Pre Hatch Six Pack | Six Essential Still Water Ice Off Fly Patterns

Pre Hatch Six Pack | Six Essential Ice Off Fly Patterns

– Pre Hatch Six Pack –
Six Essential Still Water Ice Off Fly Patterns

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The Squirly Leech

If you’re thinking ice off patterns, then you need to be thinking about micro leeches! And if you’re thinking about Micro Leeches, then you really need to consider whipping up some Squirly UV Leeches!

The Squirly UV Micro Leech is our second spin on the original ‘Glen’s Leech’. The first variation was our KGB Leech, which was a basically a body material update to eliminate the original fragile marabou body and to substitute the weight from lead wrap to bead head. We fished the KGB leech almost religiously, and very successfully, for the better part of a decade and then, for whatever reason, probably because newer materials & curiosity drove new patterns to experiment with, it kinda fell off the radar for a while. The Squirly UV takes things to the next level with the inclusion of the recent UV straggle phenomenon and the downsizing of the tail from Rabbit strip to Micro Pine Squirrel strip. The bead is gone, the lead is back , the testing is complete and this little bugger is a weedless fish magnet!

This particular Squirly UV Leech is featured in black but other colours to consider are Maroon (wine), Olive, Brown, Red and Clarret (Purple). A size #10 scud hook seems to be the perfect size for most of our Interior still water lakes but we also tie it up to #8 and as small as #12. Over all length for the standard #10 should be approximately 1.5″.
Fish the Squirly UV Leech either suspended just off the bottom under an indicator with a floating line, or cast and retrieve with a slow sinker. When retrieving, play with your depth until you are as close to the bottom as you can be without rooting out the local vegetation. As mentioned, the Squirly UV’s upside down propensity makes it almost weedless so don’t be scared to bounce it off and through the odd bit of foliage. In fact, you may find that doing so increases your hook up rate as the stir up often triggers trout to investigate and strike!

OK enough said, here’s how to tie the Squirly UV Leech …….