Easy Finn Raccoon Leach

Easy Finn Raccoon Leech is a real easy, fast and simple egg sucking leech fly for steelhead, trout, and smallmouth.  This fly is tied with Finn Raccoon hair which has great movement in the water. The key to the effectiveness is sparseness, don't use a lot of material.  The egg on this fly is a 8mm Otter's Milking Egg but you can use a Trout Bead if you wish. Orange is the most effective color but you can experiment with pink or chartreuse. You can tie this fly can be tied in an endless number of color combinations.  Tie some up for your next steelhead trip

Hook: MFC no. 7008 size 8-10
Thread: black or olive 6/0
Tail: Ice Dub
Wing: Finn-Raccoon Hair
Egg: size 8 hook - Otter's Soft Milking Egg 8mm or Trout Bead
         size 10 hook - Otter's Soft Milking Egg 6mm or Trout Bead
Color Combinations: (Ice Dub/Finn Raccoon) Chartreuse/Black, Pink/Black, All Black, blue/olive, olive/black.

STEP 1: Take a Montana Fly Company no. 7008 size 8 streamer hook and place it in your vise.  Take your 6/0 black thread, attach mid-shank and wrap back to the tie in point.  While tieing this fly, try not to get any of the black thread where the egg will go, it will show through the translucent Otter Egg.

STEP 2: Select a clump of Ice Dub and tie in a sparse clump mid shank. Tie the clump in so there is an equal amount of material on either side of the wraps.  

STEP 3:  Wet your fingers and comb the Ice Dub back to the rear of the hook.  Make a couple of wraps over the spot where the dub was tied in to keep the Ice Dub in position.  Advance your thread half way between the dub and the hook eye.

STEP 4:  Tie in a sparse clump of black or olive Finn Raccoon hair. Push the hair around the shank with your fingers so all 360 degrees of the fly are covered.  DO NOT trim the butts, they will be used to form a collar.

STEP 5:  Push the butts of the Finn Raccoon back and secure with several thread wraps to form a collar. Be sure to leave enough room for the egg.  Whip Finish and cut the thread.

STEP 6: Place a drop of Loctite Super Glue Gel on the hook shank.

STEP 7: Push your Otter Egg of choice over the drop of super glue.  Hold the egg in place for several seconds until the glue dries.

The Finished Fly

 

Egg Sucking Leech

 


The Egg Sucking Leech is a woolly bugger type pattern that is a old standby for fall run steelhead and salmon.  The Egg Sucking Leech is supposed to imitate a leech eating an egg. The  purple/orange combination works particularly well in dirty water. Purple is the last color to be filtered out of water so it is the easiest for the fish to see when visibility is poor (the fish see the outline of the fly). 

Hook: MFC no. 9007 size 6-10
Thread: black 3/0
Weight: leadwire (optional)
Tail: marabou
Body: chenille
Hackle: schlappen
Egg: orange chenille
Colors: black, purple

STEP 1: With your streamer hook of choice in the vise attach your thread mid shank and wrap back to the tie in point.  You may want to add a few wraps of leadwire for weight.

STEP 2: Take a plum of marabou, and remove the stiff tip of the feather.  Measure the marabou against the hook shank, the tail should be the same length as the hook shank.  Tie in the marabou feather at the tie in point.

STEP 3: With your tail tied in, take a length of chenille and a schlappen feather.  Tie the schlappen feather in at the tie in point by the tip.  Strip approx. 1/4 of a inch of the fuzzy part of the chenille off to expose the thread core inside.  Tie in the chenille.  Advance your thread to 1/3in behind the hook eye, leaving enough room for the egg.

STEP 4: Wrap the chenille up to the thread with even wraps.  Tie off with several wraps.

STEP 5:  Wind the schlappen hackle over the chenille to the thread.  The hackle should be evenly spaced up to the thread, then you should make 3 wraps on top of each other.  Tie off and trim of the excess hackle stem.

STEP 6: Now its time to make the egg.  Take a length of orange chenille and prepare it the same way you did for the body.  Tie in the chenille directly in front of were the black body ends.  Advance your thread to behind the hook eye.

STEP 7:  Make a ball of chenille to form the egg. 



The Finished Fly