Flies don't get much simpler than this one, nor more effective.
The Sleech is sort of a narrow, sparse and smaller crystal chennile version
of the Roadkill Streamer. I got the idea for this fly after watching
a leech swimming in a spring creek.
Leeches swim with a sensuous sinusoidal wave that undulates from front to back, similar to the way a Sidewinder Rattlesnake negotiates the desert sands. To make this fly I dip the ends of some crystal chennile (or whatever you call it) in fabric cement, to keep it from unravelling. Then I tie the chennile to a wide gape hook. To rig this fly I attach a tippet section to the eye of the hook with a clinch knot, and then throw a triple surgeon's loop over the front end of the chennile...tighten up the surgeon's loop, slip on a tungsten bead and then attach the tag end of the shock tippet to the leader. To fish the fly I cast forward with as straight a line as possible while reaching forward and dropping the rod tip almost to the water's surface. Then I slowly bob the rod tip upward 2-3 inches at a time, pausing briefly between rod tip bobs, while gradually stripping in the slack with my left hand. I learned that technique from a friend, as a way to fish streamers of all kinds. But it's a technique that's particulary well-suited to the Sleech. This is a damn good fly. And they don't get much easier to make. Slowly twitching the rod tip upwards imparts a sexy vertical wave into the tippet that travels endlessly and hypnotically from front to back, all the way to the end of the fly. The lighter the shock tippet, the better the action on the fly. |
|
Worms and Leeches/
Woolly Mugger/