Gary Tanner
CGF, Certified Grumble Framer
My main interest in life is fly fishing for Atlantic salmon, particularly on the Miramichi River in New Brunswick, Canada (I'm almost finished building our camp there, but that's another story!). In line with that is my interest in fly tying and especially the history that goes along with flies (I'm a former executive director of the American Museum of Fly Fishing, for whatever that's worth). A wealthy American name of Ira Gruber spent the fishing season on the Miramichi in Doaktown, NB from the '30's to the 60's. He developed what many call the "miramichi-style) of flies. One of his most famous creations is a salmon fly called the Oriole.
Some time ago I obtained a batch of flies Gruber tied and amongst them was an Oriole. One of the most famous fly shops in the Maritimes is Doak's fly shop, in, off all places, Doaktown, NB. Started by Wallace Doak, now run by his son Jerry. In a small collection that was given to me were Orioles tied by both Doaks. A little project of mine was figuring out the correct dye mix to get to the wing color that Gruber used on his Orioles. I finally got it right (and wrote about it here: https://theriverscourse.blogspot.com/2025/01/the-orioles-wingfinally.html The Oriole's Wing...Finally if any of you are dying (see what I did there?) to learn about dyeing) and tied a few of my own.
I also peruse various auction sites often looking for interesting art or stuff that might be cool in a shadow box along with flies. Found a postcard on ebay that even states "Landing the Salmon" Salmon Fishing Miramichi River New Brunswick! The postmark on the address side is 1919 (I have another version of the same photo, but in color, that has a 1909 postmark.
Trying to shorten the long story, I created a shadow box that combined the post card and the four Orioles. I'm creating an exhibit at the Atlantic Salmon Museum in Doaktown that will center on Gruber and some of his colleagues that visited him at his cottage in Doaktown like Charles DeFeo and Preston Jennings (famous tyers in their own right). Here's the final product.
Gary
little shadow box (its 11" x 12")
:
Some time ago I obtained a batch of flies Gruber tied and amongst them was an Oriole. One of the most famous fly shops in the Maritimes is Doak's fly shop, in, off all places, Doaktown, NB. Started by Wallace Doak, now run by his son Jerry. In a small collection that was given to me were Orioles tied by both Doaks. A little project of mine was figuring out the correct dye mix to get to the wing color that Gruber used on his Orioles. I finally got it right (and wrote about it here: https://theriverscourse.blogspot.com/2025/01/the-orioles-wingfinally.html The Oriole's Wing...Finally if any of you are dying (see what I did there?) to learn about dyeing) and tied a few of my own.
I also peruse various auction sites often looking for interesting art or stuff that might be cool in a shadow box along with flies. Found a postcard on ebay that even states "Landing the Salmon" Salmon Fishing Miramichi River New Brunswick! The postmark on the address side is 1919 (I have another version of the same photo, but in color, that has a 1909 postmark.
Trying to shorten the long story, I created a shadow box that combined the post card and the four Orioles. I'm creating an exhibit at the Atlantic Salmon Museum in Doaktown that will center on Gruber and some of his colleagues that visited him at his cottage in Doaktown like Charles DeFeo and Preston Jennings (famous tyers in their own right). Here's the final product.
Gary
little shadow box (its 11" x 12")
)
