In case any of you may be interested, I posted a couple boa yarn and “fun fur” leaches over on my blog. I gave Rick full credit and posted a link to his tutorial (didn’t want to claim a fly that wasn’t mine).
For the folks on this board, it’s probably old hat but there may be some of the other readers who don’t frequent FAOL (maybe drum up some new visitors too?).
Link to the blog is in my sig line
Jeff
Thanks jeffnles, took a look around yer blog as i’m a boa leech fan. An FAOL’er gave me a handful to test and they were very successful in the larger sizes up to #4’s i think they are for lmb’s and #6’s for the local smb’s. Also, the larger plain white boa leech tagged either a good sized steelhead or a silver salmon just downstream from the smb hole.
Cheers,
MontanaMoose
I teach fly tying as part of my high school conservation class. Their first fly is a boa leach with a glass bead head.
Thank you Rick.
Ed
I’m glad Rick shared the original pattern. It’s one easy fly to tie.
I am going to tie a few up with a bit of maribou for a tail. I think that will give it a nice swimmin action. It may work or it may not but I love to experiment with different stuff when tying flies.
Jeff
Bw sure to look at the bicolo rboa yarn flies also.The red/yellowocbo hasworkedvery well for me.
I forget who suggested rubber legs on the boa yarn flies, but they work very well on some days.
Some tyers in Australia came up with this pattern aout the same time I did it.
Rick
jeffnles1,
“I am going to tie a few up with a bit of maribou for a tail. I think that will give it a nice swimmin action. It may work or it may not but I love to experiment with different stuff when tying flies.”
Might want to look at this:
URL: http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytying/fotw2/071006fotw.php Score: 96% Size: 3 kB
I seem to recall stating I had figured I had caught over 1,000 fish on boa yarn leeches this year (2009). Well, once again my Fishing Log gets it right, and I get it wrong. I took the time today to actually total up the fish I caught on a boa yarn leech. It was only 874 in 2009.
Rick sent me some samples in about mid-2008, so I didn’t use them as much that year. I caught 148 on it then.
So…it has caught over 1,000 fish for me (just not all in one year), and 7 species. :rolleyes:
I figured I should set the record straight with the facts! :lol:
Anyway…I love this pattern! Thanks a bunch, Rick Z!
Warren,
Thannks. How does it work for you with the maribou tail? I’m going to tie a few up this winter.
Dave - 1,000 fish can’t be wrong. I caught nearly 1,000 bluegill on poppers last year. 2010 may be a leach year.
Rick and others, thanks for sharing the pattern.
Jeff
Wow, fantastic! I will agree that fish on poppers/topwaters trump subsurface-caught fish. Seeing rather than feeling the take really adds to the excitement!
Jeff,
I think adding the marabou tails gives the pattern a “finished” look plus a larger profile in the water. I think this pattern tied in black Boa Yarn is more productive but the tan/brown will and has caught fish for me. The tan/brown just showed up better in the tying pictures when I tied it for the FOTW. In the tying instructions, you do not need to cut the edge off the Boa Yarn like I showed in the picture if you do not want to. You can just tie the end of the yarn in at the tail tie-in point and run your bobbin and thread to the front and then twist the Boa Yarn before palmering it to the front and tying it off. Cutting the edge off the Boa Yarn while keeping it in the dubbing loop can get difficult and drive you nuts! Twisting the Boa Yarn before palmering it will give you the same results as the dubbing loop and be easier. {By the way, when I am using chenille for a body in other fly patterns, I always twist the chenille before palmering it up the body. If you look at your chenille after you tie the end on the hook shank, you will notice that it is not real uniform along it’s length due to being compressed in packaging or on a card and I found that when I give it some twists it becomes uniform in shape and I feel it gives a better look to the fly patterns. I think it gives the chenille the look it would have if you steamed the chenille.} Now back to the subject. I cut the edge off just to eliminate some of the bulk to the fly and to keep it from looking like a “glob” once it is in the water. Cutting the edge off also allows you to space out the wraps when you palmer it up the hook shank which I think gives the fly more freedom of movement. I feel Boa Yarn is a good fly tying material and has a lot of potential, but, it can be too bulky if you are not careful. You need to experiment with it and thin it out as needed. Your fly may look great and have a good profile in your vise, but, drop it in the water and it will flare out and double in size and, if you are not careful, look like a soggy glob with little movement which may not be bad, but, I do not like that look. My flies must have freedom of movement for me so I thin and trim. I have caught trout, bluegill, walleye, black perch, bass and many other warm water fish with this pattern in black, olive, tan and make sure to tie up this pattern using the white Boa Yarn for those times when there is a spring shad kill or your fish are feeding heavy on minnows.
One other thing you may want to experiment with when using Boa Yarn is that you can cut the material off the stitched edge and put this material in a coffee bean grinder and it makes some pretty good dubbing and you can blend many different colors together to come up with some interesting dubbing to use. Let me warn you though, it is very difficult to cut! It wants to slip out of the scissors and it is a real nightmare but I feel the dubbing material is worth it.
Have fun with this…
You can also tease loose and out one of the threads on the stitched side and therefore have less bulk .
Warren,
Thanks for the tip. I, too will twist my chenille if it’s kinked or flat from being on a card. Never knew anyone else did that.
I will tie a couple of the boa yarn flies up with the twist method and the maribou tail.
I also tied a couple up with “fun fur” yarn which has a really good “sparse” kind of buggy look. I think it looks like it would also have a lot of movement in the water.
I have no idea how these are going to work in my area, but they have been fun to tie and mess around with.
Here’s a similar pattern with the “fun fur”.
Jeff
I have tied fun fur flies also. They have not worked as well as the boa yarn flies, but they are still in my box. The orange color hasworked the best.
Rick
Rick,
Thanks, I can’t wait to get to put up a full fishing report. Unfortunately, I have to wate for the ice to clear and water to warm up a bit which at the rate we’ve been going the past couple weeks should occur about the 15th of July 
Jeff