Wondering What to do with Your Squirrel Tails this Fall? Sell 'Em to Go Fishing!

Small game hunting season is opening around the country, and that means squirrel for many hunters.

There are plenty of recipes for squirrel to make some tasty meals. And that's worth the price of licenses and gear right there.

However, did you know you could get paid for hunting squirrels? More precisely, you can get paid for squirrel tails, along with funding your fishing habit.

Mepps lures will pay you for your tails. Why? Because the company solely uses the hair from squirrel tails for its famous lures.

"We've tried hundreds of other natural and synthetic materials: bear hair, fox, coyote, badger, skunk, deer, even Angus cow, but nothing works as well as squirrel tail hair," says Mepps Communications Director Kurt Mazurek.

Mepps says squirrel hair offers the "rippling, pulsating movement" it strives for in the water. That's because the tails are all hair. Other animals have mostly fur with little hair.

The company pays up to 26 cents per tail. They take fox, black, grey and red tails.

Or, if you trade the tails for lures, you'll get double that amount in value.

But, be sure to use as much of your squirrels as you can. Mepps doesn't want folks killing squirrels just for the tails.

The company says it's "recycled" more than 8 million tails since the 1960s.

NEXT: BASS FISHING CLUB FROM NORTH CAROLINA HEADS TO TEXAS TO HELP WITH HURRICANE HARVEY RELIEF