Hello all,

I am so sorry for taking so long to post an about the family article. We have had a lot going on over the last few months, some good and some bad. The bad news is I lost one of my best friends a few months back, Mark Henckel, who was also my web master. Mark suffered a massive heart attack while getting ready for a weekend fishing trip with me.

Mark was the most amazing man I've met in my entire life. He was unselfish, caring, and one of the most modest guy's I've ever known. Mark was the outdoor editor for the Billings Gazette for 38 years. He was one of the only effective liaisons between the sportsman in Montana and Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Dept. He helped on countless issues on hunting & fishing over the years. A friend of mine at FWP said, the department was very saddened by his passing and he also said he will be hard to replace. He had made many friends at the department throughout the state over the years.

Mark's wife, Carol, is carrying the torch now. She is in the process of learning how to become a web master. Mark kept a lot of his life and work in his head, not written down. She has been working hard with help from others to try to figure out Mark's manner of doing things on some of his many websites. She is doing well at it, and I think she will enjoy working for herself once things settle down a bit more.

As far as good news goes, we have been able to get out fishing walleyes the last few weekends.

We've pulled in some really nice numbers of walleyes with a few larger fish this year. With the booming business, and the boys playing baseball & hockey this summer we've hardly had a chance to get out fishing. Walleyes over the 14 pound range have been caught again in Canyon Ferry this year. As a matter of fact I saw one caught from 100 yards away and it still looked huge!

Montana was blessed with some decent moisture this spring so all the animals will be able to maximize horn growth. The rain has somewhat subsided the last three weeks and things are really beginning to dry out. The grass is belly deep in the mountains, but it's drying out really fast. Dry, hot weather is good for antelope archery hunting in ground blinds next to waterholes. Sadly, it is not good for ranchers and others that rely on moisture to make their living.

Unfortunately with the dry conditions, the wildfire season has begun. Several wildfires have sprung up around the state including in Yellowstone Park. So the air is a little smoky outside most days depending on which way the wind is blowing. Antelope archery season opens in two weeks. I was lucky enough to win a live auction, 5 day youth antelope hunt, for my oldest son Keagan with Sunday Creek Outfitters, owned by Paul Ellis. Paul runs a great outfit from what I hear from other hunters and has some really nice property leased. Paul's contact info is: Website: http://www.sundaycreekoutfitters.com/ (800) 381-2743, cell (406) 581-2717, e-mail:ellispaul4@aol.com. Get a hold of him if you want to hunt this year. He has some surplus tags, so It's possible still to book hunts for elk personally and for out of state hunters. Keagan is very excited about his hunt and has been practicing shooting his bow with broadheads for a few weeks now. If he gets a decent buck close enough, he should be able to close the deal.

After that, September 4th marks the start of the big game archery season for elk and deer. I am not sure when the wolf season will begin, or how many hunters will be allowed to take them. We didn't buy a tag last year because we weren't going to be around any wolves in any numbers until later in the season.

It turned out to be a wise decision as the wolf season closed in two days around us. Hunters shot just below the quota before FWP closed the season. I'm not sure if we'll buy a tag and try for one this year or not. That depends on if we can get an elk or two on the ground during archery season. Getting something will take the pressure off of us a bit.

Elk, are my favorite animals to hunt, period, but I still like to hunt for all species that live in the state. There are so many species to hunt in Montana that the seasons really get in the way of each other.

One must choose what you want to go after and when. I usually sit down and plan out the season before it gets going. I decide where to go, what to hunt, and when. Some hunts we do every year at the same time and same place. What a dilemma! So little time, so many critters. What's a guy to do? Chase them all, that's what I do!

We've got a local elk hunt planned with some buddies during the second week of September when the bulls usually start bugling and working cows. This isn't a long drive by any means, about an hour from the house. But, it's in a new area for me, and there's lots of elk in there. So far, that area, hasn't been overrun by wolves yet.

October 2nd will mark the opening of the waterfowl season. After getting good brood reports from North Eastern Montana, we'll be opening up the season up there. That will be a long drive, about nine hours from us. I learned long ago duck hunting means to go where the ducks want to go. It doesn't mean where I want them to go.

Two weeks following that in October we'll be headed back up to north eastern Montana for the pheasant season opener. Lots of birds, lot's of property to hunt. What could go wrong? Not much, that's why I go every year.

Got to run, lots to do around the shop before I become scarce during hunting season. Good luck hunting and fishing this season everyone!!!

Paul

Keagan with a windblown walleye on Canyon Ferry.

April 25, 2010

After another very long five-day work week, I decided that walleye fishing was my best chance for relaxation and recovery, so we hit Canyon Ferry Reservoir. Saturday was the maiden voyage for the boat and family this year. We only had three hours to fish because Conner, my younger son, had hockey practice for his Montana Thunder Blades Hockey Team in preparation for his Calgary and Fargo hockey tourneys coming up in June.

Water temps were in the low 50's, meaning the spawn is well under way. Follow the link to the Montana Walleyes Forever website and feast your eyes on our big Canyon Ferry walleyes. After seeing some of the behemoths that Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks has been netting this last week, planning the trip was easy.

We snooped around the shallows for two hours looking for active walleyes until we found them and what they wanted to eat. We caught one trout, one small walleye, and lost four more bites including one planer board sinker. When a planer board nearly sinks and drops straight back, and has a steady slow heavy tugs on it, it's a big walleye. This one was no doubt a big walleye. Planer board bites can go bad sometimes, and this was one of them. I had a little trouble getting the rod out of the holder, and I hadn't checked the drag, only to find out later, it wasn't working at all. Time to buy better line counter reels (don't tell Lori). I'm going to claim I already had them. The little walleye at the last minute saved us from being "walleye skunked" on the lake for the first time in years.

Conner had hockey practice Sunday morning so it was just Keagan and I fishing. It was a better fish production day as we caught six walleyes and two trout, but it was windy. Sustained winds of 20 mph with gusts to 25-30, pretty much 3-4 foot rollers all day long. It worked out just fine for us. I've found one more benefit to having a 19 1/2 foot boat. I can fish when most anglers are on shore, or at least on the calm side. We were the only boat out there. I got to really tune in my boat control too. Using my 15 hp Yamaha four stroke kicker motor in sync with the Terrova bow mount with auto pilot made it a breeze. Then from there it was just following my paths to the waypoints keeping at the magical 1.7-1.9 mph. And of course, I had to lose another decent fish. This one I would guess at 3-6 pounds. Dang cheap reel (catalog name brand type) got me again. As I was reeling it in, my gloved thumb must have touched the drag wheel and it went from perfect to zero drag 25 feet from the boat, and there she was, gone. It was so windy we were able to only fish one rod each, two total. Quite a change from yesterdays eight rod set up with six planer boards. Crankbaits were the deal, as they usually are this time of year on CF. The fish were in skinny water, 3-5 feet deep. We didn't catch a fish deeper than six feet.

