Boa Leech

[Panman]

I regularly fish a small reservoir that has an abundant population of gills and a few largemouth. A big gill would be 7.0 inches.

Today I decided that I would target nothing but the bass to start with and then if that didn't work go for the gills.

I had tied up some boa leech flies and went to work. After several casts I got a good take and set the hook. The fish fought good and I figured it was a small bass, maybe a foot long. I was quite surprised when the fish turned out to be an 8.5 inch gill, the biggest I have caught on this water. I continued to fish for another hour and did get 4 largemouth from 10 to 14 inches. It still amazes me that the gill took the leech.

Boa Leech: Hook#6 Mustad 3665A with lead wrap. Tail: Two strands of black boa yarn 4 inches long. Body: Orange chennile. Hackle. Black Boa yarn palmered over the chenille.. Overall length about 5.5 inches.

Tim

[dpenrod]

i too am suprised by the size of flies a large bluegill will hit. was fishing a rabbit strip worm type of fly that was 5" long and caught a 9" bluegill. great fighter.

[Big Bad Wulff]

I had a very large bluegill strip out about 20 ft of line today, then I got it coming back toward me, then it took another 20 ft out and left me hooked on an underwater branch.
That was on a 5wt rod too!
Can't wait to see how the smarty pants handles the 6wt

[flyandtie]

wow! 5.5 inch flies and bluegill haha
my mom caught a bluegill on a 1/4 ounce kastmaster !!!
that fish was about 2 lbs!!
what a shock that was

[Big Bad Wulff]

I caught one on a 1/2 ounce roostertail. Yeah one of the BIG roostertails!

[James Smith]

Panman,

My top bream fly for spring is a black leech tied on a size 10 hook. I regularly catch 12 inch bream on this fly as well as bass ranging in size from little four inch scrappers upto 5 lbs.

As far as bream or bluegill taking large baits... I was with a friend who was fishing for bass with an eight inch plastic worm when he thought he felt the "bump" of a bass picking up his worm. When nothing else happened, he fished the worm back to the boat. When he brought it in, a four in bluegill had grabbed the worm by the tail and had enough of the worm stuck in his mouth that he couldn't spit it out. You've got to love a fish with an attitude that allows it to attach prey that is twice its size and plan on eating it in one bite!

Jim Smith

[Rick Z]

I am never surprised anymore by the baits that a bluegill will take.
I have had thenm take flies I have tied for crappie in size 6 and 8.
They have it all the way into their mouth.

Rick

[vtfisher]

i was wonderin if someone could post a pic of the boa leech i cant find one on google anywhere

Thanks

[dixieangler]

They are in the FAOL Fly Tying Archives.

[url=http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytying/fotw2/061206fotw.html:d07f7]Boa Yarn Leech[/url:d07f7]

[url=http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytying/fotw2/091806fotw.html:d07f7]Bicolored Boa Leeches[/url:d07f7]

[url=http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytying/fotw2/071006fotw.html:d07f7]BY Bugger[/url:d07f7]

There may be others but these are the three I know of right away.

[Panman]

Here is a picture of a boa leech which is similiar to the one I used to catch the bluegill. The scanned fly has an orange head while theone I used did not. I found that if you palmer the boa "widely" the cheniile will show through when the fly is in the water.

Tim