CTF Name: Frank
Real Name: Frank DeFrancesco
Age: 51
Family Members: Wife Laurie, daughter Katrina 16, son Jimmy 10
Current City: Shelton, CT
Hometown: New Britain, CT
Occupation: Owner/Director/Coach: Arena Gymnastics, Inc. Stamford, CT

1.You own a gymnastics facility in Stamford. How did you get interested in gymnastics?
Back in high school, I used to do a lot of springboard diving so I was used to aerial side of the sport. When in college, gymnastics was a required course and I was recruited by the gymnastics coach to compete for CCSC (now U) and have been teaching/coaching since.


The gym, set-up for some pre-school routines.

2. You've trained and brought many kids to national competitions. Tell us about the work that goes into getting an athlete to that level.
First and foremost, as a coach, you have to accept the fact that it takes years to be ready for the challenge. Then you have to convince the athlete and the parents that it takes YEARS and they must be ready for that challenge. Then you have to plan those years out and stay as close to your plan as possible yet be ready to deviate from it when necessary without ever losing sight of your goal.

3. Tell us about the major competitions your athletes have competed in and won.
In the past, we've competed in Europe and came in 1st in an Italian meet and in the top 3 a couple of times in a meet in Leverkusen, Germany.

We also have USAGymnastics Championships where we have had numerous event national champions and two all around national champs.

Several team titles including over 40 CT State Team titles at different levels.


Paige S. at the 2007 USAG Regional Championships held on Long Island in the spring.

4. Do you have a competition that is most memorable or significant for you?
There are two...

In a year where my father was terminally ill and failing, my athletes were prepared to attend the National Championship without me. At the last minute I flew to Utah in time for their competition and they proceeded to win the team title and one of my athletes also won the Individual all around title. I believe they took home eight medals from this meet.

This past season, I had four athletes who qualified for a national meet. One of them has a dad who has lung cancer and as you can imagine, training has been an emotional roller coaster. He was supposed to attend this meet with her but had an "issue" that kept him home (hospitalized unknown to her). His only request was that she bring home a gold medal and she did the one that really counts the National All Around title as well as a couple of others. Her teammates as well had a great meet and I think we totaled 13 medals for the four kids including one additional gold.


Paige S. at the 2007 USAG Eastern National Championships in FL, where she won the gold medal in the All Around.


Paige with a nice bluefish.

5. You were swapping fishing information online before ctfisherman.com existed. What do you enjoy most about ctfisherman.com?
The information is fantastic but without question it is the camaraderie. It has gone well beyond a message board for me and I have met people that I certainly would never have met without CTF and I now consider some of them as my best friends.



6. You have the cool accomplishment of catching stripers in the Housatonic River for 12 months in a row. (Link to original fishing report.) What were the top producing lures and techniques that you used?
I have to clarify that this was done before the winter fishery turned into what it is now. I remember getting skunked 11 times before I landed a December fish that year.

The real challenge was to match the forage at the time of year. Sluggos and 3 or 4 inch shad bodies probably produced more fish than any other baits but topwaters, swimmers and fin-s also produced during different times of year. The sluggos on a jighead fished LOW and SLOW were the best cold water producers and shad bodies jigged and fluttered down produced when the forage was alewife or peanut bunker. Topwaters, swimmers and large fin-s during the herring run.

7. How many different species have you caught in the Housatonic?
The Hous is an absolute blast. Living .5 mile from the river in Shelton gives me a very rare opportutinty to fish a great fishery at the drop of a hat.

Species I have caught...
stripers, LMB, SMB, salmon, pike, brooktrout, rainbow trout, carp, hickory shad, gizzard shad (accidentily snagged), sunfish, yellow perch, white perch, bluefish, spot tail shiners, dace...

I have seen American shad, cats & walleye caught as well but have not been fortunate enough to catch any of them.

8. How did you first get interested in fishing?
My uncle, Stanley Cop got me started in the sport. The annual fishing derby at Stanley Quarter Park in New Britain kept me awake for days as it approached. He took me along with his sons and I’ve been hooked since.


Son, Jimmy D.

9. What is your most memorable fishing experience?
It was probably my 1st offshore trip with Jonh and DonP. We buddied up with JohnfromMadison, PaulD and MadMike for one of the initial offshore CTF trips. Sharking was an absolute thrill and that trip and the experience will be with me forever.

