Thursday, July 15, 2004

Recycle a natural resource: turn squirrel tails into cash or lures When I was a kid, nearly every country boy was a squirrel hunter.  I can recall hunting gray squirrels with Dad on top of a limestone ledge on Leroy Kamner's farm  north of town.  Years later, I learned that ledge was the Niagara Escarpment, which runs from upstate New York all the way to Wisconsin, creating Niagara Falls and passing through southern Ontario and Michigan on the way to Mayville, Wisconsin, where you can sit on top of it and look out over Horicon Marsh.  We spent many a Sunday afternoon at the New York end of it, sitting under an oak or hickory with Dad's old Iver Johnson single-shot 12-gauge.  We didn't have a squirrel call, and I had not yet learned how to cluck out a squirrel bark with my tongue.  Dad did a pretty good job of calling them, though, by tapping the receiver of the Iver Johnson with a Zippo lighter. "Click, click, click, click," went the Zippo.  Then we'd sit quietly and wait for a response.  If there were squirrels in the area, and there usually were, sooner or later one would bark a reponse. Dad would tap the Zippo again, then we'd sit quietly until the curious squirrel stuck his head around the trunk of a nearby tree.  When one did, Dad would dust him with a load of 5s, and I'd run out to gather in the kill. The younger squirrels, we cut into pieces, rolled in bread crumbs and pan-fried in bacon grease or baked in the oven.  Older squirrels went into a stewpot with potatoes, carrots, onions and enough flour to thicken the mixture to a satisfying consistency. I skinned some of the squirrels and tanned the hides in a salt-and-alum brine.  I cut the tails off some and used the hair for tying the ugliest flies you ever saw.  The hair also made great dressing for the spinners we put together from parts ordered from Netcraft and Herter's catalogs. Fewer folks hunt squirrels today, and fewer still dress their own flies and spinners.  There is still a market for squirrel tails, however.  Sheldon's, Inc., the company that makes Mepps spinners, buys squirrel tails to dress the hooks of these world-famous lures. "Hundreds of other materials, both natural and synthetic, have been tested," says Mepps spokesman Jim Martinsen, "but few materials work as well." Martinsen hastens to point out that Mepps is only interested in recycling tails from squirrels that have been taken for the table.  They don't want you shooting squirrels just for their tails. Mepps has been buying fox, black and grey squirrel tails for more than 30 years.  The company will pay 20 to 26 cents each for tails, depending on quality and quantity.  Red squirrel tails are worth 8 to 11 cents each.  The cash value is doubled if the tails are traded for Mepps lures. For details on how to handle, package and ship squirrel tails, log onto the Mepps website, www.mepps.com.  For a current Mepps Fishing Guide, which features all the details of the squirrel tail recycling program, visit the website or call 800-713-3474. If you're traveling through northern Wisconsin on Highway 45, you can also stop and talk to the folks at Mepps in person.  Sheldon's is located at 626 Center Street in Antigo.  Tell 'em where you learned about their program. So dust off the old .22 and buy a squirrel call [^] or learn to bark with your tongue.  Squirrel season will soon be here, and with it, the opportunity to harvest some sweet-tasting nut eaters for the table.  Don't forget to recycle the tails.  You can sell them for cash, or do like I do, trade them for Mepps lures. I like the idea of letting squirrels buy my muskie bucktails! Which reminds me of a story.  My friend, Tom Newbauer was fishing the shoreline of a lake up north, when he saw a squirrel sitting on a flat rock next to shore.  The squirrel was eating an acorn, but before Tom knew what happened, a big muskie jumped right over the rock and picked off that squirrel as neatly as you'd flick a bug off your elbow.  As the huge swirl subsided, Tom just stared at the rock with his jaw about down to his belt.  He was about to make another cast, when the water next to the rock boiled again.  He watched as the muskie neatly deposited another acorn on the rock, then slid back into the water.  Tom swears he saw the muskie wink at him!  I believed his story right up to that last part.  When was the last time you saw a muskie wink at a muskie fisherman? Later... 10:33:21 PM    comment []