Category Archives: Uncategorized

Montana Fly Fishing Magazine announces their latest issue: Summer 2014. This volume contains 90 pages of colorful photos and videos, personal stories, helpful advice, fly-tying techniques, homegrown videos and poetry.

In this issue:

“Sunup to Sundown” photography by Toby Swank
“How to Get a Kid Hooked on Fly Fishing” by Robert Prince
“Chuck’s Fly Tying Bench” by Chuck Stranahan
“Salmon Bugs” by Western Fly Media
“The 20/20 Club” by Charles Cantella
“YouthFish” by Joe Cummings
“Chasing Summer” photography by Pat Clayton
“Hotspotting on the Yellowstone” by Greg Lewis
“Brown Trout in Bear Trap” by Jesse Bussard, illustrated by Ben Whitehead

After seeing all of the beautiful photos taken by various anglers day by day, I wanted to start a new series of posts here on FrankenFly where I could highlight some of these photos. Sometimes a photo is the next best thing to actually being there or you might be stuck at work but able to quickly see a photo that will propel you into a dream, instead of thinking about the humdrum work you are literally chained to.

I’ll kick this off by displaying a view that have caught my eye recently. Please feel free to send me photos or to send me a link to a photo you think is worth showing others. Contact information can be found on the About FrankenFly page. Enjoy!

photo by Francisco López González

photo from Chris Clemes Rodmakers

Chris Clemes Fly Rod and Reel Makers

photo by Grizzly Hackle Fly Shop

Grizzly Hackle Fly Shop

photo by Dave Hosler

Dave Hosler of Pile Cast

photo by John Montana

John Montana of Carp on the Fly

photo by Gates Au Sable Lodge

Gates Au Sable Lodge

Paying It Forward

The photo is by Joe Nicklo of HMG Fly Systems

photo by John Collins

Joe Nicklo sent me a video using his hot glue method.

A new edition of a Tight Loop emag is out and it’s a good read. Definitely read the piece on the Jordan River and think about signing the petition to help improve the fishing at the Jordan. A cool streamer pattern is included called Hansen’s Harasser shown below and an interesting piece on classic flies by Josh Radlein.

Some of the flies that have caught my eye around the net this month.

Candy Cane – Kevin Raye

Amber Caddis Pupa – Krystian Niemy

Tied by Norbert Renaud

Curtis Fry – Merry Christmas wet fly

Celtic Caddis – Jimbo Busse

Mayfly – Pierre Lainé

Sand Eel – Jack Denny

Lafontaine’s Sparkle Yarn Pupa – Jörgen Danielsson

Wemoc Adams – Mike Valla

JCs Double Trouble Christmas Caddis

The Au Sable River Holy Waters are being threatened by oil and gas. Watch the video below and then head over to The Fiberglass Manifesto to read Cameron’s post about this. It will explain what you can do to help. I have already sent my email. If you have ever went to Michigan and enjoyed the Au Sable or Manistee Rivers, please take a little time to send an email per the instructions. The final decision is December 12th, so please do it as soon as possible. Thank you!

The river corridor is once more being threatened by gas & oil. The Michigan DNR has leased 2800 acres of land for gas & oil exploration to a company called Encana. Unfortunately that land runs adjacent to the “Holy Waters” on the main stream of the Au Sable. Go to The Fiberglass Manifesto for more information.

I developed an obsession with crane flies last summer. It started as a vengeance of sorts – my partner Jay Zimmerman and I getting skunked at a backcountry lake…the kind it had taken half a day just to find. Add on that hours of casting, re-rigging and sweat, and you start to feel you’re deserving. At least, of one fish.

But we weren’t, and walked the five miles out at dusk muttering….we really need a crane fly pattern.

They had been hatching (and readily devoured) all over the surface of the water, all day, but neither of us had a pattern to match. Jay had some Halfbacks we coated with floatant, but the cutthroats knew better (which is always somewhat insulting – like cheerleaders scoring better than you on a test).

A few weeks later I trapped one flying around the mason-jar yard light, with another mason jar (these might in fact, be the most useful things in the world aside from duct tape). I sat at the kitchen table and stared at it, as a ghost of the kid who I once was, transfixed before a praying mantis cocooning on a magnolia tree twig in a sun-tea jar. I remember feeling empowered, reading that after mating, the female eats the male. She had the power. How cool, I thought, always feelingsomewhat jipped by the birds at my mom’s feeders in the backyard — the males were always prettier. The females? Pragmatically dressed to care, feed, and hide the young. You know, the usual. And to my growing mind of certain leanings, it was a microcosmic view of what I feared awaited me. A praying mantis should really be the mascot of N.O.W.

But, it isn’t. And wasn’t, thank god.

So I continued looking at the crane fly in that mason jar, eventually letting him go to fly around the house until he escaped through the door propped open for my dog Banjo.

Then just a month ago, one appeared dead on the bathroom floor. I left him there, exactly where he lay — just like a CSI investigator would do — a body on a scene. The gestalt. That’s how I do things creatively — I type and write and tack pictures up on my wall — keeping the subject always before me, trying to understand its entirety. For that, is worship — and worship in some form is necessary for creation. It need not always be praise-full though, or ripe with joy or even thanks. I fully believe there to be a type entered into out of fear, hatred, or in this case, avengement. And sometimes this sort of worship is the truest, if we’re honest.

So for a good month, I swept and cleaned around him, left undisturbed as an ever-constant reminder that I needed to do something — a pattern after his kind. I’m sure preserving an insect for observation on one’s bathroom floor is considered uncouth, and I was glad there wasn’t any company expected during that time (and be it un, well then I’d have a good excuse…caught unawares, you know).

Having decided I had stared enough, I picked up and pinned him above my tying desk to look at some more. To worship. To tie. And as I did, I thought about the lake, it’s lay, and how I would go back with this fly. Yes, this next high lake season, I’ll have crane flies in my box.

Crater’s Crane Fly
Hook: TMC 100 size 18
Body:Ferruled dubbing loop (brown dubbing)
Legs: Four turkey tail feathers, 1 fiber knotted for each leg
Wings: Brahma hen soft-hackle feathers trimmed on one side and tied back in a loop
Hackle: Brown saddle hackle