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3. Pheasant Legs

What's a east method for tying knots in pheasant tail fibers, there just seems that there would be. Or is this really that time consuming?

We usually use overhand knots out east. What do you midwesterners do?

-Shawn

this easterner uses a rug hook from Michaels, but Rainey's makes a much smaller version of the same thing that is easier to use. the Fly Tyer's Benchside Reference has a picture series of how to do it. basically make a circle of the fibers (leave them attached to the stem) and pull the free end through the circle with the hook. some folks use a crochet hook or the hook a beautician uses to pull hair through a coloring cap when streaking. simple, but not necessarily easy to figure out at first. i found that taping the stem to the bench helped keep things under control while i worked with the fibers further up.

Shawn,

Actually we here in Detroit use the Gordian Knot originally made famous by Gordie Howe...:)

I am smiling here a bit because I don't want to over complicate something that is probably being over-thought, but there is a tool.

Spence

Sorry...I just couldn't help myself...

I'm using overhand knots also, I'm just apparently not adept at tying legs as y'all haha. The ends of the fibers keep slipping out of my fingers. Well, gave the legs another shot and they went a little quicker, so I guess once again...practice makes perfect.

and...I just realized I typed east instead of easiest...oh boy...long day.

We do a lot of pheasant hunting here in the Midwest, so pheasant tail feathers are easy to come by. I’ve found the best way to tie knots in the tail feather fibers is to shoot em in the butt.

What did you expect coming from me?

I confess I knew it was a typo, Trout11B, but the smart-ass in me just couldn't resist, especially with the east vs. west rivalry we often encounter in flyfishing circles. But my answer was at least somewhat sincere, as the overhand knot is typically used both in the east and as the easiest method.

I'm not familiar with the Gordie Howe Knot. I suspect it appears on the foreheads of easterners who poke fun at midwestern boys?

-Shawn

Ya, I figured everybody saw the typo, except me, and I completely understand because if I was in your shoes I would have done the same thing.

Ryan

Shawnny,

That's funny! Actually its a rather difficult knot since its not tied with the hands but with ones elbows...:)

Big Red's on a roll!!! Three in a row...

Spence

Trout11B, Use a tiny hook, as Casey suggests. You can make one.

How about knot using them at all, and substituting rubber legs? In my experience, (I've used both extensively) the rubber legs are better fish takers and much easier to work with.

Yes, Spence, the Red are rolling a little - thanks for noticing. They're young, but they have some potential. Certainly not a good season by their standards, but they're rebuilding. The women's team is the real story, stomping their way through the league and sitting at #2 in the country. Wrestling is #1 - just beat #19 Hofstra 42-0. A fun time to be a Cornell fan.

Your Wings are slipping a little with injuries, but they'll be tough to beat come playoff time. I'm really liking how my Flyers are stacking up.

-Shawn

Shawn,

I don't want to rattle Pittsburgh Tony's cage but Philly's probably the team to beat in the east (he hates them and for a very long time) and Vancouver in the west...Tony and I are crossing our fingers for a rubber match between Pittsburgh and Detroit...(We may be buds on TroutNut but I'll never get over Pittsburgh taking the Cup at the Joe...That hurt just won't go away!) Both of our teams have been hit with the injury bug again this season...I don't know what's going on but injuries in the NHL seem up again this year.

My cousin and I were at the Joe last night and Datsyuk came back from the injured list and got two points for a win against the Rangers...Sean Avery's a wimp! My cousin and I have sent a little note upstairs to Kenny Holland that he may need to do something about a goaler before the trade deadline...Howard has somehow lost his confidence...Thats a dreaded curse for a goal tender...Manny Legace never got it back...They are in his head and he can't hang on to the rebounds...Ozzy shoud be helping him with this...But he's out hurt as well...

Just to justify this not so trouty post a quick fishing report...From the porch of the Joe Louis Arena last night I could see that the Detroit River is still pretty much iced over...:)

Spence

oh, hail - spence - of the long posts and short memories...
how does one forget that lord stanley's cup was raised high at the penguin's own igloo in june of 2008. i was present that evening, ten rows back in my usual seat and cheered for my pens and then acknowledged the new champions with applause.
how better to avenge that humiliation than the flightless bird hoisting the cup in hockeytown at the "new" old red barn merely a year later... i was a guest in your building that wonderful evening. i still rank the hotdog i ate that night as one of the best that i have ever tasted. unfortunately, the hometown fans didn't take the losing at home as well as we did just twelve months before.
oh, how sweet revenge can be...
on another note - no silverware lining the inside of the spectrum/wachovia center in quite some time now. i believe currently the philadelphia club is zero for six.
shawn - were you even born before 1975?

Ouch! That stings a little, Tony. Yes, I'm quite bitter about the last two playoff losses to the Pens (so garbage!). I retaliate with only two words: Keith Primeau. I am also still bitter about the whipping the Flyers took at the hands of the Wings back 10-15 years ago (does the year even matter? Not to me...), as well as the one the Canes took from the Wings more recently (we were Canes season-ticket holders back when we lived in NC - awful to see your team lose the Cup in person). Last year's impossible win over the Bruins (I only lost faith one time in that series, when we got down 3-0 in Game 7... to my shame) while the Pens were pissing away their series with the Habs was pretty sweet, but in the end the season was just another brush with greatness. We all carry our baggage, I guess. Always next year, right? Riiiight.

To answer Tony's dirty question sincerely - I was 1 and 2 years old the two times the Bullies took home the hardware. I'd love to say I remember it like it was yesterday, but...

I played net all the while growing up in upstate NY. I couldn't stand the Rangers and Islanders, and the Sabres were irrelevant. I chose my team based not on geographical proximity but on its merits, and the Flyers were the clear choice for me. Ron Hextall was the greatest role model a young goalie could ask for. Gosh, I loved Ron Hextall.

