I’ve posted about the tools, materials, and even the hooks used in fly tying. Today we’re going to tie it all together (sorry!) and make a fly.
We’re going to make a fly called a Blue Wing Olive. It’s intended to imitate mayflies of the genus Baetis. There’s thousands of species in the genus, but most of them have an olive green body, with grey wings, tail, and legs.
Eleanor Anna Johnson Hoel was born on March 23, 1910, in New London, Iowa. Her parents were Walter Carl Johnson and Ellen Lorraine McCabe.
Despite rumors to the contrary, we don’t spend all of our time outdoors backpacking. We also go fishing!
As the weather starts to change, the maple tree in the back yard starts to drip sap. It’s not a sugar maple, so it wouldn’t make a sweet syrup. Plus you need a lot of sap to make syrup.
Georgie talks about making syrup in the notes she wrote about growing up in West Point. On the Bruegenhempke place, there was a row of soft maples north of the house. Sometimes they collected the sap and cooked it down.
Her great-uncle Ben Wellman had a sugar camp in the timber, and in the spring collected maple water. In February, when it froze at night and warmed in the daytime, they collected maple water in buckets. Maple season in Iowa lasts 3 to 4 weeks.
Aunt Teresa would make maple sugar candy in a pan with molds which all had different designs on the bottom. You can buy or make your own maple sugar candy today. It is often shaped in molds that look like a maple leaf.
This is an interesting article on the history of making maple syrup posted by the Maple Valley Syrup cooperative.
Arthur Link was the only son of William and Elizabeth Link. He was born on December 11, 1930, and died of pneumonia on March 11, 1932, aged fifteen months.
He was, of course, Mom’s little brother. And she spoke of him pretty often. Losing a child is a traumatic thing for a family, and it was no less so ninety years ago than it would be today. It’s just that back then it was more common.
In a previous post I talked about fly tying materials. And in another post I discussed the tools used to tie fishing flies. Today, I’d like to discuss the fish hooks used for fly fishing. Fly tiers use a wide variety of types of hooks. Let’s look into why they do that.
I’ll just let the photo speak for itself.
I love the spring, with new leaves and plants peeping up from the ground. As you wander in the woods, you see an amazing array of colors as the flowers start to bloom. Here are a few of my favorite pictures taken over many years in southern Indiana.
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