Red Squirrels anyone?

[mike_richardson]

I had a red squirrel that decided to put walnuts in my car engine. Well this is him now. I had fleshed and preserved his hide with borax. Cheap 2.00 tan. Works well enough for fly material anyway Never saw a traditional red or pine squirrel used as material. Flies are decent and not too many guard hairs. These were a few i played around with from lunch time today. I think i will be adding some ribbing and spice the up a bit. Let me know what you think.

The one in the middle i just pulled some legs from the pheasant tail fibers. Not real big on these but i have had success on the quick leg look. The fly all by itself was tied soley with the red strip on the back

Anyone have a better solution for the legs?

 

[m0nk]

I've gotta say, those flies sure are looking nice. I agree, though, that the one in the middle and the far left would look good with some ribbing, but the one on the right looks great as-is.

 

[mike_richardson]

Thanks. I really like the red look of the fly on the right so he got the hero shot.

Would the vinyl ribbing i used on my caddis larva work for this. I have never put ribbing like that on my nymphs. Any suggestions on size?

 

[m0nk]

Personally, I'd just use copper wire... but that's just me. I also haven't been tying as long as others here, so maybe someone else would chime in with some better advice. I'm also not too innovative yet...

 

[FrequentTyer]

Nice flys Mike. The color of the dubbing is great. As Monk suggested, copper wire or thin gold tinsel would be a good choice, but I would add the rib probably more for asthetic reasons than fishability. As for the legs, the dubbing looks spikey enough that you could just brush it out a bit and have all the legs you would need.
Mike.

 

[outsider]

Sometimes I rib my flies with clear monofilament to give them a segmented look, without adding any flash/color.

 

[flipnfly]

mike the most common use for red squirrel i have noticed is zonkers dye'd in various colors and used in the slumpbuster streamer pattern...

 

[quillfly]

keep the orange center dubbing for march brown nymphs (personal favorite) as far as ribbing for size 10-12 i use 26ga wire 14-16 is brassie smaller is small . the problem with using vrib or similar with dub bodies is that for most it is two large and over burdens the fly so if you want to try it id say midge also put it on a spool so you can control/streach (to make thinner) if necessary