Sporting Road

Tête de Moine et le Girolle

Mothers often tell their children, “Don’t play with your food.” But the French have a toy for cheese—a sort of spinning knife with a big wheel of dairy beneath it. They call it a girolle; the rest of us call it a cheese curler or cheese wheel. It was love at first spin. After a visit to get some Tête de Moine, which is a type of cheese manufactured on both the French and Swiss sides of the Swiss Alps, it spins cheese into a mushroom trumpet shape, hence the name Girolle, which is French for the Chantrelle mushroom. They say you can also use Petit Basque on the girolle, which we haven't tried yet.

By Sporting Road|March 4th, 2019|Categories: Cuisine, Recipes|Comments Off

Throw Your Hat Over the Wall

Frank O’Connor, the Irish writer, tells in one of his books how, as a boy, he and his friends would make their way across the countryside, and when they came to an orchard wall that seemed too high and too doubtful to try and too difficult to permit their voyage to continue, they took off their hats and tossed them over the wall–and then they had no choice but to follow them. ----John F. Kennedy in his speech at the Dedication of the Aerospace Medical Health Center, San Antonio, Texas, November 21, 1963. It all starts with commitment: When you throw your hat over the wall you are committing to getting it back. Sometimes, people can be stuck for several reasons. Often, this can be fear; fear of change, fear of the unknown, fear of failure, etc. When you are fully committed to getting your hat back and you throw it over the wall you start a momentum. Now, it is about finding out how to get the hat back. Or how to get oneself over the wall to the hat. Equestrians have adapted this saying to, "Throw your heart over the fence before you approach it." So whether it's your hat or your heart, be committed before you jump and don't let fear hold you back, trust your horse. _________________________________________ On Being A Field Master Others have said, "The Field Master’s job has five simple rules: first, have a great pack of hounds; second, have a great huntsman; third, have a great horse; fourth―getting serious now―know your country; and fifth, make it fun." -Foxhunting Life

By Sporting Road|February 28th, 2019|Categories: Foxhunting|Comments Off

The Search for the Holy Grail of Fly Fishing

Manifest plainness, embrace simplicity. -Lao Tzu I have searched high and low for the holy grail of fly fishing for over 30 years, in books, guides, flies, articles, and every place imaginable. I have found many soothsayers, naysayers, potion sellers, tricksters, hucksters, and a few people who had forgotten more than the others had managed to remember. Starting with the Dame, and passing through Skues, Halford, Sawyer, Kite, Best, Gierach, and taking us all the way to modern day, I have now read them all, every book that I could find in print, or out of print, on fly fishing. And I have tried to meet as many of the people in real life as well, on this side of the pond and across it. There's an interesting saying that a guru horse trainer of mine, Wilson Dennehy says, " less than 10 percent of the people know 90 percent of the available information in the world." By that he means, there are very few experts who really know everything there is to know about a subject. Here's some of the things I have found along the way to finding a guru of fly fishing. Most of them helpful friends along the way leading their own way on paths to the top of the same mountain, but many others (not depicted) were distracting from the true purpose. AK Best tied flied Pat Dorsey Top Secret midge materialFrank Sawyer flies given to me by Nick SawyerLots of fakes before I found the real Chadwicks 477 wool for Killer Bugs And, here's what I have discovered. I have gone from over 1,000 fly patterns in my fly boxes to just three. These three flies, the RS2 as

By Sporting Road|February 26th, 2019|Categories: Fishing, Fly Tying, Rim Chung, RS2|Comments Off

