When I was a kid Paul Kukonen had a fly shop on Green Street in Worcester. It was not like the fly shops you see today. His was a mess. There was stuff everywhere -- no fancy displays -- just shelves with plain brown cardboard boxes and coat stands with waders and rain coats randomly hanging from them. The front counter had a glass top and there were some fly reels and fly boxes inside. An old cash register sat on top at the end nearest the front wall. Despite the mess he could always be depended on to find whatever you happen to be looking for. I bought a saddle hackle once -- he poked a box down from the top shelf with a broom handle and caught it in his arms. There, inside was the saddle hackle I was looking for. I still have it. I think I was planning on tying a lot of dry flies. Now I have no interest in tying tiny dry flies but you never know, maybe I'll use those feathers someday. I don't know how old I was, I was probably in high school, but he seemed like an old man. And the other customers that hung out in his store were old looking too. I was told that Paul slept in the back room with his english setter. I wouldn't doubt it. He was one small step away from being homeless.
Even though Paul was not well off financially he was kind of famous. Curt Gouty and Lee Wulff even mention him in the film they made about fishing Minipi trout. Paul also made movies and showed them around Worcester, Springfield, and Boston. My father who also made and showed movies back then told me that Paul used his original footage rather than spending the money to have a print made. He spent all his money, all his life on fishing. He was the archetypal trout bum.
Here is a good article about Paul that was published in the Worcester T&G, Feb 9, 2015:
Now that you have a mental picture of Paul and his store, I'll tell you about the secret fly. I remember the day that he explained it to me. A friend of mine, Steve and I stopped into Paul's store for something -- I don't remember what but I remember that there were no other customers in the store (which was rare). I took the opportunity to explain to him who I was. He had know idea who I was so I explained that my father was Carl Scott and our neighbor and good friend was Jack Swedberg. My father and Jack knew Paul very well from the movie making and showing circuit. There were times when they would all be at some sportsmen's club or church showing their movies together. Paul made fishing movies, Carl and Jack made wildlife movies.
So now Paul knew who I was -- and knew that I was not just some random customer. We got talking about salmon fishing on the Dennys. He knew about it and had tried it but there wasn't enough action for him. He wanted to catch and eat trout. In all honesty he probably couldn't afford to spend a week staying in a cabin or hotel room hoping that he might catch one fish if he were lucky. He asked me if I had ever tried a particular fly that he had invented and that seemed to work on all kinds of trout and salmon. It called for a dubbed body of muskrat fur, a wood duck feather wound backwards and an another darker brown hackle wound the normal way over it. Barbules of that same dark brown hackle were also used as a tail. It was a very drab looking wet fly -- drab and very buggy looking wet fly. I did end up catching a few Atlantic salmon on it as well as landlocks and trout. I've never seen a picture of it or a description of it anywhere. My name for it is the PK Special. I am planning on making a video and posting it on my YouTube channel -- hopefully I'll get to it this week.
