Bucktail anyone?

I was fortunate enough to harvest a buck this year during rifle season here in Missouri.  He had 8 points, weighed 153 pounds at the processor, and appeared to be 3 and 1/2 years old.  While it isn't the biggest deer in the world, I got to share the hunt with one of my best friends and the meat went to a friend of mine that has been a huge influence on me both personally and professionally.

As an added bonus, I got some free fly tying materials.  For the past few years, I have been trying to preserve a few tails and even a couple of hides from some bucks that I have shot as well as my friends.  I got into this for three reasons.  Also, I hope I don't come off as high and mighty or some sort of egotistical, self righteous jerk.  If I come off that way, I apologize for missing the mark and in case I do sound like a self promoting loser any point, please don't quit reading without reading the last paragraph.

1. I had no idea how to skin a deer, tan a hide with the hair on, or preserve a tail when I first started.  It was something that I was interested in and learned a lot about using another part of a harvested animal.  I think this is a show of respect to the animal and just a good skill to possess.  I have a lot of respect for how Native Americans treated their harvested animals and it is an honor to be able to emulate that even on a much smaller scale.

2. I'm cheap.  It's true.  I don't have a lot of money and I feel guilty spending my family's income on expensive fly tying materials and fly rods.  If I can get some materials for almost no monetary cost, and a small cost in terms of time it takes to preserve the materials, I'm in.  It's cheap and easy to preserve something like a deer tail, and doesn't take that much time either.  Preserving an entire deer hide is more time consuming, but a lot more rewarding as a result.  They are both just plain fun too!

3. I'm kind of sentimental guy.  It means a lot to hunt deer that has been in my family since my great granddad owned it.  It means a lot to me to take a bare hook, attach some thread and feathers to the hook, and go out to catch my own dinner.  It means a great deal to me to harvest an animal (deer, squirrel, rabbit, or otherwise) that was a product of our family's farmland, and incorporate those materials into my fly tying.  I get a huge smile on my face when I catch a bass on a clouser minnow that I tied with bucktail from a deer that I shot.  Truth be told, I enjoy giving flies to my buddies and informing them about the fact that the deceiver or deer hair bug materials were home grown.

I write all of that, so that I can write this: if you are interested in finding out more about preserving a hide or a tail from a harvested animal, I would be happy to help.  Feel free to email me at showmeflyguy@gmail.com.  I would be happy to pass along any successes and/or failures I have experienced with some basic tanning and preserving.  It really is rewarding as well as fun, and for those that are sentimental like me, you won't regret giving this process a shot.

Echo Base

I recently bought an Echo Base.  No, I am not referring to the Rebel's stronghold on Hoth (also called Echo Base) which was featured in The Empire Strikes Back.



Instead, I purchased a new 9 foot, 6 weight fly rod, from a company named Echo.  If you are not familiar with their rods, you are not alone.  I didn't know much about them either until Matt up at Rainbow Fly Shop suggested I give an Echo a try.  It fit the characteristics that I was looking for in a fly rod at the time and it was in my price range.  I was looking for a tip-flex type of rod that was around $100 and tried out some other new rods as well as some used rods that came from higher end companies.  Don't get me wrong, Echo makes some high end rods that incorporate some fine craftsmanship that will appeal to a more affluent taste.  However, if you are familiar with this blog, thus making you familiar with me, then you know...that's not my style.  So I bought a base model that Echo offers, hence the term, Echo Base.

Now before I go any further, let me be perfectly clear that I am not getting paid for this post and I was not asked by any company or business to post about Echo fly rods.  I have some positive things to say about this particular model and wanted to get any misconceptions out of the way from the get go.

Now that we are clear, let me just say that I love this fly rod!  The first time I cast it, I was fishing a small jig under an indicator at Liberty Park Pond in Sedalia, Missouri.  I was curious how the rod would cast the duo of a heavy (at least in terms of fly standards) fly with an indicator along for the ride.  I was not disappointed.  It did not feel bulky or clunky in the least and my casts were long and effortless.  I'm not saying it felt like an Orvis Helios rod or a custom bamboo rod, but it sure felt smooth and powerful.  When I went to make some further casts, it seems like the line wanted to explode out of the end of the rod when I was shooting line to hit a distant target.

Now there are two disclaimers that I need to make here.  1. I am not a great caster.  I have some bad habits I still need to work through and have never had any formal casting instruction in my life.  2. The line I was using on this particular day was not of the highest quality and had some kinks in it.  I mention that, so I can state this...you might not like this rod as much as me so don't rush out an buy one on my account!  I am just saying that this rod fits my needs and casting style, and it might fit yours as well so it might be worth checking out Echo if you are in the market for a new rod.  Finally, it has a lifetime guarantee which is AWESOME because I am notoriously hard on my hunting and fishing equipment.