Time to go back to Rich's Tackle in old town Three Fork's and buy more of his nice line counter reels. If you are looking for a tackle shop and you're in the area, GO TO RICH'S (406-285-4540). His prices are better than the big cities and the catalogs, plus it's better gear. Good stuff at a great price, what's not to love, plus he's a great guy.

Back to work for me. Another huge work week ahead for me preparing for the move into the new building, and clear out more time for fishing or hunting next weekend.

Paul

We had a comfortable turkey hunting camp.

April 20, 2010

Nope, no turkeys, but we had a blast. We got into four different gobblers and had them within 80 yards last week, but they came no closer. I guess the report is the bird count is down, but we managed find some.

We met up with a terrific young warden named Troy somebody. He informed us that prairie dog shooting was allowed on the national forest again, as the rule changed last year.

Keagan's eyes lit up with a twinkle despite having trudged some 12-15 miles on foot with me in the last three days. He managed to shoot the first three prairie dogs from 125 yards out to 200 yards. I worked on his trigger pull with him so he wasn't slapping his trigger, but had a nice easy squeeze. Dang, we would have elk and deer to eat all summer long if I had thought to check that out after his first miss last fall.

Our first morning set up, I thought would be a slam. Two gobblers paced back and forth at about 80 yards around a point of trees, but turned and followed their hens. That was my impression, gobblers henned up. I think it's just a matter of finding the right bird so to speak. The one that's fired up, doesn't have hens, and has a reasonable path to walk to you.

Getting set up in the direction they want to go makes a huge difference too. Gobblers often roost the ridges, then fly down and walk through the valleys and side hills. Trying to call them back up to you (where they just came from) is highly unlikely.

We'll try to fish walleyes for a few hours each day this weekend (weather permitting, and it doesn't sound good). I'll work on the building and do some baseball practice too. Not sure if we'll make it back out turkey hunting this year. It's a 10 hour round trip to Eastern Montana.

Happy hunting and good luck fishing.

Paul
(877)485-3001

We had a blast, including some trolling motor excitement.

April 2, 2010

Spring has officially sprung in Montana.   To Montanans it means, yes it's April, and yes, some places in the mountains got two feet of snow a couple days ago.

It always happens, almost every year, huge March/April snow storms, mostly in the mountains.   They are the storms I was talking about spoiling spring hunting trips.

Go figure, the ice is starting to come off Canyon Ferry, my favorite walleye reservoir.   My boat is almost ready, but with winter travel advisories for the weekend, I'll keep the boat in the garage, and save myself some freezer burn.   Not complaining, I love the north country, and we desperately need the snow pack in the mountains.  

I got a few hours to break free of the shop last Saturday and did some more pike fishing.   I managed to pull in this skinny 5-6 pound post-spawn hen. I had one follow up, and two more strikes on my huge silver Rebel crankbait.   My buddy Vinnie pulled in a skinny 2-3 pound male.  Not bad for a few hours of fishing. 

It was the maiden voyage for my friend and captain of the boat with his new trolling motor.   It was equipped with the new I Pilot from MinnKota.  Trouble was, the instructions were at home, and nobody bothered to read it before getting to the river, and no one knew how to run it once we got there.  Go figure, our fish were caught while anchored.   I think mostly because much of our time trolling was spent doing 360's in the river mixed with bouts of excitement of running the new motor into shore.  It was great fun to hassle anyone foolish enough to drive the boat.   That was fishing with a giant "E" for entertainment, we all had a blast.

Keagan and I didn't draw local turkey tags so we'll be headed over to eastern Montana (five-hour drive) near Ashland to hunt turkeys.

Spring black hunting opens in a couple weeks too, so we'll head to the hills in search of Yogi, not Booboo.   According to Montana Fish Wildlife & Parks, the average Montana black bear killed is 125 pounds.   They usually don't get very big in the Rocky Mountains because of the low quality forage. But, there are some 250-300 pounders out there we'll look for.

Back to the shop for me, I've lot's to do.   Get outside and have some fun for me.

Paul
(877)485-3001

Keagan, the gopher hunter.

March 20, 2010

Keagan is the only one in the family who has been in the outside recreating. He's been honing his archery skills on gophers (actually named Richardson's Ground Squirrel), preparing for the up and coming turkey season.    He arrowed three of the little buggers on his first outing.   I figure if he can hit a gopher, the turkeys don't stand a chance.

Spring has sprung, at least day by day in Montana.   Cold mornings in the teens to 20's, but also some glorious 50-plus degree-days in the Three Forks area.   It's warm enough that the boys have already got their season passes at the golf course and have played a few rounds.

There still is an occasional snow shower in the area, but mostly in the mountains.    I'm not implying that we have a lot of snow pack in the mountains. We don't.   Some areas west of the Continental Divide in Montana are in the 50-60 percent range of average for snow pack.   Some areas east of the divide in Montana are in the 70-80 percent range.   This could spell disaster for the hot months of July and August, which also happen to be the usual peak of the fire season.

Despite the dry conditions, our reservoirs water levels are looking good. Favorable wet conditions downstream have made it possible for the Army Corps of Engineers to hold back on downstream flows, filling our reservoirs. This is a very good thing.    High water levels create favorable spawning conditions for all species, especially bait fish. There is a lot of irrigation in Montana, so the reservoirs will draw down substantially if we don't receive adequate precipitation through spring and summer.

River fishing has been tremendous for magnum rainbow and brown trout in my area.    Some buddies have been nailing lots of fish with some in the 3-6 pound range, which is big for a river fish around here.  

Some bears are coming out of hibernation during the warm days this spring, but mostly grizzlies so far.   Black bear season will open April 15th.   Spring turkey hunting opens  April 10th.   Turkeys have done well in most areas in Montana.    Both spring turkey and bear hunts can be tricky with planning around spring snow storms.

Our fingers and toes are crossed to draw local turkey tags this year.  If not, Keagan and I will be making the five-hour trip to the Custer National Forest in Eastern Montana for Keagan's first year of spring turkey hunting.

Good luck spring fishing and turkey hunting!

Paul

More northern pike.

February 13, 2010

The Green Hornet strikes again!!!!! I love using old lines from the movie “Grumpy Old Men.”    They actually sell the Green Hornet like the one used in the movie by Walter Matthau.

 Keagan pulled this feisty three pounder out last night.   My buddy Bob lost a giant pike by setting the hook too hard (we only have a foot of water between the ice and bottom), and then trying reef it up it two seconds. What he got for his first try at hand lining a pike on a tip up was a severe line cut that bled like a stuck pig.   Oh, well, it was his first time.   I could hear the pike ripping the line through his hands making a zip, zip noise.   Ouch!!

We fished only from 4 to 6 p.m. and had 6 flags go up in the last hour. Pretty cool!

It was Conner's turn the next night.   He lost one, then caught the next one.   It was Conner first pike through the ice, about a three-pound 24-incher. Keagan lost two pike, one that chewed his smelt up and spit the hook before he could set it.  He had about a five pounder on at the bottom of the hole, but got off before I could get the gaff into it.  He was bummed out for a bit, until he realized we are going to spend the next three full days out there, 12 hours each day, 36 hours of paradise.   

