# No Leeches



## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Warm water and cold water fish love leeches. Much of the USA has them for sale. 

Does anyone know why they don't sell them out west? Or do they?


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## Grandpa D (Sep 7, 2007)

A great alternitive to live leaches are flies that are tied in leach patterns.
Leaches and woolly buggers can be fished with a water bubble and will castch fish!
Some people think that flies have to be fished with a fly rod only.
Not true! give a leach or other streamer pattern a try on your spinning outfit.

The new hot pattern is the Pistol Pete.
It's a streamer fly pattern with a smal propeller blade attached at the eye of the hook.
They are deadly for trout in community ponds.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Grandpa D said:


> A great alternitive to live leaches are flies that are tied in leach patterns.
> Leaches and woolly buggers can be fished with a water bubble and will castch fish!
> Some people think that flies have to be fished with a fly rod only.
> Not true! give a leach or other streamer pattern a try on your spinning outfit.
> ...


Yes, good point(s) Grampa D. But it seems odd there are nightcrawlers for sale, but not leeches. I wonder if they are illegal in Utah. Wyoming has them out east around the walleye lakes.

I used the Pistol Pete in Illinois in the mid-60s. I see it for sale out here now.

Arctic Grayling like it drug on the bottom, here in Wyoming.


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## Packfish (Oct 30, 2007)

You know I have never seen them forsale out here- sure were good walleye bait in the Mid West and Canada.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Man we used to get those giants, stretch out to about 6" long. They would pull our bobbers all over the lake. Kinda cool.


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## Pez Gallo (Dec 27, 2007)

I have seen leeches for sale, but they are dead ones in vaccum packs. Berkley makes some gulp leeches that work really well. You might want to check them out.


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## Lakecitypirate (Mar 4, 2008)

Zonkers Dude are the way to go. They are a fly that can be fished with a bubble and somewhat resemble one. Zonker man, in white, black or natural. I have been scared of leeches since Stand by Me


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## Packfish (Oct 30, 2007)

Some of those leeches that swam by the boat in Michigan were big enough to use a frog gig on.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Packfish said:


> Some of those leeches that swam by the boat in Michigan were big enough to use a frog gig on.


I hear that.......wow, haven't heard the term "frog pin" for awhile.

Throughout the 70s I went to northwest Ontario Canada every spring to bear hunt and fish.....fish mostly. There was this little hidden bay off the main lake called Turtle Pond. The leeches there were huge, as were the smallmouth bass. Most of the bigger bass were caught on black Mister Twisters. The smallmouth's stomachs were full of these big black leeches. Many of the bass were over 5 pounds, some well over 6!

One afternoon me and another guy skipped the evening bear hunt, caught some leeches, and went bait fishing for the big bass that were cruising the shore. You couldn't buy a bite, the smallies would race up to the leech as it swam around but would not bite. So we went back to the Mister Twisters and caught fish. The fish we kept and cleaned that day were full of leeches!

Made no sense.


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## Chaser (Sep 28, 2007)

I know there are tons of leeches in many of the lakes around here, so if we can't buy them, does anyone know how to catch them? Is there some sort of a trap that can be made?


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

ChaserOfAllBirds said:


> I know there are tons of leeches in many of the lakes around here, so if we can't buy them, does anyone know how to catch them? Is there some sort of a trap that can be made?


Take a 1 lb coffee can and knock holes in it with a screwdriver. Lay a piece of beef liver or kidney in the can. Weight the can down with a rock. Put the lid back on and leave the trap in a "leechy" area overnight. Make sure to tie the can to something to keep the ***** and mink from screwing with it.

Next day, hold meat with leeches over bucket. Spray leeches with some salty water......most will fall off into bucket.

I quit leech trapping, and bowling, in 1985...........odd that's the year I quit drinking. :wink:


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## Packfish (Oct 30, 2007)

ChaserOfAllBirds said:


> I know there are tons of leeches in many of the lakes around here, so if we can't buy them, does anyone know how to catch them? Is there some sort of a trap that can be made?


 Float tube with no waders- as a kid when we hunted crayfish in bare feet - they would latch on between your toes-we would have to put a match or cigar on them to make them let go. Should have thought about the salt water spray but a cigar made you feel tough.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Packfish said:


> ChaserOfAllBirds said:
> 
> 
> > I know there are tons of leeches in many of the lakes around here, so if we can't buy them, does anyone know how to catch them? Is there some sort of a trap that can be made?
> ...


Cool, a cigar.

Most leeches love dead skin on clean animals, few suck blood.


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## The Naturalist (Oct 13, 2007)

wyogoob said:


> Most leeches love dead skin on clean animals, few suck blood.


