Pine squirrel vs Eastern grey

[salmo]

For fly tying purposes is there a difference between pine squirrel and Eastern grey squirrel?

 

[PennKev]

What are you tying?

Short answer is yes.

 

[salmo]

I’m not really tying anything, but for some dubbing I’d prefer a greyer material. I don’t see grey squirrel advertised for sale.

 

[Bamboozle]

The difference is more in coloration than texture or anything else.

With the exclusion of classic patterns like a Picket Pin (which originally used gopher) I like the red hue of the Pine or Red Squirrel better and use it more often.

I’m not really tying anything, but for some dubbing I’d prefer a greyer material. I don’t see grey squirrel advertised for sale.

FWIW - Muskrat for the darker shades and grey mink or fox for the lighter has always been my go-to natural grey dubbing.

 

[salmo]

The mink that I have is more brown/red than grey.

 

[Bamboozle]

I used to have an "in" with furriers in NYC. As a result they gave me fur scraps (mainly mink, fox, beaver, chinchilla, nutria) all the time for nothing.

Mink comes in all shades however the popular color for a LONG time was red. That red mink is still my favorite for Hendrickson nymphs.

Beaver is a fantastic brown and you can find lighter shades and grey beavers too.

An overlooked dubbing is raccoon that can be medium to dark brown with a slight gold hue. It dubs great and when bleached it comes out a beautiful cream color that I used exclusively for Sulphurs & Cahills for many years.

 

[troutbert]

Muskrat fur is gray and is inexpensive. The first fly I ever tied was a Muskrat Nymph, and I caught a lot of trout on those.

But most nymphs are brownish in color, not gray. Adult mayflies and caddis are typically not gray either.

The Adams is one of the most famous dry flies, and it calls for a gray body. If you simply change the body color to brown/tan, you will catch more trout, IMHO.

 

[Bamboozle]

I used the grey stuff for BWO dry flies before I switched to poly.

 

[Solitariolupo]

I know of a red and a grey squirrels and use their tales as I see no difference.

 

[rancid waders]

Check out Moscow Hide and Fur. You may find your answer for sale. I have bought a lot of fur over the years from them.

 

[sandflyx]

I have a few grey squirrel hides for sale with tails

 

[salmo]

PM sent

 

[DGC]

Wapsi natural fur dubbing comes in a number of back furs from squirrels and the usual hare and muskrat types. I use fox squirrel a great deal. Very spiky. Black squirrel is very dark grey. Not as spiky, however.

 

[KrsnaM]

What are you tying?

Short answer is yes.

Funny pfp, my cousin vinny