Micro Leech

There's a pattern out there that almost everyone turns to when things get slow, especially in late season.

And it works, right up until the water drops clear and cold and the fish stop chasing anything with real profile.

That's the gap this fly is built for. It's a small, dark, slow moving leech that gets eaten in the coldest water of the year, when nothing bigger is getting a look.

The reason it works at this size is the technique. Instead of running a full pine squirrel zonker strip down the shank, which would kill the profile on a size 12 hook, the fibres are pulled off the strip and locked into split thread.

You get the movement of a strip leech at a size where a strip would be too much. The orange band mid body is doing another job. The most common freshwater leech across North America is Macrobdella decora, and it has a reddish orange belly.

As leeches undulate through the water they roll and expose that underside, and trout key on it. That flash of orange in the middle of the body is your hotspot doing the same job.

I tie this one in olive because that's what most of my late season water suits, but natural works just as well, especially in clear tailwater. Black is worth a slot in stained water or after rain.

Materials

• Hook: Fasna F 400, size 12 to 8
• Bead: 3mm tungsten, matt brown
• Thread: Veevus Power Thread, fluorescent orange
• Tail and mid body: Micro pine squirrel, light olive
• Mid body: UV Ice Dub, hot orange
• Collar: Seal fur dubbing, olive

Fish it slow. In stillwater a hand twist or slow figure eight retrieve with long pauses does most of the work. On tailwaters dead drift it under an indicator.

If you want to swing it, a soft hackle line and a downstream mend will let the current pulse the fibres for you.

Most of the takes come on the pause and they'll be soft, so watch your line and set on anything that feels different.