We had four bites total tonight.  One guy next to us caught a muskrat if you can believe that.   Everyone thought it was real funny except the muskrat. They are very feisty when cornered, or when the guys that pulled him out stood in front of the hole he wanted back into.   Yeeha, old guys dancing with muskrats, what a gas.   We laughed our butts off.  They unhooked the little guy and set him back in the water.  They were fishing the holes we did yesterday, and they also lost two pike, one on the fight, one on a snapped line.   I think they may have been using mono, and perhaps carrots or apples.  

Paul

Some happy boys and a nice northern pike.

February 8, 2010

It's been a while since my last post.   There hasn't been a lot to report on except lots of work and hockey with my sons. We recently got out and did some ice fishing for Northern Pike.   As you can see, we managed to get one though the hole, a beauty eight pounder.

We had five bites each day, but only had one other pike hold on long enough to get the hooks in him.   Unfortunately he broke the 30# Fireline leader I was using, right under the ice.   I'm guessing he was about 10-12 pounds, I had a good look at him. 

A few things really made these ice fishing trips special for me.  The first was of course pulling that fish out on Saturday. The next was taking a few new kids out ice fishing that hadn't been out. My kids go all the time, but this time I told them to ask some of their friends to go.

Even though we didn't catch fish every day, we had bites.   All the kids had fun ice fishing, and all want to go out again.   This re-kindled my enthusiasm to start a kids outdoor club in Three Forks.   My problem with
starting it last year was that I had a booming business that grew to be over 400 percent up from the previous year, so didn't have any extra time.   This year however, I have more employees working for me, which will free up some extra time for me to start something up for the kids.  

It drives me nuts seeing kids hanging around town, or complaining about nothing to do.   We live one in the most fish and game-rich states in the USA, there's lot's to do.   As a matter of fact with us, there's too much to do around here, we have trouble choosing what to do.   This time the decision was to go pike fishing, but the coyote hunting is really hot right now with lots of them around, and lot's of ranchers wanting to get rid of them before calving season for their cattle.

The other cool thing that happened was I ran into Bob, my old hunting and fishing buddy of 25 years.   Over the last few years we have fallen out of touch with our busy lives, not crossing paths very often.    We both share lot's of common interests, one being pike fishing.   No better way of getting caught up than standing on a slab of frozen ice day.

We hear it often, but take a kid into the outdoors, not just your own kids, but have your kids ask some friends to go, they'll have a blast.   If you don't have kids, borrow some, heck it might be easier that way, because you can just drop them off when you're done.   Just remember, keep it safe, and have fun, no matter what.

Oh yeah, fine some old fiends and see if they would like to go.   Cabin fever is pretty common, especially with OLD hunting and fishing buddies.

Paul

I’m looking forward to ice fishing on Canyon Ferry Reservoir.

December 23, 2009

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!

We have recovered from the long 10 week big game season in Montana.   This year was different than all other years I have been big game hunting. Not a single big game animal is gracing my freezer. I never got the opportunity to raise my rifle.   Granted, most times out I didn't even carry my rifle or bow because I was guiding my oldest son Keagan.    But probably the biggest reason was the lack of hunting time was due to me putting so much time in the shop.   I'm not complaining, it's been worth every minute, because now all my hard work is finally paying off with a booming business.

I guess the only drawback of having a successful business is it cuts into your hunting time.    Busier you are, the less hunting you do. To give you an idea how much I've been working, I figured I've had five full
days off in over two months, yikes. I will say it sure beats the alternative.   I have to remind myself at the end of my usual half day, you know 12 hours, half of 24 hour day.

Things are looking up for next season with the addition of two new employees, Brandy and Karen. Business is terrific, up 450% over last year, so we're expanding to accommodate the growth.   More employees, hence, more time for us in the field, yee-ha.

Keagan had some good opportunities at taking elk, and deer, but unfortunately didn't connect, which brings me to the next topic, preparing a young hunter for their first year of hunting.   Boy did I learn a lot, too
bad it wasn't until the end of the season.

We prepared mostly for bow hunting, which was my first mistake, being too focused on one thing.    The kid can shoot the daylights out of his bow, but he was practicing every day.   I forgot about all the things we were going to go after during the season and didn't allow enough practice time for him with the shotgun or rifle.   Plus, we had a couple of things working against us.   We were so busy bow hunting every chance we got, and I had to work so much.

Montana can be that way if you want to hunt everything.   Your hunting will interfere with your hunting.    Almost every weekend in October a new season opens.   Before we knew it we were in the middle of all seasons.  After several misses for him I thought his gun must be off. He did have a pretty good fall on his scope, so I thought to sight his gun in again.   That was the last weekend of the season after he had just missed
a second elk in the timer at 150 yards. 

I took a few shots and it seemed to be pretty good.   Then, I handed the gun over to him.   I did the old, load the gun for him, but left the chamber empty to see if he was flinching.   He wasn't flinching, he was slapping the trigger.   His trigger finger was an inch away from the trigger and he was jerking it.    Well the good news is we figured out he needs more practice with all weapons, and I need more time.

We still had a terrific time out hunting and saw many unreal Montana sights when out in the field.   He learned about moving quietly in dry conditions, animal behavior, tracking, the fine tuned his art of seeing game, plus how to ethically pass up shots as he passed on at least a dozen shot opportunities.    He learned a lot. I learned more.

We'll target practice on some coyotes this winter, gophers and prairies dogs in the spring.   Hopefully some hogs.

PS, if anyone has an excess of wild hogs and or Javelina's, the family and I want to get away somewhere warm in March to do some hunting.

Have a merry Christmas to all and a Happy New Year.

Thank a soldier for protecting your freedoms.

Paul

We spent the evening with a young moose.

November 23, 2009

We only hunted one day this weekend, Sunday. The morning found us once more in the Elkhorn Mountains looking for Keagan's first elk.   From a high vantage point we saw two cow moose feeding in a clearing, then spotted two bull elk on a far ridge, both of which we can't take in this area.   Continuing on we saw some fresh mountain lion tracks, then fresh elk tracks.   Yeehaa!, that's what we've been looking for. Conditions were still poor with no new snow to speak of and crunchy snow everywhere.   Even with the wind right we couldn't get close enough for a shot.

We got on two groups of fresh tracks, but couldn't ever catch up to them. We could see where they were standing looking back at us, then running away. I don't care who you are, you can't keep up with a running elk making 10-12 foot jumps every stride for a hundred or more yards up a 45 degree slope. After making the two fairly good jaunts of up and down and up and down, we were pooped and headed home for lunch and  a little rest before heading out on the evening hunt.

The evening found us in one of my friend George's tree stands.   George is going to let Keagan do a little population control and shoot a doe, or a deformed cull buck.   Moments after getting up and into position we heard brush breaking only 30-40 yards away.    After about ten minutes I decided to do some calling so I tipped "The Can" and gave a few doe bleats. Moments later the small bull moose popped around the corner and stood looking at us for several minutes in that gap about 60-75 yards away.   It was really dark, but I did manage to snap a few photos, even changed the camera battery.   He spent the whole evening there, partially around the corner of the brush.

