Ice Out Leech

As the days get longer and the cold snaps get shorter, our pulses begin to quicken.  It’s ice out time again.  Lakes often hold larger trout than streams and rivers do.  Whether you spend much time in stillwaters or not, it’s hard to pass up the spring time urge to tangle with some large hungry trout.  As the ice breaks up, oxygen pumps into the water and the shallows quickly warm a few degrees.  Fish metabolism quickly spikes along with their need to eat.

What are you going to give them?  Think about it.  Big hungry fish.  Little to no insect activity.  Did I say big hungry fish?  Give them something big enough to chew on.  Feed them a lake leech.

iceoutleech

What is a Lake Leech?  Logic would indicate that lake leeches are leeches living in the lakes.  There are leeches in most lakes.  While trout will certainly eat them, leeches are not very active in cold water.

For the angler, lake leeches are flies of the woolly bugger variety.  They can look like many things to the trout.  In the spring, they likely mimic minnows.  Later in the summer, leeches or even damsels.  The bottom line is that they must look like food, because they work.

You can fish your lake leeches several ways.  A floating line, long leader, slow strip retrieve is popular.  This is great when a lift, fall, jigging action is desired.  Fishing an intermediate or "hover" line is also a preferred set up.  These lines allow anglers more accurate depth control during the retrieve.

Another popular technique is to use an indicator to suspend the fly at a specific depth.  This works great for picking up fish that are frequently cruising at a consistent level.  While your lake leech will work under an indicator, if you really want to be in the game, you want a balanced lake leech.

If you want to find out how to balance your leech, check out this video.

Stop on by if you’d like to pick up some of our lake leeches. If you’d like to pick up the materials to tie your own, we’ve got the good stuff.