THE BUNNY LEECH WORM
Dressed by Joel C. Brothers ND, SHD, LMT Aka: Gigmaster
This is a very easy and quick fly to tie. And it is very productive for Smallmouth and Largemouth Bass in black, olive, or purple.
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THE BUNNY LEECH WORM
Dressed by Joel C. Brothers ND, SHD, LMT Aka: Gigmaster
This is a very easy and quick fly to tie. And it is very productive for Smallmouth and Largemouth Bass in black, olive, or purple.
Why do you tie the bead chain eyes on the underside of the hook where it in effect reduces the gap of the hook? Putting them on the other side would avoid itnterfering with the gap while also making the fly ride hook-point-up like a Clouser and be more snag proof.
2 reasons: First, it is not my original pattern. I ran across it online somewhere, and this was how it was tied. I just can't remember where, or who tied it. I also cannot find it again.
And secondly, I didn't think of it at the time. Those are great ideas for improvements, and I will be incorporating them into the future ties of this pattern.
I wonder if those improvements would qualify it as a new pattern? You may have invented a new fly.
Good job.
The bead chain eyes do not interfere with anything. It's perfectly fine as is.
OK. I tried to tie it with the weight on the top of the shank, so it rides 'hook-up'. It won't work, because the hook bend interferes with the free movement of the tail. And if you tie the tail to the top of the shank, you have to invert the Zonker strip, or the skin side will be 'up', and it looks awful. If you invert the Zonker strip, the hook shank interferes with the hackle portion's movement, and it looks awful.
There may be a way to make it work, but I believe it falls under the heading of 'diminishing returns'. I don't think it's worth the extra effort. (IMHO)
I have tied a very similar fly to this for quite a awhile, and have some solutions to your issues. First, I like to tie mine on a Gamakatsu B10S style hook (usually sizes 2-6). This is a fairly light wire, wide gap, nickle plated hook. This solves any issue with hook gap and drastically improves my hookup rate. Personally I really like to tie the eyes on clouser style, so that the hook rides up and found that the best option for allowing the tail to move freely was to actually poke the hook through the center of the zonker so that the hair will ride faceing up on the fly. From there I just tie the zonker down in the back and wrap it forward and tie it off just in front of the eyes. I used this fly on lake Taneycomo over New years to catch several decent sized trout. but thats another post...
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