Whitlock's red fox squirrel nymph and variants
Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2022 4:07 pm
Back in my Texas days, a friend was doing quite well on the Guadalupe during the winter trout season. The Guad was the only Texas river with water cold enough to support rainbows. The Texas TU chapter ( yes there was only one TX chapter) would buy 30000 or so hatchery trout and plant them in the tailwater below Canyon Lake Dam. When asked what fly he was using he always said "a girdle bug". One day I asked to see his fly and it was certainly no girdle bug...he told me he didn't want any of the the other guys in our club knowing what he was using. Just the way he was.
It turns out he was using a variant of Dave Whitlock's squirrel nymph. In the 2012 Fall edition of Hatches Magazine you'll find an article on a fly called "the only". It was the only fly he fished that year and I used it quite a bit in Colorado and on the San Juan, and Cimarron in New Mexico.
In a fit of nostalgia this week, I decided to dig out that article and tie up a few "only" and a few of Whitlock's red fox squirrel and variants. I haven't fished them here in Oregon yet, but they will get a workout next week when I can return to the water.
The two flies on top are size 14 and 16 Whitlock's and the ones on the right are the "only" the others are variations of Whitlock's as described in an article I found written by Whitlock on the origin of the fly.
It turns out he was using a variant of Dave Whitlock's squirrel nymph. In the 2012 Fall edition of Hatches Magazine you'll find an article on a fly called "the only". It was the only fly he fished that year and I used it quite a bit in Colorado and on the San Juan, and Cimarron in New Mexico.
In a fit of nostalgia this week, I decided to dig out that article and tie up a few "only" and a few of Whitlock's red fox squirrel and variants. I haven't fished them here in Oregon yet, but they will get a workout next week when I can return to the water.
The two flies on top are size 14 and 16 Whitlock's and the ones on the right are the "only" the others are variations of Whitlock's as described in an article I found written by Whitlock on the origin of the fly.
Should tie them with Gray Squirrel as well! 