5 Tips for Fishing Leeches in Stillwaters

Five tips for increasing your stillwater fly fishing success by tapping into the love that trout have for devouring leeches!

Leeches are gross... they swim around the lake in an undulating motion and they have the ability to latch onto your skin and suck your blood like a vampire. But did you know that leeches play a key role in the diet of trout in stillwaters? Leech imitations can take fish at just about any time of day or year, and they're a favourite searching pattern for new lakes.

The following are five ways to increase your success fishing leeches in stillwaters.

Harness the power of the strike indicator

Also known as a bobber (favoured term), indicators are very powerful when it comes to fishing leeches in stillwaters as they allow us to indefinitely suspend our offerings within the trout's window of vision. Casting and retrieving undoubtedly has its time and place (including times when it will out-fish suspended imitations), but using a strike indicator to suspend your offering allows you to ultimately play the game of percentages by showing your offering to fish over an extended period of time, without worrying about hooking bottom.

Base the speed of your retrieve on the temperature of the water

Fishing leeches in lakes is highly productive, but there is not one 'secret' pattern that's going to catch exponentially more fish than anything else. Rather, it is how the fly is fished that's important, specifically the fly's retrieval speed and motion. The metabolic rate of trout drops substantially in very cold water, therefore a fairly catatonic approach is going to fool even the most lethargic of fish.

As the season progresses and we are seeing fish move and feed with a bit more authority, a faster retrieval speed can start turning more fish on. I am a huge fan of fishing leeches 'low and slow' in the colder periods of the season (early spring and late fall), reverting back to tip #1 and using a strike indicator to do so.

Fish leeches directly after a chironomid hatch

It is no secret that trout love to gorge themselves on a huge feast of chironomids when the opportunity presents itself. However, after the chironomids frenzy begins to taper down, they will often revert to eating a few small leeches to help them cap down their food. Aiding with digestion, you'll find fish patrolling weed beds, mud flats, ledges and drop-offs in search of leeches, and can ultimate capitalize on this afternoon feeding window by switching over to a leech imitation. 

Small fly, big fish

It is easy to fall under the illusion that bigger flies are the answer to catching more or bigger fish. Logically, it would make sense that a large meal would be preferable for larger fish (and there are definitely instances in which this rings true), but do not overlook the power of fishing small leech imitations. Don't be afraid to scale down to size 12, 14 or even 16 leech imitations, especially when targeting fish in lakes that receive a lot of angler traffic. 

Base the amount of flash off of the water clarity

Larger, flashier imitations can fish exceptionally well under the right conditions. On the same note, so can small, drab presentations with little to no flash in the body or tail. How do we decide this? When fishing tannic or tea-stained lakes with very dark bottoms, it does not hurt to fish flies that have a bit more flash built into the tail or body of the fly. 

On the flip side, I love fishing small leech patterns (such as Brian Chan's B.M.W) in clear, alkaline lakes in which fish have a massive window of vision. They don't need a lot of flash or sparkle to draw them in from a great distance, and often very subtle and non-obtrusive patterns will outperform almost anything else in clear water. 

BONUS: Fishing "Hot Spot" patterns

Leech patterns with hot orange, pink, or chartreuse beads or cones at the front of the fly can often fish exceptionally well in dark or off-coloured water. These 'hot spots' have the capability to draw fish towards your fly from a long distance, especially in situations or waterbodies in which their window of vision is not as great as clear water lakes. So often, my day has been saved by fishing a hot spot leech pattern in shallow water.

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Enjoy today's podcast episode!