The Winter White Blues

Fly tying is a great hobby and relatively inexpensive. I know quite a few people who tie their own flies and a large number of those do not even fly fish. They simply enjoy tying the flies and for the most part giving them to friends asking only for a report on how well they perform. On occasion they do sell some flies but their main objective is just to burn some hours away in their own little corner while waiting for the warmer weather of spring to break.

Another favorite winter past-time is reloading. Plenty of people reload their own shells and cartridges especially through the winter months. Most will tell you it’s very rewarding and comforting to know who handled the ammo and that it has been created to a certain specification. I don’t reload ammo myself and have often been asked the question as to whether I trust the person who might have been having a bad day to create ammo for me. It’s a good question creating a legitimate concern that has stuck in my head on more than one hunt.

Another great hobby that can break the monotony is taxidermy. Having a background in art I once thought this might be for me but I quickly learned just the opposite. Admittedly I am not the type to sit for long periods of free time. Free time is the key phrase here. I spend plenty of time sitting in this chair typing day after day. I tend to enjoy my time away from the desk to be a little more, scratch that, much more active and physical. A friend of mine took up taxidermy as a hobby around the same time I had shot a bobcat. I reluctantly agreed to let him mount the cat for me. Really bad idea. I won’t even try to describe the end result. What I will say is just 8 months later he was mounting raccoons, ducks, pheasants, and, you guessed it, bobcats, that looked pretty darn good. He had practiced during the winter and although he said it was a little more expensive to get started he was making money from the work he was doing for others. Thinking back that was my grand scheme when I gave it a try.

I could go one for days chatting up all the little possibilities but I’ll leave you with this one.

Why not try your hand at writing and sending the article to us for possible publication in our next issue of the online magazine? As you see it doesn’t take anything more than an interest or some basic knowledge in an outdoors subject. Come to think of it. There goes another hour of those winter blues!

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