I remember buying these flies in the Hamilton MT hardware store (there was no fly shop then) in 1960, when I was about 12 or so. I do remember they were fun to look at but hell to cast.
I think the Bunyan Bug was largely forgotten until the River Runs Through It movie came along. I'll never forget the filming of that movie. I was guiding for George Anderson that summer and I spent quite a few days up on the CA ranch, where they filmed a great deal of the most familiar footage.
The scene (if you remember it) where Norman McLean's fiance drove the old model T Ford through the railroad tunnel must have taken two or three days to film. The old model T they were riding in was encapsulated in a cocoon of heavy guage aluminum pipes, to which several cameramen and sound guys were attached. They had flat black tarps that must have been 100' on a side draped over the tunnel entrance, in order to control the light.
I remember being way down below, under the high railroad trestle at the end of the tunnel, guiding some young not-much-English-speaking Frenchmen. I saw a figure overhead waving his arms at us. I thought it must be somebody trying to bad-vibe us off the movie set. I squinted my eyes and cocked my ear. It was Robert Redford.
"How is the fishing?" he bellowed.
"eeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHaaaah" I answered.
