So, how’s the winter passing for you so far? It’s been a strange one. I can’t remember a January with so much rain and warm weather and so little snow cover. It sure put a crimp in the early-season ice fishing, and the rabbit hunting and varmint gunning have only been so-so. Now here we are just past Valentine’s Day, a mid-February holiday my wife considers very romantic and I see only as winter’s halfway signpost. Sorry, but at this time of year, cabin fever is starting to set in and I become a “glass half-empty” kind of guy. It’s time for some major mental rehab!

Let’s face it, no matter how avid an outdoorsman you are, there’s a limit to how much ice drilling and cold weather shooting a body and mind can tolerate. Truth be told, there’s only so much snowmobiling and so many cross country ski and snowshoe hikes a person can stand, too. When family members all get on each other’s last nerve and the walls begin to close in, it’s time to enjoy an outdoor-related pastime that offers some mental and physical “R and R” from winter. Over the years, Maine sportsmen have become experts at finding pleasant and productive cold weather indoor hobbies that keep them connected to favorite outdoor activities while helping them ignore the misery outside.

Tying time

Perhaps the most popular Pine Tree pastime for the fishing faction is fly tying. Winter evenings, sleeting Saturdays, and snowy Sundays all pass more pleasantly when an angler can spend a few hours at the vice constructing favorite patterns for the upcoming summer. It seems to give hope of warmer weather and allows the tier to daydream of past outings with the tiny dry flies, colorful wet flies, and sweet streamers being created at his fingertips.

Every fly caster will admit that catching fish on a pattern they tied personally increases the thrill. For a greater feeling of accomplishment, many of the more experienced tiers create their own special fly patterns, and when one of these turns into a fish taker, it’s a truly gratifying experience and sometimes worth a bit of bragging. Another benefit to winter fly tying is being able to resupply the tackle box with all the sizes and shapes of flies that were lost in tree limbs, lent to fishing friends, broken on backcasts, or literally chewed to pieces by fish. By the way, any fly enticing enough to be mauled and ruined by striking trout and salmon ought to be replaced tenfold for this coming season.

By tying your own flies, you never have to worry if the local fly shop or sporting goods store will have the right pattern and correct size you desire. After initial startup costs, feather and fur casters can tie cheaper than they can buy, and in many cases personally tied flies will look better and last longer than bulk manufactured patterns from across the ocean. Another plus to having a never-ending supply of fresh flies is the number of new friends that offer to take you fishing.

Anyone from 8 to 98 can tie flies, and some folks become so good at it, they turn a hobby into an art form and even win contests, while others make a business from a pastime. Many Maine communities offer winter fly-tying courses, or you can get personal instruction from a friend who ties and has all the material and equipment. I’ve seen fish strike flies that looked like a hairball a cat coughed up; in fact, I tied them when I was getting started. Everyone gets better with practice and time, and what better time to practice than winter.

Rod building is another diversion that helps fishermen contend with being housebound. Although a bit more time consuming and exacting, this hobby is every bit as rewarding as fly tying and offers the accomplishment of casting and catching with a personally fabricated fly, bait, or spinning rod. Thread, reel seat, cork handle, and rod blank combinations are individually selected by each builder and can be as ornate or as colorful and unique as desired. Even when using top quality components, it’s possible to save quite a bit of cash by building your own rod.

Fashioning personally selected components into a rod also allows the builder to design a final product that has a specific feel or fits a particular style of fishing not commercially available. It’s very gratifying to catch fish with a fly and rod you created, and even more so when other experienced anglers yearn to own such a rod. Although one-on- one tutoring is the best method of learning about rod building, there are a number of very efficient instructional books and videos available on the hobby. Complete rod-building kits and a wide selection of individual components are available at most fly shops, some sporting goods stores, online, and from many outdoor mail order catalogs. Building a rod is a very interesting and fulfilling accomplishment, winter hours fly by, and the final result is a gift that keeps on giving.

Woodworking

Russell Mount is a friend of mine from Castle Hill who is an avid waterfowler, and he has found a way of keeping a connection with his favorite sport even throughout the dead of winter in Aroostook County. Like many other duck and goose hunters across the country, Russ carves and paints decoys in a warm woodworking shop with complete disregard for the snow banks and icicles outside his windows. Although he makes a few working decoys, most of Mount’s detailed creations are of a decorative nature.

