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All kind of leeches are very successful patterns for early spring trout fishing. Lamprey are migrating to their spawning grounds and are easy pray for hungry trout. Presentation should be slow and as near to bottom as can be. Sinking or sink tip lines are must. But first – we need to tie some flies.

Here is a try to make a simple one material streamer. So we will need mink fur strip (long enough to match real lamprey length), two hooks, some backing (braided line) and eyes (optional – dumbbell or beadchain). Front hook is kind of worm or similar to that – he has two barbs on the shank. It will help to fasten rear hook better.

tie in mink strip (somewhere in the middle)

palmer the rest of strip towards

tie in eyes

make dubbing loop, tie around the eyes

cut the front hook

attach rear hook (loop to loop technique) and that’s it

Grey Frede is the famous danish sea-trout fly. You can find lots of info about Frede on GFF [globalflyfisher.com]. It has many variations – copper frede, magnus and so on. It is very simple fly – you need just one material to tie it – grizzly chickabou (and hook, eyes, lead and thread of course). So, here I’ve mentioned all needed materials. Later will post tying sequence of Grey Frede variation. Stay tuned.

and here’s a tune. This pattern is far too sexy…

Recipe:

• Main hook: cheapest hook you can find. It will be cut anyway
• Trailer hook: any hook type you like. I prefer carp hooks
• Tail: mink fur strip
• Body: mink fur strip (cross cut)
• Eyes (optional): bead chain, dumbbell eyes, cone head, etc
• Other materials: piece of backing or monofilament line for mounting the trailer hook

This is modified intruder pattern, based on Ed Ward Intruder pattern (click HERE for .PDF file). I’ve replaced some materials with those I had home.  Will need to buy some marabou, ostrich, because Intruders are very beautiful flies and I bet they will work great for Sea trout as well.

So here is materials I’ve used for this fly:

• Hooks: cheap front hook, carp trailer hook;
• Dumbbell eyes;
• Black braided line for trailer hook;
• Hot orange dubbing (for tail hot spot and body)
• Pheasant and bird fur heathers for tail and front hackle, orange feather (for palmering body)
• Some dubbing for head

This streamer is tied using the technique found on Hatches magazine but instead of cross cut rabbit, I’ve used synthetic  fur, bought in local sewing craft store. For this fly you will need: cheap front hook, carp trailer hook, synthetic fur, some lead and eyes (dumbbell, bead chain), backing, monofilament or braided line for trailer hook and thread of course.

Here is a quote from Hatches magazine:

The Strung Out movement was created by Pacific Northwest guide Derek Fergus. Articulated flies are nothing new, but this method of tying permits an angler to create very large flies with articulated action yet eliminating a solid, long hook shank. Tube flies can give you large flies and small hooks but they loose the articulation some folks find very appealing, especially on flies intended to be swung and not retrieved. Articulated flies use the long solid hook shank of a front hook to build the fly, but that shank can be used by the fish as leverage to work the fly loose or break the leader. Fergus’ Strung Out philosophy of tying involves tying the fly on section of “string”.
The MOAL (”Mother Of All Leeches”) is a successful version of the Strung Out Leech.

Here is my synthetic version of MOAL leech in reversed red head version:

Bunny strip (zonker) streamers are good lifelike flies, but they are hell to cast. Fur soaks the water and streamer becomes heavy and dangerous projectile. There is one way out of this situation – I’ve read about it in old Fly Tyer (Summer 2007) magazine under “The Leather Tail” title.  It is a bass pattern but works great for trout and sea-trout fishing – imitating various ‘leechie’ creatures.

The main idea is to lighten the tail by cutting off all hair, leaving just leather strip. Article author (Jay “Fishy” Fullum) gives brilliant idea – replace rabbit (bunny) strip with black pigskin. Rabbit fur is not a problem for me (have whole black dyed rabbit skin) so I’ve tied this streamer with shaved rabbit strip (fur gone for making other flies and mixing some dubbing).

So here it is – the recipe. Actually it’s more tying style not the recipe:
Hook: any streamer or salmon hook you prefer;
Weight: dumbbell eyes or (and) some lead [I used bead-chain eyes + lead];
Tail: small bunch of bucktail (any color to match) and bunny or pigskin strip tied above;
Body: mohair yarn [pict] (can be replaced with any matching dubbing);
Head: artificial fur dubbed in dubbing loop.

Tying steps:

mono line loop and bucktail prevents long rabbit strip from tangling around the hook