Tying A Simplified Zonker Leech

Leeches are great streamers to have in your box. When fished on bass beds or near shelter they can get a ton of strikes and have incredible action. Leeches are highly effective for bass and crappie on beds or around brush but can also catch plenty of trout and even pike. This fly is about as simple as it gets when it comes to leeches. It is loosely based on the creek leech but is a pretty generic leech pattern.

Materials needed:
Olive zonker strip
Rubber legs
Tan dubbing
Streamer hook
Dumbell eyes
Olive thread

Step 1. Bring the thread a short distance back from the hook eye. You will need enough space to tie in a pair of dumbell eyes with some room to spare for the zonker strip later on.

Step 2. Tie in your dumbell eyes using x-wraps. The dumbell eyes on this pattern help it sink down in the water column more quickly and also provide a bit of jigging action on the water. Once you have a fair amount of thread on the eyes you can apply a small drop of adhesive and lay down some more thread on top of it.
Step 3. Tie in 2 rubber legs by v-tying and double them over on themselves. This helps give the fly a little extra action in the water.
Step 4. Use a dubbing loop to form the body of this fly. This establishes the color scheme of this fly and helps build the profile of the fly. Put a small amount of dubbing over the dumbell eyes to cover your tracks from when you tied them in.
Step 5. Tie in a zonker strip in front of the dumbell eyes on the bottom of the hook and whip finish. Your completed fly should look something like this.
This fly rides hook point up which keeps it out of the way of snags that could take your fly. Having the hook point up also helps with strip sets.


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