Squirrel P-Quad

- By Bob Sheedy, from Bob Sheedy's Top 50 Fly Pattern book

I was first introduced to the effectiveness of the squirrel bodied P-Quad by its designer, Mark Olinger.

We’d been fishing Tokaryk’s Lake after one of the worst heat waves of the summer and the fishing had been hovering slightly above sewer level. Yet the sonar told us that fish -- large fish -- were feeding all around us. But feeding upon what? Later, we would discover that the trout were predating very small forage fish, but our patterns were too large, as is often the case.

Enter the squirrel P-Quad. A cast with a Sink 1 line, give it time to settle, and the rod almost popped out of our hands before the tippet disintegrated. Enter the Tokaryk Take, that violent jerk that triggers latent cardiac trauma and leaves a trembling body to wonder what manner of finned critter could part a 2X tippet so readily. After taking several specimens that day in the twenty to twenty-six inch range, the Squirrel P-Quad made a successful debut and has repeated on many occasions.

I always tell Mark that it’s a poor pattern because it promotes violence in the trout. I suggest he tie versions that the fish either take softly, with great refinement, or not at all.

He has a wonderful way of ignoring me.