FLYMPH FORUM

Gentlemen,
I am curious about....alot of things and this is one of them. How many of you who tie your own patterns also hunt? The two seem to hand in hand like they've been dating quite a while.
There was a point in our relationship where my wife swore (actually she swore at me) that if I drug home another dead animal....so I quit. No, I slowed down quite a bit. Some animals you just can't pass up. Practically any game bird will do. Wild cottontail rabbits are quite useful. I also have other hunting friends who bring me all sorts of fur and feathers from their hunts. Never turn down pheasant tails! The world is truly our oyster when it comes to materials and it seems to go alot easier and cheaper if you hunt as well as tie.
So, spill the beans. How many of do double duty in the field as well as behind the vice?
Merry Christmas to all,
Dougsden

I use to hunt and trap and brought home deer skin, gray squirrels and such. I also had trapped some mushrats and possums. I still have a small piece of the rat.

I used to upland hunt with my Brittany, but I have moved around a bit for my job and gave up hunting as it got tough find new spots and deal with the guns, etc. It hurts to have to buy pheasant, grouse, woodcock and quail feathers now. When I retire, I hope to get back into it.

I do like to get out yearly to a a few grouse and perhaps a pheasant or two. Nice to walk the woods and exercise the over and under.

I double duty the field and stream. I have always been a bird hunter since childhood...grouse, quail, chukar, pheasant etc... Just started big game hunting this past fall. I'm looking forward to doing some varmit hunting this coming year. Have my sites on a couple badger that have been pestering a local farmer although I have heard they are very foul smelling....the badgers....

I have always had a desire to learn to trap.

Interesting stuff fellows. I am glad to know these things! Please keep them coming! Anyone else?
Dougsden

I used to hunt extensively when I lived in less populated parts of the country (Wisconsin, New Mexico, Pennsylvania) and even a little after moving to Maryland in the mid 70's. Now, however, finding suitable hunting grounds anywhere near my residence has become a chore. Besides, to be real truthful, I don't have the desire much any more; I'd rather watch the animals (deer, fox, squirrels, woodchucks) cavort in my back yard and buy my dubbing at the shop.

I grew up hunting, trapping and fishing in the Adirondack Mountains of New York. I trapped all kinds of things with my Dad (muskrats, beavers, minks, raccoons, foxes, otters, and even bobcats). Unfortunately I don't have any of the pelts (they were all sold to the local fur traders at the time). We also hunted birds (grouse, woodcocks, and occasionally ducks) as well as big game (deer, blackbear) for food. I haven't hunted much in the last ten years, but still have a great love for the outdoors.

And we are glad for that Ray. It shows in all you say to us. I sense amoungst the members of the forum (the middle-age bunch and beyond) that there is a tendency toward the gentler arts such as flyfishing and tying. This is a good thing! John Voelker (aka Robert Traver) once quoted a line in one of his books something like this...."I'm not as mad at trout as I used to be". I think we can all see where he is coming from. It's not a matter of quantity (that seems to be more important when your younger) but quality. And I think that's where we are all headed. It seems that the entire flyfishing concept is built around this simple principle.
A bad day on the water is still better than the best day at work!
Fueling the obsession(s) one paycheck at a time,
Dougsden

I come from a family of hunters, except for my dad, who did not hunt or fish. My mother's side of the family were for the outdoors, and my love of hunting and fishing came from them. My Grandfather was a great story-teller. He could make one see the well-antlered buck and the long, strong trout. It was he more than anyone that inspired his oldest grandson to seek the adventure, out there.

I use to do it all from fishing for suckers in the early spring with worms, sometime a month before trout season opened, to trout fishing in local rivers and streams, then to the lakes for pike, pan-fish and bass. In the fall it was small game-squirrel, rabbits, upland birds, ducks and geese. Big game, of course-deer, mostly. After deer hunting, it was ice fishing with my uncle.

I still recall Friday evenings in my brother's-in-law bedroom. We'd make our hunting and fishing plans there for Saturday and Sunday. We'd pour over copies of Field and Stream, Outdoor Life, and Sports Afield. In January, the Herter's catalog would arrive chuck full of everything one needed for their outdoor pursuits. Everything from outdoor clothing, to Audubon bird calls, fly vices and tying supplies to snowshoes and camp stoves. I miss those days, and some of the people I shared them with.

I see nothing wrong with hunting if it is done correctly. For twenty years, I've tried to pass on the proper tradition by being a volunteer Hunter Education Instructor for New York State. I do not hunt, myself, as much as I use to, but still enjoy searching for grouse and occasional pheasant. Not as many of those around any more. Often times, now, it's turkey we go for. I use much of what is harvested. As I said, my hunting is sparse and very intermittent . Now it is more TROUT HUNTING, more than anything.

Mark