Hi,
For some reason, there are differing thoughts about the “looks” of Dave Whitlock’s Red Fox Squirrel Nymph. I thought I would post a photo of one of his that he himself tied.
That’s cool.
I think I crowd the hook eye too much. And I think I need to make the tails sparser.
Thanks for posting that. I like it.
I love this fly . . . . It’s interesting to see how a fly is tied by it’s originator. I once ordered Clouser minnows from Bob’s shop to see what the ones he was selling looked like. I started modeling mine ofter his as I did not have a better idea . . . Thanks!
I agree. It’s always best to see the original. However, I must admit, that I seem to recall his pattern many years ago being a little different. I seem to recall that the abdomen was made using belly fir of the squirrel and the thorax using a mix of antron and back hair from the squirrel…
In fact, after posting this response, I looked for some historical postings of the dressing for this fly and came across this one:
Hook: Nymph hook sizes 8-18
Thread: Brown
Tail: Small tuft of red fox squirrel fur or brown soft feather
Body: Red fox squirrel belly fur (the orange or pinkish hue)
Rib: Copper or Brass wire
Thorax: Red fox squirrel back fur, the dark fur with with lots of guard hairs
gorgeous fly…wow
It does look buggy, doesn’t it???
It IS a great-looking nymph! What do you suppose the softhackle feather is on that? India hen?
Hi Dave,
Not sure. Could it be guinea (sp?). I always use partridge which has finer barbules.
I think his version of the fly has definately evolved. In the first article on the fly I read by Whitlock the idea was to tie a usefull fly from one material source. The abdomen was squirrel belly fur, the thorax was squirrel fur from the back and the hackle and tail were squirrel tail .
Nope … not guinea … he uses mottled partridge, grouse or hen hackle! Wonderful fly!!
from his books the smaller sizes did not have soft hackle
His video shows him using a different rib- pumpkin flashabou. I’m also glad he continued to tinker with his patterns.
Chuck
Now that’s cool!
The fly in the pic looks to be tied using a Grouse hackle. Flies do morph at times from the original as other materials become available. The trick is to pay attention to whether or not the productivitiy begins to drop off as the slight changes are made.
…and I think Dave fishes often enough to do some real testing!
Chuck