How to Tie the Flying Squirrel Nymph Fly Pattern

Learn how to tie the Flying Squirrel Nymph fly pattern, including step-by-step instructions, a video tutorial, pictures, and much more. Improve your fly-tying skills here.

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I believe originally tied by Tim Flagler it's a mash up of 2 flies. The Bird's Nest and the Red Fox Squirrel Nymph. It's fairly easy to tie and just looks like something fish would eat. It's typically tied in sizes 12 -18.

Material List

• Hook: Daiichi 1710 in size 14
• Thread: UTC 70 in the color Wood Duck
• Bead: Hareline Countersunk Tungsten Bead in Gold
• Weight: .015 Lead Wire
• Tail: Hareline Mallard Flank feathers in the color Wood Duck
• Abdomen: Whilock's Red Fox Squirrel Abdomen Dubbing
• Rib: UTC Ultra Wire Small Gold
• Collar: Hareline Mallard Flank feathers in the color Wood Duck
• Thorax: Whitlock's Red Fox Squirrel Thorax Dubbing

Video Transcript

Hello, I'm Carl at Trident Fly Fishing. Today we're going to tie the Flying Squirrel Nymph. I believe this was originally tied by Tim Flagler and it's a mashup of two flies, the Bird's Nest and the Red Fox Squirrel Nymph. It's fairly easy to tie and it just looks like something fish would eat. It's typically tied in sizes 12 through 18.

The hook we're using today is a Daiichi 1710, size 14, and we have a 7/64 gold tungsten bead mounted on the shank. To add a little more weight, we're going to use some .015 lead wire and tie that in behind the bead. Our thread is going to be UTC 70 denier in the color Wood Duck. We'll start right behind our lead wire, build up a small dam there to hold it in place, and run our thread up forward, forcing the lead into the back of that bead.

Back down to the start of the bend of the hook where we'll tie in our tail material. In this case we're using Hareline's Mallard Flank Feathers - the color is Wood Duck gold. We'll take several fibers, peel those off from the stem, measure those out against the hook shank, and we want this to be a little shorter than the shank length of the hook. Tie those in on top. Cut off our excess.

This fly has a rib - some Ultra Wire in size small in the color gold. We'll get that tied in right behind the bead, keep it on the near side of the hook, and run our thread all the way back to the base of the tail.

Our body material is going to be some of Dave Whitlock's dubbing, and the blend for the abdomen is called Red Fox Squirrel Abdomen. Take a small dubbing noodle and run this about two thirds of the way up the hook shank. Then take our ribbing material and make open spiral turns up the abdomen of the fly. Cut that wire off.

The next material we're going to tie in is going to be the legs of the fly. For that, again, we're going to use Mallard Flank Feathers, but we're going to tie these in a little different instead of wrapping. We want these to extend back about to the bend of the hook. Just distribute them as best you can. Cut our excess and neaten that up a little bit.

Our thorax is going to be that same Dave Whitlock pre-prepared dubbing material called Red Fox Squirrel Thorax. It's a nice dark brown. To tie this in, we're going to create a dubbing loop - don't need a big one. You could also split your thread and do it that way. Forming the dubbing loop makes the material, once it's spun up, a lot spikier than it would be if you just dubbed it onto the thread, and that's what we're looking for here. Doesn't take too much. We'll spin that up and make a few turns with it. It looks kind of hairy and funky, but that's the way it's supposed to look.

Secure our thread and make a few turns to tighten it in place. Take our whip finish tool, make a four or five turn whip finish, cut our thread, and add a little head cement. This is Loon's water-based - nice and thin, soaks in really well. And our fly is complete.

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