Ask Brody Teale what he wants to be when he grows up, and he can’t answer. He’ll be 12 next month, and already he has a wide variety of career choices parked on his doorstep. He’s become handy at creating and selling fishing tackle, his intricate and painstaking taxidermy work borders on that of a ‘master’ – and already he’s a national award-winning lacrosse player.
Born in Lloydminster, and currently living in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, Brody’s been spending time with his grandfather Dave Booth in Slave Lake for the past several summers. Watching his grandpa at work in his taxidermy shop sparked an interest in the youngster at an early age, and three years ago Brody decided to try his hand at the art of taxidermy.
“He’s a natural,” brags Dave, pointing to two squirrels Brody mounted this summer as evidence.
“See these teeth?” he asks, pointing to two miniscule pinpoint sharp bottom teeth on one of the squirrels. “In all my years doing taxidermy, I’ve never been able to put teeth in their mouths, and look at this.”
His 11-year-old apprentice has one squirrel carefully descending a tree limb, and the other standing on a horizontal branch. Each took about four hours to mount, he says, beginning with skinning the animal, creating a form using wire wrapped with excellion – a straw-like material, cotton and then secured with string. The bigger the animal, the larger the form (and the more ‘fill’ it takes to shape the body).
Brody says the squirrels he mounted this summer are just the tip of the iceberg. In previous years he’s helped mount deer, bears, and has even mounted a walleye – an intricate job that includes hand-painting each scale on the fish. He says he’ll likely follow in his grandpa’s footsteps. But he’s not without options, or sideline interests that could help pay the bills if things slow down at the shop.
About the time he started doing taxidermy, Brody began creating fishing lures and ‘bottom bouncers’ – everything from creating spinner rigs to spinner bait. Soon he’ll begin hand-painting spoons to suit every angler’s taste.
Brody says he saw someone else creating the colourful lures and decided to give it a try. When he’d mastered that art, he formed a company, and began packaging his wares, complete with a card telling a little about his venture.
“Brody’s Tackle. Spinner Rigs,” it reads.
“Each spinner rig is hand made using 20-pound test, multi-facet beads, and two Mustad hooks to supply extra strength for catching big fish!
“We have the most success using night crawlers and leeches on our hooks. Also try our spinner baits, trolling spoons, casting spoons, bottom bouncers and jigs.” He’s also set up a stand in the Sawridge Plaza Mall one Saturday earlier this year, selling close to 300 ‘rigs’.
But there’s more to this outdoorsman than building jigs and mounting wild beasts.
He’s also an accomplished lacrosse player, and this summer was selected to be on a team that represented his province at a national tournament in Whitby, Ontario. Better yet, his Peewee box lacrosse team captured the gold medal at the ‘B’ event – on the province’s first trip to nationals.

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