Been busy

I have been very busy with things around the house and other stuff... so it is time for me to catch up.... summer has gone by with out a vacation.. sorry not much there... but i have gone fishing so i must post some.. i went to Dana Point on a 1 1/2 day trip 70 miles off shore for tuna and yellowtail... scored on the bite. I landed a 15 lb. tuna and a 35 lb. yellowtail. I was the one to win the jackpot, which was worth $400, only to loose it to a guy who caught a Opah. It is pictured below it went weighted about 90 lbs. Oh well... next time.. untill the next trip... stay tuned...

Missouri deer hunt

Its been a few weeks since i have been back from the weekend trip to Missouri, it was a great time being able to visit with my brother and his family. It was cold. We left Friday the 14th. it was 85 deg. weather and arrived to a 50 deg. Kansas city. burr... after the 1 1/2 hr. drive to Clinton it was time to buy our licenses and scout out the area to be hunted the next morning. Saturday morning started out with a light rain. Not enough to get ya very wet but annoying. the temp was in the mid 30's. I set up a chair at the end of a field so i could keep watch of a tree line and the temperature started to drop by 7 am it was snowing... as seen in the pic. oh and we had a nice 20 mph wind coming from the north. Oh to be in the 85 deg. temps... it kept snowing, sometimes so hard one could hardly see the end of the field.. After loosing feeling in my toes and fingers i headed back to the truck to warm up. Actually i made that trek twice. Don said he was going to walk a tree line at 9am so i headed out of the truck a little late and just as i was 20 yards from where i wanted to be a nice deer, a doe of which i did have a tag for walked right by... oh well missed that opportunity. Well all went back to town for breakfast and a nap. We were still on Pacific time. That evening the snow had stopped and more deer were moving but not the right ones.. The regulations have changed on deer hunting, a buck now has to be 4 points or better on one side to be legal and still unlimited number of take on doe's... they are trying to control the deer population. besides a doe is a better meat deer. Back to the day as Bern and I hunted Don and Rick went fishing maybe i should say catching. They did very well. The next day was sunny with the wind coming from the south east. the mud had frozen and there was still some snow left on the ground. There were more deer moving today. The bad thing we are under a time limit. We could only hunt until 9am. we have to be back in time to eat, shower,pack and drive back to Kansas city to fly home. well i walked a short distance from the cars and over looked a pond. There were a lot of deer signs there. about 8am i headed back to the truck to get a drink of my old soda and as i walked with gun on my back i jumped a beautiful legal 8 point buck, by the time i shouldered the gun it was gone.. my second missed opportunity... and last for us... it has been 7 years that i have been looking for a wall hanger deer and now its going on 8... we said our goodbyes to Don and family and look forward to the next trip. Hopefully in spring. Turkey season opens. we loaded up and drove to the airport and as we flew into L A we could see the fires... back to reality.. it was a fantastic trip. This was Ricks first trip and he really had a good time.. until the next time.

Quail updated

Ok due to the response to the lack of pics quail hunting i am forced to produce a pic of the trip....Here we have Cody with a nice rabbit taken outside of camp and another pic of the area we hunted.

Quail hunt "08"

Well it has been a few weeks since the opening of quail season and it was an ok hunt..We went to the same place, Hole-in-the-wall. The weather was fantastic and there were a lot of birds and many in our group bagged them as for Cody he only bagged a nice rabbit and i bagged one quail. I know not the typical hunt but hey we were all off. In fact i do not think i could have hit the broad side of a barn. So do not expect any pictures of the hunt but i do have some fantastic scenery pictures. All in all it was a great weekend with some very good friends and family.... T