Living in Penguin-land now is a sadistic kind of fun, making my old Wings- and Rangers-hating pale by comparison. I've found the fans around here enthusiastic but generally ignorant bandwagon jumpers (no slight directed at you, Tony, just a general observation). You can tell the real ones come baseball season if they root for the Pirates. I know Philly fans have a reputation for being the most obnoxious in sports, but I don't mind - I kind of like rooting for the bad guy. I kid my students all the time about the Pens, asking them how blue-collar folks who love such a gritty, hard-hitting football team as the Steelers can turn around come hockey season and root for such a bunch of sissy Europeans and divers. I tell them that if they were fans with any real integrity they'd root for the Steelers and Flyers - they don't much appreciate that. Sadly, in the new, rigged-for-Sidney-Crosby NHL, the Flyers have started getting fancier players and are losing their hard-nosed identity a little. A few weeks ago I saw something I thought I'd never see, Mike Richards lining up one of the Sedin twins for one of his season-ending hits, only to pull up at the last second and poke-check the puck away! The (Canucks!) announcers commented immediately afterward at how the new head-shot rules were changing the way players like Richards play. A little part of me died inside. I like the winning, but at what cost? Do I have to sell my soul as a real hockey fan for a Cup? That's a tough choice I don't ever want to make.

-Shawn

Ever since Michael Jordan, every sport now wants it's own "Michael Jordan". GEEEZ, when I was in Chile in the Peace Corps the natives were wearing freaking Bulls caps. Los Bulls!

Football has Brett Favre, who apparently has done a good job of making an idiot out of himself with his "rotating retirement" and obscene photos to a young hottie who would never want an old fart like him anyway.

Basketball now has Lebron "Call me KING even though I've never won a championship" James - no further explanation necessary...

Baseball - hmmmm, just what were the results of your latest steroids test???? How about Derek Jeters WALKING when the camera clearly showed the ball hitting the handle of his BAT instead of HIM???

Which, of course, brings me around to CINDY Crosby...One of my favorite moments in recent NHL history was when Jimmy Howard of the Red Wings smothered Crosby's entire face with his catching glove after Cindy took a cheap shot at Henrik Zetterberg. Oh, and nice job Cindy shaking hands with Nicklas Lidstrom after you defeated him in 2009. Oh wait, that's right, he didn't - must have been too busy gloating or looking for a camera to stare into...

Go ahead, Flightless Waterbird fans, attack me...

Uh, weren't we talking about something else here?

Jonathon

Boys! Boys! Boys! Damn! Did I poke a sleeping bear or what? I don't even know where to go with this...I will admit that I'm grinning ear-to-ear but I may have a mean streak and maybe the "short-memory" goes back longer than I want to admit...Especially when it comes to "ice" hockey, eh?!

Keith Primeau? Shawnny You didn't!?

I know that Tony believes me incapable of a short story, but...94-95 season...The "shortened season". I was sitting at the Joe watching the Detroit Jr Red Wings playing the Sarnia Sting with my young nephew. The whole lower bowl was full and the upper empty when I spotted Dino Ciccarelli & Shawn Burr (they co-owned the Sting at the time) sitting a few rows up in to the upper bowl. I nugged him and told him to run up there and say hello. Maybe get an autograph. He was painfully shy then and wouldn't go so I had to walk him up and they signed the kids cap and I wished them well etc with the lock out and apologised for my nephews Jr Wings beating up on Sarnia..

A few weeks later we were there again (we had season tickets for the "J" Wings) when my nephew nugged me and pointed up in to the upper bowl and Keith Primeau was sitting up there...I looked at the kid and said, "That's just Keith Primeau. You'll have to walk yourself up there for that one buck-o!"

I watched the big guy skate when he was in juniors himself with the Niagara Falls Thunder...They had a good team back then...I was watching from Windsor then since we didn't have a team on our side of the river yet...I was a big Spitsfire fan. I had actually gone to see one of their defencemen a Bryan Fogarty who had actually led the OHL in points as a defencemen and due to alcohol problems he never really panned out.

Forgarty went to the Nordiques in the draft...Poor old Quebec fans...Bad so many years in a row that they kept loading up on future stars...I once predicted that the Wings would meet them in the Finals one day...They moved to Colorado and bam we played them in the Conference Finals instead, the real Stanley Cup round that year, since we sweept poor Philly right after in four. Sorry Shawn-O. (I'll leave the Eric Lindros/Quebec Nordiques saga for another day...He was another big man with a big head who was a no-show when push came to shove...In his defence, he did have Konstantinov in his face every time he was on the ice...I may still have his rookie card if I didn't toss it in with the ones I gave my nephews a couple years back after a house cleaning).

Tony. I can't speak for the hot dogs at the Joe since I've been a vego since I was 16, but my nephew used to go through them like candy...If I can ever get you over this way I'll buy you one...

I do have my own "beer-man" there, Ricky. He and I used to play hockey together back when the earth was young and he makes sure old Spence never runs out of Molson's during a game...:) During the playoffs the year your boys came through I had a German friend at the game when we sent Chicago home, and a German exchange student who had lived with us visited for a Finals game we won against your boys...They loved the idea that we had our own "beer-man"...My mother's great grand parents came from Ober Franken in northern Bavaria...That little spot has the highest per-capita breweries in the whole world...Just up the road a bit is Plzen where Pilsner was invented and the town of Budweis where the name Budweiser was stolen from...I come by it naturally...:)

Spence

That's right, seven (7) paragraphs constitutes a "short story" for Spence...

Jonathon

Nice story, Spence. And well played, Jonathon. 'Short' is a relative term, isn't it?

-Shawn