Rick,
I’ll post this here, since I am sure that there are others who are at least wondering. I read with great interest your articles and you have refered to a “boa yarn leech”. I did a GOOGLE search and the only reference it shows are in the the afore mentioned articles. Could you shed a little light on the pattern and tying instructions?
Clint
[This message has been edited by Bluegill Budd (edited 24 April 2006).]
Tie on size 8 to 12 hook.
Match color of thread to the color of the yarn.
Boa Yarn is available in yarn shops and at Wal Mart.
This can be tied with a small bead head also.
Put one of these in the water near you and twitch your rod tip, do qick line jerks, ect and see what the material does in the water.
Hope this helps
Rick
I’m one of those guys who lives by the adage, “If it can be messed up - I’ll give it a shot.”
Rick has already helped me out with this fly and here’s a tip I discovered.
Palmer the yarn so it is ‘just’ touching at the base. I thought, “a little is good - more oughta be better.” It ain’t.
If you get too much material on the hook you won’t get the desired action.
good luck on a good fly.
thanx again Rick…g
I have three of Rick’s leech patterns as he was kind enough to send me examples I can copy. An Eyelash Yarn Leech, a Boa Yarn Leech, and a Crow Body Feather Leech. I really like the looks and action of that Crow Body Feather Leech but I have no Crow body feathers 
. I don’t know of anybody that carries them. Shooting a Crow or scavenging a road kill is out of the question. So Rick, where do you get your Crow body feathers?
Robert B. McCorquodale
Sebring, FL
“Flip a fly”
[This message has been edited by dixieangler (edited 24 April 2006).]
They were a gift from a tyer at SowBug.
Rick
Oh, well. Coot and Moorehen feathers are another oddball material that isn’t available but I’ll keep looking 
. Wild bird feathers are hard to get unlike domestic and game birds. Thanks anyway, Rick.
Robert B. McCorquodale
Sebring, FL
“Flip a fly”
I understand about tieing in the yarn at a right angle to the hook shank, but have one more question. Does the leech have a “tail”, that is a piece of yarn that extends beyond the hook? I tie a bead head leech, after being given one in a swap, that has the yarn palmered from behind the bead at the eye to the bend, and then about a hook shanks length of yarn beyond the bend.
Clint
btw, I took a 3 lb Channel Cat today on that exact fly while bothering the bluegills in a small pond in the nearby WMA. What a hoot on a 3 weight.
The few fibers that you bend back over the material form a little bit of a tail.
Rick
Talk to a hunter to see if they could get you some coot feathers, or a crow. The coot can be given but not sold. Coot feathers also make a great leech pattern.
Rick
Don’t know if this will help with the search for crow feathers but…
[url=http://www.jsflyfishing.com:59575]www.jsflyfishing.com[/url:59575] has Imitation Indian Crow Feathers
They may not work, but, I enjoy looking for hard to find items.
Warren
OK - first the good news, then the bad news and to finish, more good news.
I went to Wallyworld and found and bought some Boa Yarn. Neat color called Mallard. Sort of green - gold combonation that ties what appears to be a good looking leech. I have tied one with a orange bead, kind of a egg sucking boa yarn leech (ESBYL).
For less than $4.00 I have more Mallard Boa Yarn than I will ever use in a life time.
If anyone is interested, I will trade some of my Green - Gold Boa Yarn for some of your black and/or white or what ever color Boa Yarn you have. Drop me an email and we can swap yarns (Isn’t that what fisherman do?).
Thanks for all your help.
Clint
Then tie the base of the yarn on perpendicuar to the shank of the hook. This makes it easier to palmer up the shank.
I don’t quite understnd this.
If I lay the yarn against the hook shank and tie it so that I can palmer it up to the eye, it is lying parallel th the hook shank.
What am I missing?
I did one last night and trimmed the “strings” off of the base yarn a little . I like the way it looks.
