Your luck may have rubbed off Rich-took a big mature  8pt this afternoon.
HVENT THE LIGHTEST IDEA OF HOW TO PUT UP A PHOTO-OLD DOGS NEW TRICKS  LOL

That's awesome rg !! I actually think about doing a bit more xbow out behind house before seasons closed. This Saturday we have 2 deer to process. I typically hang them 5-7 days to get rigor mortise and blood drain but given weather, I quartered and coolered them which will have same effect.

Clint, tying is fun stuff. Except when it became a standard for me. I used to tie 500 for salmon and 200 for steelhead when guiding a season. The goal was not to lose them . Not to dredge. The more time retying, the less time fishing.
I'd rather cover more water even in the same spot then getting hung up.
Steelhead season was the toughest due to all the underwater birds nests.
Honestly, I haven't tied a fly except bucktails in over 2 years.

Good luck and most of all, have fun

   I remember your first tying adventures, Clint. I hosted a fly swap and you participated to no one's complaint.  That was before the big detonation and this place blew up with physical threats and insane behavior.  Several wanted to fight me on the river and said they'd drown me. All I did was  side with those I thought of as friends. I'd just laugh at it, now. Time is the best teacher.  By the way, I stayed dry. I also never contacted the mods, but got blamed for that. That's OK, I know who did, will never tell and it doesn't matter a bit. All the opposite side appear to have permanently left.   Hilarious, really.
    I tied for a fly shop, mostly dries and nymphs, 10 dozen at a time. I also had a few "secret" flies people bought from me by the dozen that worked on the Battenkill  well.  20 for private sale, 11 from the shop. I guaranteed them to not fall apart,  ride right and work. It wasn't much of a money maker,  as nimble hands of women in Sri Lanka and India do a much quicker job of it. I'm just not production oriented enough.  I have enough trout flies for years to come, steelhead flies filling about 6 boxes, just enough flies to start the salt/ striper season next Spring,  way too few smallmouth flies.  That brings me to suggesting a new fishery for you, Clint. I know the SR gets plenty of good size bronze. They are a blast on a fly rod.  I've been after them for 50 years. They readily whack crayfish and minnow patterns, fight like they're pants are on fire and jump as well as steelies. Tying for them is a little different, requiring flies that will swim and move while being retrieved with twitches and pulls rather than the dead drift thing. Think swinging flies, but add some movement.  I had a good year in the upper Hudson, landing 5 over 20"  . You could likely do better in the SR.  Jesus, I fished on the way home from  chemo sessions in April and early May sick and weak, but waded in heavy current,  anyway.  To say I appreciated the fish I caught is a vast understatement. Too bad our former board members couldn't have got me then ; I might have volunteered to go under.  Fun stuff. 
    I bike to cure neuropathy and electrolyte imbalances and because bicycling is considered great for battling cancer.  Just so happens I also love it, and always have. I have bought and built up fat tire bikes and am about to put on studded tires.  I just discovered Winona State Park just north of the SR, it has extensive trails actually groomed for fat tire bikes by a  mountain biking club, and holds one of the  largest races in the east every winter.  I won't travel right now, but  my wife will get the vaccine early, and I should be second round. This may mean fish first light and the morning while it's good, go have fun on the bikes, then maybe return to the river, especially if the sun has warmed it up a bit.  I hope it works out. Winona has designated  primitive camping sites along a forest road, they might be something for the future for us, or even now if the snow isn't belt buckle deep. We've already done some bike camping trips. Fun stuff if you like that sort of thing. I also have a sled hauling hook I've put on for an ice fishing sled. I found a park with 6 lakes that's gorgeous and not that heavily trafficked.  I guess bring on full blown winter, we're ready!

Yeah charlie is still have a few from the early days and I am much better, but still not " good " by any means. I have tried a few times for pike and Sm with limited success, but once summer hits my preference is pan fish and eyes. My issues now are limited walking distances and not wanting to be off the beaten path especially alone. Hope all continues to go well with health and happiness. As I am still working I should be up top for the vaccine, which I will skeptically get.

True dat ---
No 0 dark 30 for me either- I get there when I get there and enjoy it no matter what.
If a good spot is full of - welll those people- I just move on to someplace else - maybe catch one maybe not- 
Its the place not the numbers of fish that has my attention.
That said a tug is nice here  and there- lol.
If the shots come out and am able to get one - perhaps Spring Steel.
Livin like a hermit is making me more nuts.

Dont upset old people- the longer we live the less life in prison is a deterrent

Well it's not fun but I put in an 8 hour day getting ready for winter. cleaning garage , organizing . Tractor is inside , plow truck is under cover and everything is cleaned up. Even made 2 water warmers for the chickens out of junk from my pile out back (every good farmer has a chunk pile) . 2 old pots that were cracked, an old lamp and a drill . Saved $100. New meds are making my feet swell , sucks, gotta start wearing compression socks. LOL

This is fun stuff when you take your 7 year old grandson on his first big game hunt during gun season.
He's a veteran of the woods out there but we've been cautious about weather and conditions during rifle.
Now we are officially done

So , a story behind the last buck my son got with grandson yesterday. I'm pretty convinced it's a hermorphidite. It's a very large 3.5 year old with a rare antler structure that was still in velvet and hollow.
The deer had all the traits of female with milking udders, one small testicle and an almost non existent reproduction organ.
The deer was huge and a good call to put to the table.
This is a comparison from an 8 also taken.

On another note-- its Dec 13th and 59 deg today --I PLAYED GOLF

Getting too old for some of this stuff- took a good fall on some sidewalk ice today- feel like a bumbling  idiot--again.

A gift is a gift and its the thought that counts- --appreciate it.
 
But keep the leather one too.

Fella on another forum suggested as time goes on we enjoy every moment afield because ya never know when ya were  climbing into your last tree stand or  still hunting your last mountain.
As one who has given away all his tree stands and no longer hunts the hills and ridges I know what he meant.
Still enjoy sitting in my field blind 300 yards from the truck and have taken some that way but it aint the same.
Gotta keep going till they throw dirt on ya.

r3g3
Hey I gotta do this- personally I see the humor in it but I guess it pizzed off a lot of people.
 
When I was in the Navy we always had an anchor pool for every stop-ya would put money in a pool and whoever guessed the closest time to the actual dropping of the anchor in port won.
 
 
Sooo somebody in the Hartford Ct PD started a dead pool for the new year.
Put up your money and whoever guessed the closest street corner to the first murder of the new year would win.
 
It never got off the ground before the screaming started--  cops are being disciplined and complaints of loosing credibility with 'the community ' abound.
 
Nobody has a sense of humor anymore.

Gallows humor went hand in hand with my career in law enforcement.  Spend enough time on the streets and more often than not you witness tragedy.  Was the "dead pool" in poor taste?  Absolutely.  Unless you have walked a mile in the shoes of a law enforcement officer you can't possibly understand how levity makes it at times bearable. 

People in emergency services all have a bit of 'gallows humor' it makes the job more palatable.
Others dont get it.
Used to come home and tell the wife about comical stuff from work and she would just sit there and look at me.