This Pink Lady Fly tied by the famous Maine fly tier Carrie Stevens is one of many examples of her work exhibited at the Outdoor Heritage Museum in Oquossoc in the Rangeley Lakes in Maine. The Museum owns the largest collection of her streamer flies used to fish for brook trout and landlocked salmon.
Stevens began tying flies in 1924 at the urging of duck carver and angler Charles “Shang” Wheeler and she caught a large 6 lb. 13-ounce brook trout that received 2nd Prize in the famed “Field and Stream” Magazine Fishing Contest using one of her flies known as a “Shang’s Go-Getum”.
The Shang “Go-Getum” evolved into her famous Gray Ghost streamer fly and Carrie spent many years tying and selling flies under her Rangeley Favorite Trout and Salmon Flies business near the Upper Dam until 1954.
Bill Pierce, the Executive Director of the Outdoor Heritage Museum, says that this Pink Lady was reported to be the last fly that Carrie tied.
Steve Woit is the author of “Fly Fishing Treasures: The World of Fly Fishers and Collecting”, a book featuring profiles of 30 experts and collectors and over 800 photographs of rare and collectible fly rods, reels, flies, books, and ephemera.
