Hook: Mustad Signature R74 in sizes 2 - 8 (size 4 is used here).

Thread: 8/0 to match the color of the Squirrel (dark Olive/brown here).

Body and Tail: Wapsi's Zonked Pine Squirrel in Olive.

Head: 3/16th Tungsten Conehead with 3D eyes.

Throat: Hedron's Wing N' Flash in Red.

1. Slide the conehead onto the hook and secure the hook as shown with the shank pointing straight down. Apply a drop of Loon UV Knot Sense into the concave side of the cone. Do not use too much as we want to keep some room inside the cone head to allow the materials to slide in when finishing up. More on this is STEP 5.

I want to take a moment to discuss the Loon UV Knot Sense. This is a GREAT product that most fly tiers could find some neat applications for. I was introduced to it back in January and have been using it a lot ever since. When you apply it, it is something like thin epoxy before curing. You can easily work with it but once you hit it with the UV light, the product becomes rock hard and crystal clear. I use it all the time to finish off saltwater fly heads (instead of Epoxy or other compounds), the shell for a scud back, wing cases, freshwater streamer heads, securing coneheads like on this fly and soon and so on. I'm trying to figure out how I lived without something like this all these years. While tying at some of the shows I have gotten several other tiers very interested and "hooked" on it as well. Be sure to ask your local shop about it.



2. Use one hand to properly position the conehead. Use your other hand to shine the Loon UV Power Light onto the Knot Sense to instantly cure it and lock the conehead into position. The photo inset shows the 3 UV beams that do the work.



3. Start behind the conehead and wrap a base of thread covering the shank back to the start of the bend.



4. Cut a piece of the Zonked Pine Squirrel at a length of around 5 inches. A slightly longer piece is OK. When securing one end as the tail, I like to have a tail that is equal to the overall length of the hook I'm tying on. To secure it, I use my bodkin and part the hair in one spot so that my thread only wraps over the skin and not the fur. After 5 secure wraps, lift the squirrel out of the way and continue wrapping the thread to the base of the conehead. Apply a drop of head cement to the wraps securing the tail. This will help keep the fly from coming apart when the teeth of a large trout contacts the thread here.



5. Now start palmering the squirrel zonker around the hook shank toward the conehead. When doing so, try not to wrap over the fur as you go. I use a small bowl of water to moisten fingers while doing this. I can then wet the fur and have it all standing up straight and keep it from getting caught under the wraps as I go.




When I get the squirrel wrapped to the cone head I make 1 or 2 wraps at the base of the cone head and then use my bodkin to slide that final wrap up and into the conehead. Hopefully you left enough room to slide this in as well as allowing the final thread wraps to slide up and inside. This not only gives the fly a great finished look, it also protects the thread from getting cut by those big trout teeth.



6. Get a small amount of Wing N' Flash and loop it around your thread. You can now precisely position this as the gill on the underside of the fly. After securing it with a few wraps, give it a whip-finish and try to get the thread to slide up inside the conehead. The more durable your flies are, the longer they last and the less you have to tie. Once done, a drop of head cement will do the trick.

For added realism I then like to add a couple 3D eyes to the conehead and then apply a coat of Hard as Hull to the head. I've said it many times before and I'll say it again. There are many fish out there with false eye spots on their tails. This is to confuse the predators. So, if millions of years of evolution say that predators key on their preys eyes, my streamers will have eyes on them. Once the eyes are on, the fly is finished and ready to fish.

FISHING SUGGESTIONS