Bruneau Dunes Fishing Trip

I have been looking forward to a relaxing trip with my Dad to one of my childhood haunts for a couple of months now. We have been to the Bruneau Sand Dunes several times but not for several years. With the truck all packed and the time finally here, I was absolutely pumped. We had planned a trip to this desert oasis a while back, two nights of fishing for bluegill and bass, with the possibility of a side trip over to another place fondly remembered from my childhood, Wickahoney Creek.

After arriving and setting up camp and hanging my hammock I read some and relaxed. The sun was shining and I felt GREAT! Dad rolled in and after parking and leveling his RV we were off to the small pond for some fishing.


Immediately upon shoving off from the shore I spotted a nice 14 inch bass and knew the day would be a good one. My Dad almost immediately pulled in a 16+ inch bass on a "bloody Mary" fly. I was fishing a small white popper and giggling like a little girl at every strike. Other flies we caught fish on were a white foam spider, a chartreuse wooly bugger and a bead head hair's ear nymph.

We fished the entire perimeter of the lake and each caught 30+ bass, mostly in the 12 inch range, as well as a big fat bluegill each. We were meat fishing, which is unusual for us, and came up empty though, as any bass you take has to be 20+ inches and with only two bluegill we decided to release them.




The next day we decided to head over to Wickahoney creek, a small desert stream in a deep canyon that we hadn't visited in 20 years. It is now in a wilderness area and we had no trouble finding it. Or at least finding where it used to be. It was dry and we mulled over how it could be dry in late spring. It wasn't a banner snow year in the Owhyee mountains, but somehow, that didn't explain the lack of water. None the less, the views were spectacular and we enjoyed the hike from the truck. From the rim of Wikahoney we made our way to the confluence on Wickahoney- Big Jacks Creek and wondered at the depth of the canyon and the rugged beauty of the desert.

Blind Horse Knives Maverick

Took the BHK Maverick out for a little walk today and I have to say that I like what I see so far! I just took it out for a quick jaunt and a photo shoot, but I will report back with a more in depth review shortly. Until then, enjoy!

Western States Traditional Rendezvous and the end of classes

I am just about to head into my final for anatomy and physiology lab, and i can't wait to be done. Less than two weeks left of this semester, then it's on to a nice little break.

On break I will once again be attending the Western States Traditional Rendezvous, this year it is being held in Packwood Washington, just outside of Mt. Rainier National park. Its should be beautiful, my shoulder should be healed, and with my lovely wife and son in tow to their first traditional archery event, it should be fun. I am hoping to get a couple knives made up by then for some raffle prizes, so I'll be sure to take some pics of that along the way.

Until then, wish me luck!

school blues

I am slammed. School and taking care of my son during the time that my lovely wife is off making a living for us takes up the majority of my time and thus, no posting lately.

There is a saying about the best intentions and following through with them, but it escapes me at the moment and although this semester is going to be a tough one to keeping up with this blog (and despite the highly annoying spam comments that I receive that have nothing to do with this blogs main topics...) have no fear, I have not abandoned this blog and I do have great intentions for this little corner of cyber space, as well as the desire to follow through with them.

So keep checking back every so often, but know that this spring semester won't have much posting.

Thanks for reading, and thanks for understanding my friends!

And, if you have been watching the Olympics you'll surely have noticed the official Vancouver Olympics symbol, the inukshuk, just like I mentioned a while back.

Arrows

Next up in the gear Sundays column is the arrows. I currently am shooting 55-75 Gold Tip Carbons that have a nice simulated wood grain. The front is stuffed with 125 grain steel adapters and 100 grain muzzy inserts for a total of 385 grains on point. My FOC is 13.5% (FOC is another topic I have planned to write about, a interesting topic to discuss). Out back I have a set of cap wraps which will most likely be the last set I use, not one of them went on straight and matched up, but they do the job as far as personalizing and making them visible when I miss. Over that I have four 90 degree four inch natural left wing turkey feathers in barred and died red. Correct arrow tuning is something that I pay pretty close attention to and to this end I shoot paper periodically and not the orientation of the arrow flight.

Lots of information, I know, and if you aren't fluent in archery there is a lot of good information out there, but I cant recommend highly enough TJ Conrad's book "Traditional Bowhunter's Handbook."

Fitness Friday

Another potential regular column, this one a bit more of an update as I venture towards my fitness goals for this year elk hunting safari.

I'd like to share a couple of my goals in an effort to stay accountable as the year slides past. Currently I weigh 200 pounds, and by September I want to weigh in somewhere between 170 and 175 pounds. I can already run a 10K without really training for it, but I would like to run a sub 40 minute 4 mile run.

My current workout regimen is two or three days at the gym, two or three days of p90X, and two or three days of running.

Gear Sundays

This is the first installment of what I am planning to be a pretty regular series on Sundays (and yes, today is Monday, yesterday was a day of unpacking and lazing around).

Today's topic is the business end of my hunting arrows. A sharp broadhead is of paramount importance in a successful harvest, a quick, humane death and ultimately, the best table fare possible. Currently my arrows are tipped with a set of Stos 160 grain broadheads I ordered straight from the manufacturer without any bevel. That's right, completely unsharpened. I Built a little jig to create a left wing bevel; a single edge broadhead has been shown in recent studies to provide a larger hole as well as provide a deeper penetration, especially when used on larger, thicker skinned, heavy boned animals such as my main target, elk. To this end I will be using a really nice jig to enable me to create absolutely scary sharp edges. The KME broadhead sharpening system is the absolute pinnacle of broadhead sharpening technology and I have been very pleased with the results. It allows me to precisely create a flat, consistent edge. The system, combined with a Cabela's 325 diamond stone and a set of 800, 1200 and 6000 grit Japanese waterstones, I should be able to have razor sharp, mirror finish type edges on my broadheads.


So in summary, my plan right now is to maximize any available advantage by using a heavy, single bevel broadhead that is as sharp as I can get it.

Next week's backcountry bowhunting gear article will be about my arrows, and from there I will be discussing the bow, quiver, and the necessary archery and backpacking accouterments I plan on using this fall.

A new year

Happy new year to all of you! As I do every year, the changing of the year brings introspection and the setting of goals. I thought I would share a couple with you...

I am working on a system to both keep me motivated to write here regularly as well as provide inspiration on topics relevant to this blog.

Along with this I am working on a mission statement of sorts for this blog. I feel my last year plus has been a bit too scattered for my liking in terms of subjects and focus on what my little piece of cyber space is, so stay tuned for the mission statement.

And as far as focus for my outdoor endeavors this year, my focus is going to be elk hunting during the rut with my longbow, so if this is interesting to you, this will be the main thrust of my writing this coming year, so check back frequently. That's not to say I won't be pursuing other outdoor activites though, and I'll be writing about them as well.

Until then, have a happy, safe New Year celebration! Take a few minutes and think about your goals and focus for the upcoming year

Relaxing

School is finally out for the Christmas break! My finals went well, and now I am just enjoying some down time and my little family.

I have also been thinking a lot about my little piece of cyberspace here, working up a mission statement of sorts as well as a series of articles that I think are more central to my initial idea of back country bowhunting.

So stay tuned as I prepare to make 2010 my year for back country solo bow hunting!

Bitter cold

It was negative 4 last night, colder than it has been here in Boise for some time. Because of the now mobile 1 year old the fireplace has not been used yet, and the heater is on every few minutes trying to keep up. Bundle up, it is going to remain cold and snowy for the next several days...