Wow! Tough questions! Mainly because those are all personal preference issues. These are my preferences:
I prefer "articulated leeches" to string leeches because of reduced tangling issues. Rear hooks I use either 4 or 6 tiemco 9394 or mustad 3411, both are long shank hooks. They sound small, but they work, and they are easy on the fish. Most folks use a black standard steelhead hook. For the front I'll use the same hook again. For joining the two, I usually use nylon coated braided wire, but I know tons of folks who use 30 lb backing and have never had a failure. Just make sure you don't have a sharp edge where you cut the front hook off. I tie them two ways, heavy eyes or cone tied at the front (the heaviest you can realistically cast, considering you'll be using a 3 to 6 foot leader), or no weight at all. If I had to choose one of the two, I'd go with the unweighted. It's more flexible With an articulated leech I generally allow just enough space between the hooks to allow for free swinging, so somewhere around 1/4 inch, this'll give you a 4 inch or so fly, depending on the hook you are using (3411 hooks are LONG). If you have to go longer than 4 inches, it's time to start looking at multiple tube flies! Winter colors for steelhead leeches? For me that usually means black, purple, chartreuse fronted with black, or red. Lots of folks use pinks, fluorescent white, yellows, oranges. The practical side of my brain says that when you are fishing for winter steelhead you are basically imitating shrimp, squid, sculpin and other small fish, roe, or "flesh", so pick your colors accordingly. That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it Phil ----- Original Message ----- From: Don Johnson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, November 09, 2002 3:24 PM Subject: string leeches > Does anybody fish string leeches for steelhead and if > so, can I pry the answers to the following questions, > please? > > What size hooks (front and rear) do you use for winter > fishing? > > How heavily weighted are the flies and are they > wieghtd front and rear or only in the front? > > What is the distance from the leading shank to the > stinger hook or what is the total length of the fly? > > What are the most popular colors for winter fish? > > Thanks, in advance, for the answers. > > Regards, > Don Johnson > > ===== > "Skues me while I sink the fly." > > http://www.geocities.com/salmn8r/caddisforkids.html > > __________________________________________________ > Do you Yahoo!? > U2 on LAUNCH - Exclusive greatest hits videos > http://launch.yahoo.com/u2
