Bling Leech

Another must-have leech for your stillwater box

Bling Leech

Can fly tying materials have a cult following?  I was introduced to Mike Andreason's mohair about 10 years ago, and realized that it is definitely one of those materials that has it's own paparazzi chasing it! His most popular color is CBS (Canadian Brown Seal), but the dark horse of his color lineup is the blood leech

Colorado River Cutthroat slurped the Bling Leech

mohair.  I'll tell you right now that I absolutely HATE working with mohair, but sometimes you do what you have to do in order to catch fish.  I really had to think twice about using mohair when our buddy Herb Patterson showed us a leech similar to the one pictured above.  The key to the pattern was that it had mohair wrapped around mylar to give just enough subtle flash to make it irresistible to the fish, and it plain caught fish!  It seemed like it worked on whatever lake we fished, and it attracted whatever species we were chasing...  So what's different about this fly?  Simi seal dubbing.

Simi seal dubbing comes in so many awesome colors as you saw with the simi seal leech video, and the blood leech color was just what I was looking for.  Now I didn't have to tie these with unruly and inconsistent mohair!  Not only that, but now I could tie this "bling leech" in basically any color I saw fit, and if you have seen all the colors of simi seal, you would see that you could fill several boxes of these bad boys.  I have fished this fly successfully in a wide array of colors, but the blood leech and dark olive seem to be my best two colors.  See the video below.  Pay special attention to the type of marabou I'm using, and how sparse the dubbing loop is.  Happy tying and catching.

Recipe: BLOOD LEECH
Hook: Allen S402 #6 BUY HERE
Thread: MFC Premium Thread 3/0 - black BUY HERE
Tail: Wooly Bugger Marabou - Claret BUY HERE
Under body: Pearl Tinsel - large BUY HERE
Body: Arizona Simi Seal dubbing - blood leech BUY HERE

Recipe: DARK OLIVE
Hook: Allen S402 #6 BUY HERE
Thread: MFC Premium Thread 3/0 - black BUY HERE
Tail: Wooly Bugger Marabou - Olive BUY HERE
Under body: Pearl Tinsel - large BUY HERE
Body: Arizona Simi Seal dubbing - Dark Olive BUY HERE

~ Cheech