The latest installment of patterns is the Dave Whitlock Red Fox Squirrel Nymph! What a fish catching pattern by our friend Dave! The pattern below is befrocked with some minor changes on my part (forgive me Dave). One of the most exciting fly tying videos (nowadays dvd's) I have ever watched was the one showing both tying and fishing of this venerable pattern! It is an absolute killer in the weighted and wet form! Here is the recipe!
Hook: With todays myriad of choices out there...experiment! One thing I have noticed however...the pattern looks very much like a caddis larvae coming to the surface and thats why it is so often taken by trout! By changing the hook designs and sizes, one can easily immitate a mayfly or even a dragonfly nymph! The world is your oyster and the versitility of this pattern is amazing! I have grown fond of "swimming nymph" hook styles because they look really cool and the fish love them!
Thread: On larger sizes, 6/0 Danville's black or orange. On smaller sizes, Uni-thread 8/0 again in black or orange!
Tag and Rib: Krystal Flash in root beer color or sometimes an olive green color works great!
Lead: Gauge your lead wire diameters to the hook diameter....as a general rule! With some patterns, under wiring the nymph by one size works wonders!
Abdomen dubbing: SLF (synthetic living fiber) Dave Whitlock Red Fox Sq. Abdomen. I don't mind telling you that Feather Craft in St. Louis has about the best mix I have ever encountered! I have also had great success in mixing my own. Fox Sq. belly fur and orange antron! Watching Dave W. mix his own on the video is awesome!
Thorax dubbing: SLF Dave W. #1 thorax blend again from Feather Craft is hard to beat! This darker blend for the thorax area comes from the fur on the back of the squirrel and a touch of antron!
Hackle: India Hen Back in the lightest natural speckled orange color (they are hard to find). Just a turn or two at most! Dave peals off the fibers on the leading edge of the hackle and then winds the feather forward for an even sparser hackle!
Head: Sometimes a tight turn or two of thorax dubbing right at the last! It makes the front end of things look very cool and buggy!
Tail: 6-10 short, well marked fibers from a Hungarian Partridge feather tied on top of the hook shank! Dave W. uses the body fur from the back of the squirrel tied rather sparse and it looks really great!
I hope you enjoy this pattern in both the tying and fishing that you do! Oh, don't forget to take a velcro "scratcher" (Ruard makes a great one of these that I use all the time) and rough up the abdomen and thorax just ahead of the hackle tie in! It really does a number on the body of the fly and gives it that just right fuzzy look!
The picture shown is the wet version! With this one, I substitute partridge for the typical orange India hen back!
Dougsden
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