The A Team

I have three friends who have earned the nickname “The A Team” for their handyman-type activities, especially work involving the First Methodist Church of Williamsburg. Occasionally they include me on a project, one that does not involve any mechanical or technical skills, of course. After all, as Bruce Houck, my brother-in-law, once remarked about me when I was offered some tools and refused to take any of them, “He wouldn’t know how to use them anyhow.”

However, there are other A Teams, a couple to which I aspire.

I would like to become an A Team wild turkey hunter. Unfortunately, I have yet to acquire the skills that would let me join this exclusive group. In fact, James Wentz, a former columnist for the Herald, once referred to me as “the worst turkey hunter in the Cove.” I hope that I am not still the Cove’s worst wild turkey hunter. I manage to harvest a wild turkey on occasion, including gobblers during both the spring and the fall seasons last year. A Team turkey hunters like my dad; my father-in-law Bob Mingle; and Williamsburg expert Ed Burger all killed turkeys by hunting the right way. They learned to call and to place themselves in favorable positions in the woods to kill wild turkeys. Like my son, Bob, they wanted nothing to do with baits (aka “food plots”), blinds, or decoys when hunting these noble birds. Bob echoes their ethics; and when I threaten to put out a decoy or two in the spring, he pretty much humiliates me, saying that “no one who uses those things can consider himself a real turkey hunter.” I don’t call as well as many other turkey hunters either and can probably consider myself only a C or D Team turkey hunter.

I like to think that I am on a higher-level team as a trout fly-fisherman. After more than 55 years on the water, I have learned to catch trout on flies under various water and weather conditions, even landing some big ones most years. I have become a reasonably good short- to mid-distance caster. But, alas, I have never become a proficient long-distance caster and often rely on risky wading to position myself to cast. Also, I have declined to become involved with a modern fly-fishing technique known as Euro nymphing. So, with my weaknesses, I am at best a B Team fly-fisherman and probably more of a C Team member.

At 74, I am unlikely to make an A Team as either a turkey hunter or fly-fisherman.