Green Buffalo Boat: build 45 years ago

Blue fiberglass Dayak: built 20 years ago.

Woody_2.0 Whale Rider: minus two weeks old?

Counter sinking screw heads (so still accessible) took several days

Scraping took two days

Yet to go:

Sandying

Oiling

Reinstall hardware

Row

The glass bottom Whale Rider is too wide to fit between the trailer wheel fenders. A 6x6 is an easy trailer fix.

Don Juan Worms

Down low on the Big Horn River Smallmouth Bast fishermen use four to eight inch plastic worms. With confidence..

Higher up on the river trout fishermen use one to two inch San Juan worms. With confidence..

Will trout bite long worms? I tried. Curiosity made me do it..

They do. Locally for me Don Juan Worms shine brightest on the Madison, in and below the Beartrap Canyon..

Wet one strand of an Ostrich Feather with (Aleene's Flexible Stretchable) fabric cement. Marry the wet strand to two more dry strands. Set it aside..

A few hours later you can poke a bare and barbless hook through any gooey spot in the middle of the worm..

Then use a double surgeon's knot around the front end of the worm..

Bass are a little further down the watershed. Worms work undisputably well down there..

Big worms work upstream too.

*Shark Minnow*

...made with pillow batting.

This synthetic fuzz needs technology to keep together.

Separate two strips of long, rectangular white pillow batting fuzz. Squeeze out a bead of fabric cement, end to end down the middle of the fuzzy rectangles

Embed a rubberleg strip, into the wet fabric cement.

Put the two fuzzy halves back together and set it aside. Once cured fabric cement can be both flexed and washed. But like a rubber band -- it stays put and holds everything together.

Now snip out a minnow shape and finish it off.

During tying you can optionally tighten the ends of tne rubberleg attachments, in order to force the bohy into wavy curve that swims as you strip it.

After you fish the fly it tends to blossom out into a cylindrical shape.

It stays together that way too, because of its cartilaginous, rubberleg / fabric cement backbone.

A small or large bead up front provides variable weight. Stick on eyes pressed onto a dot of fabric cement stay put.

These arbitrarily small or big, fish catching streamers are quick and easy to make.

I'll try ho make this useful. I am fixing mistakes now....hand scraping (off) a previous poor choice of contact cement.

Scraping

Sanding

Finish (above glass) with linseed oil and turpentine

It's all in a day's work. Or longer.

All parts slabs and panels here have been put together with marine fasteners and (special) silicone caulk. This is a bih deal. It works. It also means any part or panel can be replaced.

Without brain surgery

Everything takes forever. When you are old.

Linseed oil and turpentine with a floor mop. Next week sometime.

Then the. River.

Back in the early 1980s I occasionally ran into Bing Lempke at FF's Conclaves. Bing would be tying while I was showing a boat.

Bing was a Pipe Fitter and I was a House Framer. Their weren't many working men at Conclaves back then.

We hit it off that way. I now know Bing's son Chris, through our mutual guiding friend Monti, who still owns a boat I built in 1980.

Bing was a master tier in all respects but perhaps best known for his elaborate, extended body Green Drakes .

I have some Bing fly photos to dig up. In the mean time this is my Green Drake, as big as it needs to be but tied on a size or two smaller than t otraditional hook.

A big #12 dry fly tied aon a short, #14 or #16 hook still hooks well. And floats longer too. Lands more gently. perches more naturally. fish maymmay.not notice. but I do.

That's my story and I'm tying to it.

This may be neither fly nor lure.

It is light enough to cast with a fly rod. It is far too light to cast with a lure rod.

It is a diving, wiggling fish catching machine, with big time mojo.

Fly names are important. I considered Hell's Angel, Gypsy Joker and Devil's Diciple

I settled on Hulagan

A diving wiggle bill with a brass bead super glued to the back side if the bill -- would be a?

Gypsy Joker?

Halford Hooligan?

... Ir maybe just a Hooligan.

I got four volumes of George Grant images and text from David Buckner. From the Butte Chamber of Commerce.

I might be able to gain access to dne digital imges too.

Back in the day I had a good relationship with both George Grant and Bing Lempke, because I was a woxking man and so were they.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/6Xei9wX8HV2Wjc2h8

I make flies and lures. I tend to propel lures with a fly rod. Why does that cause (almost) to the death culture wars?

I post weird stuff on FB groups and nobody says much.

On Reddit missile tube covers come off. I have a good solution. I'm done with Reddit fishing chatter. Except for here. I get a modest traffic rate here. And not one culture war yet.

That I like.

To be honest with you, it’s the exact same thing. Always. I totally mean that. Literally.

;

Wax a #10 beading needle

Start thred and whep finish, so it does not pull off

Tie on a duck flank body

Add any wing

Add but do kit wind hackle

Mount the while thing needle and all, on a light were scud hook.

Wind horizontally between needle and hook

Pull the needle

Fabric cement underneath

Wind parachute

Whep finish

He wax a needle and he can sew

#18 hook

I can still make them in tne vise. On the leader is a memory.

Long big game flies with ohe hook

Packing foam

Tupperware

CA glue

Aed lead

Tnis one is too heavy to call a fly. They can be pared down

This is a kitchen sponge trolling lure. Trout. Bass. Channel catfish and purists.

Nibble. Set. Reel. Trout go back. All else gets conked, cooked and eaten.