Icons of the Fly Vest: Au Sable Skunk

Another Michigan fly tricking fish around the planet

Apr 13, 2009 Jeff Smith

Todd Zawistowski

Renowned Au Sable guide Earl Madsen invented the Au Sable Skunk back about the 1950’s, and it has become a go-to fly for fishermen throughout the hot summer days when springtime flies have lost their effectiveness. Unlike many flies, this fly is fished as a dry fly (floating on top of the water) and as a wet fly (underwater). Some fishermen contend it is perhaps the best all-around underwater fly today. “Earl was a real nice guy, kind of quiet,” says longtime Grayling guide Jerry McClain. Madsen and his fishing partner, Jerry Weber, would eat their lunch sitting on a log by a little creek, a spring hole, on the South Branch, McClain recalls. And that Au Sable Skunk, “it was a fish killer.”

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