LEO Goldie
I'm so impressed with these new easy shrimp legs. Realistic and simple to wrap onto the hook. The legs are soft and move well in the water. My favorite color is the transparent dirt brown. It is a brilliant color that goes well with a sand color or pink like I have here. At the moment I fish this fly with a floating line, but that is mostly to do with it being wintertime and cold water. When the temperature rises during the spring I can for sure see myself fishing this pattern with an intermediate line.
This color has been working the best for me. I have been testing quite many colors, but this is the latest favorite. It looks very appealing to the eye as well so I'm pretty sure this will have a secure spot in my fly arsenal from here on. It's not the most advanced Leo shrimp you have seen, but isn't that the whole purpose of these legs and eyes? Why is it called goldie with almost no gold colored material in it? Well, both the shrimp legs in brown and the ice wing fiber in olive is very close to a golden color. I named it simply by looking at the finished fly that looks like a golden shrimp. It is a fun tie and don't be afraid to make it thick, from my experience the bulkier, the better it fishes.
Sorry for the ugly picture of my fingers, this is how the skin could look when fishing continuously during winter. I just had to show this picture of the fly that I captured exactly where it has been working the best. When the sun is standing low and there are big waves. It worked like magic fishing the foamed surface with a slow retrieve. Arm extending strikes!
Material list: Hook: Partridge attitude extra #2 Thread: Textreme power thread 50 den Dubbing: Ice wing fiber light olive, SLF prism fl pink, electric ripple ice fiber pink, ripple ice fiber gold Tail: Polar bear natural, bucktail fluorescent pink Flash: Ice wing fiber light olive and shell pink Legs: Easy Shrimp legs 2.0 transparent dirt brown Eyes: Easy shrimp eyes pink Ribbing: Nylon 0,20 mm Shrimp shell: Body Strech pink UV glue: Deer Creek Fine resin
1. I start with tying on a small piece of the dubbing blend. A coffee grinder does a great job of mixing the dubbing. Before blending them I have cut the longer fibers down much shorter fibers.
2. Some polar bear on top. It is a nice transparent material. Other options are to use white bucktail or foxtail.
3. Ice wing fiber is next. Cut the fibers in half, taper them and tie them in double folded.
4. Pink bucktail on top of that. This adds a strong fluorescent appearance to the fly. If I want more flash I can tie in a few strands of ripple ice fiber in shrimp pink here. As I said before, the bulkier, the better it fishes.
5. Tie on the easy shrimp legs on top of the hook. Wrap between the first two pair of legs and in front of the legs. The last legs are resting on top of the materials in the back.
6. Next is nylon ribbing and the eyes.
7. Dub on a thick but tapered body. I use to leave like a small wing of the dubbing between the eyes. This will look a lot better once the shell back is tied to its place.
8. Attach the body stretch as a shrimp back by tying it reverse. I cut it slightly pointed towards the front so that it has same width as the amount of dubbing along the whole body. Possibly add some last dubbing near the hook eye behind the body stretch before folding it over.
9. I do 4 turns with the ribbing. Tie it down and secure the nylon ribbing good since it is quite slippery. Brush the dubbing, paint the shell back with a yellow pen and cover the back with a thin layer of UV glue.
Here is another version of this fly. Revers tied and on a much longer hook. This fly often turned upside down and the hookups weren't great. It works so much better on the Attitude extra.
Edit:Samuel Blyth
