Category Archives: Bucket Mouth League

Bucket Mouth League – recent posts

I have been seeing several fly fishers out there posting under the #bucketmouthleague hashtag and I am really happy about that! So here are some great shots from all of you out there supporting the Bucket Mouth League!

Source is given by their Instagram account name.

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FrankenFly Update!

I thought I would take a moment to give all of you an update on what is going on lately with FrankenFly. I am working on some really cool new products, but I will get to that in a minute.

The fishing season for me has been kind of weird this year. The weather around here has been a lot of rain. It has blown out the main river I fish over and over again. However, something new I started doing this year, is Musky fishing. I’ve had many follows but no takers, but my buddy, Josh King caught a good one. Let me tell you, even when your buddy catches one of these awesome specimens, it gives you the fever! I’ll keep hunting for my own.

I have also went up to Michigan, as I do every year, and fished for trout. The weather was unseasonably cold up there and the wind was strong. I did manage to have a good day of fishing with my buddy, Chad Fath of CF River Products. We were throwing dry flies and there were caddis in groves, but even though we started the trip about 2:30pm, we didn’t really see any risers until the sun started to go down. Then a Sulphur hatch was happening, the trout were rising everywhere and we caught a lot of fish. We didn’t catch any monsters, but we caught a bunch of’em!

When I returned from Michigan, I picked a nice morning and went out to one of my favorite ponds and fished for some bluegill and largemouth bass. The bass were even acting strange and were not eating a whole lot. I did manage to catch a few and caught several bluegill. I used a fiberglass rod, the TFO Finesse Glass in a 4/5 weight and it was a really nice rod to use on the pond. I would highly recommend it.

So, besides fishing, I have been tying fly orders and working new products. The first new product I will be releasing is called Vampire Sheep Hair. If you think I had trouble gathering Werewolf Hair, this stuff is an entirely new type of challenge to obtain, haha. Ok, so really, Vampire Sheep Hair is really Icelandic Sheep hair and I blend in some thin flash. It’s going to be great to use on all of your streamers. You can use it for heads, bodies, and tails. If you are looking for something to fill out your body, even replace something like Arctic Fox, this stuff can do it. It is really nice stuff. You might have seen my Musky fly that I posted with the double barbell eyes. I’ve used it for that and it really keeps the body and profile of that fly even in the water. Vampire Sheep Hair is coming soon. I’ll post when it is ready for purchase.

Another product that should be coming soon, is FrankenFlash. This will be flash that you can use in all of your flies. Like most of my products, this flash is a bit different, but really high quality stuff. This is a fine-fiber synthetic material mixed with twisted fibers with sheen. It will add terrific sparkle and flash to your flies.

There are also a few other products in the works that I can’t say much about right now, but I think you will be surprised to see what is coming from FrankenFly in the future. I really appreciate all of you that continue to visit the FrankenFly website and purchase my flies and materials. Thank you all!

-Paul J. Beel

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Filed under Bluegill, Bucket Mouth League, FrankenFly

FrankenFrog – Paul J. Beel

My FrankenFrog is now available in the FrankenFly online fly shop. Just click the FrankenTrout on the upper right column of the website.

I wanted to post some of my thought process that happened when I was designing this frog. It actually came out much better than expected and I wasn’t even thinking about a frog at the time. I have been using the FrankenFrog ever since the fishing season began this year and it has been tearing it up! As you can see by the recent largemouth I caught.

One of the primary reasons you might design a fly is to solve a particular problem. Many times, as a fly designer, there are various products that may give you an idea for a fly that you may not have thought of otherwise.

Through the years I have tried many times to design a frog fly. I was really trying to solve a problem which is to have a top water fly that resembled a frog, so bass would go crazy over it. I never was happy with what I designed for this type of fly or it didn’t swim or pop to my liking. Eventually I abandoned the thought of designing a frog and any time I wanted to fish this type of fly, I would just throw a larger popper.

That was until I was staring at a pile of various Rainy’s poppers I had lying on the kitchen table. There were many shapes and colors and I thought it would be fun to throw together some kind of funky popper. I wasn’t even thinking about a frog at this point. I began placing them next to each other, cutting the fronts or backs off, and generally thinking about different ways I could tie things together.

Then as I place some pieces together, a frog started to take shape, but I was still fighting the thought, because I had never been happy with this type of fly in the past. But it really started to fall in place and as I kept thinking about how to tie the fly together, I clarified in my mind how each section might work. Then I went to the vise and got to work. Piece by piece this frog came alive!

The FrankenFrog rides on a Partridge of Redditch Universal Predator X hook and also has some FrankenFly Monster Dub thrown in to hide some connections. The Rainy’s foam makes this thing float all day long and the kick of the back legs are just crazy good.

Of course this fly takes some time to tie, but it is an extremely effective fly and does its job well. I am super excited about how it came out and I wanted to make sure it kept fishing well after catching many fish and it has. So I thought this would be a good time to post some information about it. Once again, thank you for reading FrankenFly!