The way I understand it, now that I actually have some is this. The yarn has a main body and off that main body are fibers going out at 90 degrees. I tie the main body of the yarn in at a right angle so the fibers are facing the rear of the hook. Then I wrap the main body of the yarn towards the eye, and the fibers overlap the last turn of the wrap. This way you do not see the wrap of the main body, just the fibers that come off the yarn that give it its’ leechy look. I am sure this is a clear as mud, I will take a picture tonight and see if I can link it the thread.
This is the Boa Yarn in “Mallard”
This is the Egg Sucking Boa Yarn Leech
[This message has been edited by Bluegill Budd (edited 27 April 2006).]
Super fly, guys. Gonna run out this weekend in search of that fuzz. Please put this in the FAOL archives. Looks like a lot of bang for a simple & cheap tye. Thanks so much for the pattern, pictures, and explanations.
I’ll offer a swap if you’re not already swamped with them.
Keepeth they back cast out of the freakin’ flora.
Just a note. The black Boa Yarn Leech fly Rick sent me is the old kind of Boa Yarn (Wal-Mart here no longer carrys it) that has a string of long hanks or bunches of craft fur type fibers than this new satiny short Boa Yarn that has a string of fibers. Seems to be different types of yarn and material. I have the new satiny shorter stuff also and tied up a black one in about a size 8 or 10 earlier and it looks fine (also in the sink water test) except that the fibers are softer and shorter than Rick’s original and it covers the hook shank more than the old Boa Yarn. I used black shag (long) craft fur for the tail, same length as the hook shank, and added a few strands of pearl krystal flash. Mine looks basically like yours, Clint, except I used a dull gray metal bead as well as adding the tail.
Forgot to mention, if you want some of the black, Clint, send me an e-mail with your snail mail address.
Robert B. McCorquodale
Sebring, FL
“Flip a fly”
[This message has been edited by dixieangler (edited 27 April 2006).]
now I see my issue: Budd’s yarn is called “eyelash yarn” around here.
the yarn I have has individual stings about 3/4" long off of the main or base thread.
The ‘side strings’ are mostly at a 70-90 deg angle to the main thread but many run out at a wild angle.
It is generally ,what I would call, sparse in relation to the ‘side dressing’ issue. This gives the fly a long tail and a ‘flyaway’ appearance. Who knows, the fish may love them since the action in the water is what matters… time will tell.
[This message has been edited by zzdruid (edited 28 April 2006).]
[This message has been edited by zzdruid (edited 28 April 2006).]
I tied up a few in black and the green gold and grey.using the shorter fibre version of Boa yarn. I caught on the Black but the Green gold and grey worked better especially the variation I tied with yellow shiny rubber legs in front. Caught 15 nice sized BG and a couple of bass.
Eric
The varied colour yarn was the Mallard, the nice thing about the Mallard colour is that your fly can have a gold tail with green body or gold tail with brown body or the reverse if you want. I also tied bead chain as per the Clouser or Briminator.
Rick this fly works as I had good results last night on the Blue Gill.
Eric
ZZ,
Rick called it an Eyelash Yarn Leech and its tied the same way as the Boa with the beadhead. Palmered up the hook shank (but no tail). I’ve seen the Eyelash material that you have but I think the black one Rick sent me is the stuff Wal-Mart is now calling Fun Fur (also a long stringy fiber yarn but a little shorter than Eyelash) instead of Eyelash as I was just in the store.
Robert B. McCorquodale
Sebring, FL
“Flip a fly”
Robert,
I was there too and saw that Fun Fur…it gets very confusing because I am certain that I bought what was called Fun Fur last year when this stuff started to hit the market…what I have [“Fun Fur”] glistens more than the Boa…is less satin- like…has fibers about the same length as the Boa [and I believe may have more motion than the Boa though I haven’t actually compared them in the water.
There is another very interesting one…Bernat Disco…longer fibers…a little more sparse… and built in glisten.