The Egg Sucking Leech or ESL

The Egg Sucking Leech, also known as the ESL is probably one of the most popular steelhead flies. Simple and quick to tie, it can be fished on a fly line or beneath a float. It is usually tied all black but I find other colors work well at times.

I'll introduce a new technique with this fly called "palmering". Simply, palmering a feather is to wind it around the hook shank.

Here's the ESL.

Materials

• Hook - Streamer Size 4 to 12
• Thread - 6/0 Uni thread
• Chenille - Black and Florescent
• Hackle - black
• Marabou - black

1. Start by prepping the hook, always do this for every fly. Wind thread from the eye back to the point directly above the hook point. This will give the materials some grip when they are tied to the hook.

2. This fly is a dredger, that is, it's a sinking fly. I like to give the hook shank 10-12 wraps of lead wire to make it sink fast. This is optional for this fly but since I'm fishing it on a fly line I want it down quick. No need for split shot here. Note the gap between the hook eye and the start of the lead wire. Always leave yourself some space ahead of the wire.

3. Tie in a piece of marabou for a tail. I like to strip the marabou from the quill to get a nice fluffy piece with lots of action. The length of the tail is personal taste, I like to tie mine with the tail length equal to the length of the hook.

4. Now select a nice webby hackle and tie it in butt first. Things will look neater of you strip a small bit of the hackle and leave a little stump. Tie in the stump.

5. Ahead of the hackle tie in a length of chenille. Again, if you pinch and strip a little bit of the chenille leaving the core, it will be neater and easier to tie in.

6. Wind the thread forward to the end of the lead wire and then carefully wind the chenille forward making touching turns each time around. Don't overlap the chenille and don't leave gaps between the winds. When you reach the front of the lead wire tie off the chenille and trim it off.

7. Grasp the tip of the hackle feather and wind it forward trying to keep the spacing between the winds even. This is called palmering a hackle. Tie off the hackle at the front and trim.

8. Select a florescent piece of chenille, strip off a bit of the tip and tie it in. Note the space between the hook eye and the chenille.

9. Make a few winds of the florescent chenille to for an egg shape, I try and keep the diameter equal to the diameter of the fly body but again, this is a personal taste thing. Try not to over do it. Tie down the chenille and trim it off.

10. Apply a whip finish and a drop of head cement.

11. The finished Egg Sucking Leech