For years, this has been a late winter/early spring staple on the trout streams. Tied sparsely and without brushing the long fibers out, it is a good generic stonefly nymph. I fish it in double nymph rigs and have had days where it out-fishes more precise patterns like a bead head Pheasant Tail nymph. Then there are the bluegill....
Ah, the bluegill. I still have not found a good bluegill lake or pond here in Colorado, but trust me I'm starting to look. Back home, early season bluegill were a great way to pass the time in between trips to trout waters. Last year, I caught some big ones, including this one.
Yes, you guessed it, this brute and many others were all caught on the Simi Seal Leech. It is my secret bluegill fly. Of course, bluegill will often eat just about anything, but this pattern seems to be particularly successful. Recently, I sent an order for a half dozen of my Ultra Wire Soft Hackles to Bill over at Fishing Through Life. I tossed in an extra bead head Simi Seal Leech to aid him in his quest to catch 100 big bull bluegill this spring. It worked great, so good in fact that I just sent him another dozen with some new color schemes.
The best thing about this pattern is that it is super fast to tie. I find myself caring less and less about a fly looking good and more and more about effectiveness and ease of tying. These flies just look buggy. If you are interested in trying this fly for yourself, you can purchase the material straight from the originator, John Rohmer. He has lots of other good materials that are also worth checking out. Personally, I use Black Simi Seal dubbing the most followed closely by Crystal although there are a LOT of other colors to check out. Try the dubbing on stonefly and other nymph patterns as well as for bodies on streamers.
I'm hoping to add some big stillwater trout to the list of fish I've caught on this pattern now that I live in Colorado. The float tube is ready for spring and it will be time to hit the mountain lakes before we know it!!!
