Thursday, February 3, 2011

Tying the string leech for winter fly fishing

In our costal river systems, large presentations work great as most bigger river fish feast on the smaller fish and lamprey. Big flies are fun to fish, evoking an aggressive response in Char, trout and Steelhead/Salmon. The Sting leech is an easy to tie fly with a nice sillouette in the water. The rabbit looks realistic in the current and a trailer hook has good hookups. You can tie them in virtually any color, from pink to olive or whatever. You will need: Black Rabbit, black 3/0 thread, 30lb braided or backing line, Purple Schlappen, cone head of preferred color ( Orange or Chartreuse look good) and a Size 4 or 2 octopus with a large cheap upturned eye hook to cut.

First slide the cone on the hook you will cut, make sure the eye of the hook has enough room to double the braid or Dacron through.

Loop the smaller hook through the Backing and tie in on the big hook. Hang the hook back about 1.5"

Guide the Backing through the cone, through the eye, and then back all the way through again under the fly and tie down.

Wrap on some lead, tie down and Krazy glue. Tie in a section of rabbit a little bit longer then the trailer hook. Wrap the other end of the strip forwards with minimal overlap, when you hit the cone, wrap once extra and start tie off with the thread.

Cut the excess off an push the extra wrap you made under the cone while twisting it a bit tighter. Tie down the rabbit some more and add some flash.

Take the Schlappen feather and peel back the fuzz off the bottom of the feather. Tie from the tip were the stem is a bit stronger

Wrap the feather forward and tie off at the end. Trip the stem and whip finish.

Put the trailer hook in the vice. Tie on a base of thread, then take the sting length of rabbit and tie in. Pull back the furs in order to tie directly on the leather strip.

Cut off the bigger hook and file down the edges so the backing doesn't get cut. Krazy glue all thread you see.

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