The Bleeding Leech
Throughout my fishing journey, bass fishing always held a special place in my heart. I fished a lot of leech plastics, and always had a lot of success. Getting into fly fishing for bass, I tried about every leech pattern I could get my hands on. Some patterns have done better than others. Wanting something different, I hit the vise with a general idea in mind. I looked up hundreds of pictures of leeches, and one leaking blood really caught my eye. I started in 2020, figuring out how to make something similar. It started with two stacked zonker strips and a red dubbing body. It still wasn’t what I was after. I really started playing with dubbing, and found the best body dubbing I could get was the hair from the zonker itself. I’d cut 1/2 and inch of hair off, and tie the bald part of the zonker face down on the hook shank. Using the rabbit hair to create a forward taper up to the bead. I played around blending dubbing and about a year later found what I really wanted. I used cinnamon UV dubbing and red ice dub to create a small reddish brown mass with long red strands. The movement from the dubbing is different than the classic zonker movement giving the impression of blood leaking from the leech. This fly works very well on trout in fast water and bass when it can sink and be twitched. Hopefully it works as well for you as it does for me!
KO Emerald Shiner
My father took me fishing for the first time when I was 4 years old. The next year, he took me to Erie to fish for Steelhead. At 5 years old, these fish were gigantic and I’ve fished with him every year since. He almost always fished emerald shiners, and to this day he won’t touch a fly rod. He is hands down the best minnow fishermen I’ve ever seen. In 2018 he kept catching fish right in front of me. Determined to do everything on a fly rod, I only had one option. I started researching and playing with materials. Buck tail was too coarse, maribou was too soft, and just about everything else didn’t look right. I came across some people using craft fur and decided to give it a shot. It took a bit to figure out the coloring and general size. But once it was figured out, the steelhead couldn’t resist. Everyone I had given them to wanted me to tie more. I added holographic eyes and UV cured them in place, and the KO Emerald Shiner took its final form. There are plenty of other shiner imitations out there, but only one KO Emerald Shiner
The Royal PT
In April 2022, I was fishing pheasant tail nymphs and had an idea. I’d been putting Lively Legz on pheasant tails for quite some time with really great results. But, I wanted something a bit different. Inspired by the pheasant tail, I started working on something a bit different. While looking at pictures of mayfly nymphs, I started focusing on the tails. I started out with brown goose biots, I tried three but couldn’t get it to look right. Sticking with two biots, I tied a bit more pheasant tail fibers on than I normally would, and made wraps up the hook shank and secured it with copper wire. I’ve always been kind of obsessed with body taper, and I played around with the amount of fibers until it looked right. Using peacock herl once again to simulate thoracic gills, the front two Lively Legz, and finished it off with Veevus Holographic Tinsel. I sent about two dozen across Pennsylvania as testers, and every person gave it a positive review. These have become a staple in my fly box for spring time, and I don’t have a doubt that they’ll become a favorite of yours too!
The PGH Black Stoner
It all begins with an idea.
This pattern came about in 2017 while fishing Elk Creek in Erie PA. I noticed all of these little black bugs all around. They were black stoneflies. I started getting very serious about tying by this point and wanted to make a good stonefly pattern. My brother in law had turned me on to Lively Legz, and I started looking at The Peterson Guide to Insects. Now I’m far from the only one to offer a Vinyl Ribbed stonefly, but mine looks different enough than others. Most people only use the front two legs on a set of Lively Legz, where I had to figure out how to utilize the whole set and still have a body. I chose the size 16 curved nymph hook, which is a bit longer than a standard size 16. Goose biots acted as the antennae, due to a lack of other durable materials. Small vinyl ribbing acts perfectly as a segmented body. The thorax was decided to be peacock herl. The herl almost perfectly simulated the thoracic gills that stonefly nymphs have. Folded over the peacock herl thorax is the set of Lively Legz. The finishing touch is Veevus large black holographic tinsel. This fly has caught thousands of fish in multiple states. I’ve transferred over the same pattern to a golden stonefly, which has had a lot of success in the Midwest. Since then, I’ve added a quill wrap and holographic tinsel wrapped stonefly. This fly is definitely my best seller.