I managed to call in three bucks using the Can and a grunt call.   One was definitely too big for Keagan to shoot, a nice four point about 130 inches, the other two were young deer with symmetrical racks, so no shots on them either.   We had several does in range, but they never gave him a clear standing shot until it was so dark it was hard to identify them.   The last thing I want to do is break the rules on George’s place and give Keagan the OK on the wrong deer like a spike or fawn buck.   We also saw several dozen turkeys, including eleven gobblers.

This is the last week of the general season and he's out of school on Wednesday afternoon.   Yup, you guessed it, he wants to go to George’s Wednesday evening.   Then we'll be hunting Thursday through Sunday, all day, every day, clear to the end as usual.

Then we'll go after waterfowl and pheasants until they close.   Then ice fishing, if we have ice.

Paul

November 13, 2009

Sorry it's been a while everyone.   The seat cover business continues to boom past my wildest dreams.   Having a successful business can have some drawbacks if you can believe that.   One for me being the lack of extra time to go hunt and enjoy the wilds of Montana.   So far weekday hunting just hasn't happened, only weekend warrior stuff.   I am definitely NOT complaining about being busy, because things could be a lot worse, as many of you know.   Thanks to my customers for all of your support and patience while waiting for your seat covers.    We are expanding and hiring to try to keep up with sales, but it's a slow process.

I would like to say thanks to all the veterans who have served, and those now serving this country so proudly and give so much.  They are the ones providing the blanket of freedom we sleep on every night.   Sometimes when things are tough for ourselves we selfishly forget about those who are serving and what they are going through.   I've done many seat covers for soldiers who have served in the middle east, and by their accounts it's a most difficult task.  

This big game season for us has been spent mostly elk hunting because elk are my favorite animal to hunt.   It takes about 5-6 whitetails to make up one elk size wise out here, and I think elk meat tastes better.    With five elk tags in the family, we have been hitting it pretty hard on the weekends.

Lori has a cow elk tag, and Keagan also can shoot a cow elk in the same area with his bull tag being as he is between the age of 12-15.   Plus Keagan and I have an extra cow elk tag for an area half an hour South of us.   Opening day had us right where I wanted to be at first light, and sure enough, the elk were in front of us at about 200-250 yards.   As most times when elk hunting in dry conditions they see you before you see them, of which happened to us.    I stopped them with a cow call, and Keagan and Lori settled in for a shot.   It was so dark we couldn't tell if the elk in the clear had horns or not, so they passed the shot, and the elk ran off.   When it was rounding the knob we could tell it was a cow, but it was too late, she was gone.   The cow was with a couple branch antlered bulls, but in that area you need a special bull tag to shoot one.   After that we headed back down the mountain to the truck.    Within 200 yards of the truck I could hear people talking at the parking area, and I had come across fresh human tracks seemingly every hundred yards or so.   I had just walked across a set of boot track thinking it's over, and kicked it into high gear heading back to the truck when an explosion of hooves took off 25 yards in front of us. There is just no catching up to a spooked elk running up hill in the timber. I had to remind myself that after trotting after them for a hundred yards huffing and puffing.

The very next Friday evening Keagan and I found ourselves at that same spot at the end of shooting light.   Seeing tracks headed that way I knew the elk would be there again.   This time a cow was clearly visible walking around the hillside.   I stopped her with a cow call and Keagan took aim.   Without time to judge the distance for him with my range finder, I spotted for him with my binos.   He shot, but I didn't hear a hit, she ran and he squeezed off another shot.    Following up on his shot we found no blood as we followed the track for quite a while.    I ranged back to where he shot from and it was 350 yards.   Oops, sorry Keagan, your guide fouled up.   The rest of that weekend we saw branched bulls, and no had no other chances at cow elk.

Last next weekend we used the spot and stalk method.   Problem was the only elk we spotted were too far away to go after.   We are only capable of moving an elk mostly downhill, and certainly not any up and down, up and down stuff.    I found out the hard way when hunting in Montana, what goes down must come up.   Meaning if you walk a couple miles down into an area, then up, and then down, and kill a 500-900 pound animal, you better bring a lunch for a day or two.   I have hips in need of full replacement so my days of packing elk out on my back are over, thank goodness.

Keagan and I are heading out today to the mountains to try to find him an elk.   He just needs a close 75-100 yard shot at a cow elk to close the deal.   We just got dumped on for snow so that will help hunting a lot. It's been crunchy and dry for a couple of weeks in the mountains.

Good luck hunting and God Bless.

Paul

Dakota and Keagan with their first pheasant.

September 30, 2009

Keagan and I finally made it up to Malta for the Montana youth waterfowl/pheasant weekend.   Earlier I thought it was on the 15th of September, but it’s a good thing Keagan checked the dates around September 10^th before we left. The weekend was Sept. 26-27.

Malta is in the Hi-line country of Northeastern Montana, about a six hour drive from Three Forks.   We arrived Friday afternoon and went to Bowdoin National Wildlife Refuge to get our free Sandhill Crane tags at the headquarters, and some info on bird populations.   While rifling through his tags, Keagan realized he didn't have his conservation tag/bird license in with all his other numerous tags.  So off we went, back to Malta to get him issued a duplicate license.   With license in hand, we went to the hunting areas of the refuge and scouted waterfowl and pheasants.   Holy cow for birds!!!!!!!!!!!! Rather than tell you about the area I thought I would just provide a link to the site.   http://www.fws.gov/bowdoin/.

To say the least, it's enormous in size, loaded with pheasants, numerous species of ducks, geese, and later in the season. lots of migratory Tundra Swans and Sandhill cranes.   When you looked at the water in any direction, there was a duck every 3-5 feet.   I don't know how many ducks we saw, maybe 30-50,000, plus several hundred geese.   The broods of pheasants we saw were pretty young, meaning the new hunter would have to be ultra careful on his rooster identification before shooting.

We hunted waterfowl for about two hours on Saturday, but with blue bird skies and no wind, it was tough at best, even with all the ducks around. He had a half a dozen shots at ducks, winging his first with his first shot. But after a long search in the cattails with our two dogs, no duck. He made the call to go after the many roosters we could hear from the duck blind.

After switching gears to pheasants, we were into birds from the get-go. Instantly, the one year old lab pup named Dakota flushed a perky rooster at Keagan's feet.  He shot once and dropped a leg on the bird, and it coasted 100 yards away.    Being overly excited he learned lesson number one of pheasant hunting, always watch your dogs.   The two dogs continued to be birdy right under his feet and popped up another rooster.   A little flustered after not dropping his first bird, the second one flew away without being shot at.    We proceeded on to try to find the bird he shot at, and right where we saw him go in, it popped up, but Keagan missed it again.   He learned rule number one again, watch your dogs.   He was looking for the bird with his eyes, not with his dogs.

