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Leech (Hirudinea)
Other, in the drift all year, active in water between 35 and 75°F, and imitated at #2–10. Recorded from the Virginia mountains, where 796 Virginia rivers on this site carry a page.
- #2–10Hook size
- 35–75°FWater, active
- all yearAvailable
- 1Life stage fished
What it is
Other · Hirudinea · adult
A flattened, ribbon-like worm, black, brown or olive, that swims by undulating its whole body in a vertical wave. Longer and far more mobile than an aquatic worm.
Present all year in soft-bottomed and weedy water, and active at low light. The undulating swim is the whole pattern; a leech fished with no motion is a piece of chenille.
When it hatches
In the water twelve months a year, which is why the panel in the app ranks it below anything with a season.
peak shoulder not recommended
Water conditions
The band is a water temperature, not an air temperature, and it is the range in which this insect is worth fishing — for a mayfly that is the emergence window; for a scud or a midge it is simply the range trout will still eat one in.
Active from 35°F to 75°F. On this map that is cold, cold-transitional, cool, warm water — the band crosses 3 of the three breaks the river colours use. Breaks at 58, 64 and 70°F.
Stages
What the insect is doing, and what that means for what you tie on.
| Stage | What it is |
|---|---|
| adult | Present all year in soft-bottomed and weedy water, most active at low light. The swimming motion is the entire pattern; a leech fished dead is a strip of marabou and is treated as one. |
Matching flies
4 patterns in this book imitate the Leech, across its stages. Which one to tie on follows the stage the water temperature says it is in — the app makes that call on a live reading; this page lists the whole set.
- Balanced Leech streamer · #8–14 — Marabou on a jig hook pinned to sit level. Suspended and twitched, or swung slow through soft water.
- Woolly Bugger (Black) streamer · #2–12 — If you could only own one fly. Leech, sculpin, big nymph, all of it.
- Woolly Bugger (Brown) streamer · #2–12 — Brown with a bit of copper reads as a crayfish. Hop it along the bottom.
- Woolly Bugger (Olive) streamer · #2–12 — The clear-water version. Smaller and lighter than you think you need.
Where to find it right now
The rivers with a page here that sit in this insect's regions, with a USGS gauge reporting water temperature. This list is re-ranked against the reading each gauge is sending now and today's date, so it is live — the fallback below it, if the readings do not arrive, is each river's measured July mean.
- Camp Branch the Virginia mountains · July mean 56.0°F
- Smith River the Virginia mountains · July mean 51.9°F
- Cascades Creek the Virginia mountains · July mean 59.2°F
- Left Prong Wilson Creek the Virginia mountains · July mean 59.2°F
- Lick Block Run the Virginia mountains · July mean 59.2°F
- Back Creek the Virginia mountains · July mean 49.9°F
- Big Cherry Creek the Virginia mountains · July mean 49.9°F
- Big Ivy Creek the Virginia mountains · July mean 49.9°F
- Boothe Creek the Virginia mountains · July mean 49.9°F
- Brogan Branch the Virginia mountains · July mean 49.9°F
Regional presence
Regions, not collection records. This insect is recorded from the coarse regions below; nobody has surveyed which named river it has been caught on, and this page will not pretend otherwise.
- northern lower Michigan MI
- southern lower Michigan MI
- the Upper Peninsula MI
- the Wisconsin driftless WI
- northern Wisconsin WI
- the Virginia mountains VA
- the North Carolina mountains NC
Rivers in these regions with a page here
- Jackson River
- Smith River
- Als Run
- Alum Creek
- Amos Branch
- Anderson Run
- Ararat River
- Auberry Creek
- Back Creek
- Back Creek
- Back Fork
- Back Run
- Baker Branch
- Baldwin Branch
- Baldwin Branch
- Barbours Creek
- Bark Camp Branch
- Bark Camp Branch
- Barkcamp Branch
- Barnard Creek
- Barney Run
- Barterbrook Branch
- Batie Creek
- Battery Creek
- and 772 more
Related hatches
Same family, or overlapping this one's calendar on the same water.
- Cranefly Tipula spp. · Other · April–June and September–October
- Water Boatman Corixidae · Other · September–November
- Fish Eggs Other · Other · October–January and April
- Alderfly Sialis spp. · Other · May–June
- Aquatic Worm Oligochaeta · Other · all year