The Life Outdoors

Revisiting my youth with a fiberglass bow

By RICHARD W. AITES

or losing them in the bush, a dozen of these arrows will last you a long time.

Bill Dance, Virgil Ward, Ernest Hemingway, Teddy Roosevelt – the names engraved at the National Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame are impressive, and they got a boost this year when Mark Van Patten became Missouri’s most recent inductee.

“It’s amazing to me to have my name associated with those,” Van Patten said in an interview. “I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around it. I’m elated, shocked, excited, humbled, and extremely honored. I feel there are many people who are more deserving than I am.”

To the contrary, his resume says he belongs.

Stream Team

Retired and living along his beloved Current River, Van Patten is most widely acknowledged as the founder of the Missouri Stream Team program. As a private citizen in 1989, along with his Roubidoux Creek Fly Fishers organization, they began the effort that has evolved into a statewide sensation and a national model.

He was hired by the Missouri Department of Conservation to coordinate Stream Team volunteers. Since its establishment, the river cleanup and volunteer service organization has grown to more than 5,000 groups all over the state.

That accomplishment may have been enough to earn national recognition, but it is only a portion of Van Patten’s story. For 13 years, he hosted the national PBS television program, “The Tying Bench” offering weekly instruction for fly-fishermen.

He wrote a book of short stories called “Moonshine and Watermelons,” and has served as a seasonal interpretive ranger for the Ozark National Scenic Riverways since his retirement.

He teaches fly casting classes once a month in that national park, and this summer he will introduce the new Junior Ranger fly-fishing program for anglers ages 12 to 16 looking to learn the sport, using a grant from the National Parks Foundation and Park Service in Washington, DC.

“When this grant came up, it was an opportunity to get more youth involved,” he said. “The grant will allow me to purchase some equipment and accessories for the class.

“One of the requirements is that they have to attend with a family member. You can get a kid excited about fishing, but if Mom or Dad or Grandpa is not on board, it will not go far.”

Back To Akers Ferry

The classes will be taught at the Akers Ferry Visitor Center along the Current River. Dates for the new program this summer are July 27, Aug. 20, and Sept. 24. Classroom work will take place in the center, and then go into the front yard for casting, and eventually to the river.

Van Patten said he is hopeful about getting kids involved. “The adult classes are always full, but they are mostly retirees. They say, ‘I think my grandson or granddaughter would really enjoy this’,” he said.

He has experience teaching the younger set. His wife, Regina, is a retired middle school teacher, and when they lived in the Jefferson City area, they started a youth fly fishing club for seventh- and eighth-grade students. The younger students each year would have a mentor from the older class.

“Many of those kids are still involved with fly fishing,” he said. “They are parents now,

The Hall of Fame induction and the museum in Heyward, WI, acknowledges accomplishments of the past, but obviously Van Patten, who will celebrate his 70th birthday this summer, is looking toward the future. He is working on his second book, a fictional murder mystery set in the national park, and he still finds time to fish whenever he can.

“My favorite time on the river is in the fall and winter,” he said. “I believe in Newton’s Law – An object in motion stays in motion.”

Inductees get to choose the venue for their plaque presentation and enshrinement. Van Patten is vice president of the Ozarks Riverways Foundation, and the organization is holding a fund-raiser music festival the evening of May 13 at Big Chill Bar and Grill at Big Rock Candy Mountain, admission $15. Fellow Missouri Hall of Fame member Bill Cooper will present the award to Van Patten during the show. See the Foundation’s Facebook page for more information.

For more information about the Hall of Fame, go online to freshwater-fishing. org, and when you are in the Ozark National Scenic River park, ask for Ranger Mark.

John Winkelman is Associate Editor for Outdoor Guide Magazine. If you have story ideas to share, e-mail ogmjohnw@aol.com, and you can find more outdoor news and updates at johnjwink.com.

A few years ago, I came across a video on YouTube that really drew my attention. Greg Richards of 3D Archery was sponsoring “the fiberglass bow challenge.”

