by Chet Allison
In 2011 I had a chance to visit with Kelly Laatsch owner of St. Mary Angler Fly Shop now in Cranbrook, B.C.; In our conversation I asked him about Leeches. Kelly told me that in the early spring late February, March, April the baby leeches are born and out looking for their food, the trout will eat these babies. I mentioned to him that my favorite color of leech is olive or brown. I was told that the baby leeches are not those colors. They are more burgundy in color. They don’t turn brown or any of the other colors that they develop until late April.
Hook: 9671 or TMC 200 size 10
Thread: burgundy 8/0
Tail: burgundy marabou
Body: one layer of thread.
Wings: 4 bunches of burgundy marabouequally spaced.
Steps:
1. Apply a layer of thread to cover the hook, to the back stopping over the barb.
2. Tie in the tail, keeping it small. The tail and the hook length is to be about 2 inches or alittle longer.
3. Tie in 4 bunches of marabou keeping them moderately small. Each successive buncha little shorter than the previous bunch. You should see a thin, slightly tapering body when the wing is totally tied in.
A simple pattern but effective, remember you are tying baby leeches, which are small. The marabou gives the fly lots of movement like a leech has when they swim about, fish can’t resist this movement.
Fish this pattern in the shallower waters, around weeds with a sinking line or a sink tip.
In this image you can see the baby leeches are starting to change to the adult colors. Over all you can tell they were a burgundy color at one time.
