Newbie, Fly Tying For Taneycomo

[Crippled Caddis]

Don't ignore the effectiveness of the Red Fox Squirrel nymph in the larger sizes! The 10s & 12s are a great general purpose nymph and a specific for the Golden Stones endemic to the Ozark streams. They are my 'go-to' pattern when the fishing gets tough and have saved the day too many times to attempt to enumerate. CC

[David Bolin]

The zebra midge has been a hot fly on all the Ozark tailwaters. I tie a little different midge that is very effective and very easy to tie. It's just a hook, bead and thread. I posted the pattern on my blog recently under "Taneycomo Trip". Scroll down to the fourth post if you're interested.

db

Blog Link

[CanoeDave]

Don't ignore the effectiveness of the Red Fox Squirrel nymph in the larger sizes! The 10s & 12s are a great general purpose nymph and a specific for the Golden Stones endemic to the Ozark streams. They are my 'go-to' pattern when the fishing gets tough and have saved the day too many times to attempt to enumerate. CC

Great blog! Thanks for the tip. That looks nice and easy to tie (right down my alley). This is my first year fly fishing AND fly tying. My flies often look a bit rough (and rarely look quite like those pretty ones in the books). I am blessed that they do catch fish though. Your pattern looks like one that even I could tie correctly

[Micheal Kyle]

Remember you are your only judge when it comes to the flies that you tie. I rarely see fish that are judgmental if they are on the pat that you are fishing.

Good luck with your tyeing this winter.

[Crippled Caddis]

Canoe Dave wrote:

<Your pattern looks like one that even I could tie correctly>

It dawned on me that the pattern as found at several sites on the 'net isn't tied the way it has been successful for me. I still tie it in the original configuration before Dave 'simplified' it. Which is basically exactly like a Hare's Ear except using copper wire as the rib on the abdomen only, red fox squirrel belly for the abdomen and red fox squirrel back for tail and thorax. Mottled turkey for the wingcase.

The belly hair is just spun on the thread to apply after tying in your ribbing wire and a generous 'bush' of back hair for the tail but the thorax is done with a dubbing loop to get the bushiness needed. After spinning the abdoman, winding the wire and tying in the wingcase I form a dubbing loop several inches long at the base of the wingcase so it's easy to manipulate it in the next step. I wax the loop heavily and then do the step that some just can't seem to deal with easily.

I pluck out between thumb and forefinger a 'wad' of hair off of the squirrel back and put it in the loop. I then pull the loop closed to hold it in place and distribute the hair in the loop for about 1 1/4" to 1 3/4". That seems to be the 'fiddly' part that some find difficult for some reason. Then I insert my dubbing spinner in the end of the loop and spin it until I have an ugly, fat 'chenille' of hair. I then transfer the thread from the spinner to my hackle pliers so I don't lose it off of the hook of the dubbing spinner and turn the air blue with profanity.) I then wind my chenille on, stroking the hair back at each turn to keep from wrapping it down. I tie it off @ an eye width behind the eye. I then part it in the middle, just like parting your own hair, pull the wingcase over it to hold the part down and tie it off. At that point I have a REALLY ugly, bushy Hare's Ear tied with Fox Squirrel. The fun part for me comes next----I take my tweezers and pluck out the longer guard hair on the belly leaving most of the fuzzy underfur and long guard hair sticking out to the sides to represent legs. Properly done you wind up with a big, shaggy, meaty looking 'bug' that works great in larger sizes than most people fish. I like it best in a #10. but tie it from a #8 down to 14.

FWIW, the Whitlock Fox Squirrel pattern as now found recommended reminds me very much of another pattern that is very effective in larger sizes as well---the Casual Dress. So I would suggest learning the Whitlock Squirrel in both iterations and fish them to see if one works better for YOU. And tie up some Casual Dress----they can be 'day savers'!

As an afterthought---I make my own dubbing twister by cutting off the wire loop through the center of a 1/2 oz. teardrop lead sinker and removing the wire leaving the hole open. I then use a diamond cut-off wheel in my Dremel to round off and polish one end of a piece of .047" music wire from a model airplane supply shop. (I have used a large paper clip but like the music wire much better tho it's harder to bend) Then I bend a 'shephard's crook' into the end of the wire, cut it with the wheel to @ 4" OAL and JB Weld it into the hole in the sinker leaving about an inch sticking out the bottom to provide a 'handle' to spin it with. I far prefer it to any commercial version I've ever used.