Just as Geppetto whittled Pinocchio and got a real boy, many winter woodcarvers turn a block of bass wood into a duck so natural in shape, posture and coloration that you expect to hear it quack. A surprising number of decoy carvers are self-taught, using their hunting experiences and exposure to real waterfowl as a basis for their craft. A wide selection of instructional books and video tutorials are available to neophyte waterfowl whittlers, but as always it’s hard to beat a few sessions watching and mimicking an experienced decoy craftsman.

Even if a carver settles for rough formed and painted decoys, there’s a special thrill when that first flight of fall mallards and blacks swing over the blocks he created from a chunk of firewood. Just like fly tying and rod building, working blocks of wood into floating, realistic looking ducks helps keep waterfowl gunning in your heart all year. That warm feeling a sportsman gets from caring and creating overpowers the coldest winter day and helps the hours “fly” by.

I have a multitude of other cast-and-blast friends throughout the state who apply their woodworking skills to other diverse pastimes during Mother Nature’s white season. One fellow cuts, steams, and crafts wood into laminated strips to form the most beautiful trout nets you can imagine. It’s almost a shame to dip them in water, but they look even more attractive with a colorful brook trout in the mesh.

Some canoeing enthusiasts craft their own wooden paddles and push poles. At craft shows it’s not uncommon to find ornately finished, decorative paddles for wall display, with river scenes or Maine wildlife painted on the blades. A few talented woodworkers wile away winter hours building folding canoe seats. Formed from thin wooden slats that curve to fit the body, these seats offer comfort, a low center of gravity while paddling or casting, and are very durable and compact. They make great seats during a shore lunch, too.

For those pole-and-paddle enthusiasts who are seeking a winter-long project and have a large basement or heated garage, consider building your own canoe. This is no small project, but there are forms available to build on and will produce a 12- to 20-foot double end or square stern boat to be proud of. Canoe building is a time-consuming project, but extremely satisfying. Some of the most eye-catching cedar strip canoes imaginable have been winter projects by novice woodcrafters with plenty of patience.

A couple more winter woodworking projects that are truly old school and will require some hands-on instruction from an experienced craftsman are building snowshoes and making duck and goose calls. For some outdoorsmen, these two pastimes soon turn from a hobby into an art form, leading to great personal satisfaction. Occasionally, the final products turn out so well that other sportsmen want to own them. That’s how world-famous call makers Ken Martin and Sean Mann got started. Each of these intricate endeavors which turn plain wood into snowshoes or waterfowl calls have deep roots in outdoor heritage and require elaborate workmanship, but the end products are very rewarding and sure help the snow season pass more quickly.

Load up

Perhaps the second most popular sports-related activity during the winter months is reloading shells. Many sportsmen reload rifle, pistol, and shotgun shells throughout the year, but the bulk of shell loading takes place at this time of year. To a shooter, reloading is like cooking to a chef, everyone’s looking for the perfect recipe. Target marksmen, skeet shooters and hunters are looking for a load that is dependable and deadly accurate. It’s cheaper to buy ammunition than to load your own, but individual attention to every shell only comes from hands-on precision.

Varmint hunters seeking 500- yard accuracy need to handload. Goose hunters needing long-range, hard-hitting loads with dense patterns every time need to reload. Trap and skeet competitors who depend on exact patterns every shot need to reload. Handloading is an intriguing pastime with dozens of benefits, one of which is fewer winter doldrums.

Take up a collection

A few years ago I began collecting federal and state duck stamps to pass a few winter evenings. It’s like having a mini art collection, and there’s great fun in buying, trading and selling any type of hunting or fishing stamps. Other sportsmen collect and trade old fly rods, antique plugs and lures, fishing reels, and even out-of-print books and magazines related to various outdoor people, places, and pastimes.

Regardless of what our favorite angling or shooting sport is, there’s a hobby or relaxing diversion that will help you stay in touch with that activity despite the snow and cold. The second half of winter always seems to drag, so pick the right pastime and the weeks will fly by and you will even have something to show for your efforts.

Outdoor feature writer Bill Graves can be reached via e-mail at bgravesoutdoors@ainop.com