Absolutely correct! There are 10 species of leech in Utah and only one is a blood sucker. (Not counting certain state legislators :lol: ). However, all have the ability to latch onto you, so , many people think they are all trying to get some blood.
Simply pulling them off works fine - they are not like a tick that burrow their head under the skin.


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## .45 (Sep 21, 2007)

Leeches are icky !!


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## Packfish (Oct 30, 2007)

If you yanked a leech off in the midwest- you would bleed- from personal experience I know.


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## REPETER (Oct 3, 2007)

If anyone finds any, be sure to let us know. I am curious as to the regs as well? I imagine if you catch some you would be able to use them live in the waters you caught them at, but I can never really understand all the legal mumbojumbo of the procs?


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## Longgun (Sep 7, 2007)

http://wildlife.utah.gov/guidebooks/2009_fishing/

pages 8/9... no mention of leeches but crayfish is alright as long as its from the same waters as you mention REPETER. i dont suppose it would be taboo to use a leech but...you nevr know with some of these co's.


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## ScottyP (Sep 12, 2007)

There are plenty of leeches in the provo river. Pull a rotten log or piece of drift wood out of the water and you can collect plenty of them.


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## Chaser (Sep 28, 2007)

Many of the high mountain lakes in the Uintah's or the Boulders are infested with them as well. A black maribou jig can be a great way to catch those brookies down on Boulder, as it imitates part of their food source. Funny thing, white jigs are good too. I haven't seen too many white leeches though!


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## Crawdads Revenge (May 31, 2008)

The Naturalist said:


> wyogoob said:
> 
> 
> > Most leeches love dead skin on clean animals, few suck blood.
> ...


Wow, I guess I'm lucky never to have run into one. I really thought there weren't any in Utah.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Most of the leeches here in the Bear River Drainage are mottled, black and green, much like some sculpins.


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## Leaky (Sep 11, 2007)

wyogoob 
Amy particular area of the Bear? Would like to harvest some if it isn't to difficult and is reasonably close.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Leaky said:


> wyogoob
> Amy particular area of the Bear? Would like to harvest some if it isn't to difficult and is reasonably close.


Below Woodruff Narrows Dam in the river.

Below Sulphur Creek Reservoir in Sulphur Creek

There's some big mottled leeches out at Guild's Piedmont Reservoir along with 15 lb rainbows. $175 for 1/2 day of fishing!!!!!


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

I have a good leech story:

Every Spring for years I went to Ontario bear hunting/fishing. We used boats followed by canoes, to get to our bear stands. There was a little pond off Lake Wabigoon** (yes, Wabigoon, I'm not making it up) called Turtle Pond. You had to portage a canoe into it. The little pond, bay really, was a spawing bed for huge smallmouth, 5 to 7 lbs! The little bay also had tons of big black leeches. They would stretch out 6, 7 inches when swimming. When we gutted our smallies, their stomachs were full of these leeches.

So naturally we caught those leeches and used them for bait. Those bad boys would swim around Turtle Pond with a hook through them dragging a bobber (strike indicator) all over the place. Geeze, the big ole smallies would come out of nowhere towards the leeches but stop short, seldom, if ever, taking the bait. Once in awhile they would inhale the bobber (ah...red and white strike indicator).

Oddly, if you put on a black Mister Twister you would catch a smallmouth on about every other cast.

My buddy and I would make sure we were the last guys to the bear stands. That way if we got bored or the black flies were awlful we would bug out and go smallmouth fishing in Turtle Pond.

I haven't been to Turtle Pond for 27 years, but it's been on my mind. My buddy passed away a couple weeks ago.





Wabigoon = A Cree Indian term, roughly interpreted as: "There ain't no bear in this valley".


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## REPETER (Oct 3, 2007)

Sorry to hear about your friend goob...sounds like a fun place to spend an afternoon chasing smallies. Wonder why they wouldn't hit the live bait?


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## Bhilly81 (Oct 18, 2009)

we will use leeches instead of worms or anything else for that matter when we go backpacking into the uintas as we are fishing with flys on the spin rod we would just watch the water in front of us and we can see them swimming around and we would just grab them with the forceps and slide them on a hook although its hard to hook them at times we would do really well using the leeches instead of a fly


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## Tony (Dec 28, 2007)

I think the only 'live bait' you can fish in utah is a nightcralwer. thats probably why you don't see them for sale. everywhere else i've been, there's always an aquarium full of leeches for sale...


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Tony said:


> I think the only 'live bait' you can fish in utah is a nightcralwer. thats probably why you don't see them for sale. everywhere else i've been, there's always an aquarium full of leeches for sale...


Yeah, good point. Wyoming has some live bait areas, but bait leeches are tough to find.