-Paul J. Beel

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Filed under Bucket Mouth League, Foam, FrankenFly, Poppers

Bucket Mouth League – Get ready for another season!

First, if you don’t know what the Bucket Mouth League is, read here: http://www.frankenfly.com/bucket-mouth-league/

Ok ladies and gentlemen of the Bucket Mouth League, we need to turn it up a notch this year! The target I would like to really hit this year, is Instagram. That’s where the #BucketMouthLeague hashtag gets used the most and I see all kinds of fly fishers posting about a largemouth they caught, but alas, they do not use the hashtag. (This makes me sad.) Could they not know about the Bucket Mouth League? Say it ain’t so! (Yes, I know “ain’t”, ain’t a word, so what.)

This is where we come in! The veterans of the Bucket Mouth League. Season after season, we have fought in the trenches, paddled, motored, waded,  and swam to our favorite honey hole to catch those puuuurty bucket mouths! We need to show these non-believers, what they are missing! We need to show them the joy and enthusiasm of catching these beautiful creatures! So this year, we let it be known that we are the Bucket Mouth League! Get out there this season and when you catch one of these babies with your fly rod, post that #BucketMouthLeague hashtag on Instagram along with your photo, so everyone will know, we are the Bucket Mouth League!

Go…Go…Go!

 

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New Ride

Hello FrankenFly readers! I haven’t checked in and made a post about what’s happening in my fly fishing world for quite some time, so I figured I would throw something up.

I was finally able to pickup the boat for me recently and I couldn’t be happier. I have tried bass boats, canoes, and smaller kayaks, but haven’t been that happy. I enjoy drift boats, but they don’t fit the fishing in my area. So I’ve been into fly fishing from a kayak for two seasons now and love it! I just enjoy paddling my kayak, even if I’m not catching fish, so that’s huge. I recently sold my Perception Sound 10.5 that I have enjoyed and picked up a Jackson Kayak Kilroy. It is a longer boat with more stability and some advanced features, like a terrific seat and gear tracks for mounts. I took her out on a maiden voyage this past weekend and she paddles smooth and tracks very well. I was even able to stand up in the kayak, something I do not normally do. But with this boat, it’s easy.

Coming in at 12 feet 4 inches, it’s a couple of feet longer than my Perception and I love the added room. One thing I have debated on was removing the black pod that rides on top in front of the kayak. It is easily removable, but I wanted to try it first on the water. Now that I have, I think I am going to take it off to enjoy even more room in the front of the boat. This is a sit inside kayak, that reminds me a lot of a canoe, but with a lot more stability. I mean a lot more! The seat can be adjusted to a low or high position. I mainly keep it in the high position for better casting while sitting. That way you don’t hit the water on your backcast.

If you want a boat to get out on the water, I definitely recommend kayaks. You can get them at a reasonable cost and with no motor to deal with, it’s a no fuss way to get you out there.

Besides the new kayak, I’ve had a wonderful season of fishing. I caught some awesome fish while on vacation in Michigan this summer. I fished my local smallmouth river much more this season to learn more about the fishery. Lately, I’ve been concentrating on tying and fishing for bluegill and doing some Bucket Mouth League style of fishing.

I have two events coming up soon if you want to check them out. October 7th, I’ll be at J.L. Waters Adventure Outfitters in Bloomington, Indiana from 10am to 2pm tying flies. You are welcome to come in and watch or bring your vise and sit and tie with me. On October 19th, I’ll be in Fort Wayne, Indiana giving a bluegill presentation to the Three River Fly Fishers club. The meeting starts at 7pm. If you are interested in going, contact the Three Rivers Fly Fishers.

I hope all of you had a great fishing season as well. It’s not over yet, so get out there and fish! Thank you all for reading FrankenFly, I really appreciate it!

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Bucket Mouth League – April 2017

It’s been almost two years since the Bucket Mouth League was born right here on FrankenFly and it is still going strong! I was checking out the hashtag #bucketmouthleague on Instagram and this year has already started off on fire! There were so many, that I had trouble grabbing just a few photos for this post. The Bucket Mouth League is better than ever!
I want to thank all of you Bucket Mouth League members who have used the hashtag and continue to embrace the passion for Large Mouth Bass on the fly! Keep it up!

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Zudbubbler sale ends this weekend

I want to send a thanks out to everyone that ordered Zudbubblers and other flies from my online store during the recent sale. I still have a few sale orders to tie and send out. The Zudbubbler sale has been a success, but all good things come to an end. So this weekend will be the end of the sale.

http://frankenfly.storenvy.com

Here are a few shots of some of the orders that came through. Also, I went out last weekend and threw some Zudbubbers to largemouth, so check it out!

-Paul

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Filed under Bucket Mouth League, Foam, Largemouth, Poppers, Smallmouth

Bucket Mouth League update – July 2016

How’s the Bucket Mouth League doing out there this summer? Well, see for yourself!
#bucketmouthleague

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