Step by Step for the Red Lightning Leech

[scudman]

Its a pattern I made up, works just AWESOME!!!! It slims right down once in the water.

Materials:
Hook-Mustad C53S size 6-12
Thread-Black 8/0
Tail- Black Marabou with 2 pieces of Red Crystal Flash
Rib-Small Red Wire
Body-Black Ostrich herl
Collar- Black/Red Angel Hair
Bead-Red Glass Bead




Step 1-Slide the bead on until it reaches the eye of the hook


Step 2-Tie on your thread starting from just behind the bead and wrap until its hanging by the point of the hook


Step 3- Pick out a nice fluffy piece of marabou which you will be using for your tail

Step 4- Tie the tail in. The tail should roughly be the length of the hook shank

Step 5- Trim the waste end of the marabou

Step 6- Take one piece of crystal flash and fold it in half around your thread.

Step 7- Tie in your crystal flash so you have one piece on each side of the tail.

Step 8- Wrap your thread forward and tie in your wire just behind the bead

Step 9- Tie your wire down the length of the hook shank until you reach the tail

[scudman]

Step 10- Take your ostrich herl and pluck 4 pieces from it. You will be using the 4 pieces for your body

Tie in your ostrich herl

Wrap your thread up the shank until you reach your bead

Wrap your ostrich herl up the shank of the hook and end right against the bead and tie off

Wrap your wire up the shank and end right behind the bead, make nice even wraps and do not space them to far apart

Tie off your wire and cut the excess left.

Make a few wraps to make sure everything is secure

Take your angel hair and cut a a very small tuft of it

Tie in your angel hair directly behind the bead and make sure its lined up along the back of the fly

Take the excess angel hair that was sticking out the front and divide it evenly in half. The proceed to bring the divided halves down each side of the hook.

[scudman]

Tie the angel hair down so it makes a collar and is secure

Take a razor blade or scissors and trim the angel hair so it is no longer then the tail. I use a razor blade and slowly work my way up and down the angel hair so it is uneven

Comb out all angel hair that has been trimmed

Whip Finish

Here is The Red Lightning & Green Goblin

[scudman]

I wrote this for a website that featured this fly on its homepage.

This is how the Red Lightning was created.

It was a hot summer day in Late July, we were on Hush Lake which is approximately 24 kilometers North of Quesnel B.C.. Hush Lake is what you would call a "pothole" lake. It is quite small but is fairly deep for its size. I was drifting in my pontoon boat letting the short gusts of wind move me around. There were no hatches, no fish rising and not a single bite in 5 hours. Just trying to keep cool was a challenge but I was determined to catch one of the many brook trout in the lake. I was throwing every pattern possible at them and couldn't even get a nibble, that is until I tied on a scraggly old leach pattern I had. It was pretty skimpy and beat up but I had already thrown everything else in my box at the fish so I figured "what the heck ill try it". First cast I let it sink and then started a nice slow retrieve and then I yelled to my fishing partner "FISH ON". I reeled in a nice 3 pound Brook trout which is a nice size for such a small lake. After a few more casts I hooked another, then another and that is how the day went until I lost the fly. I tied on another leach as I figured that is what they were keying in on. The fishing seemed to have died and I was back to square one. I reeled in took a look at my fly, it was the same color but alot more bulk to it. So I started plucking material off of it and made it look like the pattern that started catching the fish. First cast and it began, one fish after another. That was the last pattern that I had in my flybox with the same color and characteristics as the beat up leach that the fish were taking so aggressively. I packed it in and headed back to town, once I arrived home I went right to the tying desk and let my mind go to work. I kept in mind that the fish were only hitting slim leech patterns but would not touch the bulky pattern. It also had to be black and red. After roughly 2 hours of experimenting I came up with the Red Lightning. I used Angel hair as it gave you that certain little flash you wanted, yet was not excessive. It moved nicely in the water and gave the fly the nice slim profile I was after. I made sure the fly was all red and black like the previous scraggly pattern that caught me all my fish in Hush Lake that day. I put on the red bead as I thought it matched the fly perfectly. I went back to Hush Lake again the next day and I could not keep the fish off the Red Lightning. I came up with the name because when the sun hit the angel hair it would look like little flashes of red lightning. Since the creation of the fly it has been one of my favorite leech patterns to fish. It has brought me alot of success on the days where there were no hatches and fishing was slow. I found the best way to fish it is with floating line and retrieve it over weed beds and shoals. Another way to fish it which brought me much success is to fish the deeper parts of lakes and let it sink to the bottom and retrieve it slowly. The Red Lightning is a fairly simple yet very effective pattern which I hope will bring you the success it has brought me.

[densa44]

There was a time in fly fishing that innovation was frowned upon if not out right discouraged, then came Mr. Woulff and everything has changed for the better.

Keep up the new patterns, new materials and new techniques, it will attract more fishermen/women and since we pretty much put back what we catch it won't hurt the sport.

Has any one tried those coloured glue (fake eggs)?

[scudman]

Originally Posted by densa44

There was a time in fly fishing that innovation was frowned upon if not out right discouraged, then came Mr. Woulff and everything has changed for the better.

Keep up the new patterns, new materials and new techniques, it will attract more fishermen/women and since we pretty much put back what we catch it won't hurt the sport.

Has any one tried those coloured glue (fake eggs)?

Thanks!

I have tried them but I honestly have way more luck with my yarn egg..ill post a step by step for it later.