Sharing my writings which can cover topics from fishing, family, the outdoors lifestyle and life in general. I write for the fun of it. Thanks for stopping by and hope you'll stop back from time to time.
Most of my friends know I am the type that does not necessarily live for my work. To me, life comes first. I have no idea how long I will be on this planet, so I choose to live my life with a freedom many can not bring themselves to understand. Oh don't get me wrong, it does have its drawbacks ... like the fact that I make very little money. But I don't need a lot to be happy, especially when teaching what I know makes me happier than just about anything. Over the past couple months I have been approached by a handful of groups asking if I could lend my experience and background to help them grow their respective entities. The best part is, each one of them is about reaching people and helping them to get more from their outdoor experiences. What could be more rewarding than that?
In one case, I spend time each day reaching out to people and companies asking for support for an organization dedicated to making the fishing experience better for everyone. In another, I help organize programs and events through church that dovetail people's love of the outdoors with the message from our maker. There's the group of young "millennials" working hard to make their mark as outdoors entrepreneurs that have reached out to me and sharing my advice with them has helped fuel me more than they will ever know. And then there's the newest request for my time, to help bring a group of high school age folks together as a fishing club - to teach them not only how to fish, but how to enjoy the outdoors to enrich their lives. Do I get paid for any of these endeavors? Yes, in a way, but not in the financial sense. I have a lifetime of knowing how to get outdoors and have fun fishing, hunting, etc. Being able to share that experience and pass it on to others pays me more dividends than I can count. That's not to say that there may be some financial benefit down the road ... but there may not be either. I simply don't care about that part. Thank goodness I have a lovely wife with a good job and a keen understanding of how I tick. I recently turned the big 6-0. Funny .... I don't feel like I thought 60 was supposed to feel. I do ache more than I used to, but a warm shower and a couple Tylenol usually take care of that. Where I have struggled the most at this stage of the game is what can I do to leave my mark on the world. I'm happy to say I know what that is and I am enjoying sharing what I know with those that are willing to listen. Here's a piece of unsolicited advice; If you find yourself struggling with where you are in your life, give some of what life has given you to someone else. Share what you know. It could be a favorite recipe, it could be a craft you are particularly fond of, even if you don't think you're all that good at it. It may be something as simple as sharing a story. We've all heard the phrase "You can't take it with you." Most folks think of money or material things when they hear it, but maybe more importantly it goes for what you have learned in your life. I can honestly say these days the phrase "The more you give, the more you get" carries more importance with me. That's my Boyd's eye view anyway. Carry on.
According to the all-knowing Wikipedia, an infection is "the invasion of an organism's body tissues by disease-causing agents, their multiplication, and the reaction of host tissues to these organisms and the toxins they produce."A long winded way of saying the host organism is sick. I've been working in the fishing industry for a very long time, and I honestly feel it is among many such industries these days suffering from sickness. I don't know exactly when the infection was introduced, or how long it has actually been festering, but the results are as noticeable as a massive cold-sore. I have my opinions as to what the cause and effect of this infection is, and I have been warned by numerous friends and colleagues to keep those thoughts to myself or risk being ostracized. But as it turns out, I am not very good at that, and because I feel so deeply that there is still hope, I am driven to bring attention to the ailments I am witnessing. The short-sighted view of profit before all-else is exactly what brought disaster to the housing market, and ultimately our nation's overall economy in 2008. Even today, while things are certainly on the rebound, many of us would have to say things are still not back to where they were before that crash happened. People and companies are still a bit gun-shy and I for one can't blame them completely. But the time of holding one's cards close to the vest is over now. I'm not saying its time to go "all in" - I've never been that kind of gambler and I don't think that's a good business practice for