I paired my rod with a cheap click and pawl reel.  It's drag system has one setting and is low, which is just the way I like it.  A step above free spool is fine with me!  If I hook a big fish, I want to cup the reel and decide how much pressure to apply to a fish on the fly (pun, totally intended) so I don't sink a lot of money into reels.  In all honesty, I buy used reels or cheap reels off of amazon or walmart.com.  I could keep ranting on my disdain for expensive and high tech fly reels, but we will save that for another time.

New Fly on the Flies Page- The John Deere Mini Jig

This is one of my all time favorite flies.  There is a photo of materials and step by step pictures that are needed to complete this fly.  It is easy, simple, and highly effective.  If things get slow either on a lake, pond, or stream, this is my go- fly.  You can find all the details on the fly tying page located on the left side of the page.

Now get out there and get some materials for tying deer hair bugs!

To all of you fishermen that act like hunters a few days out of the year, I wish you the best of luck tomorrow on the opening of deer season if you live here in Missouri.  Be safe, be careful, and try to stay awake.

The Neutralizer

I was up at Rainbow Fly Shop the other day and Matt, the owner, showed me some new flies that just arrived and were about to hit the shelves.  They definitely caught my eye because I have never seen a fly constructed like this before.  While the color combinations make perfect sense, what got me thinking was the combination of buoyant foam and dumbbell eyes.  Matt said that the fly will float at first, sink slowly, and return near the surface when stripped if floating fly line is being used.

The fly is called the Neutralizer and I am excited to hit the water with them and see how they behave.  I wonder if there will be a difference in the action of the fly as it is fished more or if it will behave in a consistent manner.  I also wonder about how high it floats in the water and the sink rate that it has.  I'm not sure if it will be something that you fish it fast, slow, or can fish either way.  I'm concerned that if it is trying to do two things (float AND sink) then it might not do either very well.  However, maybe it will be incredibly versatile and able to accomplish two actions at once.   I will let you know what happens after I hit the water and make a few casts with this hybrid.  Come to think of it, I wonder what the hybrids are doing this time of year and if I could get them to hit one of these bad boys.

Great Trout Fishing Trip

So I got an email last weekend from my buddy Tom.  He is a good friend and reader of this blog, but more importantly he is an outstanding fly fisherman.  He told me that he had some luck catching rainbow trout at Liberty Park Pond in Sedalia, Missouri, and that got my attention..  It is stocked every year in early November with trout as part of the urban trout stocking program.  He said that he and his friend had caught quite a few trout that week and that was about all it took to get me packing.  Tom said he would be interested in tagging along as well and after a former student of mine agreed to join us, well we had a fishing trip panned that included three generations of fishermen.

While I don’t want to cheapen the trip to a statistic or brag about numbers, let’s just say we caught enough fish to keep us happy.  We caught them on worm imitating flies, jigs, and even dries.  I watched others catch them on woolies as well as nymphs.  While I wouldn’t consider any of the fish particularly large or memorable, there were lots of them.  Most people I talked to informed me that around 1,300 trout had been stocked within the last week.  Thankfully, those fish aren’t going anywhere since it is catch and release until Feb. 1.  I love that the Missouri Department of Conservation provides this opportunity to anglers and I would really like to see a couple of lakes around the Kansas City area follow suit for the simple fact that it keeps lakes from getting fished out too quickly.  Anyway, it is a great opportunity that anglers should take advantage of especially as most warm water species fishing starts to slow.

Leaky Waders

Earlier this week, a former student stopped by my classroom and informed me that she was working on a senior engineering project.  To my surprise and pleasure, she chose to focus her efforts on helping out the fishing industry and specifically, those afflicted with the condition of Leakus Waderus Furiousness.  It's a condition that many of us have been afflicted with in the past, but she is going to try and make leaky waders either fixable or a thing of the past all together.  As part of her project, she is required to get some feedback from the public by having them fill out an online survey.  If you have a minute (literally, the survey is 8 questions and all multiple choice) it would mean a lot to her and help her earn a higher grade.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/KDQJMLH

Spool Organizer

A few weeks back, I posted about some fly tying tricks and projects.  The post featured some ways to organize hooks, how to use a woman's hair clip to manage fluffy flies, and how to re purpose spent .17 HMR as spool organizers.  Since that post, I ran across some spent shells and some wood and decided to give this project a shot.  I changed things up a little, but I am glad to say that the project turned out fairly well and will be a nice addition to a fly tying bench that I am going to start working on for my oldest son.  Here's the step by step process that I used to complete the project.

Step 1- I attached some 1 X 3's together using screws.  I should have used wood glue but to be honest, I wanted to try and get this project done in a shorter amount of time.

Step 2- I spray painted the entire frame with black Rustoleum.

Step 3- I used a silver sharpie to plan out where my shell casings were going to go.  I wanted to maximize my space and include as many spools as possible.

Step 4- I mocked up the holder to see what it was going to look like.

Step 5- Using super glue, I attached the casings to the frame.  This worked really well on the painted surface.

Step 6- The finished product.  I threw some empty spools on the organizer to show how they fit.  I probably spent more time planning how to align the spools and spacing them evenly.