“What have you got there Larry,” I asked my fishing buddy, who was applying something to his face and ears from an old, shopworn plastic bottle with a faded label.

The black flies were awful.

“Take a whiff of this,” he said waving the open bottle under my nose.

“Hey,” I exclaimed.”I know that smell.” My olfactory senses scoffed up the strong smell. This, in turn, triggered whatever synapses send signals to my brain and a flood of long-dormant but wonderful childhood memories washed over me.

My Dad was there in my mind’s eye. He and I, just an eager kid, were on a big rock swatting black flies and getting ready to trout fish Harriman Pond. Dad was bent over me and, from a small bottle, was applying a foul-smelling amber liquid to the back of my neck and ears. Snippets of other good fishing times with my father danced in and out in my mind as Larry and I talked. The smell brought it all back.

Always that smell.

“Ole Woodsman,” Larry said with a grin, screwing the cap back on the bottle. ” I’ve had this stuff for years.”

Before we fished, I asked Larry for a dab or two of that Ole Woodsman. Just for old time’s sake. It worked pretty well on the flies.

Did you know that you can still get Ole Woodsman fly dope?

I bought a bottle from Barry Davis at Two Rivers Canoe in East Millinocket. The correct name is Ole Time Woodsman Fly Dope. The orginal formula purportedly dates back to 1882. As the story goes, in 1910, Obie Sherer — a Massachusetts man — and his fishing buddy, Dr. Donald Adams, concocted the stuff from an old recipe. It become so popular with Maine loggers that the creators began commercially marketing it in the 1920s. Over the years, the company changed hands a couple of times. It was manufactured first in Rhode Island and later in New York. About 10 years ago, then-owner Larry Rickart sold the formula and name to Kenneth Theobald in Maine.

Today, Theobald’s son, Skip Theobald, creates and markets Ole Woodsman from his operation in Sandy Point.

Using the original old formula, Theobald mixes the stuff in five-gallon buckets, bottles it, packages it and distributes to stores in the Northeast. He says that the ingredients have not changed.

He said that I was correct in my observation that today’s Ole Woodsman seems darker — almost black — compared with the more amber-colored liquid of yesteryear. “The pine tar, which comes from Sweden, is for some reason darker than it was many years ago,” Theobald said.

What I found interesting is that, as an insect repellent, Old Woodsman, operates on an entirely different principle than most of our more contemporary repellents. Ole Woodsman contains no DEET. Whereas the other fly dopes are designed to repell the insects, Old Woodsman camouflages your breath and sweat smells so that the insect can’t find you. Learn more from the official website: OleTimeWoodsman.com.

Let’s face it. There is a trade off. The distinctive aroma of Ole Woodsman is not for everybody. But the black flies that plagued the dope-coated Maine loggers a hundred years ago haven’t changed all that much. The woodsmen knew what worked. That’s why Obie Sherer named his tar-based insect repellent after the men who relied on it in those early days.

When the black flies try to carry me away, Ole Woodsman is now my go-to fly dope. It keeps the bugs away and the good memories close — a memorable concoction.

The author is editor of the Northwoods Sporting Journal. He is also a Maine Guide, co-host of a weekly radio program “Maine Outdoors” heard Sundays at 7 p.m. on The Voice of Maine News-Talk Network (WVOM-FM 103.9, WQVM-FM 101.3) and former information officer for the Maine Dept. of Fish and Wildlife. His e-mail address is [email protected] and his new book is “A Maine Deer Hunter’s Logbook.”