Fly Tied By:
Carl Defazio
Recipe By: Carl
Defazio
Story By: Carl
Defazio
Home: Romney, West
Virginia
E-mail:
cddefazio@citlink.net
Web site:
www.mountaineerflies.com |
Carl is an Industrial Forester with a passion for
fly-fishing and fly-tying. His home water is the beautiful
South Branch of the Potomac River in West Virginia, where he
also has a small business called Mountaineer Flies.
One of his biggest fly-fishing thrills was catching and
releasing a 5.8 pound smallmouth in 1996. |
That Christmas definitely changed my life. It
was 1991, and I was not really in the mood for joyous celebration.
You see, my little girl was dying of a terrible, mostly overlooked
disease, Anorexia Nervosa. She was starving herself to death. The
doctors gave her a 50-50 chance to live.
The present that Jackie gave her daddy that
Christmas was a Cabella's Fly Tying Kit. It had a vice, bobbin,
bodkin and a few other things. I told her that I loved it. But it
was only she that I loved. Jackie recovered
and has moved on to be a Graphics Designer and married a great guy.
She has a son and a happy life.
A year or two after Jackie's recovery, I found
that little kit buried on my workbench. I looked at it again and all
the memories came back. I really didn't know anything about the
tools and other items in the kit, but I spent a Saturday figuring
them out. I knew nothing about fly tying even though I loved to fly
fish. I borrowed some thread from my wife, used some hair from a fox
squirrel, lashed the hair to a bait hook (3/0) and hurried to
the South Branch. I loaded the leader with split shot and "let fly".
On the second or third try I hooked, landed and released a
smallmouth. On my own fly! Needless to say, I was hooked at fly
tying and have been ever since.
Thanks, Jackie. I love you.
--Carl Defazio
PS, Jackie designed the logo for Mountaineer
Flies while in college. You can see it on my Web site.
|
First Fly, as tied by Carl Defazio |
|
Photo by Peter Frailey
|
Tying Sequence:
Hook:
Size 3/0, Mustad 33637
Thread: Wife’s
sewing thread
Underbody: None
Tail:
Fox Squirrel Tail
Body: Fox Squirrel
Tail
Rib: Wife’s sewing thread |
|
|
