Uni-mohair

[William Anderson]

WA, I would like to see that leech pattern you spoke about, while I haven't had any success with the leech pattern to date I would like to give it a whirl with the mohair. If you get a chance, post a pic of it, please and thank you.

Will do.

I hope your buddy comes through okay. Please give him our best.

w

[raven4ns]

Thanks, Bill, I will.

[raven4ns]

I tried the mohair on a size #14 Mustad 3906 and I found the thread a bit big on the hook. The next time I try it I'm going to use a 1x shank and see how that works.

[CM_Stewart]

Rather than tying a fly with just the UNI-Mohair yarn, you can pull a few strands from the yarn to add a hint of color to a dubbing blend. I think I recall reading that the original Tupps blend used red mohair rather than red seal fur. Having tried to recreate it once, I found that it doesn't take much red mohair at all to give you a pinkish tone to the fly when wet.

[Old Hat]

Yes, on the smaller flies that is the way to go. Or often, if you are after 100% mohair dubbing, you can get long enough strands worked off the yarn to tie in a pinch and then twist into a smaller diameter for wrapping. Mohair is very strong and with good quality you shouldn't have any breaking issues.

[raven4ns]

Thanks guys for the suggestions, I will give that a try as well. It doesn't seem as though they make mohair dubbing to any degree. After looking around for a bit, I only found a few colors of actual mohair dubbing. Maybe simply adding some mohair per your suggestion would be enough.

[William Anderson]

I wish I had these photographed sooner, but I finally got one in front of the camera. This is the micro leech I mentioned earlier. It's just plain black yarn (cheap) tied with a Pukeko tail and a couple strands of crystal flash on each side of the tail. This fly is a serious go to. Tim Didas turned me onto this and I'll admit it's the first streamer I've ever taken to. It doesn't cast at all like a streamer and fishes great just as I would fish any other wet fly. The difference is that it gets crushed and there is no subtle take to decipher.



w

[raven4ns]

Thanks, Bill, for the picture. What size is the hook you are using in the image? It looks a bit like a woolly bugger which I couldn't catch a trout with unless I had it strapped to a stick of dynamite. I'm going to do a few of these up to try. Oh, I found a place that has angora goat dubbing(mohair) at a good price,they have a wide selection of colors so I will be ordering in a bunch over the next day or so. Thanks again, bud, for the picture I appreciate you taking the time to do it.

[raven4ns]

I meant to put the addy for the place I saw the mohair at and forgot here it is.
https://catalog.theflyshop.com/index.php?cPath=337_442 ... now this will be the first time using this site but I will be ordering it shortly.

[William Anderson]

Tim, I must not be doing it right either having never caught anything on a wooly bugger. I'll confess, I've only tried a few times but you only have to strike out 3-4 times before you just don't try a pattern again. I know everyone else and their mom does very well with them.

This little leech is not at all like a wooly bugger, in my opinion. The body being lightly scrubbed out behaves quite differently and the silhouette of the body is very slender. This fly uses a very mobile pukeko feather but I also tie it with marabou, just a pinch. I'm not sure what size hook this is but the entire fly from the tip of the tail to the eye is about an inch long if that helps.

I hope it works for you. Don't give up on it if they are not interested with your initial trials. It kills, I swear by it. The nicest trout I took on the Madison this summer came on one of these.

w