Dove hunt 2008

Ok everyone i am back.... its been a very long time since my last entry but hey a lot has happened. I have been very busy with the home improvement scene also... upgraded the electrical panel which turned into a major job with opening up 2 walls, insulating them, removing all the carpet and we are now down to the original hard wood floors. Finally the next project is the back yard, its starting to cool down so it is all torn up and i have started to build the deck. more on that at a later date... while all the projects are going on we did manage a dove hunt on Sept. 1st... wow a great hunt... it was the coolest temps we have ever had in beautiful Blythe.. our highs were only 98 deg.. it usually is 110 deg. to 115 deg. or more... so needless to say it was great... and the birds.. well there were a whole lot more this year compaired to years past... with limits or near limits for many... Cody and I did very well, Cody bagged 7 and 10 for me.. Also with us was Cody's friend Adam and his father Barry and my brother Bern. Bern did well also he bagged 6 birds, about par for him. It was Adam's first hunt.. He is hooked.. he really loved it.. except the part of getting up at 4 am.. Adam did quite well for his first time.. he bagged 4 birds and his dad 1... way to go Adam... we hunted a different field compaired to years past... it was a plowed wheat field and the birds wanted in there... Most birds were the white wing dove with only 2 morning doves taken by us.. Now for the pictures Barry and Adam both in cammo with their doves at the motel... Barry and Adam in the field waiting for the next dove to fly by... and Cody and myself with our doves at the motel cleaning table... a great time by all.. untill the next time...........................

2008 youth waterfowl hunt

Well last weekend was the youth waterfowl hunt and Cody and I were there. I put his name into the reservation system and he was drawn number 33.. which put us in the teens when a lot of the kid did not show up... Its hard to think that it was better this year than last but it was... the Dept. of Fish and Game at San Jacinto Wildlife area put on a fantastic hunt this year.. it started out with a hot breakfast for all the kids and parents in attendance.. plenty of food.. then we picked out our area to hunt and were told to be back at the headquarters by 11am for lunch and the raffle... well i picked a blind that was next to the one we hunted last year... the water was deep averaging waist deep and oh by the way the camera is not water proof so don't expect any pictures for a while... yeah i know i forgot which pocket it was in while i was setting out the decoys... there were some nice flights of birds and i was able to call in a pair of cinnamon teal that wanted to land in the decoys.. I coached Cody as to when to shoot and waited until the right moment and pop one down and two shots later the other was on the ground... very nice.. the rest of the morning he shot holes in the air.. that's why they call it hunting and not shooting... by 10am the temperature had dropped and i was freezing it was time for me to start to gather up the decoys and head back for a hot lunch and the raffle... lunch was hamburgers and hot dogs, salads and chips and chili... all very good.. the raffle was the best ever.. Bass Pro Shops and Turners Outdoors donated many items to the event and the kids received two prizes and then all were then entered in to the grand drawing of things... 4th was a one hour flight in a airplane around the area to look at things or take pictures... 3rd was a pheasant and chucker hunt at the 4 seasons hunt club which Cody won and 1st and 2nd was a tuna trip on a six pack charter out of San Diego in July or August... great trips and we met some really neat people.. One guy i met who hunted across the pond from us Kelvin is a Sunday school teacher who was teaching one of his students how to duck hunt, he said the boys father did not hunt and the boy wanted to learn how to so the boy took his hunter safety class and got his licence and he has been teaching him how to hunt and appreciate the outdoors.... it was a very memorable hunt...

