Mayer's Mini Leech

~By: Lance Dean | March 15, 2015

Page 46 of the Feather-Craft Fly Fishing 2015 bulletin catalog was the first time I laid eyes on Mayer’s Mini Leech. That was the night I decided that I needed to tie this fly. The only problem with this plan was that I did not know what was used to tie it. Was it rabbit or squirrel? What was the head made with? I figured I’d wait it out.  I thought that if I waited long enough Landon Mayer would share his recipe on some social network.  Then while at a Fly Shop I found a fly that I thought was Mayer’s fly. At that point I was so excited I bought the fly to compare it to the one in the Feather-Craft catalog. After taking the fly home and comparing it to the one in the catalog I discovered that to my disappointment this was not Mayer’s Micro Leech.  It was…”Close, but no cigar”. There were two differences between the two flies.  They both used squirrel hair but the underbodies were different (Mayer’s Micro Leech used Krystal Flash and the “Almost Cigar” fly was just bare shank) and the head of the look-alike fly was made with the same material as the body, which was squirrel hair from a strip twisted in a dubbing loop, Mayer’s Micro leech did not use squirrel for the head.  At the time I did not know what the mystery material used for the head of Mayer’s Micro Leech was.

Figuring out what this mystery material was began to eat at me.  I literally thought about this fly as I would go to sleep. I thought about messaging Landon Mayer on Facebook, but after looking at a sample of Landon Mayer’s new book through Google Books I realized that he talked about his new leech pattern in his new book – “101 Trout Tips: A guides Secrets, Tactics, and Techniques”.  I decided to buy 101 Trout Tips and discovered he put a tutorial of his leech in his book.

Now I had it, I found what this mystery material was.  Of all things it could have been, I found that what Landon Mayer used for the head of the Mayer’s Micro Leech was Ostrich herl.  I couldn’t believe it. How did I not think of this material. Perhaps the picture in the catalog made the fibers used for the head of Mayer’s Micro Leech look larger or maybe it was one of those instances where I over thought things. I don’t know.  All I knew at the time was that I finally found out what this material was.

Mayer's Micro Leech

The next evening I was finally able to sit and tie this cool fly. As a sat and tied a few of these up I noticed how simple of a tie Mayer’s Micro Leech is.  There is not much to it, just tie on the flash, then squirrel strip and a few wrap of ostrich herl. The hardest part of this fly was wrapping the herl on the fly and that wasn’t very hard.  The difficult part about it was trying to keep that last wrap of herl on the squirrel hide and hook. The herl has a tendency to slip off the hide during the last wrap.

On a side note, after reading through 101 Trout Tips, I have come to the conclusion that this book is filled with some great tips to try when fishing is tough or when you might be having some sort of fly fishing issue.  Landon does an excellent job sharing the tips that he has discovered, learned and found useful during his fishing adventures. The fact of the matter is that Landon did an awesome job putting this book together.

Thank You Landon for creating this awesome fly and for writing this insightful book.  To check out Landon Mayer's book go to amazon.com.  To check out Landon Mayer's site go to http://www.landonmayer.com.

So now that you have read about my experience tying Mayer’s Micro Leech, take some time and watch my video tutorial and then tie a few up.  Enjoy this tie and please remember to please follow fishbaitsflybox.com by clicking the “Join This Site” button in the top of the right hand column of the site. “Like” Fishbait’s Fly Box by clicking like at the top of the right hand column or by clicking here and then "Like" or "Follow" and subscribe to Fishbait’s Fly Box on YouTube by clicking HERE and then click subscribe.