Pat Dorsey Flies

My favorite things about Pat Dorsey flies are that they are generally very simple to tie and they work exceptionally well. I have incorporated those strategies into my fly tying over the past couple decades, after chasing the illusive, you got to have it, hot fly of the week syndrome promoted by many in the industry for much of my youth. Pat Dorsey is a Colorado fly fishing guide, commercial fly tyer, and author of quite a few fly fishing books. He is a long-time acquaintance and his flies include staple patterns of the South Platte River, usually featuring his signature "Mercury Bead head" added to the pattern, with other small improvements. These flies will catch fish and the Mercury Bead seems to improve the flies from their original versions. While Pat's flies are not something I tie or use regularly, you have to admire them. Or at least I do, as I was a commercial fly tyer in high school and the patterns are generally fast to tie and more effective than most. However, a lot of my friends do use these files regularly and Pat's improved versions of the black beauty, buckskin, brassie, and other South Platte favorites such as the Mercury RS2, and his version of Andy Kim's Yong Special, the Top Secret Midge, all catch a lot of fish and are flies that I have experimented with over the years. I post some pictures here from Pat's great books, which are educational in how simple flies can be to still be very successful. He has proven to be a guide who knows how to educate his clients both in fishing and fly tying, and is never one to hold back on

By Sporting Road|February 26th, 2019|Categories: Fishing, Fly Tying, RS2, Uncategorized|Comments Off

Instinctive Shooting, New Paperback Version Released

https://smile.amazon.com/Instinctive-Shooting-Making-Master-Gunner/dp/1510742735/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1551197933&sr=1-1-catcorr Instinctive Shooting: The Making of a Master Gunner Paperback – April 9, 2019by Buz Fawcett (Author), Jay Cassell (Foreword) , Marc Patoile, (Edited by) Learn to point and shoot like a pro with these easy-to-follow tips.“Here, point and shoot.” These words from his father propelled Buz Fawcett’s shooting success as a child, gaining him a number of High Gun awards at local trap clubs by the time he was fourteen. Instinctive Shooting is Fawcett’s guide for other gunmen, describing exactly how and what needs to be done to achieve the ultimate shooting instincts. Practical and hands-on, the book covers such topics as:Determining your dominant eyeAchieving proper shotgun fitHow to correct point and shootSelecting equipmentPractice regimensCare, cleaning, and maintenanceMuch more!

By Sporting Road|February 26th, 2019|Categories: Uncategorized|Comments Off

Mottram on Fly Fishing

Innovations of a Scientist-Angler This is a great book for the fly fisher. Writings from one of the most original and provocative fly-fishing theorists of the twentieth century. Important inquiries into the nature of trout and the challenges of catching them with flies. James Mottram wrote at the height of great intellectual turmoil in the world of British fly fishing, when advocates of dry-fly fishing quarreled with their nymph-fishing counterparts over which type of fishing was not only more effective but also more "appropriate" on England's famous chalkstreams. Mottram stepped into this bitter controversy with writings that calmly considered the strengths, weaknesses, and prospects of all fly-fishing methods. In his introduction to this first American edition of Mottram's writings, Paul Schullery praises Mottram's "enthusiastic voice, ceaseless curiosity, and intuitive sense of how things worked." Schullery concludes that Mottram, who was rare among early angling authorities in actually being scientifically trained, "applied a disciplined understanding of nature's subtlety and complexity to the study of the trout's world." That he was also a lively and inventive storyteller only adds to the value of his work today. About Schullery, Paul

By Sporting Road|February 26th, 2019|Categories: Fishing|Comments Off

Frank Sawyer’s Pheasant Tail Nymph and Grey Goose

https://youtu.be/416Os9V84n8 Frank Sawyer was a river keeper for The Fishing Association in Wiltshire, England. The river Avon was his home water. His grandson, Nick Sawyer, who was a special forces Captain in the Royal Services, when I met him and also moonlighted at times, offering his grandfather’s Sawyer Nymphs, has moved on to bigger and better things as Brigadier of their special forces. He was kind enough to send me some flies tied by his grandfather and the first thing that stands out, is how slim and natural they are compared to our American "pheasant tail" flies such as the Copper John. Nick wrote to me, ”Minimalism is probably a good way of describing the Sawyer approach to fishing. I spent a huge amount of money on taco that does not do the job as well as something out a fraction of the price.” before his grandmother retired she had three regular tires working for her as well and sold sawyer flies all around the World by mail. Nick Usually fist on the right hand it down to him from his father was one of the early fiber rods made in the 1960s by Hardy, the light master model. It is a fairly light rod and he like to fish with 1.5 pound cast tippet which equals American 7X. He commented that grade line on the test did not like the substitute wall as much as the Chadwick school, as perhaps it was a little bit on the purpleish side. However his father considered it a close enough match for it to work. As for the IRS to, he and his father’s consensus was that they are on the whole for faster water in the Chaulk streams