long-term success. But I do think it is time for the sporting and recreational industries - the fishing industry in particular - to lighten the purse strings and get back to making the sport of fishing as popular as it once was. Rampant is the business mind-set that profits must come before everything else. Now I'm not naive enough to think that completely ignoring profits is a good idea either - that would just be down-right ignorant. But there is a process that is being ignored and it will ultimately bring doom to many in the fishing business and that is cultivation. Just like a farmer's crop, a company's market needs to be cultivated. A business needs to promote or improve the growth of (a plant, crop, etc. - in this case a sport) by labor and attention. If there is less fishing going on in the world, there will be less business for fishing companies. It seems elementary, but its a principle that many agree is being neglected in favor of "current numbers", "this quarter's profits", and the "latest return on investment". I recently attended one of fishing's largest national events. I saw hundreds of fishing companies spending thousands and thousands of dollars to reach a market of consumers that were already a part of their consumer base. But reaching out to those same companies to reach new markets, new anglers, a new and grow-able market, and the purses are zipped tight and we are met with the immortal words, "its just not in the budget this year," or "I don't see how that is going to help me increase my sales numbers next quarter." Again ... short-sighted vision in my opinion. I don't mean to say that there are no companies doing their part to help the sport of fishing because there are. But consider this - Most programs designed to build on the sport of fishing (or hunting or any other outdoor activity) are run by nonprofit organizations and while a good amount of the support for these nonprofits comes from membership dollars, a large portion of their funding comes from corporate partnerships. Now, among the top 12 hunting 501c3 non-profit organizations, they raised over $412.5 million in the 2014-2015 accounting period (the last such accounting published). In that same period, the major fishing 501c3 non-profits raised much less; Trout Unlimited ($45 million), IGFA ($4 million), Issac Walton League ($2 million - half of which was designated to hunting programs), and American Sportfishing Association (which by the way is not rated on Charity Navigator) raised $5 million, for a total of around $55 million dollars. Considering that there are 13.7 million hunters in the country, compared to the number of freshwater anglers estimated near 28.8 million (according to the U.S. Department of Interior), that equates to about $2.78 raised per angler compared to $30 raised per hunter in support of their respective sports. I think a plan going forward needs to bring more designated corporate dollars to fishing nonprofits, along with a plan to educate the angling public that more support is needed in the way of membership support. Together we can make a huge difference for the future of fishing.
Those of us that grew up with a fishing pole in our hand know what joy, peace and serenity can come from time spent fishing. It's time to share that experience with those that have not had that experience. And its more than just a one-time thing. It's time for anglers, as well as companies to take on a mentoring role. A love of fishing does not just happen with one fishing trip. It happens over time, it happens as one accumulates a bucket-full of experiences on the water. It happens because companies that rely on fishing also invest in fishing, in fisheries and in organizations that bring the sport to masses of new-comers. It happens because state and federal agencies work with people trying to make fishing more accessible to more people, and not see them as a thorn in their side, out to make them look bad. That's not the case at all ... we just want to help and do what we can to make everyone's fishing experience more enjoyable. I know I sound like the old hippie that I am - preaching the gospel of social compatibility ... peace, love and fishing will make the world a better place to live. Naive perhaps ... but I stand by it. The bottom line is, if the fishing industry does not begin to really put it's money where it's market is, someday it's going to find out it had the cure for an ailing industry and failed to treat it. That's my Boyd's Eye View at least. Carry on.
For the majority of my life I have lived in a part of the country where winter descends upon the land in November and holds fast until the waning days of April. As an angler, that offers some real challenges. Sure, ice fishing is an obvious option, and while I have had many an enjoyable day fishing on the ice, as I grow older the thought of venturing out on a frozen body of water is less and less appealing. I could travel to warmer locales for a "fishing fix", but while that does help, it's only a reprieve from the chill. So for half the year I need to find other ways to feed my fishing addictions, and I have found that "tackle tinkering" fills the void rather nicely.