Throughout the day he continued to learn the lessons of pheasant hunting, sometimes one by one, sometimes a few at a time.   What better of a place to learn them but surrounded by hundreds of pheasants.   Hundreds of pheasants, yup, you heard that right.    Now, this number is going to sound a little high to some, but it is accurate.   The pup Dakota, on her first day flushed 120 pheasants.   Not from 100 yards, but under foot.   The number was so high because Keagan was having a very hard time hitting them.   To make matters worse for the boy, the darned wind was blowing about 25-30 miles per hour sustained, with gusts higher than that.   It's hard for dogs to smell in that high wind, but the pup did great.

We found out that the Dakota is two to three times better than the old 7 year old veteran Remi.   Sorry Remi, but she's good.   Remi wore herself out for the afternoon hunts, so it was just the pup from there on out.  About four o'clock in the afternoon after a two hour nap Keagan finally knocked down his first rooster.   Dakota went to where the bird went down in the cattails, and soon I saw her 50 yards away.   I'm thinking, no, over here. But in moments she appeared through the weeds with a live rooster in her mouth.

After a few other misses, we headed to another area very close to the refuge, and he managed to pick up his second bird at the end of the day. Saturday ended with us two hustling back to the truck being swarmed by the worst mosquito attack I have ever been in.   That's saying a lot because I grew up in Minnesota, mosquito heaven.

Sunday, we were just after pheasants from dawn on.   He knocked down the first bird he shot at, but then continued to struggle as the wind picked up. He complained of a bruised arm, so that told me he was mounting his gun too low, and had an improper sight picture down the barrel. With one bird in hand we headed our way back to Three forks, wanting to hit a new area near Lewistown.

Arriving to the spot we found numerous older birds flushing wildly.   That told us they had been hunted that day.   He only missed one that he shot at, and two that he didn't shoot at because of not being ready.   His last bird was a classic.   He was down low in the bottom, and I took the dogs around this big chunk of cover.   A rooster was running in front of me and the dogs so I said, "Get ready, there's a rooster".   At that time the rooster popped up and flew towards the boy.   He missed with the first shot, but then swung hard and pasted it with his second shot.   He finally got the correct lead, and sight picture to bring it down.   Turns out he had been shooting under them some, and over leading most of them. He later said "I knew I better hit this one because I could see the truck and knew it was my last chance".

Our pup Dakota was the surprise of the trip.   Her nose is superb. She hand-signaled beautifully, and the best of all, she was terrific on wounded birds, getting every pheasant. The other surprised was the lack of youth hunters.   The lady at the refuge said last year they didn't have a single youth hunter at the refuge. We saw one other youth hunter the whole weekend.

Sure, selfishly, we could say "We had the place all to ourselves", and we did. But what it really does not bode well for is new hunter recruitment.   I was totally shocked to only see one other youth hunter on the 20-30 square miles of ground we hunted.

Here's my message.   PLEASE, EVERYONE, TAKE A KID HUNTING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Paul

Keagan and his first bowhunting turkey.

September 15, 2009

Busy season is good, but the 12-14 hours days are tiring. I finally cleared out some time to do a post, but it looks more like a mini novel.   I'm still surprised at how many read this little diary of mine.

The photo is of Keagan's first bow kill, a hen turkey.   Of course, we're not counting the countless rabbits, gophers, and carp he's taken with his bow.   I guess now that he's a big game hunter the little critters around the house will have an easier time getting through the day.

We have been mostly hunting the weekends because I've been working producing seat covers from dark to dark, or 12-14 hours per day. Which brings me to my next subject, my customers.   I would like to give a big thanks to all of my customers for making my business so successful in these troubling times.   And after all, who could ask for a better client base than a bunch of hunters.   I do about 95-98 percent camo seat covers, all for hunters.   I feel more connected to the outdoor brotherhood than ever before.   I love hearing tales of the hunt from all over the country, and out of the country from our outdoors brothers up North in Canada.

Back to the hunting stories.   The first tagged and registered bow kill of the season was Keagan's hen turkey, followed by mine. We started the adventure literally at the edge of the town we live in. That's where we scout for the deer that eat our garden, poop on our lawn, and rub and kill my trees as saplings.   Call it payback, past due rent of the yard, or paying for the dine and dash dinners in our garden.   Heck, the darn things will eat a pumpkin bigger than a basketball in two days, right off the porch.  

While scouting our favorite spot to set up the Double Bull blind, we noticed a flock of turkeys walking right past it.   Both of us drew fall turkeys tags for the area so we thought Keagan would get a whack at turkey if nothing else.

We got set up a little later than I would have liked to.  The wind started out being bad for the stand, but not wanting to spook deer on our first set, I said we shouldn't go.   Then, around 5:00 pm it switched.   Keagan watches the wind direction closely and gives me bi-hourly updates. He noticed it had changed, and we were off to get set up.

We were no more than set up when the first does appeared, which was really early for how warm it was.   Shortly thereafter Keagan was looking down the trail and said "Dad, there's a 160 buck coming down the trail, I'm shooting him".   Well, the buck wasn't a 160, but more like a 110-120 buck.   But he fell into the classification of deer that we could take on the property, which was older, tall but kind of a narrow four point (eight pointer for those east and south of us).

Keagan's breathing was noticeably heavier, and his knees and bow arm were really shaking.   Most of us have been there, you know the excitement that comes when you are moments from shooting.   The deer was coming picture perfect, until the last moment, he turned right instead of left at 6-8 yards, and walked behind our blind.   We were so close, Keagan could hear the deer smacking his lips when he was eating.   But, It didn't take long before he got far enough around us to get our wind, and ran off.

Shortly thereafter the turkeys showed up, all eighteen of them.   We watched them walk at us for five minutes, about 200 yards.   I told Keagan they were all hens, and asked if he was going to shoot a hen, to which he quickly replied, yes!   As if scripted in a play, all eighteen walked right up in front of the blind and stopped at 15 yards yelping and posing.   Keagan calmly drew back his Diamond Edge bow and center punched his bird with a great shot.   Me being a rookie cameraman, I had my bow in hand.   I asked him "Should I shoot one too?".  TO which he replied, YES!.   So, shwack, I bagged my turkey too.   The turkeys hung out and picked at our dead birds for several minutes before heading out.

We were pinned inside the blind until well after dark from the deer we were surrounded by.   Keagan found out firsthand how careful to be with broadheads after the excitement of a kill as he proceeded to slice his thumb getting an arrow out of his quiver because we had more deer bearing down on us.  No bandages, so electrical tape and toilet paper was the quick fix.

The night ended up without a deer, but lessons in ethics and patience were learned.   He passed on several small does and bucks, and does with fawns at 10-15 yards. The whole time I was reinforcing the hunter ethics I have taught him through the years of hunting with me.   It was really cool.

Last weekend we went after elk and antelope on a big ranch South of us 30 minutes.   Due to the hot weather, the elk were leaving they hay field well before daylight, so antelope were the target.

We haven't been out there enough to pattern where the antelope were getting their water, but we did see a fence crossing most of the 150 antelope were using.

