I haven’t posted in a longtime and it feels good to be blogging again. I feel like a turtle that has been hibernating and just crawled out from under the the frozen mud in the Spring, trying to get going. Thanks for checking out my blog again!
My family and I deer hunted 5 or 6 days in late November. My daughter had several chances at many white-tail, held out for a buck and ended up shooting a doe at the end. She’s 13 and loves being out there, she shot a nice muley last year. We’ve been enjoying a better tasting deer as of late. My wife and kids respect nature and the outdoors, have wonderful morals, and appreciate all aspects of being able to live the lifestyle my wife and I have chosen. I am blessed with the best family a man could ask for!
The fall of 2011 after guiding most of the big game season I decided to not guide hunters in 2012. My daughter is now old enough, and wants to hunt and I have spent most of the last 11 seasons with clients in eastern MT. It was a 10 hour drive from my home in Missoula so I’d be out there 20 to 25 days without coming home. If I can afford to I want to enjoy time in the field with my family instead of strangers! The outfitter I worked for ran a great camp and is a friend and I did miss not being out there with my friends and guide buddies. I love guiding fly fishing full time and maybe I’ll sneak in a week of hunting guiding now and then in the future
However I did end up guiding 6 days this November for a different outfitter much closer to Missoula. I guided 2 old friends who really wanted to harvest an elk. One of the two was handicapped by being stuck in a walking cast. We did have a nice hunt, harvested a couple of white-tail and a cow elk. We also got on some huge bulls but couldn’t close the gap to get any shots.
In other news I fished the Bitter root with two good friends yesterday. My buddy Craig called and wanted to bomb over to Idaho and steelhead fish for a day. The roads were so bad we turned around So I called my friend and boss Joe to see if he wanted to hop in my drift boat and hit the Bitter root. It was a fun day, weather was nice, actually saw some fish rise, Craig caught some fish on streamers, I caught a couple on streamers and nymphed up a couple, as did Joe. Craig is too snobby to nymph! Joe rowed the boat the entire day and my dog Griffy was nick named diarrhea dog for obvious reasons in my drift boat that I won’t go into detail over.
It was a cool day with 2 friends and my dog. It felt good to be hanging out with buddies, casting a fly rod, reconnecting!
Peace and enjoy your family and friends this Holiday!