The Church Lady Nymph Variant

I know the title of this piece has you thinking of Saturday Night Live and Dana Carvey. Well that was not my inspiration for the title. It came from my youth going to Sunday Services in a Western North Carolina Baptist Church. A good many of the older women of the church had fur collars they wore regularly in the colder months. I am sure they were very prized possesons. Well fur has lost favor as a garment and those ladies are now hopefully in heaven. A year or two ago I started noticing these fur, that were usually mink, were showing up at yardsales and fleamarkets. Usually at a pretty affordable price.

 I bought one to see what I could do with it. Tied a bushy big nymph. Sort a AP Nymph meets Hares Ear looking thing. I did think much of it other than it wound up in my warmwater nymphing box. One day fishing the French Broad River for bluegill, smallmouth bass, and anything else that would eat the revered olive Woolly Bugger I added one as a trailing fly. Now after a few casts and swinging retrieves the bits started picking up. Most all the bit were on this weird creation of by gone fashion meets recycling on the cheap.

The day I bought the pelt I used for this article my son (7years old) and I were shopping the fleamarket mostly letting him find and haggle for toys he wanted. I saw the fur and ask a price before I fully saw what it was. It wasn't one but seven mink pelts sewen together. Said $10 and countered with $5. Guess it was mowing so fast and he said take it. I drapped it over my arm. My son refused to continue with me if I did find a bag and put them in it.

For this post I thought I would share my idea of recycling this out of fashion mink collars. Now I'm not sure where PETA and like is going to fall on this one. Remember when I got them they were already dead by at sevearl years :)

One of the seven mink pelts after I seperated them.

 Molting goose feather found on the shore of Douglas Lake in Tennessee.

Now I am sure there is some exiting fly pattern that is tied just like this. I didn't invint the fly but maybe I did come up with a way to let those fur collars from a different day make somebody happy one last time.

Dedicated to my son. I love you.