10. Is there a species of fish that you haven't caught that you would most like to catch?
I have really never fished outside of CT so there are many but any type of billfish would probably satisfy me for a very long time!

11. You've fished with quite a few members of CTF. Do you have a memorable trip that stands out for you?
My REAL intro to CTF was a togging trip with T-Man and Kapt. It was the 1st time we met and the 3 amigos were born. I have never laughed that hard in my life!!!!!

There were also two striper trips that were just awesome. A trip with Blaine, Mitch last season and one this season with Blaine and T-Man that were just plain ridiculously great!

12. Do you have a memorable fish that got away story?
I had a fish hooked at the Derby Dam that just absolutely kicked my butt. I was on the Shelton side and this beast exploded on my popper and started to run downriver with the fast current from the dam pulling drag like crazy. Then to my surprised it turned into the current and ran upriver along Hog Island and decided it was going around the island to the Derby side and I could to nothing but watch and laugh. My gear? Penn Int 965 with 50lb whiplash and I couldn’t even slow it down. Up around the island until “pop”, she was gone!

13. What would you say to anyone who has never tried ice-fishing?
Leave CTF or you'll get dragged into the insanity. LOL! I swore I would never, EVER set foot on the ice. Now I probably fish the ice twice a week before work all winter long including crazy trips to E Twin with MikeG and CaptA which takes almost 1.5 hrs 1 way.
Mitch IT’S ALL YOUR FAULT!!!! Thanks buddy.

14. You have a business in Stamford, a home in Shelton and cottage in Lyme. You've trailered your boat up and down the coast, and partnered with different people from the site. If you had to choose just one location to launch a boat from all season to provide the most consistent good fishing, where would it be?
All season or all year? If I had one place to choose to fish 12 months/year it would be Shelton. For multi species and consistent fishing the Hous is an incredible fishery. You may need to change gears but there is always something to catch there.

From June-Nov it would be the Niantic area. For pure saltwater, this area is as good as it gets with it’s immediate fishery as well as it’s proximity to the Race, Gut, RI and Montauk as well as offshore.

15. Is there someone from the site who you have never fished with who you would like to?
There are several, too may to mention, even though it doesn’t always look like it I still do work and time is limited. God willing I’ll get to most of them, maybe all of them, over the next few years.

16. Do you have any funny stories about reactions from friends, family or co-workers about your fishing?
I was at a gym meet in Tampa, FL one January a few years back and it was about 55 degrees out. The locals were freezing -- if they only knew -- and I was walking around in short sleeves claiming how warm it was. When my friend who was running the meet asked jokingly if I was doing any fishing up north I had them pull up CTF on the computer. There on the homepage was yours truly holding a 5lb brown caught at Iceholes on a balmy 8 degree day in Winsted. The look in their eyes said it all as well as the constant stream of officials and judges that were called up to the scoring table to observe the picture. I would guess that I was called nuts, out of my mind and just plain crazy a few dozen times that weekend. My response was simple..."Beyond addicted, just plain sick!"



17. What is the best piece of fishing advice anyone ever gave you?
The best advice is about life as well as fishing and is in my signature: "Don't give up, don't EVER give up." Thanks Jimmy V!!

18. You once volunteered as a CTF moderator but decided it wasn’t for you. What did you learn about that experience that you can share with others?
As always, the majority of the members are great and love fishing, want to discuss fishing, are helpful and genuinely interested in making a contribution. That is what CTF is really about and I am forever grateful to Mitch and all these fantastic people I've had the opportunity to meet. I also learned that crazy people aren’t crazy all the time some people just don’t get it, never will and they are the ones that make the mods work. Whether they are venting because of their personal issues or insecurities while hiding behind a monitor and keyboard, really are classless or just don’t care because it’s “just a message board” I can’t answer. They do make the mods work harder than they should ever have to and turned me off to being one, it darkened my one escape from the real world.

Thankfully Mitch and now the new CTF have weeded those guys out and we are now a pretty damn good fishing community.

19. You contracted Lyme disease. How long ago was that and have you finally licked it?
I had Lyme about 10 years ago and it really knocked me for a loop. I am a pretty high energy person and all of a sudden I’m always tired, taking naps, the headaches were not fun and the body aches I was used to but were more severe that normal. Luckily it was caught very early and after a while I was as good as new and have never had a problem.

20. Do you have a specific piece of fishing gear that holds sentimental value to you?
Not really except for the maybe the boga my brother, site member BWB, got me for my 50th birthday last year.