Deer hunt 2007

Well no vacation is ever dull so the adventure started bright and early Friday morning, 3am to be exact we all get up for the trip. Its my nephew Todd, Cody and my self loading up and taking off to the airport. No problems parking at the extended stay parking lot and as we are leaving in the shuttle bus i ask Cody " Do ya have the camera" No i thought you had it... where is it? I left it on the back seat of the truck... Oh well off to the airport.. well we arrive at 3:45 am we are 3rd in line, great. 4am..no one there yet, not open yet and the flight leaves at 6:30 am. at 4:30 they open up and we check in the baggage and declare the weapons, we are ready to go but no camera so i have the boys sit and wait while i head back to the parking lot to retrieve the camera.. i board the shuttle bus and stop at every stop around the terminals until i am the last person on the bus.. the driver then says to me... Well what did you forget... the camera.. obviously i am not the first one to forget something.. He tells me ..it happens all the time and people forget all sorts of things.. i get the camera and back to the airport. Make it to the gate and board the plane.. it was half full which is fine, i cat napped all the way there.. landed just fine and brother Don was waiting to pick us up... we headed to beautiful Clinton Missouri.. Its a medium sized town and getting more and more traffic signals installed every year.. its slowly going away from the small town image.. once there we drop off our luggage and head to the sporting goods store to purchase our deer tags, we get any deer tags so we can harvest a buck or doe.. after that we scope out prospective hunting areas... all look good... Bernie flies in that nite, rents a mini van, soccer mom kind, and arrives about 2am.. we are all up at 5am to go hunt. It was not very cold this morning, i was hoping for a lot colder weekend, it was in the high 30's .. once at the area Cody and I head out to the north of the timber on the edge of a field. Everyone else spreads out to various spots, Bernie is close to the cars a very good spot. Well at day break there is shooting buts its the 2 guys who have the lease on the land and have the prime spots.. the guy by me who is hunting a small pond in the middle of the timber bags a nice 15 point non typical deer.. his father gets a 8 pointer also a nice buck.. after they shoot a nice 6 point walks out right in front of Cody and me, I am waiting for him to shoot but he did not see it so i swing my gun up and shoot. Boom and whack and the things runs off, what, no way.. we walk over to the spot and see white belly hair on the ground, i go into the woods and spot a large spot of blood and call Cody to help me track it.. we follow the trail for about 100 yards,,, and loose it in marsh and we search the area and find nothing only to find out that Todd had been walking the damn by the pond before we got there and saw a deer laying down , saw it get up and slowly walk away, he thought it was sick or something and did not shoot it... and watched it walk up the hill and jump over the fence and disappear... its gone... it turned out to be my only chance this trip.. well no one in our group got a deer that morning so we headed for breakfast and a nap... that nite it was different Todd was sitting on a tree stand not far from the access road and bagged a nice 6 point buck as it walked across the field toward him.. He was well into the field dressing of it when i arrived to take his picture of his first deer... not to mention it was getting dark fast... we get it home and hang it to cool and butcher it after dinner.. Sunday morning it is warm, like 70 deg. at 6am... too warm, the deer don't really move that well.. kind of, sort of.. I hunted the same area of the land and put Cody on the deer stand that Todd had taken his deer the nite before.. I had heard various shooting thru the morning but not quite sure where it all was coming from.. about 8 am i hear a bang and a lot of whooping and hollering coming from the south and it was not anyone i knew.. so i head back and meet up with Bernie and ask him who shot and was yelling. He did not know... we all of a sudden see Cody making his way through the timber with this ear to ear grin on his face... yep just like the one in the picture... He says to us hey you guys want to give me a hand dragging my deer back to the truck... He bagged a nice 3 point buck.. a good meat deer... another one to butch that day. Don drives his truck around to pick up the deer from where it was shot and bring it back to where we all were parked and we field dress it there.. Of course i get to do this job and oh its 7am pacific time and time for Don to call Mom.. so he got out of helping and did tell her that I was helping Cody clean his deer.. back to the house for another butcher job.. that nite we hunted Don's old house property with no luck, i did take a shot at a coyote. that nite Todd did a ride along with Lacy's boyfriend Doug who works the graveyard shift for the Clinton police. Todd said that they had one call, it was a domestic violence call, this lady had knocked in her teeth and said it was her husband who had done it, oh and he had a black eye that she gave him.. she was drunk and was arrested, as Todd put it, Just like ya see on " Cops " on TV. he is ready to do this again.. Monday we woke up to rain.. lightning and thunder. the whole nine yards... if this were at home it would be storm watch 2007 but for them it was just another rain.. this worked out just fine for me.. i was soo sore from walking, hiking and standing... i do not do this kind of stuff all the time... we left Monday around noon and caught our flight home.. this ended another fantastic trip.. well i had to put in a self picture of me hunting the timber behind Don's old house and of course the colors of the trees, something we really do not get at home... until the next trip...