tjm

Fleshing is always the 2'nd hardest part, I think. Skinning for fur is a bit harder than skinning for meat, and old squirrels, like old ground hogs, are almost as tough as coyotes. Best part about a possum is how easy they are skin and scrape. I don't like salt and alum and haven't used it since the '60s when a furbuyer advised me not to and paid 1/2 price for my 'coons. Salt attracts water from the air on humid days and can, if used alone, actually rot the hide over time. Alum does dry things very well but tends to make the leather very hard and seems to shrink some parts of the leather more than other parts, resulting in a twisted pelt. (or maybe I just didn't use it correctly) For fur market I simply air dry, or rub borax into the hide for fast drying on fur out pelts. Borax also seems to work well for preserving and insect prevention. I've used borax solution to wash whole pelts and also just used the dry powder to dry clean and brighten the fur. To soften the leather on small pelts (like birds) I've used 3 parts water with 1 part glycerin, worked into the flesh side. I watched a fellow from NY at the Mountain Home show demonstrating Whitlock's squirrel hair nymphs with the sheared belly mixed with SLF. He did 6 or 7 variations representing different species of trout food, and yes I believe that 1/2 a hide would last a long time. Whitlock's website says the flies are tied by Rainy's Flies, so I'd guess Rainy might be a potential pelt buyer, but it'd be simpler to just package the tails and sell to Mepps.

There is a lot of Red Fox Squirrel Nymphs right there. I reckon you could sell those pelts at Clinton next fall.

Why not just buy a base for the Regal you have? The generic base for 3/8" stem can be had for ~$20 from Amazon or J Stockard (probably other places too) or the Regal Travel Base for ~$150 but still less than a whole vise. I made a base for my "A" about one month after getting it back in '75, hard maple with pipe fittings and still use it, I've seldom found a table that the C-clamp fit. (with home made gallows tool, I also made a similar bobbin/thread support and rarely use either)

Advice that I've seen on learning with the non-dominate hand, have included starting with a Belgian cast and starting by holding a rod in each hand with ~30' of line out each and casting them simultaneously, the idea of the two rods being that the one hand mirrors the action of the other. This can actually be practiced by going through the casting motion with both hands and no rods. I'd suggest working with a constant line length on the start as line handling with my dominate hand causes me more trouble than rod handling with my non-dominate hand does. The book stuff has never appealed to me because it only ever works for a particular body type. Unless you use a really thick book like the unabridged dictionary for one person and a Reader's Digest for another. To me it's better to concentrate on the rod tip and to recognize that where the tip goes is where the line goes.

Shouldn't be that hard, it only takes a few inches of motion? Try starting left handed with a roll cast? I think that I've always switched hands, bat, axe, pickax, guns, etc.; but I've read that others claim it's easier to learn casting correctly with the weak hand because you don't have the ingrained mistakes/muscle memory to unlearn.

The effect of too many satellites?

It seems like weeks of east wind and I don't recall it ever being this way in the past. Prevailing wind direction seems to have changed.

I turn almost all fish loose, just because I'm too lazy to carry a stringer or to butcher the fish at the end of the day.

You've mentioned these before, I think. I know that I looked up some "how to tie" stuff on them in the past and decided that they were more complicated than the gurglers that I like. And that reminds me that I need to build a few gurglers.

Good vise. Unless it's interfering with her health or other life areas, I wouldn't consider it a vice. I have one of those and it's nice, but like wrench I prefer the Thompson A for speed and comfort. Bought the Renzetti second hand 5-6 years ago because I'd always wanted one, and have tied only a dozen or so flies on it. The right angle between stem and shaft that lets it rotate is where I want my hand to be, too many years of using the A, I guess, but the altered hand position is uncomfortable to me. Takes about three times as long for each fly.

List of 321 Conservation Areas that have camping, some with water to fish and some without. https://mdc.mo.gov/conservation-areas-search?field_atlas_activities[4263]=4263&field_geofield_lat_lng_proximity[value]=0&field_geofield_lat_lng_proximity[source_configuration][origin_address]= MO&page=0

Get lots of the jap beetles some years. Last summer was bad with them. I was thinking back to when I was kid and we had lots of June bugs, we also had lots of June bearing strawberries, shipped by train car loads, and then all that crop land became fesque. I'm sure there are some June bugs in the area that I just haven't had a close encounter with, but the last time I recall seeing any they were in a town.

I haven't sen a June bug in years. and even back in the '50s never in the numbers that you describe. Must be some crop that encourages them.

I guess they took the video down. I don't get why it is considered poaching? Evidently the season was open if the video person was also hunting as the write up said.

Thanks for that pear comparison. Saves me buying them.

Years ago when i was working around Rogers, Ar., the sirens went off frequently and no one even looked up from what they were doing. I thought then, what's the point in having them if you desensitize the public to the point that no one even hears the horns as more than background noise. The NWS spotter program- https://www.weather.gov/skywarn/

Heck of a guide too, if he took the shot rather than allow his clients the chance, eh? I'm not really enthusiastic about the whole record competition thing, especially when it comes to deadly methods. I've no objection to bow-fishing, gigging, etc, but I do think such methods should be for sustenance rather than competition. Kill only what you can eat and eat what you kill. But, I'm obviously a minority.

I've seen quite a few mentions of NFC and Edge on other forums and I've never seen a bad comment on the rods, although they would have been fly rods or blanks. . There are people who get upset over the wait time, but there are always people wanting instant gratification. From the reviews that I've seen the blank quality far exceeds the cost and the rods are on sale often.

I don't think I saw anything new there. I thought it was always known that the ethanol laws were in place to enrich certain politicians or their friends.

I was over there to Cotter once in the late '80s when I was told they had all gates open and full generation, river was in the trees everywhere that I stopped. Came back through Theodosia and the lake was so full that the picnic pavilions near Forsyth had the roofs covered with lake.

About 15 seconds in hot oil will make those worms edible. I can recall decades ago people on the east coast being upset by a newspaper story mentioning worms in store bought ocean fish. I don't recall the details of the story but the gist was that all fish have parasites, that parasites are usually species specific (so don't harm humans), and that cooked worms are easily eaten if you aren't told about them. The next week, at the super market every package of fish that I examined did seem to have worms. So, yeah, eat more bass.

Paris Oregon is definitely a better place to hug trees than Paris France. I didn't think buses went to France. Always something to learn on this site.

Paris, MO.? Paris OR? or one of the other two dozen towns named Paris?

Maybe five and maybe fifty to find another great lure. It may be the only one of that model that does catch fish like that, I once had a Rapala that simply caught fish anytime that I use it a dozen species from sunfish to pike, never tied it on that it didn't take a fish almost immediately. Eventually I lost it and none of the couple dozen that I bought of the same model and color ever worked as well. I think that some times it's the imperfect lures that work. Mine may have had the lip on crocked or the hooks placed slightly off center, or something else odd that caused it to be so effective. I'll never know but if all that model worked like that one did, it would be the only lure used.

My 'fly tying box' is either 30 or 40 gallon plastic bin and I always seem to be able to fit more into it. But I'd still probably stick with one or two colors. Best for sculpin might be mottled. Did you say those Wapsi strips are UV dyed?