Or: The Rise and Fall of the Egg-Sucking Leech Empire
If you’ve fished anywhere in Alaska in the last decade, you’ve probably got a dozen Dolly Llamas (or Dali Lamas, Dahli Llamas—nobody can agree on the spelling) snagged in streamside willows, wedged under logjams, and stuffed in every corner of your fly box. And if you’re smart, you brought twice as many as you thought you’d need.
But here’s a question: whatever happened to the egg-sucking leech?
Thirty years ago, if you showed up on a Southwest Alaska river without egg-sucking leeches, you might as well have brought a spin rod. They were THE fly. The one pattern that every guide had confidence in, that every shop stocked by the hundreds, that caught everything from rainbow trout to king salmon.
Then something happened. Actually, someone happened.
The Origin Story
The Dolly Llama didn’t start its life in Alaska at all. Originally designed for bull trout in Oregon and Washington, this articulated streamer was meant to target Dolly Varden and steelhead in Pacific Northwest rivers. The pattern emerged about 10-15 years ago during what fly fishing insiders call the “string leech revolution”—when tiers started experimenting with articulated patterns that combined the best features of popular flies.
The creator (who, like many great innovators, prefers to remain anonymous) was looking to blend two hot patterns of the era: the Double Bunny and the conehead string leech. But here’s what made it different—by removing the tear mender glue used in the Double Bunny, the fly gained dramatically more movement and articulation in the water. Add an oversized tungsten conehead, and you had a fly that sank like a rock without needing split shot.
This was crucial for fishing ice-out conditions when you’re standing on ice shelves five to ten feet above the water, trying to get your fly down fast into the feeding lanes where hungry rainbows are staging.
Then Alaska guides discovered it. And everything changed.
What Makes It So Deadly?
The Dolly Llama is built around a simple but devastatingly effective design: a heavy tungsten conehead up front, followed by a flowing rabbit strip body that creates a swimming, swirling action as it moves through the water. The pattern is articulated—meaning the rear hook is connected to the front portion with heavy cord, giving it a natural, segmented motion that imitates everything from lamprey eels to sculpins to broken-down salmon flesh.
The most popular colors are olive/white and black/white, which perfectly imitate the Arctic lamprey eel—a giant rainbow trout’s favorite high-protein snack in coastal rivers like the Naknek, Alagnak, Kanektok, and the waters we fish in the Togiak Refuge.
The fly works because it:
- Sinks fast and gets into the strike zone immediately
- Has incredible lifelike movement from the rabbit strip and articulation
- Imitates multiple food sources depending on color and size
- Triggers aggressive strikes—fish often hook themselves
- Can be swung, stripped, or even dead-drifted effectively
Size Matters
One of the beauties of the Dolly Llama is its versatility across sizes:
Size 6: Perfect for smaller streams and rainbows under 20 inches. This is your go-to for technical water where you need a more subtle presentation but still want the action of the pattern.
Size 4: Same profile as a #2 but with a smaller, more trout-friendly hook. Great for catch-and-release waters.
Size 2: The workhorse. This is the size that lives in every guide’s box. Perfect for salmon, steelhead, and those 25-30 inch rainbow trout that haunt the deeper runs and undercuts on our rivers.
Size 1/0: The “Mega Dolly Llama” for king salmon and truly massive fish. If you’re swinging for a 35+ inch rainbow or a chrome king, this is your artillery.
The flies typically measure 3.75 to 4 inches long—basically a full meal in one package.
How to Fish It
The Dolly Llama is traditionally fished on the swing, and most anglers add a little twitch or strip during the retrieve to emphasize that undulating, swimming action. But here’s the thing—it’s hard to fish it wrong. The weight of that cone head proportioned to the rabbit strip length means if you can get it in the water, it fishes itself.
Cast across and downstream, let it sink, and let the current do the work. The articulation creates movement even in slower water. When a 28-inch rainbow decides that lamprey-looking thing is lunch, you’ll know it—most fish hook themselves on the aggressive take.
It’s equally effective stripped actively through a run or dead-drifted through a deep hole. We’ve seen it catch rainbow trout, Dolly Varden, Arctic char, grayling, and all five species of Pacific salmon. If it swims and eats meat, it’ll eat a Dolly Llama.
The Great Overthrow
So what happened to the egg-sucking leech?
Simply put: the Dolly Llama does everything the egg-sucking leech does, but better. The articulation gives it more action. The heavy cone head gets it down faster without adding split shot to your leader. The rabbit strip pulses and breathes in ways that static materials can’t match. And the profile imitates a wider variety of food sources.
The Dolly Llama has, in fairly spectacular fashion, overthrown the egg-sucking leech as Alaska’s number-one selling fly pattern. Walk into any fly shop from Anchorage to King Salmon and you’ll see walls of Dolly Llamas in every color combination imaginable.
Does this mean the egg-sucking leech is obsolete? Of course not. Old reliable patterns never truly disappear—they’re still effective, especially during egg-feeding frenzies. But if you’re only bringing one streamer pattern to Alaska, it’s going to be the Dolly Llama.
A Word About Hook Regulations
One practical note: many Alaska fly-fishing-only waters have single-hook regulations. While the Dolly Llama is articulated with both a front and rear hook, anglers often cut off the front hook to comply with regulations, fishing only with the trailing hook. You lose a bit of hooking percentage, but you stay legal and the fly still produces.
The Verdict
The Dolly Llama has earned its reputation through pure productivity on Alaska’s most challenging waters. It’s not hype, it’s not clever marketing—it’s just a really, really good fly that catches fish consistently.
When you’re packing for your trip to fish with us on the Kanektok, Goodnews, or any of the waters in the Togiak Refuge, here’s our advice: figure out how many Dolly Llamas you think you’ll need. Then double it. Between toothy Dollies, log jams, and those heart-stopping moments when a 30-inch rainbow throws the hook on an aerial cartwheel, you’ll go through them.
We’re not saying you should only fish Dolly Llamas. Variety matters, and there are days when flesh flies, beads, or mouse patterns will out-fish everything else. But there’s a reason every guide’s box has at least a couple dozen in various sizes and colors.
Because some nights, after a long day on the water, when someone asks what fly worked, the answer is still the same as it was yesterday, and the day before, and probably will be tomorrow:
“Dolly Llama. Olive and white. Size 2.”
See you on the water,
The Alaska Rainbow Adventures Team
The Alaska Rainbow Adventures Team
Planning your Alaska fishing adventure? We specialize in multi-day float trips on Southwest Alaska’s premier rivers, where patterns like the Dali Lama prove their worth on trophy rainbow trout, all five salmon species, and wild char. Contact us to start planning your trip of a lifetime.
