Leach patterns

[Ray Kunz]

Leach patterns are quite popular in Alaska for Cohos etc.

Why are they not equally popular in the more temperate climes for things like Stripers and Blues?

[luckie88]

You mean HOTTT climates. They work great in the NW!

[quivira kid]

I use em all the time for bluegills, crappie, and everything else warmwater around here.

[James Smith]

I guess it depends on what the fish are feeding on, especially in saltwater. That being said, they are my number one early spring pattern for all my warmwater fishing and a fair bit of trout fishing as well.

Jim Smith

[Buddy Sanders]

I consider a leech pattern my 'go to' fly for 90% of my fishing, including both fresh and saltwater.

Bass (largemouth, samllmouth, spotted, and striped), pike, panfish, carp, walleyes, tuna, croaker, sand bass, corvina, bonito, roosterfish, dolphin (dorrado), barracuda (plus a plethora of odd saltwater fish I didn't take the time to identify), one confused baby sailfish, and trout too, have all responded well to my 'leeches'.

If they aren't 'popular', I have no clue what fly is, at least with the fish. I find they work as well as, or better than, a clouser in most situations.

If other fishermen don't 'use' them more, that's just fine with me...

Buddy

[steveks]

Furled tail leach, boa leach and a buny fur leach are always in my fly box for bluegill, bass and carp. Tied froom a #14 up to a #8.

[Micropteris]

One of my favorite clam worm patterns for stripers is just a marabou leach pattern tied bright, orange, red, or yellow.

Quick and easy to tie and spit out a lot of numbers.

[Uncle Jesse]

I grew up fishing farm ponds in Mississippi and never encountered a live leach until I moved to Georgia. Every farm in MS had at least one pond from a fraction of an acre up to several acres, I think its the law. They are mostly not fed from creeks but from runoff from the surrounding watershed, so no leeches. I think most of us "match the hatch" of whatever the fish in a body of water are eating so I never fished leech patterns or plastic leeches until I moved.

[WarrenP]

Leech patterns are one of my "go-to" patterns that I always make sure I tie up and carry with me for all my fishing whether warmwater or coldwater. They can be tied in many different colors to represent just about everything. The leech yarn has a lot of "movement" which I feel is one of the "trigger" qualities of the pattern. I cannot say that my warmwater/coldwater fish are "hitting" them because they think they are a leech or not because I feel the pattern does a great job of representing a hellgrammite too.

[chauchey]

I find alot of times there are local patterns that people fish alot, and many people don't think outside that box much. That's really changing with the advent of this thing called the internet though.