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

troutbum21
Before my bouts with cancer and vision loss I used to tie a lot of flies, particularly dries for trout.  I would tie up Quill Gordon's, blue quills, Hendrickson's (light & dark), Red Quills, Blue Winged Olives, Grey Fox, March Browns, Green Drake's (coffin flies), Sulphur's, Light Cahill's (dark too), Adam's, Isonychia's, midges and spinners.  Few things compare to watching a brown or rainbow rise to take your offering and disappear just as quickly after the take.  I had many a shoot out with players on the Catskill streams, the Delaware drainage, Ausable, Housatonic and on private waters, The Henryille FlyFisher's Club in PA.  It's funny how I have better memories of those fish that kicked my****compared to those I brought to hand. 
My skills aren't what they once were due to loss of depth perception and not being as sure footed wading many of the aforementioned waters but I grind away, just at a different pace. 
One thing I learned is that perfect looking fly that's fresh out of the vise fishes even better after it's torn and tattered.  Go figure.
         

  Poodle flies. I've had striper flies tied with yak and slinky fiber tangled and mushed beyond repair that kept getting better and better even though they looked like  what you pull out of a hair brush and throw in the can. Or dry flies that lost their hackle and were down to the thread base getting smashed like they were streamers.  Tie on thin copper wire at rear of hook, then wrap forward  three or four strands of peacock herl, bring the wire forward in five wraps, add a pinch of black dubbing, create a little head of black thread.  One of the best flies ever. Works unweighted as an emerger for **** near anything,  fished with weight it's a caddis that even steelhead eat,  takes almost no time to tie. For an added bonus, leave the herl in  a sunny window until it turns bronze. Works even better that way.  It's subtle flash and the thin profile of most real meals. Or variations of the green weenie  (Clint knows this one as being effective!) or a mop fly (some egg foam with a little hackle up front). Simple is good.
    What's not so simple is medical problems like Clint's who's way to young and this cancer BS and the f'ing Covid.  Just when I think it might be safe to go back in the water, it rears its ugly head up and my wife says absolutely not. Here's to putting this pandemic crap in the rear view mirror and all who have issues  and the endless Dr. appts. getting some relief and fun in. Better times ahead. R3 and HT have had their turn in the woods scoring some monsters , hopefully some of us can put some big fish on the bank or ice or net, whatever it takes. 

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

Clint, in response to your posting. I tried compression materials for outdoors activities as a base layer. They totally sucked for me . I went to a loose fitting poly layer that was half the cost and twice the comfort.
I know it's apples to oranges but, your quite welcome to all my compression gear for free.

Now giving the fact that everyday is groundhog day, I didn't realize that southern ny rifle is open until sundown Sunday. We still have tags that can be filled and 2 deer just didn't fill our family needs. We are heading back to the trees with my grandson on his first rifle hunt Saturday.
At 7 years old, he's spent plenty enough time in our woods over 3 years to know how things are done . Hopefully he will drag his first deer out driving the ATV..

Fishing.
Soon, very soon. I seen of someone ice fishing today in the adirondacks.
Be well and have fun

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

Good job all around Rich--
Only been out twice since the big guy and have seen zip-oh well been a great season so far- got till the last day of Dec here.
Bad weather coming and with the holidays hunting will be limited but appreciated.
Spring Steel looking better and better with the 19 shots on the horizon.
 

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.

Poor thing, must have been so confused.
Just chasing itself around in circles for the past couple of weeks.

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

So yesterday me and my son processed the last deer. What started out as a tough season , ended with a great harvest. We processed well over 120 lbs venison.
Thanks so much for the help boy..
What made things go so well was having a proper setup in a comfortable environment to work in. As they say, having the right tools makes the job go much smoother.
With all our efforts on garden and farm, we won't be buying any meats in 2021.
Now I just need to put some fish in the freezer.

Spent 5 hrs today clearing snow so there is room for the next big one.
We had no choice last Thursday but to just move what we could and it was a mess with giant snow banks piled up. Well, if I didn't get them taken care of today, it would have been a disaster in the upcoming events.

So, all in all, fun stuff.
Now I'm going to start getting my ice gear together and prepare for a winter long vacation of really fun stuff..

P.S.
I love ice but hate snow !!