An hour before shooting light we walked through the hay field, spooking some antelope as we went.   I use a golf club hand cart to carry my Double Bull blind because with my failing hips I can't shoulder loads until I have them replaced.   As I was unpacking my hunting blind cart, Keagan looked up on the hill behind us and saw a giant bull elk at about 200 yards saying "dad, his horns are bigger than baseball bats at the bases!" Unfortunately on that ranch we can't shoot bulls, and besides, we were after antelope.    

We set up on the antelope fence crossing and tried it on a one day set.   As you can expect, all the old does were too leery to cross next to this new hay bale next to the fence.   As many of you know, old dominant doe antelope lead the rest of the herd through the maze of predators out west and they knew something was up. 

It didn't help the darn wind was swirling a bit and several had winded us, but weren't too alarmed because we are careful about our scent control, showering and washing our clothes in scent free products.

Antelope get used to crossing under fences at favorite spots, and get confused and nervous when they can't make it to them. It has been said that antelope won't jump fences, preferring to go under, which they do most times, but they can and will jump over them. I've seen it a few times. One particular bunch of antelope nervously piled up down the fence line at about 110 yards from us, and began to crawl under a new spot.  All but one small buck crossed.   After a few nervous moments, he turned and bee-lined right at us for the crossing we had at 11 yards.   At 38 yards, the darned wind switched, and he was off.   Shortly thereafter, a doe fed down the fence line at 32 yards, closing the distance quickly, but the darn wind gave us up again.   This time it was a doe mule deer stomping her feet at us up the hill from behind us.

We spent the morning surrounded by a hundred antelope from 30- 200 yards, and even if the day ended up without an arrow flying, the time we had together was pretty cool.   Elk, deer, antelope, gold and bald eagles, and coyotes.   I love Montana!!!!!!!!!! That reminds me, I need to buy my wolf tag.   Yes, that's right, we won the right to manage the wolves inside our border,  instead of out of the White House.    Yeeha, or should I say Oow, oow, oooowwww!!!!

Remember those who lost their lives on 911, and those who soldiers who protect our rights to do what we were doing last weekend. Thank God for them every day.

Paul

Dakota, Remi and Keagan holding his first dove.

September 3, 2009

Keagan and Dakota (my one year old lab) got their first upland bird, a morning dove.   We tried hunting for some Hungarian Partridge after school on the evening of Sept. 1, the opening day of the season in Montana, but it was over 90 degrees and they were hard to find, so we went after some doves. Keagan shot his second dove of his hunting career with his first shot last night, but then missed the next four or five, then it got dark on us.

We didn't get out until 7:30 because Conner's homework wasn't done.   It’s amazing. Now, Keagan's homework is now done in study hall at school so he can go hunting when he gets home.   Conner can't hunt yet at 10 years old, so he's not quite as motivated as Keagan.   I love it – hunting, the true motivator for homework of hunting kids.   Yet another benefit of hunting.

The dove flights have been somewhat pitiful, but we have them narrowed down to a small spot that we'll hit tonight with guns a-blazing. We'll get out earlier today, and shoot for a couple hours.   They are so darn puny you need a bunch just to make a dinner plate for one person, but good practice for my young shooter.   That'll be a good tune up for him, because in two weeks we are going to the Malta area in North east Montana for Keagan's two-day youth waterfowl/pheasant weekend.   There’s a great population of pheasants, ducks and geese galore, plus tundra swans, and sandhill cranes to hunt, and lots of places to hunt.    Not to mention, we are bringing our bows and double Bull blinds to go after those mega-racked Milk River whitetails.   I've seen Giant whitetails looking across sloughs at me at 100 yards when I've been pheasant hunting in previous years.   They are the biggest whitetails I've ever seen in the wild. Of course, by then the archery season is closed.   It won't be closed when we are there the first time this year. Sounds like a good excuse to pull the boy out of school for a couple of days.

We'll go dove hunting again tonight, which will make three consecutive days since the season opened.   I'll have to use tomorrow evening to get ready for archery Elk and Deer season that opens this Saturday.

Still not sure where we'll go elk hunting.   I have a couple of ranches to hunt on that have elk on them, but I haven't made it out to scout them yet, and there is always the 33 million acres of public land to hunt on, too. Hmmm, where to go, where to go.   What a great dilemma, so much ground to cover, so little time.  

Big game only has five weeks with bow, five weeks with rifle, plus extended seasons sometimes into December.   Loads of upland bird hunting across the state and long waterfowl season that stays open until around January 15th.   I guess I'll get enough hunting in. From now until mid January Keagan and I will be hunting, every weekend, and every weekday we can too.

Happy hunting, wherever you are.   And remember, TAKE A KID HUNTING, even if they are not yours, they'll love it.

Paul

August 16, 2009

The picture was taken with my inexpensive camera held up to my inexpensive binoculars at 100 yards.   Makes him look real close doesn't it?   Real long prongs on him.

The antelope archery season opened yesterday and no antelope yet, but that's bow hunting.   I wasn't able to get all of our antelope hunting areas scouted out before the season like usual because I've been working so much.  We are scouting waterholes, instead of hunting them.   Finding a antelope waterhole will be our only chance to get Keagan within his 10-20 yard effective range.   Antelope are far too keen for us to sneak that close.

We've seen lots of antelope, but very scattered with all the moisture and green grass.   They don't have to rely on the green alfalfa for food and a limited number of waterholes as they usually would in a hot and dry August and September.

I saw 18 antelope bucks in one bunch Friday before the season.   Six or eight of the bucks are at least 12-14" tall, and the rest are what we call pee-poppers/little ones. Today, four of the larger bucks had broken off of the main buck herd.   Keagan and I each have one either sex tag and two doe/fawn tags to fill, plus Lori has an antelope tag.

The antelope are using a different water sources this year.  I've got the area narrowed down, but still need to  locate it on foot and place a blind on it.    I thought they might be using some stock tanks on a small piece of property in the middle of the two landowner, ten square mile piece of property I have permission on.   I saw them in and around it Friday morning, but haven't seen them in it for two days now.

I have another huge ranch to hunt on that has 300-400 antelope on it.   Keagan and I drove out to it yesterday, but like it often happens, vehicles everywhere, but the landowner wasn't home.   Best to call first and make sure he's around before you commit to driving out.   Lesson learned again.

We've seen some nice velvet whitetail bucks, and smaller mule deer bucks.   We are always scouting deer when we are antelope hunting in August. We'll go out again this afternoon and look for that waterhole and set the blind if the weather isn't too bad.

Paul

Andy and three-year-old Linden with his first walleye.

August 4, 2009

Last weekend, the family and I donated our time to a very worthy cause.   The activity was a benefit walleye tournament for an organization called "Camp Mak-A-Dream." It’s a camp at Gold Creek, Montana, for youths and young adults with cancer and they come in from all across the country to enjoy beautiful Montana and participate in some of the outdoor activities we so much enjoy.