By Sporting Road|February 12th, 2019|Categories: Fishing, Fly Tying|Comments Off

The Best Jerky Seasonings

OK, so you need 5 pounds of ground deer meat for this recipe. You can use very thin slices if you want, but it won’t come out as tender as if you use the ground deer meat and a jerky cannon, we like the Cannon by LEM. Which you can get at Bass Pro shops. Grind up your meat if it’s not ground already, season it with the packet seasoning below and make sure that it has the pink spice already in the mix or otherwise there’s a separate packet for that and some of the brands. We’ve tried all of the homemade recipes and these brands that you can buy premixed are already the best you can get. Normally, I prefer everything homemade but here it’s simply not as good. Mix your meat with the seasonings and the cure very well and put it in a Ziploc baggie and throw it back in the fridge overnight or at least for a few hours. Then start feeding it in the jerky cannon and squirting it out over a Food dehydrator with several layers of sheets. We like this one which is also available at Bass Pro shops, but it only comes with three sheets, you have to buy three more sheets, made by Open Country sportsman kitchen. Then once you have it squirted out in ringsyou can start drying it Our favorite jerky mixes are: Hi-Country Snack Foods J Johnsons Original Recipe Home Jerky Spice Kit, 16.95-Ounce is the best family favorite, which we all really like. PS Seasonings Cracked Pepper & Garlic (my favorite). Hickory or Mesquite Uncle Buck’s seasoning (now sold as Backwoods LEM brand hickory or mesquite at

By Sporting Road|January 9th, 2019|Categories: Uncategorized|Comments Off

Take a Kid Outside!

As Americans, we have become the first indoor species in the world. Yet, 7 in 10 Americans live within a two-hour drive of a national forest, all of which are vitally important to our connection to the outdoors, yet they are being used less and less. If you spend time in nature, odds are you’ll see the importance of the outdoors. You’ll feel the calming power of simply being outside, the connection to something bigger. And it’s not surprising, because we used to spend our entire lives there. But unfortunately, today many of us are disconnected from our natural habitat. The average American spends 95 percent of their life indoors. Never mind, all of the statics on the rampant increasing usage of video games and screen times with youths these days spending large portions of their lives in virtual reality, instead of reality itself. Simply being indoors all of the time, will eventually make anyone as crazy as a horse gorged on locoweed. As a result of becoming an indoor species, our health and well-being is suffering. And the less we value our outdoor spaces, the less likely we are to protect them. It’s a slippery slope. The long march indoors is not inevitable. We’re at a crossroads, each one of us as people, as parents, as being part of something greater. Our decisions now will dictate our future. Being outside teaches you to be adaptable to your surroundings. It helps you grow, it literally helps you become alive. Being is all that is left, being is who we are, if we calm down the mind. Spend less time in the world of thought and more time in the real world doing, with your body

By Sporting Road|January 9th, 2019|Categories: Uncategorized|Comments Off

New Articles on Buz Fawcett, The Instictive Shooter

For more information on instinctive shooting, pick up a copy of Buz's book, https://smile.amazon.com/Instinctive-Shooting-Making-Master-Gunner/dp/1620877023/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1546550173&sr=8-1&keywords=buz+fawcett but we are excited to share these two newly recovered magazine articles with you from back in the day.

By Sporting Road|January 3rd, 2019|Categories: Uncategorized|Comments Off

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