There are two things me and my father did together when I was younger; hunting and fishing. Neither of us are the “nothing else matters on earth” type of hunter or fisherman. We enjoy honing the skills and spending the time with others. Both of these skills are expensive.
It has always been my inclination to learn how to minimize the cost of activities like fishing and hunting. From what I’ve read, people hunted and fished to survive and because it was cheaper or more readily available than a grocery store. So, spending a lot of money on these activities seemed a little fake; $100–$300 / pound of meat is not thrifty.
Part of reducing the costs of these activities and getting closer to the original skills used by our ancestors was hand making as many of the tools and materials used in hunting and fishing. Since I do woodworking, fishing lures have been one of the most attractive areas to initially explore.
So today, when Wendy sent me a link to a blog about the 101 Skills for the Modern Homesteader, one item in particular stood out on the list:
26. Learn how to fish and make your own fishing lures.
It doesn’t seem like this subject is going to go away, it keeps popping into my mind. I think it also fits into my “more hand tools” migration as well; I’ve been learning how to build projects using more manual processes. Making fishing lures will likely fit right into hand tool processes.
I’m excited to dig into this because I won’t have to put anything else on hold. Maybe I can learn it well enough that I can make some lure for my father next Christmas or even for his birthday. Or, perhaps, Corbin will be interested in making using the lures and we’ll take them with us when we fish with my father. Great possibilities.
