RANTINGS AND RAVINGS OF AN OLD MAN TRULY RUINED BY SPORT

Showing posts with label opening day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label opening day. Show all posts

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Bird Hunting: Opening Day...

...As mentioned yesterday our opening day tradition is to hunt our "secret spot" for blue grouse and Huns up high in the No Name Mountains. Instead, for reasons still not entirely clear, we headed to another Nameless Range and...Uncovered a veritable spruce grouse bonanza. Annie hunted good, pointed a bunch and...Well given we ARE talking the most foolish of fool hens, a point does not necessarily result in a flush, at least not the sort I care to shoot at...So we flushed a bunch and finally got a couple to fly off in somewhat true grouse fashion, i.e. NOT flutter to the nearest limb and...Well while I would not care to make a habit of gunning down the most foolish of fool hens...It twas fun, especially watching Annie in action. Best thing though even ol' blind-as-a-bat Kate managed to get in on the action despite being on lead the entire time...For us the high point of the operation, by the way...Our hope all along has been as long as she is able to get around to get her nose full a bird scent as often as possible...Come to think on it can't hardly beat "most foolish fool hens" in that regard...Go get 'em Katie girl...

Grouse goodies, such as these currant berries, were everywhere...
...and so were the spruce grouse, aka Franklin's grouse, aka fool hen...Albeit many were youngsters we did manage to flight a couple mature birds...
...such as this pair...The main ingredient to what should be a fine game dinner some evening soon...A little red wine, perhaps candlelight...OK maybe we'll skip the candles this time around but you do get my drift...Of course you do...

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Fly Fishing: Dodging the Opening Day Circus...

Road over the mountain might be bare but off the blacktop you are indeed in deep do-do...
To my way of thinking having a crick such as this all to ourselves trumps participating in the Opening Day Circus every single time; no matter how many or how big the trout...Not a single soul did we see the entire day...can't beat it.
In deference to Kate who would really like to get in the crick but can't anymore, at least not safely, I did not wade. Not being able to at least get in the crick to get around obstructions calls for a bit of ingenuity, to say nothing of perseverance...actually getting to a spot like this and making the cast is, to put it mildly, damn hard work...
Thanks to the fishing gods it ain't all a jungle...
Runs such as this are, if not to die for, certainly highlight the dream-reel and sometimes even serve up a pretty nifty trout...and if you're really on your game maybe two or three even...imagine!
Solitude, pretty spot, pretty trout, lots a critters...to my way of thinkin sure beats the crap out a rubbin' elbows on , say, the Beav or (fill in your favorite blue ribbon trout water)...I rest my case...