Swap meets

[Terry Beeson]

Saturday my wife and I planned a day together doing some things around the Nixa/Springfield area. The first one was kind of interesting.

Nixa had an “Outdoor Swap Meet” at the community center. This was basically a “flea market” for outdoor types. They had some speakers and seminars that I didn’t attend, but we did walk around looking for “bargains” and I did pick up a couple. Most of it was old lures and rods/reels. If you collect old lures or rods, it was a good place to look. There were also some odds and ends camping, backpacking, etc. A couple of local bait and tackle stores had “stuff” at bargain prices.

A couple of points of interest:

I talked at length with a guy from Bolivar who is an artist. He had several pen drawings and I picked up a trout set (two trout prints with a fly – matted and ready to frame.) My wife picked up a drawing of a farmer plowing with a mule because “that’s my grandpa!” I’ll post an image of the two with more info on the artist later.

I found about half a dozen old wooden spools of Wapsi tying thread. I didn’t need the thread, but the spools were a novelty for sure. He had other wooden spools of thread and some individual flies in small boxes. He got this stuff at an estate sale. Only wish he had gotten some old tying tools.

Several booths had old lures and even quite a few hand-carved and hand painted ones. These were neat to look at and if I was into collecting, I would have spent more money for sure. Quite a few old rods and reels as well. Not much in the fly line (my forte) but I did see a couple of reels and one bamboo rod in a wooden case. Almost wish I had bought that rod at least for the case. The rod was one you would “display only.”

James River Basin had a booth their on water quality.

An organization from one of the colleges (don’t remember which one) had a booth trying to raise funds by selling hiking stoves. These were made from Pepsi cans and burned alcohol (PGA, Isopropyl, HEET, etc.) This was really neat and I found a link to how to make your own... Click here to learn how to make a soda can stove.

Anyway, all this got me to thinking why we don’t do more of these? Maybe there ARE more of these and I’ll see more in the spring. But I know I’ve got some “stuff” around the house that my wife would love if I would get rid of it. Camping, fishing, and even a bit of hunting stuff…

Maybe an OAF Swap Meet?

[Kansas Fly Fisher]

That Pepsi stove looks neat! I think I may try my hand at making one. Seems simple enough . . . (famous last words)

John