Old timers Vs Old geezers

[TeamAsgrow]

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!

[Brimfisher]

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

[tahoe 50]

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.

[Brimfisher]

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.

[skeetbum]

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.

[CTom]

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.

[snake River]

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.

[pondhopper]

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 .