Greg and some fellow archers were competing at a secluded field archery course using old Ben Pearson jet bows. These bows were produced in the 1960s and are made of solid fiberglass. The most fascinating thing about the competition was that they were shooting at distances of 20 to 30 yards and consistently hitting the 8 and 9 rings of the foam, animal-shaped targets. These courses are usually set up for the modern recurve and compound bows equipped with sights.

Watching the footage also took me back to my adolescence in the 1980’s, when I roamed the wooded hills near my grandfather’s property, toting a Fred Bear Golden Fox. This solid fiberglass bow had only a 30-pound draw but it was plenty powerful for small critters at close range. I ended up harvesting a plump woodchuck and my first-ever cottontail rabbit with that very bow.

To be honest though, it killed more rotting stumps and clumps of sod than anything else. Back in those days, these bows were also very popular at Boy Scout camps and for school archery programs.

Calling On Ebay

Shortly after viewing the video, I went onto eBay and found several Ben Pearson jet bows for sale, some priced less than $25. Of course, the cost of shipping would add another 10 or 15 bucks to that amount. Anyway, this 50-plus year-old man wound up buying a couple of vintage kids’bows. These old bows were crafted in a rainbow of colors. The yellow and white striped bow that I purchased had a 40-pound draw weight, while the green one pulled at 45 pounds. Both were Super Jet model 336’s and in surprisingly good condition for being over a half-century old.

After installing new dacron strings and nocking points, I was in the backyard shooting at the Morrell’s bag-target that I use for my other bows. Though it took a little while to regain my form, it wasn’t long before I was sticking the 4-inch bullseyes with some consistency at 12 and 15 yards. It’s remarkable how accurate one can be with such a simple bow without the benefit of a sight. If you have proper form and a good release, your brain and eyes will automatically do the rest. I focus intensely onto the tiny area of the target that I intend to hit, then gently release the arrow. For me, the Apache-style method (3 fingers under the arrow-nock) works best.

I should mention that since these bows have a small shelf molded into the plastic grip, you’ll need feathered fletching on your arrows. Fortunately, I have a couple of dozen carbon arrows with feather vanes that I use for my Samick recurves. I found these 32” and 500-spine arrows on Amazon for around $40 a dozen. And unless you’re shooting into cinderblocks

Nothing To Laugh At

I am certainly no Robin Hood, but on a good day, I can hit a softball-sized bullseye consistently at 20 yards with my fiberglass bows. And though I might get laughed at when I eventually visit the local 3D archery range with a vintage kid’s bow, I think it’ll be a lot more fun. For me, there’s no greater satisfaction in target archery than nailing a bull at 20, or even 30 yards, with one of my jet bows.

I recently watched a video where a prepper suggested that these bows would make great survival tools. Because they are so lightweight, they are easy to lug around. And being made of solid fiberglass, they’re nearly indestructible and are impervious to weather.

I do own better and more powerful bows for hunting, but in a SHTF (something hitting the fan) scenario, I would agree that my 40- and 45-pound super jets with a sharp, cut-on-contact broadhead on the end of an arrow, are plenty capable for close-range game animals, both large and small.

Newer Treasures

Since acquiring those first two bows, I’ve purchased a few more along the way. The newer ones have less poundage. My favorite is a model 334 jet bow which has a 30-pound draw weight and a shallow sight window cut into the riser just above the shelf. This bow sends a 32-inch, 500-spined arrow downrange at approximately 130 feet per second (fps.) I realize this is pedestrian when compared to the modern compound bow and its 300 fps velocity, but the little bow is flat shooting and deadly accurate at 20 yards. And it can be shot all day without causing fatigue to one’s shoulder or back. Did I mention that it’s a lot of fun to shoot?

You don’t have to be a kid again to enjoy these bows. If you’re my age and want to revisit your youth, then pick up a vintage fiberglass bow. Even though they were made in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s, there are still plenty of them floating around out there at reasonable prices.