Back from Meeker

The hunting was so bad in Meeker I couldn't even hunt down a shrink to deal with my depression so we had to rely on Jack to ease the pain of scouting and hunting a total of five days before we even spotted the first doe.  We did have a nice bull elk trot by us on opening morning which was the only emotional high we had for the first three days of hunting.  I guess the problem started last winter when the deep snows caused a 40% die off of the deer herd.  With deep snow and a lack of food source the other 60% migrated to private ranches and survived by sharing the rancher's feed with the local cattle population.   It appeared that the deer stayed on private ranches and why wouldn't they, the food and water was abundant.  We covered every inch of the two zones we were licensed to hunt and only found a hand full of deer spread out over hundreds of miles of public land.  We did find a few deer in the Crosss Mountain area which was over a 100 mile round trip from our bunkhouse in Meeker.  One day while traveling back to Meeker from Cross Mountain we passed by a private ranch about 3:00 in the afternoon  and we counted over 80 deer feeding in one field.  A truck with two hunters entered the field and drove directly towards the herd and they parted just like the Red Sea and Moses and then gathered back together after the truck left the  field.  

There were a few deer killed in our zones, but all were on private ranches.  After 7 days of hunting we threw in the towel and headed home to go steelhead fishing on the Trinity River.  The buck below was Kyle's first buck and boy what a dandy.  Larry, the super guy that rented us the bunkhouse guided Kyle on his first hunt on a private ranch.  The other photo is a cool 4x3 that was killed by a lady from Wisconsin on the Louisiana Purchase Outfitters ranch.  This buck only cost her $3900.  At that price you can feed the herd a lot of hay through the winter.  The bailing twine tangled in his horns is proof that this buck prefers bales of hay instead of sage brush.  

Sorry I didn't post to the blog from Meeker, but when you have nothing to write about and Mr. Daniels is treating your depression keying up the computer is pretty low on my list of fun things.  Maybe I'll have more to write about when we get back from the Trinity River.  

Another years goes by

Come on Pops, get down and crawl a little faster.

 I had a great time Saturday playing Croquet, Secret Agent and making flower and grass pies with my grand kids.  That's right, old Pops crawling around the yard on his hands and knees and I still feel it today.  Everyone brought a little something to the table and we had a great Barbeque and memories of another passing year. 

Time for a little Flower and Grass Pie for Pop's Birthday

The venison stew is good Pops.

Well, today is the big day.  It is my Birthday  (that isn't so exciting anymore), but the real news is that today we leave for Colorado.  Deer season doesn't start until Saturday, but I can't get out of town soon enough.  The first stop will be the cabin to winterize and log oil the railings, that's right, work before pleasure.  Steve and I will leave early Wednesday morning and the first stop will be in Midway Utah for pizza and beer with Olivia, Jeff and Nikki  while we watch the Presidential Debate.  We should make it to Meeker by midday Thursday, with plenty of time to scout, sight in the guns and get use to the altitude.  I'm taking my laptop so I will keep everyone posted on the progress. 

 

The next post will be from Deer Camp.

Switching Gears

With a freezer full of venison I took the opportunity today to chase a trout down the Sacramento River.  Two days working around the house is all a retired guy can take, so Terry and I launched the boat and headed up river looking for a trout dinner.  Since the limit is only one hatchery trout it needed to be a big one.  The plans were to get an early start but the damn dog started barking about 1:30am and after investigating the perimeter of the compound in my skivvies with a spot light looking for the infamous local mountain lion and her kittens, I was wide awake until 4:00am.  At 4:30 Michele's alarm blasted be out of sound sleep (can't wait til she retires) and then again when she kissed me goodbye at 5:40am and needless to say I didn't get up to early.  At 8:00am I was about to head out the door and the phone rang,  and low and behold it was the Game Biologist from the fish and game returning my call from yesterday.  After 45 minutes of discussing the rights of mother mountain lion and her kitties eating our local goat, sheep and deer population I finally got out the door.  By 9:15 we were hot on the tracks ( do trout even make tracks, I must still be in hunting mode) of the trophy trout and steelhead of the Sacramento River.  It started off really slow, Terry caught the first squawfish ( I mean Sacramento Pike) and then I hooked a small 14" rainbow.  All that excitement called for lunch about 11:00am and we escaped into the shade of Inks Creek for a sandwich and coke.   The first drift after lunch produced dinner for a week when Terry set the hook and a beautiful 9 lb 1 oz. Steelhead.  I didn't realize how big the fish was and because I thought my line was way past Terry's I didn't reel in and the fish decided to launch for the stars making a jump that cleared the water by four feet and quickly crossed over my line.  Well, now we have tangled lines and the fish decides to head south for a while, racing towards the boat with lines going all directions.  I reeled up close and bit my line off, donating my lure to the cause.  Now the toad is right behind the boat rolling like a gator with a pig in his mouth and all the time I am thinking any second that flatfish is going to just pop out of his mouth and Terry will blame it all on me because I can see both lures hanging out of his mouth.  I reached for the net and the ol' net boy got him on the first pass.  Looking back it was quite the circus but that is what memories are make of.  Terry has fished the river for many years and he claims this steelhead is his largest ever. 

What a year, Tadd's buck of a lifetime, Terry's Steelhead of a lifetime and Pop's memories of a lifetime.