A Whole Lot Of Work To Get A Squirel Tail & Fishing In SC

 Last Saturday was my regions big FLY FISHING SHOW up in NC and I was hoping to convince the wife to let me drag them along on the trip but something unexpected came up.  In short it was a squirrel in the chimney - AGAIN.  So this past saturday was spent ripping up my siding around my chimney to retrieve a squirrel that had lodged himself between the flu and the fire box.

 What I found once I had ripped open a hole was not one expired squirrel but three - well sort - of and the remains of a bird.  The two others and the bird had been there a while and were mainly reduced to charred bones but the squirrel I was after was just visible.  It had expired the day before judging from the noises my wife had heard on Friday so there was no smell or flies yet. 

It was a huge hassle to get the bugger out as you can see from the pic below.  He was wedged good and tight and it took a good effort to pull him out.  I was glad I pulled him out when I did.  Any longer and the smell would have been unbearable and any sooner and I would have had a real mess trying to pull a live squirrel out of that space.

 In the end It was about a seven hour job to rip open the wall - retrieve the squirrel - clean the fire box - repair the wall - and place a new squirrel proof cage around the top of the chimney.  It was a whole lot of work and effort to get new material for my fly tying.  As you can see below - I'm not one to waste a good squirrel tail so I whacked it off the critter, washed it good in an alcohol salt solution, coated the cut end in a salty paste, and set it up on a board to dry.  Soon I will have some good squirrel tail streamers to fish with.  My wife thinks I'm nuts but I'm sure some of you can relate.

 Well since my fly fishing show was interrupted and I had recently gotten my jeep back from the shop, I took Monday to do a little fishing.  As you can see, the trip didn't yield much in the way of fish but this native beauty was taken on a fly of my own creation and just as the squirrel, it was worth the effort.  What was the fly you ask?  Well lost it on the very next cast to an underwater log and since it was a solo fly tied up as a fling (unforgivable mistake) it was the only one that caught a fish, so short of the bad cell phone pics below, all you get is the VERY simple ingredients. 
-#12 nymph hook (might be a bit to big)
-Hot Orange Floss for the body
-Black Soft Hackle
(Next time I plan on adding a little wire ribbing to keep the whole thing secure.)