Old timers Vs Old geezers

I just got thru looking at the picture sticky hoping to get some inspiration. Sad to say it hasn't hit me yet. It will in time something will come to me. In going thru the pictures I saw a lot of names that are missing from the forums today. It seems like of the old crowd that was here when I first joined up. Skip, Fatman, Snake River is about all that is left. I sure don't want to be the last man standing.

What happened to Ships a hoy, Nightprowler, Oke state jigger, Pup?????? There are a bunch more that use to be active also one I remember is Bobo Graybeard. Some of you don't know me at all others will have read about the Redman and his jig heads. Would like to see some of the old guys get back on here and tell some stories. And even post some pictures. For instance Nightprowler is the world's best eye painter. yet I saw no examples of his work. Pup well what he does with craft hair we all just dream that we could make a jig that worked and looked that good.

There are a bunch of us that have special tying skills that should and better start teaching them. If we don't they all may end up in the grave like we are some day and may be lost for a long while. Much to Skip's credit he has made a couple of Youtube videos on crappie jig tying. I might have to do the same thing so my skills won't be lost. No disrespect meant just maybe planting a acorn that might grow into a mighty oak. Kind of like a repository for patterns and tying techniques for crappie jigs.


Redman

Sir, you have to stick around to keep us others sticking around. Lots of good people disappeared from here long bf you left.
Just no one spoke up.
Will catch ya on the other side.

I have learned so much for you old timers. Lots of great teachers on here skip, old ship, CTom and many others.

Redman, glad to see you posting again. I sent you a note a few weeks ago just checking up on you. Can't thank you enough for all the information and encouragement you gave me. I don't post as much as I used to, been a little busy. Weather hasn't allowed me to get to the lake this winter except for a couple of hours. Hurts my feelings to be stuck inside.

Guys, you won't find anyone on this site who is more of a gentlemen than Redman. He'll give you his humble opinion and never try to force it on anyone. He's always respectful to others. He's extremely knowledgeable, for years I copied many of his posts so I could refer back to them. He's a great resource.

Redman, you make a good point about the valuable resource the veterans of crappie.com are to others. Would love to see video's of the best tying and making jigs. I've learned a ton from this site and I appreciate all who contributed in a positive way. Looking forward to your posts. Thanks!

Micropterus Salmoides You my friend don't remember but you did a swap and did a jig that is one of the 6 goto jigs on Caddo Lake. I still have it in a special place and when I go to tie it up I still study it to make sure I am going to do it right being a Old Geezer that sometimes forgets. Sometimes I leave out of frustration most of the time because of the ill health of my wife. We went thur three eye surgeries last year hoping for some sight improvement. 6 months later we are back where we started. I never leave for good couldn't and wouldn't do that. After all I guess that you fellows need some adult supervision.

Bronson Thank you for the kind words. All of us Old Timers really appreciate that we are wanted and needed. That means more to us than you ever will know.

Redman

Redman, I know you have had your plate full taking care of your wife and I do love it when you get the time to post. For those that don't know this story I'll tell it here. About 3 years ago I wanted to experiment with my own jighead shapes and sizes but custom molds were prohibitively expensive, I voiced my wants and needs on another forum and Redman speaks up and tells me there is a way to make my own single and double cavity molds and that he would show and tell me how to do it. He proceeded to post pics of the old molds he had made out of aluminum, and the instructions for making them myself, as of today I have probably made a dozen molds, and these molds along with their heads are my most cherished jig making possessions. I will forever be grateful to Redman for passing on to me this old school way of making a mold. The process of me learning this from Redman was documented online for others to learn from too and today I have to shake my head in disbelief as the number of views on that post have reached 48,000. Every time I pour heads with one of these molds I think about a guy that was kind enough to share his trade secrets with me so I too could enjoy my craft more.

Hey Redman!!