Tackle tinkering has many facets. It includes such activities as tacklebox organizing, reel cleaning, lure sorting. There's also hook sharpening and replacing, unspooling and respooling line and of course, hours upon hours of tackle shopping, both online and in various tackle outlets. But some of the most satisfying hours I spend in my fishing room during the winter months are spent making lures, modifying baits and creating tackle that I am sure will help me catch more and bigger fish. Its a creative process that I, as well as many other fishing-folk, find fills the time wonderfully between fall and spring. I have written before about various aspects of this somewhat obsessive compulsion I have with fishing tackle and tinkering, covering various lure modifications I have found particularly effective (Building my favorite popper for bass), or my favorite tackle organizing methods (Label me "OCD"-Organized, Compartmentalized and Departmentalized). I have even written about how lure making can be a wonderful way to get a youngster introduced and excited about fishing (Finding a way to get kids into fishing). But its a topic that I am passionate about, so therefore I can seem to always find a new reason to write about it. This time around I am excited to share a couple new tinkering tidbits I have stumbled upon the past couple winters along with an entire new genre of fishing tackle tinkering I have come to love recently.
Last winter I was deep into a tackle tinkering session when I came across a couple spinnerbaits, buzzbaits and a couple bass jigs that were all in dire need of skirt repair. On each one, the small rubber sleeve that held the skirt on the lure was deteriorated and needed replacing. Now I always keep pre-packaged replacement skirts handy so replacing the skirts would be a simple matter of just removing the old one and putting on the new one, but in each of these cases, the skirt material itself was just fine and tossing it out would just be a waste. I needed a way to replace the small rubber keeper sleeve on
the skirt material. Now these little keepers are available in tackle supply outlets online, along with tools for getting them on the skirt, but I wanted to come up with a way to do this myself. Like any good tackle tinkerer, I had a supply of rubber surgical tubing on hand (get some - it can be used for a number of things!). All I had to do was cut a small piece of the tubing for the keeper. To get it on the skirt took a little more thinking. What I came up with is this; I found a fat-bodied marker or pen, removed the top and the insides, and I had a skirt tool. I just rolled the small rubber keeper over the tapered end and up close to the opposite end. Then I dropped the skirt strands into the larger opening of the pen body, slid the rubber keeper off the pen and onto the skirt and viola - new bait skirt. I even made a small video at my workbench showing the procedure using an old marker body as a skirt tool:
My latest tackle tinkering session spawned a tip I am honestly surprised I did not come up with sooner. I was looking for a better hook-keeper option for trailer hooks on spinnerbaits and buzzbaits. In the past I used that same rubber surgical tubing as mentioned above but I wanted something smaller and more "streamline". The idea of a small rubber disc came to mind and I remembered I had a couple of those silicone bracelets in a drawer that would make ideal keeper material. To cut the small discs I simply used a standard hole punch that can be picked up at any office supply or craft supply store. (By the way, the hole punch is also great for cutting discs of reflective tape for adding a little flash to spinner blades or to use as eyes on crankbaits). Just slip your favorite trailer hook onto your spinnerbait, buzzbait or even a swim jig, and then slip the little silicone disc over the lure hook to keep it from coming off.
As if tinkering with my fishing tackle weren't enough, I have found a new activity that involves not only my fishing tackle obsession but my love of photography. Taking close-up photos of my tackle sort of began as a necessity when I started selling a few items on ebay. I learned pretty quick that a few good images of the lures and reels I was selling went a long way to getting more interest and therefore more bids on my items. It then evolved to include my vintage lure collection and wanting to document the old lures and equipment I had been collecting over the years. Now I have a "mini-studio" set up in my office with a light tent and a variety of sets for taking my tackle photos. Its fun, and I have even used this hobby to do product photography for a few folks I know in the fishing industry.
It certainly doesn't stop there of course. I know guys that have gone full bore into the custom lure painting craze, and many anglers are into lure making from tying tiny flies to carving monster muskie baits. The tackle tinkering possibilities are endless and down-right fun.
So if you're like me and love fishing, but live where winter is cold and long and you have no real desire to spend much time dropping a line through a hole in the ice, getting into some serious tackle tinkering might just be what the doctor ordered to help get you through the "off season". That's my Boyd's eye view anyway. Carry on.
