Father's Day and A Gift for My Wife

This father's day I thought I'd do something a little different, buy my wife a gift.

I asked her for father's day if she would learn how to fly fish. So we made the appropriate stop at the local sporting goods store and outfitted her with waders and boots. She was set. I had plenty of extra rods, reels and fly vests, so with gear in tow we headed to the Beaverhead early Sunday morning.

As we drove into the Dillon valley my wife called her father, I received a call from my son who is a Captain in the Air Force. We sat on the side of highway 15 and took advantage of technology that enabled us to communicate with people in two different time zones.

Ris (my wife) managed to hook three fish in the tailwater of the dam. They were nice fish two were in the 20 inch mark. Landing them proved to be a little harder for a first time angler. If you fish this beautiful little river you know why. The fish are big and have been fished hard. She had a great day and was a very fast learner.

I landed 8 fish hooked 11. It was a fine father's day. Here is a sample of two nice browns I landed and a rainbow. These fish were taken with nymphs under a strike indicator. The flies were size 18-22. I tried a variety of flies from, San Juan Worms, Prince Nymphs, Scuds, Tailwater Tinies, and a variety of midges.

Shoot Straight!

Big Hole June 23, 2008

Big Hole was in full bloom yesterday with 80 degree weather throughout Montana. The put in at Jerry Creek was loaded to the gills (no pun intended) with trucks and trailers spilling out to the road.

I decided to forgo the crowds and headed up above Wise River. Floated from Fish Trap to East Bank. Put in about 9:00 and was finished at 4:30. Water was high running at about 3,800 fps. Fishing was tough talked to 3 groups of fishermen, they landed one big fish over 20 inches the rest of them caught nada!

I was able to a catch 6 fish total:

• 3 grayling on a rubber legs fly
• 2 rainbows on a prince nymph and salmon fly
• 1 whitefish on a prince nymph

Beautiful day with boats filling the river but not till about 11:30. So it was quiet and peaceful float. salmon flies weren't present but the fish were doing a lot of window shopping. Coming up to take a look and taking off, with only one taker. Great day on the water!

Get out there and enjoy all of what Montana has to offer.

Shoot Straight!

Joe

Spring Gobblers

It was the second weekend of the spring Turkey season in Montana. I had just taken my wife to the airport on a beautiful, sunny, spring day.

I decided it would be an ideal day to hunt spring turkeys. I must confess that I have never called in a spring turkey I had shot one once before but it just happened to come by where I was sitting. I headed back to the house and got geared up and brought up the SportsmensAccess.com website. I signed in and went to the RAM maps area and turned on the Turkey Distribution layer.

I wanted to find a spot on public land that had turkeys within a 3 hour drive of Bozeman. I found an area and headed out. By the time I got to the area the sun was bright and the mountains looked glorious with a snow sparkling on the peaks. The area I was in looked like great turkey habitat.

I drove down the road until I found a place where I thought turkeys might actually cross the road. I shut off the pickup and glided to a stop. I waited a few minutes and put the slate call out the window (a tried and true turkey hunting tactic) and scratched out a yelp. Ok you probably don't see this on the Mossy Oak Classics. Nothing came back. I fired up the truck and went to the next likely looking saddle and repeated the process. To my surprise I got a resounding gobble back.

Having shut off the truck in the middle of the road I was forced to make a decision: do I leave it where it was or start up the rumbling diesel engine and risk scaring the turkey out of the country. I cranked it up and headed to the shoulder of the road. At this point I didn' t even have my camo on.

I scrambled to quickly put on my camo grab my shot gun and head out. I got to a place that looked good for a ambush and set up for to call. I scratched out some more yelps and the gobbler responded almost immediately. I waited not so patiently and could see nothing but every so often I would hear the turkey.

I got up and moved in a little closer circling the turkey to the right. I waited and then let out another call. He answered again right away. I waited and could see him coming toward me. I was in a good position and waited. He got to about 70 yards and hung up. Just wouldn't come any closer. Just call and pace back and forth. After a while he moved away and I circled him for one more try. Same results....humm.

So I got up and let him see me. I thought he would move away from me and cross a saddle back behind him. He did exactly that. I moved away and out of sight ran to the other side of the saddle and carefully peeked from cover to see if he was on his way. I ranged a spot where I thought I could get a shot, 48 yards. I was shooting 3.5 inch turkey loads and new I could make this shot. The turkey came walking down the saddle. I slowly squeezed off the shot and I had my first turkey spring turkey that I had called to.

Hunting spring turkeys is one of Montana's fastest growing hunts. So get on the RAM maps find a free place to hunt or get on Ranches Fee and look up some ranches that are loaded with turkeys.