Been a while - nightprowler pops in now and then, and I've seen Pup on a few other boards, Ol Ship is still here and Bobo is busy with his jig casting business but he is around. As redear learned the tricks of the trade for making the single molds, I'm VERY pleased to have one of them! We talk back and forth, and speaking of How's retirement going for you buddy!!!!!!!!

Haven't done any tying in a long time, and need to get back to it, but have been trading and buying stuff and learned from others and trial and error on how to dye the feathers, now I just have to find a way to dye the tanned hides and keep them soft!!LOL Making cutters for Zonker strips and cut a bunch. When I finally get back to tying I'll have plenty of materials ready to go.

Right now just waiting to hear when I'm going to be a Grand Pa again!! Daughter in Law is due tomorrow, but if she doesn't go before Monday they're going to induce her.

Great to hear from you!!

Fatman, congrats on the new arrival soon to come.

Redman, I don't post as I once did and tie even less but still like to keep up on my old friends. I have a few of your Redman heads that I refuse to do anything with. They were included in a trade from someone you did a trade with I was asked to use discretion as to who they went to, and I have done so. As I read through here I sometimes wonder where some have gotten off to. I am one to try different things and even follow them strongly for a time, only to put them down at some point and go to something else. I don't know if others do this also but with me, there are some things that I always come back to. Tying is one that always has my interest. Sorry to hear of all the effort of your wife's Doctors and no results. I pray that some help is out there somewhere for her. I always read and liked your posts and appreciated the help that you always offered freely. I look forward to your next posts and hope the picture thing works out for you. Til next time........Skeet.

Redman it is good to see you post. Hate to hear about the problems with the eyes, can't replace them but they can do wonders these days and I do hope they get them back to 100%.
You do see some post every now and then. Many like myself are busy doing they own things and time becomes short this time of the year. I have made many tying videos and enjoy passing the art on to others. I do think paying back and passing it forward is something we all should do.
It is interesting to watch other tyers do their thing with different materials. If the new guys have not been part of the jig swaps they are really missing out. It is a great chance to hold in your hand tyes from some of the best tyers anywhere. You can see their work and how a jig should be tied. Some amazing jigs I have from all over the US and some from across the big pond.

Glad to hear from so many of my old buddies and my Grasshopper mold maker. I fear that he has now way surpassed me. Age is a hard master. Yes i am glad to hear that some of my old friends are still on the top side. It is always hard to hear that one of our number has slipped into the silent clods of the valley.

Fatman I need to sit down and write you a tutorial on dying feathers and hair. Still have all the equipment but Wapsi does such a fine job that there is no need for me to dye anything anymore. There is a story there that some day I will tell.

Keep up your tying old friends. A lot of times I do what the great artist would do. I do studies of different patterns tying them different ways with different materials to get a similar look. Sometimes you come up with a pattern that is a goto pattern. Sometimes one will just fall into your hands from a friend. One of the reasons I keep giving some of my jigs away.

All the best

Redman

I lurk a lot on this site, but I owe 95% of my tying to this place. I am by no means a pro but I believe I have come A LONG ways from where I started. I don't tie as much as I like, but being a new papa I have my hands full! A home renovation is also taking all of my winter tying time! Making my own crappie jigs was something I wanted to do for years, finally I jumped in and love it! I gift all my buddies jigs and they send me pics of what they catch while I am busy. I do enjoy using my own jigs much more than store bought of plastics. This is all thanks to the Geezers/old timers here! Thanks from TeamAsgrow!

Hey Redman, I'm still kind of a newbie to the timing game, but this is the place a come to find the answers and inspiration. Joined in on my first jig swap this year and it was a great learning experience. Thanks to all Y'all

Brim

Redman I think not only do we to share more of out talents, but life stories as well. I lost both of my grandparents at an early age. I never got to hear and record there life. As with so many things in life WE are to busy or are GUARDING our SECRETS. One of the greatest things I have learned form working with youth in Boy Scouts and our church is you don't know just what path a young man may take that you touch in his life. As for me I have learned so much just form the fellow here on Crappie.com. Thanks to you and so many others not just here but out in the great states of America.