The *Dirty Jobs* TV show had a segment on leech harvesting in Minnesota. It was pretty cool. They used a flat trap, like an envelope, whereas I used a coffe can.


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## dagda (Mar 13, 2012)

I asked the UT DNR and there are no rules against Live leeches. However they strongly advise against it. If there are 10 species of leeches in the state, is one the ribbon Leech? The most common one used for bait.

I have tried Horse leeches and they are not a good bait. 

There is no made made bait that will catch Walleyes better then a ribbon leech.

Tom


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## 357bob (Sep 30, 2007)

I use to fish leeches quite a bit for walleye at Willard. I would go out the night before with a flashlight and walk the ditches by the pig farm, spot 'em on the bottom and drop 'em in a can. Wish I would have known you could trap them, I spent a couple hours gathering enough for the next evenings bait, but I was gathering for 3 or 4 people.


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## Watcher (Dec 31, 2008)

As an old Minnesota boy we used leeches - a lot!. I still remember my first time - late at night, reachin into a bucket full of leeches with no light. (Do you remember your first time?)

There are different types of leeches. The "Tiger Leech" is a really big (6+ inches) brown/green leech that you'll find swimming around during the day (Can you say Leech Lake, MN). Experience was the fish did not care for these. The "Black Leech" (2-4")is the Walleye, Smally bait of choice. They are common in small muddy ponds and easy to catch. You can by commerical traps. If you just want to experiment a really easy and cheap Youtube way to go: 




The leeches I've seen in Utah are really small and brown (1"). I'm sure the trout like to forrage on them but I've never played with them except once. When my dog got an infection in her foot I trapped a few and let them suck some bloody junk out of her foot. They have anti-coagulants and leech therapy does work.


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## coues52 (Nov 11, 2007)

I,ll have to try that..I used to buy leeches, but the shipping now would kill the deal..~Danny


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## Leaky (Sep 11, 2007)

Have been following this thread with a lot of interest. The reason being that I'm always looking for the secret to catching bass (especially big guys) in my favorite spots. Until I viewed the video on trapping em, I had decided that it was just too much work for this old guy to find em and I'd stick to what I knew, Then -----------. Now I'm even more interested.
Have questions. 1) How good are they for bass fishun? 2) I'm assuming they are legal, but discouraged in N. Ut. and S.E. Idaho. Is this true? 3) I live in Ogden, is there a close by area/pond to trap em? 4) What's the best way to fish em and what time of year, if any? I kind of think I know know, but would appreciate feed back.
Send a P/M. on sensitive info. if you need to or want to.    Much thanks in advance.
P.S. Some of these questions may have been answered i previous response, if so, I apologize.


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## Watcher (Dec 31, 2008)

We didn't have many large-mouth where I grew up but leeches were considered a go-to live bait for Wallys and Smalleys. We fished them a number of different ways but the most common were:
1) Lindy Rig (not sure you Utah boys even know what this is  . Basically a "slip" wieght a couple feet in front of a plain hook, spinner hook, or floating rig (see snide comment above). You work/bounce this along bottom structure. Using a spinning reel, you keep the bail open and your index finger holds the line. When you feel the tap you can free spool while they run with the bait and then you set the hook and see what happens. Obviously this is a boat, canoe, float tube set-up.

2) Leech-tipped jig. Maribu type jigs are classic but others have come along.

As I was moving out of Minnesota we were starting to play with 

3) Slip-bobbers. These were neat because you could control depth and work you bait into structure.

My guess is the missing leech of Utah is a supply/demand thing. Not a hugh demand for the critters ---- yet.

I'm getting currious about those Smallies in Rockport and may have to put my fly-rods in corner one of these days, borrow the neighbor's canoe, and head over there for an day.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

A recent fishing trip to a lake with lots of leeches reminded me of this thread.

bumpity, bump


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## 30-06-hunter (Sep 22, 2013)

The Naturalist said:


> Absolutely correct! There are 10 species of leech in Utah and only one is a blood sucker. (Not counting certain state legislators :lol: ). However, all have the ability to latch onto you, so , many people think they are all trying to get some blood.
> Simply pulling them off works fine - they are not like a tick that burrow their head under the skin.


So it was just my luck that I got sucked on by this one species last August.


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## swbuckmaster (Sep 14, 2007)

We dont have any leaches to worry about in utah. Now go to Australia and other tropical areas and they live in the trees and bushes. When you walk by they stick straight out and try and grab ya.


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## 30-06-hunter (Sep 22, 2013)

swbuckmaster said:


> We dont have any leaches to worry about in utah. Now go to Australia and other tropical areas and they live in the trees and bushes. When you walk by they stick straight out and try and grab ya.


The 3 leech bites I had made me sick for a few days.


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