I recently made a post on LinkedIn asking "What was the first fishing lure you ever used that really got you hooked on fishing?" and the responses really were eye-opening. Most made simple comments like "The spinnerbait", or "a jitterbug" and I even got a "Good old fashion live night crawlers works fine for me!", and who could argue that one. But a couple of the comments took a different twist, taking the time to share fond memories of their Dad or Grandfather and how their sharing of a particular lure brought back an emotional connection to a particular fishing lure and/or fishing related memory.
I did notice that one particular lure was mentioned more than any other; the Rapala Original Floating Minnow, and the small-but-mighty size 7 seemed to be the one that most everyone started out with. That really shouldn't be all that surprising as the Rapala Minnow has no doubt been responsible for innumerable first catches over the decades. For me, it was an old Abu in-line spinner; one with a yellow body covered in black dots, a silver French blade and a tuft of yellow marabou dressing the treble hook. The memory is as vivid today as if it had happened yesterday. I was in the front of a canoe maneuvered by my Uncle Don on the Elk River in the southwest corner of Missouri. At the base of a large bluff rising above the river were two large boulders that created a current break and what I realize now was an ideal ambush position for a predator fish. I was instructed to cast my spinner right between the boulders, which I did, and was instantly hooked up with a three pound channel catfish that, as an eight year old boy, seemed enormous. That memory still gets my heart beating a little quicker. I wish I still had that lure just to look at once in a while. Unfortunately these days I think that tradition of passing along the pure joy that comes with your first "lure relationship" gets lost in the moment. Too often when we take kids fishing it's all about just keeping them occupied or trying to teach them everything you know about fishing, and not so much about creating an experience for them to cherish.
I encourage all of you that share my love of fishing to make a point this year, and every year, to help at least one young person create just such a relationship with a lure and with the sport of fishing. I know its not all that easy, we all have busy lives these days. But if we are to keep some of those prized traditions we cherish alive in future generations, it's important that we don't let such opportunities go by the wayside. If you are not really sure what lure to use to introduce a young person to the sport, it's really not as complicated as it may first appear. Most of the old standards are still good choices in many situations, like the Rapala which can be cast on light tackle and, with a slow retrieve,
entice most any species to bite. Another great choice is the Beetle Spin, a wonderful lure for panfish and bass and even the occasional walleye in sparse, shallow weeds. I have always had a soft-spot for topwater bass fishing, and my son learned early the sheer excitement of catching bass on a popper-style topwater bait. The inline spinners, like a Mepps, Vibrax or Roostertail, will always be fish catchers, especially in small streams (it certainly worked for me). And let's not forget the most basic of all, the bobber and live worm rig. Safe to say most of us started that way after all. And I suggest if you go with lures, you stick with the smaller models. It has long been my experience that a small lure gets more bites, and can still lure in a big one from time to time. When it comes right down to it, it doesn't matter what you use to get a kid interested in fishing, as long as they catch fish and have fun. Make that happen, and you will give that child a memory that will be with them the rest of their life. In fact, it's my sincere belief that a good lure will catch as many fishermen as it does fish. That's my Boyd's Eye View anyway. Carry on.
For the past few years or so I have been asked to speak to a group of youngsters in a local summer-school class that are learning all about fishing. It's honestly one of the funnest things I get to be a part of and I look forward to it every year. The first few years I did this I spoke primarily about what was involved in producing a fishing TV show. I told a few entertaining stories, talked about how they could go about making their own fishing videos, and then the kids got to watch an episode of the program I was involved with. But the last time I did this, I sat back and observed the kids and realized that while they were watching the TV show they weren't really learning about fishing; I was simply entertaining them, not engaging them in the sport. I realized I needed a new plan. I began to think about what it was that got me so fired up about fishing as a youngster and how I was introduced to the sport. Like so many of us, I was lucky to have family that fished and were willing to get me involved. My grandfather and uncles were my early mentors, teaching me the basics and getting me out on the water. And while those experiences obviously played a key role in my love of fishing, I can honestly say there was one special moment in my past that set my path to where I am today, and it happened in an upstairs closet of my grandmother's house.
