Bunny Leech
Description
The Bunny Leech imitates a swimming leech, sculpin, or small dark baitfish with the pulse of rabbit fur doing most of the work. Fish it for Pacific salmon and steelhead in fall rivers, tidewater edges, and travel lanes where a broad, slow-moving profile shows well in stained or broken water. The tying is straightforward, but good material control matters because rabbit strips can bulk up quickly.
Materials
- hook: 3X Long Streamer Hook
- thread: Black, 6/0 Thread.
- body: Black Crosscut Rabbit Strip
- tail: Black Rabbit Zonker Strip
Tying Instructions
- 1.
Secure the hook in the vise and start the black thread two eye lengths behind the eye.
- 2.
Wrap a smooth thread base back to the bend, keeping firm tension so the rabbit strip will not roll.
- 3.
Measure a black rabbit zonker tail about one hook shank long beyond the bend.
- 4.
Tie in the zonker strip hide-side down at the bend with several tight wraps through the hide.
- 5.
Advance the thread forward to two eye lengths behind the eye.
- 6.
Tie in the tip of a black crosscut rabbit strip at the bend with the fur angled rearward.
- 7.
Palmer the crosscut rabbit strip forward in close touching turns, stroking the fibers back after each wrap.
- 8.
Tie off the rabbit strip two eye lengths behind the eye and trim the excess hide cleanly.
- 9.
Sweep the body fibers rearward and build a neat thread collar in front of the rabbit.
- 10.
Whip finish and apply head cement.