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.
Spring is when many Salmon fry start emerging from the gravel spawning beds they were born in. Warmer water temperatures generally start this "hatch" and it runs until summer runoff. When alevin start emerging from the gravel, the trout, Char and even Steelies really don't have a better source of food then a feeble swimming protein pack such as these young Salmon. Here is a pattern I came up with that with a little practice takes a couple minutes to tie. You will need: #10 or 8 egg hook, white thread, micro pearl Mylar tubing, orange yarn, Stick on eyes and Epoxy/Aquaseal = Krazy glue. The best way to fish it is like a Nymph or single egg. Floating line with some twist-ons and dead drifted with the occasional twich... be prepared to slay em!
Remove the yarn from inside the Mylar tube, it makes it to thick.
The hardest part of this pattern. Pinch the tubing and wrap a bit of thread close to the end of the tail and right up against your thumb were it is ridged. A few loose wraps followed by a couple tight ones and then hitch/ Whip finish and Krazy glue on the thread.
Put some thread on the hook, you don't need to work it any further down then the top 1/3rd of the hook.
Attach the other end of the tubing on the hook, try to keep it as thin and compact as you can. The body should be around 1.5x the hook length at max.
Fold a very thin strip of yarn in half and tie in under the head of the fly. Trim the excess.
Whip finish and throw some small stick on eyes on that sucker.
Add epoxy or Aqua seal on the head of the fly and let er dry. Looks killer in the water and the fish don't stand a chance!
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