Tahoe I agree 100%. I am a Zookeeper and spending time, influencing, and being able to share with kids and they're family's gives me great joy. Also I am a blessed man at 50 years old to still have my Grandpa in my life. We all need to share what we know and love.

Tahoe, I too was basically without Grandparents. Both Dads were gone before me and the one Mom I had lived with an Aunt and I never got to see her much. Some folks don't understand how important they are in a young persons life. My Mom told me many times that I was so like her Dad. We truly missed a relationship that I'm sure would have shined bright. i was raised in a Scouting family and can speak of the small things done for me and others that touched our lives and have lived on these many years. Guarding secrets as you speak of is a bittersweet thing. I have found that a lot of the time knowledge kept to oneself is of little value. Sharing with young people and those willing to learn makes that same info priceless. I too started here knowing very little and through the generosity of those here I have come far. Too many to name have been there to help when I needed, I too owe and thank them. Good post Tahoe.

If a circle were drawn around every aspect know of fishing, the circle would be huge and I think all of us would find out we don't really know that much about the sport. Sharing that which we do know simply gives root to those young people with inquiring minds, especially when those young minds have so many other, less positive, directions they might be tempted to go.

I spend a lot of time showing kids, and adults as well, the little ins and outs of tackle crafting. I've taken my jig making and plastic injection into the local high schools' outdoor biology classes and worked with the kids hands-on. I've also shown this process to numerous Boy Scout Troops over the years. These school classes are often the classes kids with a single parent come to to try and find something new, very often because a friend is taking the class. Its an amazing thing to watch a kid who has no father and a shaky home environment take a hook and put it in a mold then dump in some lead to create the beginning of a lure. Then to watch him/her clean up that jig and paint it with a powder paint that allows him to handle the jig within seconds. Stepping to another table this same kid can watch as plastic goes from a raw state with some color and sparkle added into a microwave then come out an entirely different product that he can inject into yet another mold to create a companion to the painted jig.

A little further into this kid's class work he gets to build a fishing pole to go along with the baits that I helped him make. But all of this is brought to a grand conclusion when I get to go afield with these same kids using rods and baits that they have made with their own hands and creative minds and watch as they actually bring a fish to hand. I have seen the broadest smiles on earth, I have seen tears of happy disbelief. I've had boys and girls both come up and give me hugs and absolutely bawl because they never had been given the gentle encouragement that some of these kids so desperately need.

I've learned a lot over the years of making tackle and I cannot fathom the idea of ever stopping. In these many, many years I have been told that two times in our lives we have no control over are the past and the future. Today is the only time we have reign over. But if we learn to live as Skeetbum has printed as his signature...."No man really dies until he is forgotten"....and never forget those who shared with us that which has gotten us to where we are today we can aim at those who lie in the future who need exactly what we were given. Yesterday, today and tomorrow are all a parallel in life. That fishing circle I mentioned includes every one of us. How we choose to use our time in that circle may not make us a pile of money but I can assure everyone inside that circle that if we take what we know and share it in some way that helps broaden that circle's circumference we are doing good and that good sure makes a guy fell better inside.

I didn't know my dad until I was 44 years old and grew up in a single parent home. My Grandmother was a huge influence in my life and I held her hand as she took her final breath at 112 years of age. A neighbor when I was about 6 years old took me fishing and gave me an old steel fishing pole with agate eyes and a snarl making casting reel. Life was not easy, but the kindness shown by one man changed my whole life in ways that cannot be described. Its that which I choose to share. No secrets, no promises.

glad to see that you are still kicking quite a few of us old-timers are still here bobo gets on here now and then the rest of guys that you mention are on here now and then also but good to see that you are still going to see some of your posting soon I should do more jig work but I got into that dark old plastic stuff maybe I'll get on here one day in do some jigs.

I ain't dead yet Redman . Pondhopper/toadfrog is still kick'in . Just took a year off to do couple things on my bucket list . Toad sauce still work'in fer ya .