All Frank Roden needs is a tie, a fly fish rod and a creek
Story by Paul South
Photos by Wallace Bromberg, Jr.
“Fly fishing is to fishing as ballet is to walking.”
– Howell Raines
“Once you’re a fly fisherman, you’re always a fly fisherman.”
– Frank Roden
From the trout streams of the Great Smoky Mountains to the waters fittingly known as Frank’s Slide at Crow’s Nest Pass in Alberta, Canada, and from Flaming Gorge, Utah, to the tarpon runs in the warm waters of the Florida Gulf Stream, Frank Roden has a trademark.
In the fly-fishing family, he’s “the guy with the tie,” a Windsor-knotted nod to a simpler, more elegant time when fly fishermen dressed to fish like a deacon off to church and before the abomination of “business casual.”
The tie story began when Roden, a 66-year-old Rainbow City auctioneer, furniture salesman and fly-fishing instructor for the iconic Orvis brand, was stalking brown trout in a Smoky Mountain stream. While helping an older angler who struggled to tie a fly on his line, Roden struck up a conversation.
“I miss the days when people used to really dress for fly fishing to the extent of some of us wearing ties,” the older man said.
“I didn’t grow up in those days,” Roden replied. ‘But you know, that’s not going to come back unless we start.’ So I started putting a tie on every time I go trout fishing, and he does the same thing. People have gotten to now where, they say. ‘You must be Frank. We’ve heard about you’, and your tie.
for a day on the water
“To me, it adds not only the opportunity to stop and talk to somebody because they’re inquisitive. I ran into a fella who said, ‘You’re the best dressed fisherman out here.’ It just opens the door up to conversations and getting to meet people. And you might run into people and end up having dinner together.”
And that leads to the hearing and telling of some outrageous fish stories.
“Some, if they caught as many fish as they said they did, it’d sink the boat,” Roden says.
Roden’s own fly-fishing tale began for him at 13 in some unlikely places – in front of the flicker of a television screen and in a combination Conoco gas station and tackle shop on Highway 77 in Southside.
Roden’s father owned a body and fender shop, where Roden worked on weekends. At lunchtime each Saturday, his Dad would let him run home to watch the ABC outdoor show, American Sportsman. A particular episode featured legendary broadcaster Curt Gowdy fly fishing with an icon of the sport, Lee Wulff.
“That summer, I found a fly-fishing rod. A local shop had a rack full of them. I was having to work to earn my money, and it took me most of the summer to earn the money for the rod and reel.”
Until he had enough money, Roden would go to the service station and watch the rod, tucked among other tackle on the rack, making sure no one bought his coveted fly rod. At one point, he asked his dad for a loan to buy the rod. That is where he learned a life lesson.
“Pop said, ‘You don’t spend it ’til you earn it.’
“I kept working that summer and finally got enough money for my fly rod. I went to the shop and pulled out my wadded-up dollar bills and change, laid them on the counter, I didn’t even know what sales tax was. I just knew how much was marked on the rod.”
Roden remembers only the first name of the man behind the counter – James.
“James said, ‘You took my last rod, you might as well take this’ and put a net on the counter. I was trying to whisper, so that nobody else would overhear that I was broke. I wouldn’t take it. He convinced me to take it. Then he reached and pulled a card of flies off the wall. And laid those down and did the same thing.
“Every Saturday afternoon after that, I’d run up to his shop, take a broom and sweep or run errands, whatever he needed. The afternoon after I got my rod, I went to the lake near home, and I caught 18 bream in an afternoon, and I was hooked ever since.”
Fly fishing is in the midst of something of a revival on the waters of Neely Henry and Logan Martin and the streams of Etowah and St. Clair counties. Places like Big Canoe Creek, Black Creek, Cold Creek upstream and Big Wills Creek. The City of Gadsden has created a winter trout fishery in Black Creek at Noccalula Falls Park, and the city is even promoting fly fishing as part of a tourism push.
He calls Neely Henry and its companion streams “a wonderful venue for fly fishing.”
“There’s a number of streams from the Leesburg Dam to the Ohatchee Dam in the Neely Henry Reservoir. All of these creeks that you run into are good for fly fishing. They all should be explored.”
He had particular praise for the City of Gadsden and its efforts.
“Boy has that been good. It’s been great. We should give them a lot of credit for what they’re doing and for putting the winter trout fishery in.” Greater Gadsden Area Tourism has done a lot to promote the fly fishing here.”
He added a few tips: “On the Coosa River system, what I do, is I look for familiar structure. I will ease along the shoreline and look for fish bedding along the shorelines. I look for busting fish out on the water, nervous water or funneling birds that come down. I’m hunting these fish as much as I’m fishing.”
Roden is like an angling detective probing for clues that will lead him to his catch.
“I’ll tell you what the names of the streams are, but I won’t tell you what rock to stand on. If I tell you what rock to stand on, the mystery is solved.”
Roden is one of the local fly-fishing revival’s chief evangelists. For him, fly fishing is more than a sport.
“It’s more than fishing. It becomes a way of life. This is something that’s going to travel with you throughout life. You may lay that rod down. Twenty years from now, somebody may mention fly fishing and you’ll say, ‘Oh, yeah, I’m a fly fisherman.’ Once you are a fly fisherman, you’re always a fly fisherman.”
It’s a sport that demands patience. Like game hunting, fly fishers have to stalk their prey, matching artificial wet and dry flies to local insects that are food for the fish. As Roden puts it, “You have to match the hatch.” Too, it’s about the cast, the drift, the current, hooking the fish properly and on and on. It is a deliberate sport, where ample patience is as important as an accurate cast.
And then there are the stories. Fish stories, it seems, are as old as Jonah in the Old Testament, tales told on back porches and at dinner tables. Frank Roden loves it all.
“I get carried away listening to ’m because most of them have enough truth in them to sound real.”
In one of his stories from a trip to Canada, Roden was in the zone, catching fish regularly. Nearby, two other anglers struggled, with little to show for their efforts. Ever the sportsman, Roden swapped places with his new acquaintances.
He began where he left off, still catching fish. When his friends asked his secret, Roden had a simple response.
“It may be the tie, guys. I don’t know.”
Editor’s Note: For fly fishing instruction or more information on fly fishing locally, visit the Rainbow City Auction and Fly Shop Facebook page, the Rainbow Fly Fishing Club Facebook page, email rauction@gmail.com or call Frank Roden at 256-490-5450.
