Hare's looking at you, old trout

The hares' ears gathered by Jim Curline will be transformed into fishing flies. Photo by Lynda...
The hares' ears gathered by Jim Curline will be transformed into fishing flies. Photo by Lynda Van Kempen.
A bag full of hares' ears made Jim Curline a happy man.

Row upon row of dead rabbits were laid out in Alexandra's Pioneer Park on Saturday as part of the Great Easter Bunny Hunt, but Mr Curline was far more interested in the hundreds of hares killed during the event.

He was removing their ears to use the hares' fur in fishing flies.

''Hare's ears nymphs are used around the world. It's one of the most popular and successful trout fishing flies,'' the keen Mosgiel fisherman explained.

Usually, he sourced the fur from roadkill or went out and shot some hares when his stocks were low, but the bunny shoot, with 468 hares shot, represented the chance to stock up, he said.

''This bag full will keep me going for a while and it'll take me some time to peg them all out and dry them.''

Mr Curline has a fly-tying workshop at home and many years of experience in the tricky pastime.

He was also eyeing up the wild turkeys shot during the contest.

''I can use some of those feathers in fishing flies, too.''

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