I’m often given flies when at fly fishing shows and speaking gigs by generous fly tyers. I do my best to fish each and every one of them. At the January Edison Fly Fishing Show, the “Girl with the Musky Tattoo” gave me one of the most amazing flies ever. It’s a muskellunge fly exactly a foot long. Big and bushy and full of life. The artist quality fly looks so much like a redhorse sucker it’s incredible. It has a large trailer hook and the front hook is a treble hook cut down to two hooks (I’ve taken off all the barbs). I rarely fish big flies for big fish. A lot of this has to do with a torn rotator cuff, elbow tendonitis and a list of other issues most major-league pitchers don’t pitch long enough to experience. I’m a believer that all fish are savages and when they’re hungry, no matter how big the food is, they eat if given the opportunity. But this fly is so impressive, tonight I took it to a sneaky little musky lake Granny and I enjoy fishing. This wasn’t a serious expedition, just an evening where we both had to get out after a hard day of work.
Because I don’t fish gigantic flies, my musky rod is a 9-weight. It was a chore of all chores to cast this fly on my 9. I only managed about 25-30 decent casts. But they were good enough to catch a fish. The water is dark on this lake and our light was low. I could track the fly as it came in but I didn’t see any followers. That doesn’t mean they weren’t there. This fly looked spectacular!
Despite not seeing or catching a fish tonight (that’s musky fishing), I’m determined to get one on this fly. Next week I’m headed east to pick up a boat. This includes swinging by the Scientific Anglers 80th anniversary party and a few fishing days in Michigan. One of these days will be on the massive Lake St. Clair with guide Eric Grajewski. Living in a van for 12 days, I won’t be packing my 12-weight for one day. But Eric says he’ll have one. I can’t wait. Stay tuned!