My Grandma Boyd was tiny in stature but big on self reliance. She'd worked in a clothing factory most all her life operating large pressing machines. But while digging around in a closet in the seldom-used upstairs of her house one day I discovered a box that piqued my interest. When I opened it, I found it was filled with hooks and feathers and thread and a fly tying vise. My initial thought was that it must belong to my granddad. I mean, I knew he fished alright, but as far as I knew he was a bank-sittin' catfish kinda guy, not one that would use a fly rod. I took the box downstairs to ask Grandma about the items I had found. "Oh my", she was obviously taken back by my discovery. "I have not seen those things in many years. I didn't even know they were still around." As it turned out, the fly tying materials were hers. The story goes that one day a man from Montgomery Ward came to the clothing factory where she worked to enlist a handful of willing ladies to learn to make flies that were to be sold via the Montgomery Ward catalog. Grandma figured she could use the extra money and signed up. She was taught to tie a half dozen popular fly patterns including a couple streamers, an Adams, a Royal Wulff and a few others. She told me she was then supplied with a box of materials, a vise and a bobbin along with some shipping envelopes. She tied flies in the evening after dinner and once she got a couple dozen finished, she would ship them off in the envelopes provided and a week or so later she'd receive a check. She made about twenty five cents for every fly she tied. It was only a few extra bucks every month, but back then, it was a nice bonus.
So she sat me down and taught me the basics of tying a fly. I didn't fly fish, but it was the idea of making my own fishing lures that got me so excited to learn. Within a few years I was making fishing lures out of all kinds of things. I purchased some materials from mail-order catalogs, but using things like tableware and old costume jewelry also proved effective. Some of my creations were junk, but a few actually caught fish, and the satisfaction of catching a fish with a lure I made myself was immeasurable. That was the passion I wanted to instill in the kids in the fishing class. So the next time I showed up to speak to the group, I came toting a box of feathers, thread, hooks, split rings, wire,
Speaking to the River Studies class about making fishing lures.
beads and even some old silverware - all sorts of things I could show them that they could use to make fishing lures themselves. The effect was more than I could have ever hoped for. The kids were engaged. They asked question after question, their minds churning as they came up with ideas of their own. The instructor for the class later told me I had created "some monsters" as the kids were excited to head out on their next class fishing outing to try the lures they had made at home after my visit.
Those of us in the fishing industry are constantly talking about ways to grow the sport. Putting rods and reels in the hands of kids and getting them out fishing is no doubt great and effective. But if you can tap into a kids own creativity and show them how it can relate to fishing - that's a special gift you can give a young angler. At least that's my Boyd's Eye View on it. Carry on.
As I write this it is the eve of the opening of the 2016 Deer Gun Season in Wisconsin. Few places in the country (or the world for that matter), place more importance on this long-standing tradition. For days now, even weeks for some, preparations have been underway to make the opener a successful one, whether a deer is harvested or not.
Over the past several years I have watched from the sidelines as the annual event took place. I used to participate, enthusiastically, but these days my memories of past hunts seem to be enough. Am I envious of seeing the big antlered bucks that are shot and registered every year (especially when it's one taken by my son-in-law and/or daughter)? Absolutely; the big one always eluded me. But it never really bothered me. I guess I never hunted for the trophy. Hunting to me has always been like all my other outdoors pursuits, a way to reconnect with what ignites my inner flame.
Don't get me wrong, I've had more than my share of outdoors adventures. The mere thought of all the miles I trekked chasing pheasants and other upland birds across the Dakota prairies, farm fields and endless seas of CRP makes my knees hurt even now. Then there were the hours trying to sit still in a tree stand when the temps were single digits and shivering was involuntary. I was always better at walking than sitting, which is no doubt why I still prefer wing shooting over still hunting.
