Mayer's Mini Leech Jig: The Small Dead-Drift Leech That Out-Catches Streamers

I fished leeches wrong on the South Platte for years, and I had plenty of company. We tie on big articulated streamers, swing them through pools, strip them like we’re mad at the river, and then stand there wondering why nothing happens. Landon Mayer figured out the move that actually works on these tailwaters: small leeches, dead-drift, jig-style. Same depth as a Pheasant Tail. Same speed as a midge pupa. Eaten like both.

The Mini Leech Jig is what he built for it. Pine squirrel zonker strip wrapped over a slotted tungsten bead on a jig hook, with an ostrich herl collar that pulses on the drift. The whole fly is two inches at most — closer to “natural leech size” than the four-inch articulated patterns most streamer anglers reach for. South Platte leeches are small. The fly should match.

Mayer is a Colorado-based guide and Umpqua Signature Tyer with deep roots on South Park tailwaters. He designed this specifically for fish that have seen the swing presentation enough times to ignore it — the kind of educated trout that makes you question every life choice that led you to that run. Dead-drift solves that problem.

The Recipe

The pine squirrel micro-strip is the entire fly. Don’t substitute rabbit zonker (too bulky, too much absorption) or marabou (different action profile entirely). Pine squirrel is finer, faster-draining, and creates the right small-leech silhouette.

Hook: Umpqua Barbless Jig U203 or Hanak H400BL, sizes #12–16 (South Platte: #14–16)
Bead: Slotted tungsten, gold or black, 2.8–3.3mm for size 14
Weight: Lead wire, fine gauge, 5–6 turns optional under bead
Thread: UTC 70 Denier or Veevus 10/0, matching body color
Tail: Pine squirrel micro-strip, hook gap length — sculpin olive, rust, or black
Body: Pine squirrel micro-strip, wrapped tight from hook bend to bead
Collar: Ostrich herl, 2–3 wraps behind bead — same color or contrasting (black on olive)

The colors that matter on the South Platte: sculpin olive for general use year-round, rust for fall and pre-spawn brown windows, black for low-light and winter. If you carry one color, olive. If you carry two, add rust.

Keep the body slim. Wrap the pine squirrel tight enough that the strip lies flat — overdressed wraps create a fly that’s too bulky to dead-drift naturally. The collar should be sparse: two turns of ostrich herl is enough to create movement without adding bulk.

When It Matters on the South Platte

Deckers during the October–November pre-spawn aggression window. The lower stretch below the bridge has the structure and depth where a dead-drifted Mini Leech draws strikes that midges and small nymphs miss entirely. Fish it through deep seams along bank structure when standard nymph rigs aren’t producing. Sculpin olive size 14 is the workhorse here.

Dream Stream is where the Mini Leech earns its strongest reputation. Pre-spawn brown trout in October and November run up out of Eleven Mile Reservoir into the Dream Stream corridor — and they eat leeches. Dead-drift a sculpin olive size 14 through the deeper seams between weed beds, and you’ll get takes from fish that won’t look at a standard nymph. Spring brings the post-spawn rainbow window in March and April, when the same presentation produces.

Cheesman Canyon in the deep slow pools and seams below pocket water. The Mini Leech holds depth and dead-drifts naturally where standard leech presentations get caught up in the canyon’s rocky structure. Fall and winter are prime windows — sculpin olive or rust, sized 14–16, through the deepest holding water in the canyon’s major pools.

How to Fish It

Dead-drift. This is the entire point of the pattern. Lead fly in a two-nymph rig, with a smaller midge pupa, RS2, or Zebra Midge trailing 18–22 inches behind on a tag. Fish it exactly like you’d fish a Pheasant Tail or a Frenchie — through holding seams, along bank structure, in the deeper transitional water between fast runs and slow pools.

Indicator rig works on Deckers and Dream Stream. Euro setup works in Cheesman pocket water and deeper canyon pools. Both presentations get the same job done.

Tippet: 4X or 5X fluorocarbon. The Mini Leech isn’t a midge — heavy tippet doesn’t spook fish on this fly the way it does on a size 22 emerger. Stay on 4X when targeting larger pre-spawn browns; drop to 5X when fish are pressured and inspection-close in low water.

The jig hook matters. Point-up orientation through rocky substrate means fewer snags, more drift time, more fish. On Cheesman’s canyon structure that’s the difference between a productive run and a frustrating one.

Set on anything that doesn’t look like a clean drift. Leech takes can be subtle — fish eat them and hold, the way they eat a nymph. Aggressive grabs do happen, especially on pre-spawn browns, but assume every hesitation is a take and react to it.

The Mini Leech doesn’t replace a streamer rig — it solves a different problem. When fish refuse the swing because they’ve seen too many of them, this fly puts a leech profile in front of them in a presentation they haven’t seen. That’s worth a permanent spot in the box. Tie up a few in olive, fish them dead-drift, and you can join me in quietly retiring the four-inch articulated streamers you spent good money on. They’ll keep. The fish won’t argue.

Want more patterns that earn a spot in the box? Start with the South Platte fly box guide.