Madsen's Skunk

The Skunk is a black-and-white Au Sable fly from Grayling, named for its colors, and it is often cited as one of the first flies tied with rubber legs. Ray Schmidt and Jerry Darkes both tie it to Earl Madsen; Darkes credits Madsen with popularizing it and says he got the white rubber from sources such as truck seats.

Tom Deschaine, writing for Fly Anglers Online, gives a different account: he says the fly was really created in the 1940s by Jerry Webber, a J. L. Hudson's executive who belonged to the Rainbow Club at Grayling, and that Madsen's name became attached to it later.

Many later versions exist. Traverse City guide Ted Kraimer publishes an "improved" Michigan Skunk that adds a strip of black foam over the deer-hair wing so it floats higher, survives teeth and hemostats, and can be stripped under and allowed to pop back up.