.
JN
Jay, don’t listen to ‘dem foulers. The thought of missing that one grab all day because of a fouled hook … heartbreaking. As the perry poke gains favor with skagit lines – and it will – fouling will emerge as a key issue in big fly design. Flexible GSP for shank-fly stingers will go the way of disco, in favor of either junction tubing, or other semi-rigid materials like mono, strand wire, bite tippet, etc. And the standard old school A-leech, if tied properly, will rarely foul … but sadly, those old flies don’t work anymore.
sweet flies. can i borrow a dozen?
sharpen the hook—i put stone to steel as much as possible—adds to the fish to hand count and if the fish teeth don’t destroy you fly, you can fish the thing untill it gets sun faded, mucked up, or just plain ripped apart by over use…… fill me in if it helps