maybe a dumb question about flies

[yjluke]

I have been looking at some egg sucking leech patterns and the only thing I see different about them and a wooley bugger is the chennile in the egg color on the head. Is there something that i am missing.

P.S. if this is in the wrong place sorry.

[Panhandle]

rabbit strip.

[yjluke]

the ones I have been looking at use marabou for the tail and chennille for the body and egg.

[Panhandle]

In my experience the leech is represented by the rabbit strip. There are egg suckin' buggers in every imaginable viarity.

[dsteady]

The wooley bugger is, among other things, a great leech pattern (one which predates the use of rabbit strips). And, yes, most traditional/original egg-sucking leeches are little more than a Purple or Black Bugger with a chenille egg at the head. One difference may be that a Bugger often has a heavily hackled collar to give it a sculpin-y look in the water, whereas an ESL is often just plamered throughout the body without the heavy collar.

Skwala is right that the leech now is best represented by the rabbit strip, but I think the Bugger-style leech predates the strip-style.

This seems like the right place for your question to me.
daniel

[cmtundra]

I have been looking at some egg sucking leech patterns and the only thing I see different about them and a wooley bugger is the chennile in the egg color on the head. Is there something that i am missing.


No, you're not missing anything. In essence, it's a purple Wooley Bugger w/an egg head tied on. However, as you've noticed by now, there are several variations.

Personnally, I tie mine with a plum colored Ice Chenille (I think that's the name anyway -you know, sparkly chenille), Purple Marabou tail, purple hackle palmered throughout the body, and a pale orange chenille head. Most I tie are weighted. For the head, I have an orange-ish chenille with intermittent white specks -I don't remember the name of it but it's my absolute favorite color for any egg imitation fly.

I fell in love with the Purple ESL in Alaska, and there's times here that it's been the go-to fly when others were letting me down (can you say Chum?).

Tie some up, have some fun. There are many flies out there with their own unique name that are identical to another fly except with a twist.

[yjluke]

thanks for the info. I will tie some up tonight and use them tomorrow and let ya all know how they work.

[kodiaksalmon]

Walk into any flyshop in AK, and you'll see more egg sucking leeches than you'll know what to do with-in different sizes, materials, colors. I think that the ESL has become like Lefty's Deceiver, in that it's now no longer a specific fly, but rather a style of tying. Someone can tie a fly that's 3/0 with rabbit, yak hair, and a spun deer hair head and it's as much of an ESL as the fly that's tied with chenille, hackle, and marabou. I've never heard anyone talk bad about them-in any configuration, and I've heard of everything from halibut to trout caught on them...but I've never used one.

Jeff

[FT]

yjluke,

You are correct. An Egg Sucking Leech is nothing more than a black or purple Woolley Bugger with a flourescent chenile head. There are many variation of it now; but the developer of the original Egg Sucking Leech simply added the flourescent chenile head and called it something different.

The bright flourescent head can be made of chenile (most common), Estaz (or one of the other plastic cheniles like Cactus Chenile), a drop of flourescent hot glue, flourescent cone heads, flourescent brass beads, or flourescent floss (especially useful if tying them smaller than #8's).

The black ones can be tied with any color flourescent head, although flame, cherise, and chartreuse are most common. While the purple ones are usually tied with hot pink or hot orange.

[Randy Diefert]

Yjluke, There are no "dumb" questions on this Forum except for the ones that aren't asked...
I hope you got your answer.
Randy :thumb:

[Old Man]

[QUOTE=cmtundra]No, you're not missing anything. In essence, it's a purple Wooley Bugger w/an egg head tied on. However, as you've noticed by now, there are several variations.

Personnally, I tie mine with a plum colored Ice Chenille (I think that's the name anyway -you know, sparkly chenille), Purple Marabou tail, purple hackle palmered throughout the body, and a pale orange chenille head. Most I tie are weighted. For the head, I have an orange-ish chenille with intermittent white specks -I don't remember the name of it but it's my absolute favorite color for any egg imitation fly.[/QUOTE

It is called "New age Chenille". I know it because I have some of it.

Jim

[Porter]

And what are you doing with it? What killer flies do you make with it? This is a seg-way...if I catch you on the Stilly this fall/winter..(rules) I have a couple flies I want to give to you to try....rainbow leech, star bright,and space creature....I didn't tie them...some professional foreign outfit did...but they are not always available around here...but they have had some great results. (remeber can't do the faces/texts)....smiles.