I donated a seat cover, helped fry burgers, hot dogs, and scooped beans for the hungry fisherman on the evening before the event.   Lori and the boys helped where needed as well.   I was supposed to help Mark Henckel measure fish for the contest, but he somehow talked me into entering the tournament, taking his son, two grandkids aged 3 & 5, plus his son’s father and mother in law.   Mark is my webmaster, and has been my saving grace in the business with the terrific job he has done for me.   How could I say no?   Plus the fact that I still am Norwegian, and he said he would pay the entry fee.  LOL  

Now, I'm not a tournament guy, whatsoever.   I probably could do OK in some tourneys, but choose not to enter.   I'm continually pestered by friends and family (mostly my son Keagan) to enter tournaments, but I don't.    But this was different – sort of a laid-back affair rather than a high-pressure, big money event and it was for a good cause – that’s why I said yes.

I was surprised to find out Mark’s grandsons had never caught a fish, much less an elusive walleye.   Marks son's father-in-law Ben, from Maine, had never caught a walleye either. To me, the tournament had become a challenge to get these first timers on fish, no matter the size.   You guessed it, we went with Slow Death.   Hard to beat its simplicity.

Mark wanted us to keep some fish for a fish fry later that day, so we did.   His grandsons caught at least four walleyes each, with his oldest grandson catching a dandy 3-4-pound rainbow trout (we call them slime rockets).   The father in law from Maine even managed to pull out a couple.   We ended up with a dozen or so nice eater sized walleyes.   His oldest grandson caught the biggest walleye of our boat, 17 3/4 inches.   We didn't hit it too hard.   I think we made it out on the water by the crack of 9:30 am while the rest of the field went out at 7:00 am.   We took a good break for lunch and went back out for a couple more hours.   Again my goal, unlike other anglers in the tourney, was to get Marks grandson’s on walleyes, and help them to have a fun time doing so.

We might have placed 6th-8th out of 40-50 boats, according to Keagan.   That was no consolation for me, because I wasn't after trophies. I think we won because Mark’s grandsons seem to have caught the fishing bug big time.   When we stopped for lunch, they both wanted to go back into the boat and keep fishing.

In the beginning of the day they were goofing around a little and being bored, until we started catching fish.   Then they were all business, claiming each rod after it had caught a fish.   It is the most fun for me to see first timers catch on to walleye fishing.   That first glint in their eye from the first fish is priceless. After catching a few, they sat vigilant watching all of the rod tips for a bite and continually asking "Is that a fish, is that a fish?" The world gained a couple of fisherman last weekend.   It was special to me because they were in my boat, and they are Mark's grandkids.

I'll fish this weekend a little, but from now on to August 15^th, its pre-hunting time for the most part.   Time to get ready for the up and coming antelope archery season.   Time to set up blinds next to water holes for antelope, and do some scouting for elk and deer.

We'll visit with our rancher friends tonight with more walleye fillets in hand.   They are all such nice folks to let us hunt and fish on their properties.   What we bring away from every piece of property each fall is so much more than the meat that goes into the freezer.   Our wildlife experiences are absolutely priceless.   From howling coyotes, to close up gold and bald eagle sightings, bugling and sparring bull elk, rut crazed antelope bucks, whitetail & mule deer 1-5 yards outside of the ground blind, priceless.

Thank every soldier you meet for providing you with the blanket of freedom you sleep on every night.

Paul

Keagan was eight years old when we teamed up

to take this archery cow elk.

July 23, 2009

Just shortly after I put an arrow in that cow elk, we had a giant six-point bull stand in front of us and bugle for about two to three minutes.   Not at a hundred yards, he was 20 yards. It was so close it almost shook the brims of our caps.   Keagan was saying, "Shoot the bull dad!", but I told him I already shot the cow.   Later he said he was ready to bump my arm so I would miss the cow because he had seen the bull coming. 

Later that year, I was at the same place trying to fill a whitetail doe tag.   Keagan, being tired after getting up so early, fell asleep at my feet.   As he slept, actually snoring, a raghorn bull popped out of the willows 45 yards away covered in mud, and ripped off a bugle before trotting after the herd he had kicked out of.   Keagan awoke later saying, " Dad, I had a dream I was elk hunting and heard a bugle from a bull elk."   I laughed when I told him it was a real bull elk in his dream.   We have so many stories of hunts in the past.   He started going with me at 3 years old.   Last year, he went hunting 40-50 times with me.   My boys are definitely my shadows.

It's smoking hot in Montana right now with temps in the 90-100-degree range.   Thank goodness it's still pretty green in the mountains and valleys, otherwise we would be on fire all over the place like previous dry years.   There are a few wildfires going right now, but it's not too bad.

I'm headed back to Minnesota to cheer up my 87-year-old father.    It has maybe been a month since my mom passed away and he's still having a very tough time every day. After 63 years of marriage to the most wonderful woman I've ever known, it's understandable.   We are all having a tough time.

As I make the two thousand mile round trip in four days, I will be thinking about the 2009 hunting season which is rapidly approaching.

It will be Keagan's first year with a hunting license.  I remember my first year hunting in Minnesota.   It was ducks, geese, pheasants, and deer back there.   Ii was so excited before each opening day I could barely sleep.

Kids in Montana are blessed with a variety of game to pursue.   Keagan, for example, got to put in for Mountain Goat, Bighorn Sheep, and Moose, basically the big three of Montana. Unfortunately, neither he nor I drew tags for any of them, but we did accumulate our preference points.   Preference points are bought, and then accumulated for every year you are not successful.   Then every year in the drawing your name gets put in one extra time per point.   I have seven points on most game animals except for Bighorn Sheep.   I shot a nice bighorn and still have to wait four more years in the seven-year waiting period before I can put in again.

We did however draw some special elk tags.   Keagan and I drew an extra elk tag for cow elk and a mule deer doe tag, and Lori once again drew the cow tag for our favorite elk area close to home.   Keagan and I still have bull tags too, but can be used during archery season for a cow if we so chose.   We have five elk tags total for the family – holy cow I love hunting elk in Montana.   

We are waiting for results for antelope, fall turkey, sandhill crane, and the damage hunts we put in for.     Damage hunts are for hunters to basically get game out of the hay fields for the ranchers that are being eaten out of house and home.

Montana has a great program for first-year youth hunters.   I guess they feel bad for making the kids wait until 12 before they can start to hunt. Keagan has been counting the years before he could start hunting, ever since he could count. Montana Fish ,Wildlife & Parks buys the new hunters a big game combo license.   So elk, deer, upland birds, fishing, and waterfowl licenses are paid for.   The only thing he had to buy, I mean that I had to buy, was a bear, antelope, and extra elk tag for him.

In addition to that, they get to hunt waterfowl two weeks before the season, and pheasants three weeks before the season on a youth weekend. Then, he can shoot a cow elk almost anywhere in the state and have several other great opportunities available only to youth hunters aged 12-14. Is he lucky to be born in Montana? I think so and so does he.

Shoot straight, and take a kid hunting and fishing.

Paul

Mitch Bakken and his 32.25-inch

Canyon Ferry walleye.

