Fly Fishing: How to Tie an Egg Sucking Leach

Fishing the tributaries of Lake Ontario can sometimes be difficult. One of the first things I do every time I arrive is tie on an egg sucking leach pattern to search for fish to see how active they are. The egg sucking leach is my go to pattern year in and year out on Lake Ontario tributaries. It is easy to tie and is a very versatile pattern. An egg sucking leach can be dead drifted, swung downstream or even stripped in. It is a great pattern for brown trout, steelhead, silver and king salmon. Here are the basics to tying an egg sucking leach and some variations.

Tying an Egg Sucking Leach

First I like to start with a size 8 hook. Tie in the marabou tail first. Make the tail about as long as the hook. After the tail tie in your hackle at the base of the hook. The hackle should be tied with the smaller end of the hackle on your hook and the base of the hackle pointing back towards the tail. Next tie in some black chenille. This is the body of the fly so tie in a long enough piece so it will reach the front of the hook after being wrapped around the body. Use your hands or hackle pliers to wrap the chenille around the hook towards the front of the hook. Finish wrapping the chenille about a quarter inch before the eye of the hook. You need to leave room for the egg section that will be tied in last. Next take your hackle and also wrap that around the hook toward the front and finish it at the same point that you finished the chenille. Finally you are ready to tie in your last section the egg. Tie in a short piece of hot pink chenille in the section you left open between the black chenille and the front of the hook. Make two wraps around the hook towards the front. Tie off the hot pink chenille and finish with a whip finish knot and a touch of head cement.

This fly is basically a modified wooly bugger with a hot pink head. It should take you no longer than 10 minutes to tie and is very effective.

Variations

Due to the simplicity of this fly and is simple tying method there are many variations you can use. First you could add weight before you tie in the tail to help the fly sink better (please don't use lead). Next you could substitute different colors for the tail, body, hackle or head. Some of my tail colors are purple, brown, and white. For the most part I like to keep the body the same color as the tail, but can use different materials to tie the body. Dubbing works fine and often times I will substitute peacock hearl instead of black chenille. For the hackle I often use a close color match to the tail and body, but often I will use grizzly hackle (multi-colored) that somewhat matches the color of the body. Black and white grizzly hackle is a great substitute for flies that are black. The head seems to have the least variations, but there are still a few. Hot pink is always my first choice, but chartreuse, pink yellow, and orange can work as well.

Like I said this is my go to pattern every year for fly-fishing the Lake Ontario tributaries. It should be a staple in your fly box and hopefully this has helped you either in tying them or just giving you some variations to try. Remember there is no wrong way to fish this fly and no set in stone pattern that can't be altered. That is probably the greatest thing about this fly, since there is no wrong way to fish it as long as it is tied to the end of your line you are doing something right.