Grey Squirrel nymphs

[mike_richardson]

these have got to be one of my favorite flies to tie, and I just slam brook trout on them especially.

hook: size 12 standard wetfly/nymph
tail: two brown goose biots
ribbing: gold holo tinsel size small
body: grey squirrel body fur
wingcase: pheasant tail fibers
thorax: grey squirrel body fur
Thread: dark brown 140 denier, or preferred size
optional bead: 3.2mm tungsten

WIll try and put up a few pictures later. I am in love with the HOLO GOLD Tinsel as well. I like mine to be on a standard length wetfly hook, and often with a bit oversized bead. Mainly to add flash and get them down deep. Squirrel when put in the water collects a lot of bubbles so IMO the larger heavier tung bead really helps get them down. If you like using Flymphs this might be a material your really want to consider. Could be tied with a 7/64 bead on a 1xl size 14 as well. This fly really became a producer for me. Very similar to a hares ear, and I have tied it with a grey squirrel fur tail as well, just like a hares ear, but I like the look of the biots. I need to get some squirrel dubbing, as the one I had tanned a little while ago is running low on fur with guard hairs. I have a few pine squirrel hides I need to tan up yet, but their fur is a bit softer.

Wondering if anyone has seen grey squirrel zonker strips, That would be an awesome material for those Jumbo Streamers guys are taking browns with.

 

[lv2nymph]

Pretty certain I saw some at tco either there or ffp

 

[jeremymcon]

J stockard has grey squirrel strips. Also pine and fox squirrel zonkers. I use the fox squirrel ones for slumpbusters. I like that the hairs are shorter and stiffer than rabbit zonkers - gives them a little more shape.

I bought a cheap pine squirrel skin from a website I was placing an order with, thinking I'd make zonker strips from it. Well it turned out that the skin wasn't tanned - just cleaned and dried. So now I'm thinking about shaving all the hair off of it and using it for dubbing.

Do you basically just tie this nymph like a hare's ear? Do you use a dubbing loop to get the squirrel with all its guard hairs to cooperate, or does it usually dub OK like hare's ear?

 

[SteelerFan]

Do you tan your own squirrels? If you do may I ask how you do and what steps do you take for the tails?

 

[mike_richardson]

I just pinch the fur from the hide and twist it on the hook. I don't use a dubbing loop and they look ok. Thing is you have to know the best places to pluck the hair from. Hair on the arms is shooter than the hair at legs, and base of tail. If you are tying small flies pluck from the arms. Larger stones, pluck for the legs and base of the tail.

Also you get a lot of color variance by tanning them and having the whole hide there. you can get a brown/grey buy pulling from the center line of the hide near the back, longer fibers as it gets closer to the tail. More of a solid gray by pulling from the arms and legs, and get more of a mix of grey and white as you go towards the belly.

Skinning, and preserving the skin:

SKin the second you recover your squirrel. IF not you may need a team of horses to get the skin off.

I don't use the tails for my tying and use the hide. I mostly just tie nymphs. To be honest, with mine I just made a slit on the squirrels stomach from his chest to above the hip area. I took the squirrel and pretty much just turned him inside out. Start my working your hands around the rib cage and it will come out pretty good. Push the legs back inside the fur, and cut take game shears and snip off the feet. Cut the tail off. Once I have the lower section off, and tail cut off, you keep pulling the skin up over its head and out to its nose. Be gentle here. You really don't need much on the head, but the neck has the shortest hairs for easier to work with smaller nymphs. Make a quick snip at the cartilage and your done.

Next step is to wash the squirrel hide with dawn. This helps degrease it a bit, and wash blood off of it. Take a dull knife and made sure you get all of the flesh from the hide that you can. If you skin the squirrel as soon as you shoot them this should be no issue. You can hold the knife and scrape a long with it, as long as it is dull you wont risk cutting the hide.

Once you have it pretty well scraped off, Take the hide and wash it again with the dawn. You are not tanning the hide only preserving it. If you know how to tan that's good, but I don't so I just did a preserve.

After the washing. Take a hair dryer and dry the fur out as best you can. You want the whole thing to be a decently dry.

Take a piece of cardboard out an lay the squirrel on the cardboard, fur side down. Take some pins or thumbtacks/push pins and stretch it out as best you can. I then take salt and cover the whole hide, to try and draw as much moisture out of the hide as I can. I do this for a day maybe. You don't want this to be in direct sunlight, or any hot place for the salt IMO.

Once you salted for a day, go and brush the salt off, and use a paper towel and try to get it dry. Take some 20 mule team borax and smother the skin with it. You want it to be powered light, to ensure that it is covered, then load it on there. I let it on for a day or two, empty it off, then apply again. Once the skin feels dry. I put one more application of the borax on it, and set it some where warmer. I have radiators for my heat, so I set it on top of there.

When you are done the hide is preserved but not tanned. If you do not get all of the meat and fat off it may end up stinking or something like that. By having the different zones of fur you can really make better quality flies, than what you can with the squirrel dubbing boxes, IMO. I use them a lot but on smaller flies it is tough to apply the minimal amount of dubbing that is needed. If you know a trapper friend or taxidermist they may be able to help you out better. This is just what works for me.

 

[J55tyger88]

Can u post pic please.

 

[SteelerFan]

Thanks for the information. I have not used the body yet, but do use the tails for many flies. Grey for picket pins and reds for tailing materials instead of hackle material. I just cut the tails off and just salt the end real good. I have not had any problems doing it this way. I tried to remove the fur from the tail cartilage but to no avail. I did notice that the tails I have purchased either squirrels or calf tails have the cartilage in them.

Any other advice?

Thanks

 

[mike_richardson]

if you have a sharp knife, Run a straight cut down the length of the tail. Even a good sharp pair of fly tying scissors would work for this. Cut it down to where the tail gets very small in diameter. Peel the skin around the fur and then load it with salt for a day, then use the 20 mule team borax. You can find this in the laundry soap section. It comes in a box for around 2-3 dollars. I will work at getting a pic. It will be a crappy cell phone pic but enough to see how the dubbing looks.

 

[mike_richardson]

Here is a cell phone pic. the nymphs with the biot tails are the grey squirrel nymphs. The bottom stone fly is also made from grey squirrel.

The nymphs in the center column are hares ear nymphs for comparison. As I said I like my flies to be tied on standard nymph hooks, istead of 1xl but the can obviously be tied on any number of hooks.

 

[lv2nymph]

Definitely squirrel dubbing, nice and spikey.

 

[J55tyger88]

Love the squirrel nymphs. Spikey and buggy. Look great, i need some squirrel...

 

[mike_richardson]

LOL I like the term "buggy" one of my favorite quotes from my uncle who got me into fly tying and fishing:

"a fly can never be to buggy"......

 

[J55tyger88]

They all look nice, i like the squirrels the best.

 

[mike_richardson]

they really work. I will have to try and post a pic of them when they are wet or in water. give it a try. I am sure you could also take the squirrel and pull off the dubbing of certain areas and put it in separate bags.