Pine Squirrel Hide Zonked
Premium-Grade Fur, Natural Mottling, and Endless Cutting Options for Custom Zonkers, Leeches, Streamers, and Micro-Patterns
For tiers who want total freedom, premium fur quality, and the ability to cut their own zonker strips in any width or orientation, Pine Squirrel Hide – Zonked offers one of the most versatile natural materials in modern fly tying. Feather Craft Fly Fishing sources only high-grade pine squirrel skins, beautifully tanned, perfectly dyed, and selected for dense, soft, and evenly textured fur. When you purchase a zonked skin, you are buying the entire hide—with pre-cut zonker strips still attached—giving you complete control to trim additional strips, adjust lengths, customize widths, and utilize every square inch in creative and highly effective ways.
A full pine squirrel skin delivers far more tying possibilities than individual strips. With its naturally barred fur, supple hide, and incredible sheen, this material breathes with unmatched life underwater. Whether you’re tying compact streamers or subtle nymphs, small steelhead leeches or lifelike sculpin patterns, a full zonked skin provides a depth of texture and movement that synthetic materials simply cannot duplicate. Soft, thin, and responsive, pine squirrel fur moves with the slightest twitch or current, creating a living pulse that fish instinctively react to.
Natural Fur With Irresistible Life and Motion
The defining feature of pine squirrel is the way it moves underwater. Each hair is short, silky, and mobile, producing a seductive wave with even the slightest current. Unlike many natural furs that can appear stiff or clumpy, pine squirrel fur remains lively and fluid, making it perfect for flies that rely on micro-movement rather than large, sweeping action.
Because the fur is naturally fine, it never overwhelms the silhouette of the fly. Instead, it creates a compact, edible profile that mimics real prey—leeches, sculpins, small baitfish, aquatic larvae, and even emerging insects. Fish respond to this subtle movement with remarkable aggression, especially in pressured waters where finesse matters. In both rivers and lakes, pine squirrel offers the perfect balance of realism, lifelike motion, and underwater presence.
A Thin, Supple Hide for Clean Tying and Smooth Wrapping
A key advantage of a full zonked pine squirrel skin is the superior quality of the hide. Feather Craft’s skins are tanned to remain soft, flexible, and easy to manipulate. The hide bends naturally around hook shanks, cuts cleanly with scissors, and seats firmly under thread wraps without bunching.
This thin hide also allows the material to wrap smoothly when used for strip-style bodies, producing consistent, professional-looking results. Whether you are tying narrow micro-zonkers or wider streamer strips, the material behaves predictably at the vise. Because the hide doesn’t crack or shed, your flies remain durable even after extended use.
High-quality tanning means the hide does not dry out, stiffen, or lose elasticity over time. You can store a skin for years and still pull vibrant, supple strips from it on demand.
Rich Natural Mottling and Professionally Dyed Colors
Pine squirrel fur has one of the most naturally attractive patterns found in fly tying materials. Even after dyeing, the hide retains its subtle barring and mottling, producing ultra-realistic color gradients that fish instinctively recognize. This mottling perfectly imitates the natural shading found on sculpins, leeches, baitfish, and small aquatic organisms.
Feather Craft offers zonked pine squirrel skins in a wide range of consistent dye colors. Whether you need natural browns and olives for technical trout waters or high-visibility colors for steelhead and warmwater species, the dyed skins maintain uniform tone without sacrificing softness. The final product is a visually dynamic material that enhances any pattern’s realism.
Ultimate Versatility: Cut Your Own Strips, Customize Sizes, and Maximize Material Use
One of the biggest benefits of purchasing a full zonked pine squirrel skin is the ability to cut the exact strips you want. Pre-cut strips only come in one width, but with a full skin you can tailor every zonker to the specific pattern and hook size.
You can cut micro-width strips for tiny streamers and leeches, standard-width strips for traditional zonkers, wider pieces for broad sculpin wings, or angled cuts for articulated streamer designs. The skin also provides extra material for dubbing loops, collars, hackle substitutes, winging, and composite bodies. Virtually every patch of the skin can be used productively.
This flexibility makes zonked skins especially popular among serious tiers, guides, and anyone who ties in high volume. With a single skin, you can produce dozens upon dozens of flies, each precisely tailored to your fishing conditions.
Natural Durability That Outlasts Many Synthetics
Because the hide is strong and elastic, pine squirrel flies hold up extremely well over time. The fur stays anchored, the strip doesn’t dry out or crack, and the flies retain their mobility and shape even after multiple fish. This durability is especially important for patterns that contact rocks, logs, or gravel, and for swinging flies that experience sustained current pressure.
The combination of long-lasting fur and a stable hide makes pine squirrel one of the most dependable materials on the market for streamers, leeches, and nymphs that need to withstand tough conditions.
A Material That Shines Across Countless Fly Patterns
Pine squirrel’s versatility makes it the foundation for a wide range of productive patterns. To illustrate its usefulness, consider these three fly patterns where pine squirrel skin plays a central role.
1. The Pine Squirrel Zonker – A Small, Deadly Streamer
This is the signature pattern that made pine squirrel famous. Using the zonked strips from the skin, the fly creates a sleek, lifelike profile with movement unmatched by rabbit or synthetics. It excels in small streams, pressured water, and cold-weather conditions, producing fish when bigger streamers fail. Whether fished on a dead drift or a slow strip, the Pine Squirrel Zonker pulses with life.
2. The Strip Leech – A Pulsing, High-Action Pattern
When the hide is wrapped around the body, pine squirrel creates a dense, uniform leech imitation that swims naturally in lakes and moving water. The material produces a hypnotic undulation that triggers strikes from trout, bass, and panfish alike. These patterns excel in stillwater environments, where their subtle motion matches the slow, graceful swimming of real leeches.
3. The Micro Sculpin – Realism in a Compact Size
For small rivers where sculpins are a key food source, pine squirrel provides an unbeatable balance of natural mottling and mobile movement. The skin’s barring and fur length perfectly mimic the fins and body of small sculpins. These flies sink quickly, ride properly near the bottom, and trigger violent strikes from big browns and smallmouth bass.
A Must-Have Foundation Material for Serious Fly Tyers
Pine Squirrel Skin – Zonked offers the highest level of creative control and premium fur quality in a single product. Its lifelike movement, natural mottling, supple hide, and unlimited customization make it a staple for any tier serious about producing effective, beautiful, and durable flies. Whether you're tying micro-streamers, swing flies, nymphs, or sculpin patterns, this material provides endless potential and truly elevates your tying.
Add Pine Squirrel Skin – Zonked from Feather Craft Fly Fishing to your tying bench, and experience the unmatched versatility and lifelike action that only premium natural fur can provide.
