Egg Sucking Leech

Egg Sucking Leech, Purple

Show

Tying Instructions

1. Attach the hook to the vise. Wrap the leadfree wire about two eye lengths behind the eye with about ten wraps to about the mid point of the shank.

2. Attach the thread behind the eye of the hook.

3. Wrap the thread over the leadfree wire and down to the bend of the hook.

4. Select a marbou tip from either a blood or plume marabou. The length of the tail should be about the same as the hook shank. Attach the marabou at the bend of the hook and secure with thread wraps up to the leadfree wire. Then, trim off the tag end of the marabou.

5. Note that the marabou secured to the shank helps to even the shank diameter with the leadfree wraps. Attach a couple of strands of Krystalflash to the top of the shank just in front of the tail tie-in position. The strands should not exceed the marabou tips.

6. Attach the thread core of the chenille just in front of the tail tie-in position.

7. Next, attach the tip of a saddle or neck hackle to the shank at the tail tie-in position. Sometimes, I will prepare the hackle by folding so that the fibers lay back but, with the chenille, the hackle stem will bury itself into the material and form the flow of the fibers.

8. Wrap the chenille forward. Take the first wrap behind the hackle tip and the next wrap in front of it. Secure the chenille where the leadfree wraps begin, about two eyelengths behind the eye.

9. Use your hackle pliers to wrap the hackle forward with equally spaced wraps, securing at the end of the chenille.

10. Wrap a second hackle at the base of the chenille for a collar. About 4-5 wraps will suffice. This is where a folded hackle really helps sweep the fibers backwards. I whip finished this thread so that I could attach a Fire Orange thread for the egg.

11. Attach the “egg” chenille by it’s exposed thread core just behind the eye of the hook.

12. Wrap an egg with the chenille and secure with thread wraps behind the eye.

13. Whip Finish

14. The Finished Egg Sucking Leech.

Materials to Order Material, click the link
Hook	TMC 5263 #6-8
Thread	Uni Thread 8/0 Black
Head	Orange Ultra Chenille with Danville 6/0 Fl. Orange
Weight	0.025 Leadfree wire
Body	Medium Purple Chenille palmered with Purple Saddle Hackle
Tail	Purple Blood Marabou with 2 strands Royal Blue Krystalflash
Collar	Purple Saddle Hackle

Will Bauer

Egg Sucking Leech

There’s an unwritten rule among fly fishers that egg patterns are just like fishing with bait. Why eggs are any different than an insect food source is beyond my pay grade but egg patterns are frowned upon. Enter the Egg Sucking Leech.

Alaska Pattern

We all know that the obsequious Woolly Bugger that Russell Blessing designed in 1967 is a top ten pattern but when Will Bauer of McBauer’s Fly Shop in Anchorage, AK put a chenille egg on it’s nose in 1984, it became something else….an egg sucking leech. Will moved onto Belize a few years later and was one of the pioneers in fly fishing for Permit. He invented the Bauer Crab pattern. Unfortunately, Will passed away in 2015 in Redding, CA. The Fly Shop hosts a Kid’s Fishing Camp Scholarship Fund in his name.

Sierra Pattern

Originally used for Salmon and Steelhead, the Egg Sucking Leech pattern has found a home within the Sierra as a trout streamer. I doubt that anyone has actually seen an egg sucking leech before, including the trout, but the brightly colored wad of chenille on the nose of a Wooly Bugger is a great trigger mechanism and you can’t frown on the effectiveness of this pattern.

Egg Sucking Leech Black

Hook	TMC 5263 #6-8
Thread	Uni Thread 8/0 Black
Head	Fl. Pink Ultra Chenille with Veevus 6/0 Pink
Weight	0.025 Leadfree wire
Body	Medium Black Chenille palmered with Black Rooster Cape Hackle
Tail	Black Blood Marabou with 2 strands Black Krystalflash
Collar	Black Rooster Cape Hackle

Egg Sucking Leech Brown

Hook	TMC 5263 #6-8
Thread	Uni Thread 8/0 Brown
Head	Red Ultra Chenille with Danville 6/0 Red
Weight	0.025 Leadfree wire
Body	Medium Brown Chenille palmered with Furnace Hen Neck
Tail	Brown Blood Marabou with 2 strands Silver Krystalflash
Collar	Furnace Hen Neck