John Bonasera, known as CatskillJohn on Instagram ties some amazing Catskill flies and has dove deep into their history. Since it’s March, I thought I would post a March Brown by John. Here is what John had to say about the fly.
“I love bugs and mayflies in particular, but there’s always one that you especially love. I have some fond memories of these floating downstream, never blanketing the water but just ramdom sightings. They also seem to be the friendliest of all mayflies, as I seem to always find one on my shirt. This one on an old Mustad 94831, orange thread like how Art Flick liked’em, and three hackle colors, ginger, brown and grizzly. Also, the heavily barred wood duck flank that closely imitates a march brown’s speckled wings. I know guys go nuts for Hendrickson’s, but to me, the March brown is “the” bug of the Catskills.”
About 10 years ago I saw a fly on a website that I was in just awe over. You know how you see a particular fly and you immediately have a thought of, “Holy crap, that’s awesome!” Well this fly did this for me. I of course began to scramble to find information about the fly. It didn’t take long to find out this fly was called a flymph and was tied by Bill Shuck. Bill called it an Isonychia Flymph.
Isonychia Flymph – Bill Shuck
I was friends with well known fly tyer, Don Bastian, that had mentioned Bill on his blog. So I sent over an email to Don asking him about it. Don said, “Oh, hi Paul, I have Bill’s contact information, why don’t you just ask him about it.” So excitedly, I did just that!
Come to find out Bill Shuck was a very nice guy and was thrilled that I was interested in flymphs. So as I began tying these flies, I would send an email to Bill every time I tried a different fly pattern and have him critique it. He would reply with opinions and suggestions on every one. He became a mentor to me in tying flymphs and soft hackles. I learned how to tie these the right way, with Bill’s guidance. It was an amazing time in my fly tying life. Unfortunately, we lost Bill in 2019. But I will always be grateful to him for spending the time to teach me this style of fly tying.
I know a lot of people don’t understand what flymphs are, so here is the definition of a flymph:
“A wingless artificial fly with a soft, translucent body of fur or wool which blends with the undercolor of the tying silk when wet, utilizing soft hackle fibers easily activated by the currents to give the effect of an insect alive in the water, and strategically cast diagonally upstream or across for the trout to take just below or within a few inches of the surface film.”
-The Art of Tying The Wet Fly and Fishing The Flymph; J.E. Leisenring, V.S. Hidy, 1971.
Below are some of Bill’s flies, tied and photographed by him. I hope you enjoy them. Oh and if you haven’t fished a soft hackle or flymph, you should definitely try it. They can be deadly.
I’ve admired Pete’s fly tying for several years. He’s been knocking it out of the park lately with some amazing flies. Below you can find several that caught my eye. You can follow Pete on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/flyenvy/
He had this to say when I asked him about fly tying.
“My passion is dry fly fishing but living in the PNW means lots of salmon and steelhead flies coming off the vise. Getting to tie and fish summer dries is a treat – especially when both happen in the same day!”
Hair Body Stimulator
Neversink Trude Attractor – Fran Betters fly pattern
The Northern Angler Fly Shop in Traverse City, Michigan have had many different fly tyers tie live in their shop. They have several videos on their YouTube channel. Recently they had one of my favorite fly tyers, Russ Maddin, in to tie. He ties a series of variations of a dry fly he calls The Scorpion. This is a very cool fly and I was definitely inspired by watching. So check it out below.
The 2024 Sowbug Roundup fly fishing show is going on this weekend in Mountain Home, Arkansas. Be sure to visit if you are able, it’s a great fly tying show.
This is a fly created by me, Paul Beel, and it has been one of my most popular flies. I created it for bluegill, but it has caught all kinds of species, including trout, carp, smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, crappie, and salmon, to name a few. Below are a few questions I answered regarding the fly in an interview one time and also a fly tying video by the talented Tim Flagler of Tightline Productions.
What made you design or decided to create this fly? Well, I wasn’t real excited about the other flies I’ve seen that are used for bluegill under the surface of the water. I’ve seen people use Pheasant Tails or Soft Hackles. That’s all fine, but I wanted a fly that was definitely targeting bluegill.
What was your inspirations on this fly? I really didn’t have any direct inspirations for this fly. I just sat down at the vise and started putting it together. The one thing I knew I wanted to include, was rubber legs. The first iteration was not weighted correctly and spun around like crazy when I fished it, haha. So I made some adjustments and tried again and again, until I ended up with the final version.
When did you come up with this pattern? It was back in April of 2017.
Do you have any techniques for fishing this fly? You can fish this fly in a couple of different ways and you can also vary your retrieve to be fast or slow. You can drop this fly down and then lift it back up, in other words, jigging the fly. You can also just cast it out and start stripping it back in. Sometimes you might strip slow or you may have to strip a little faster, depending on what the bluegill are wanting. What has worked the best for me is a gradual retrieve, making 6 or 8 inch strips and keeping it steady.
Bluegill Belly Bean recipe: Hook: Daiichi 4640 Heavy Wire Jig Hook size 6 Tail: One micro rubber leg Four strands of Krystal Flash Back body: Petite Estaz Between back and front body: Two micro rubber legs on each side Front body: FrankenDUB Nymph Dubbing Eyes: x-small Double Pupil Dumbbell Lead Eyes
For those of you that don’t know, I created FrankenFly back in 2012. It was a website dedicated to fly tyers and fly tying. I posted hundreds of posts on the original site that I unfortunately lost. So I’m starting fresh here. I plan to post all types of fly tying information, flies, fly tyers, and videos.
I hope you enjoy the new look. A lot of readers in the past did not like the all black with text over the top because it could be difficult to read. I thought this was a cleaner look.
Please spread the word that the FrankenFly website is back. Thank you all for reading!