The same goes for fishing too. While angling has and always will be my greatest outdoor passion, I haven't done nearly as much of it the past few years for a number of reasons. Part of it was that I did what everyone said I should do many years ago and turn my passion into my profession. That has allowed me to fish in some fabulous places and catch some amazing fish over the decades, but it's a double-edged sword really. The problem comes when it becomes work and not a break from work. The day I began to think of fishing as work, it lost a good bit of the charm and attraction for me it once had. I found myself in a boat in a place most would only be able to dream of fishing, and I really didn't want to be there. I suppose that's not all that unusual really. We all go through changes in our life. That was just one I never really saw coming.
Oh I still love fishing. But now I find joy in the simpler aspects of the sport that I paid little attention to in the past. Gone now is the big boat rigged with fancy electronics and equipment to make the fish want to throw up their fins and just jump in the net (at least you'd have thought that's the way it was supposed to work). Now I've scaled back to a simpler style of angling ... float tubes and shore fishing are more appealing now than spending a $100 to fill the truck and boat with gas for the weekend. Sure, I don't catch as many fish, but I enjoy my time more when I do fish, whether or not they're biting. So these days you might call me a "fair weather" sportsman, and I'm just fine with that. If I wake up and its cold and rainy, I do something other than go fishing or hunting. If I have to decide one day whether to take an opportunity to go fishing during a hot bite or play golf on a nice course I've never played, I'm more likely to hit the links that day. It's not that I wouldn't like to go fishing, but it's a case of "been there, done that", and life is so much more interesting if you take the path less traveled more often. I will spend some time in the deer woods this fall, and I will hope my arrow flies true and I get the chance to harvest the big one that has eluded me all these years, but if I don't, I will have all my memories to keep me warm. At least that's my Boyd's Eye View on it. Carry on.
Some vintage plugs in the red and white color pattern.
Fishing lures have been a fascination of mine for most of my life. It all began back in Joplin, Missouri, on the corner of 32nd and Main. The old Southtown Bait & Tackle store was there, marked forever in my memory by the iconic bass sign right out front. The store is no longer there, but the memory of that magical place will always be with me. The open bins that lined the isles were filled with every conceivable contraption ever designed to catch a fish, or at least it looked that way to me. The first lure I bought there was an inline spinner. It was a couple inches long, had an elongated metal body on a wire shaft with a French-style spinner blade on the front and a small treble hook dressed with white feathers on the back. The color was a brilliant white background covered in bright red dots. My granddad helped me pick it out. We were headed for the river to take advantage of the white bass run. I remember distinctly him telling me, "You can't go wrong with that color pattern. Red and white lures catch everything that swims." Well granddad was right (as usual when it came to fishing), and the red and white spinner did the job nicely that day. Over the years I have owned many baits colored red and white. The most popular pattern over all has to be what in lure lingo is known as the Redhead pattern; white body with the head portion painted red. From deep diving plugs to topwater baits this pattern has been adorning fishing lures as long as these hard-body baits have been made. I have no idea why this color combination is so effective. One could speculate it has to do with the contrast, or the fact that in slightly off-colored water the white of the lure is easily seen. It really doesn't mimic any baitfish I've ever seen, but the predator fish eat it on a regular basis. Heck, it may be the same sort of reaction a matador gets waving a red cape in front of a bull; it just irritates the fish into hitting it.
No matter what size lure or material, you can most likely find one in red and white.
And it doesn't matter whether you are talking saltwater or freshwater. No one goes on a Canadian fishing trip without a red and white Dardevel Spoon, and anglers fishing off the east coast rarely hit the water without a red and white surface plug in their tackle box. While the red and white color scheme is not my first choice on the water these days, I can honestly say I don't leave the dock without at least one red and white lure in my box. Its just not right going fishing without one handy. Its been like that for me since that first trip to the tackle store in Joplin. As a matter of fact, I'm hard-pressed to walk past a red and white lure these days without at least picking it up, and more often than not it finds its way home with me. I have a ton of them; most will never get wet. But they are eye-catching, and for me that's the sign of a really good fishing lure. It must catch the angler before it can catch a fish. That's my Boyd's Eye View at least. Carry on.