July 3, 2009

Been getting out walleye fishing in the evenings a few nights lately.   Last night was with my friend Mark Henckel of Park City Montana. Mark is my web master, and has worked for the Billings Gazette as an outdoor writer for 37 years, plus he has written several books.   After his handiwork building my website, my business really began to skyrocket.

Mark was interested in seeing the Slow Death fishing system put to work on some Canyon Ferry walleyes, and work it did. We caught dozens of fish from 5:30-9:30 pm, mostly little ones with nary a one stretching past 16", but still plenty of fun.   Still looking to catch one like Mitch did this summer.

Mark wrote an article yesterday about a recent hiring of a new deputy director of Montana Fish Wildlife & Parks. This fellow happens to be a career politician, with zero fish and wildlife experience, but has 30 years of experience working in politics for the democratic party. The article is truthful and straight to the point.   

It's hard for me to watch a political good old boy network start to mess with our precious Montana fish & wildlife.   Most things screwed up with Montana's fish & wildlife have been at the hands of bureaucrats that know little to nothing about wild game, but know everything about political jockeying.   Just look at the wolf issue to mention one.

As we approach Independence Day 2009, god bless all those serving in the military, bless the veterans, and the fallen soldiers that died protecting our freedom.

Paul

June 20, 2009

Conner holds up Gramma’s walleye

in one of our many fond memories.

Not much fishing or anything else has happened since finding out my mom had recently been diagnosed with Leukemia.   Her short battle ended last Thursday, June 11th, she was 83.   She held onto life until I could make the one thousand mile trip back to Minnesota to the hospital on that fateful day.

I hugged her and held her hand for the last few hours as the life went out of her.   Many of you know this already, but there isn't a tougher day in anyone's life that had to go through that.

She was always was the one who cheered me up at funerals saying "remember them for the good times you shared, not the funeral, or their death."    We all mourned my the death of my mom, for she was as most put it "A wonderfully kind and thoughtful woman."

So today, I still struggle to hold back the tears and remember mom for the good times, but I can't.   My tears still fall like a waterfall like as dad says.   I worry about dad being alone after nearly 63 of marriage.

Today, my goal is to smile and laugh, thinking about my mom, and the good times we shared.   

Hug the ones closest to you, and tell them you love them.

Paul

June 1, 2009

My friend Robin's son Braden with a beautiful walleye

he caught and released in our honey hole.

Runoff is in full swing in Montana as many small streams and larger rivers are breaching flood stage and are running over their banks. River fishing will be null and void for a few weeks until the runoff slows down and the water clears up.  

Runoff affects a walleye fisherman differently, more positively.   It means the reservoirs are filling daily, creating more habitat for insects, bait, and walleyes. Main lake points now have current flowing past them from river to dam, and the bays have water flowing out of them via Ventury effect.

For me, the runoff fills the South flats on Canyon Ferry (CF) and creates some terrific walleye fishing.    Walleyes in the south end of CF feed heavily on the clouds of emerging insects, and the baitfish that follow them.    The walleyes also feed heavily on crawfish as they crawl into the once dry habitat.    Blue can be a favorite color of ours during the crawfish molt.   That's the time, once a month, when the crawfish lose their shell and turn blue before the new shell gets hard, making them soft, tasty, and easier to see to the walleyes.

Keagan brought his friend Bill with us to the lake.   Bill had never fished from a boat, or caught a walleye before.   He's done a lot of fishing with his dad, but just for trout on the many blue ribbon trout streams we are surrounded with.  I promised Bill he would catch a walleye.   He did, and then some.    He caught his first walleye in the first five minutes.

We did have a tough morning of fishing Saturday as the water temperature had cooled down to 62.5, catching only two 14 inchers on crank baits.    Around noon a thunder storm blew in so we got off the lake and waited for it to blow over.    Seeing the storm pass, we quickly launched the boat and headed for my old haunts in the south end, newly filled with water.   As some fisherman stayed on shore, some fished North, and the rest fished in the huge crowds on pond 1, we sneaked over to a little spot I've fished for 12 years. 

With so much debris in the water and water temps at 68.5 we went to the old faithful, Slow Death, and just hammered them.   If you guys haven't tried Slow Death, try it, you won't believe how effective it is.    Most of us walleye fisherman have thousands tied up in tackle.    I laugh when I think about how simple the Slow Death system is.     Bottom bouncer, one ounce per 10 feet of water depth, 4-5 feet of 10# Vanish Fluorocarbon, and a Slow Death hook with a night crawler , that's it, truley a no brainer.   The real key is getting good rotation on that crawler by having it properly rigged.   Make sure you leave a 1/4" tag end on the fluorocarbon line to hold the crawler a 1/2" above the eye of the hook as you thread it on the hook, making sure the crawler rounds the bend of the hook with a 1/4" of the hook poking out, and then thumb off the back of the crawler making it hang 1-2".    Keep it going .9-1.1 mph and it will work, you'll see it definitely is deadly.

After getting on the fish I called my friend Robin and his three little boys and told him to come over and fish our spot.   He did and we both just hammered them.   It was like fishing for starving sunfish in a little kiddy pool.   Drop it in the water and bang, every minute or two.   All Robin and I were doing was un hooking fish, re-baiting lines while our kids yanked them in.

In two hours we caught at least 40 walleyes and lost twice that many bites.   We Kept only 8 to eat.   Robins three boys where yanking them in as well, or better.    Lori called us to tell us supper was ready, so we headed in, but Robin stayed for another 30-45 minutes yanking them in.   He had to catch over 50, keeping only 14 to eat.

We caught six more Sunday morning, and missed about 20 bites.   We had to head home about noon to get some household things done and for me to get ready for another huge work week.

Oh yeah, Billy caught at least 15 walleyes on his first day out, missing at least 30.     Our biggest was 18" with the average being about 16". 

Paul

May 18, 2009

Keagan and Conner with some Canyon Ferry walleyes.

Hello all, all is well in Montana.   Winter is reluctantly loosening its grip on Montana, hopefully the snow will end soon, but who knows.   Some years it can snow nearly every month of the year.   During the summer months, it usually only snows on the mountain tops, thank goodness.  

Snowpack is way up in the mountains with some areas being near 150 percent of normal.   What this means for most of Montana is we'll have good runoff to fill our rivers and reservoirs, and help to get us out of this drought.   All we need now is the snow to melt gradually, and have decent rainfall through June, July, and August and we'll be sitting pretty. 

We took our new boat to Canyon Ferry this weekend and managed to catch some nice walleyes on Sunday after ironing out the bugs on the new boat on Saturday.    Water temperature started out in the low 50's when we started fishing in the morning.   By noon it had warmed up to 59 degrees and the bite started snapping as it usually does with temps near that magical 60 degree number.    We caught ten nice walleyes in about an hour, and ended up leaving after catching a double.   We ended up catching 12 total, and kept six for supper.   I love fresh walleye much more than freezer burned fillets, so we eat mostly fresh fish, only what we can eat that day and let the rest go back.  We had a lot to do when we got home and kept trying to leave, but pass after pass we kept catching fish.   It was hard to leave when we were catching walleys on every 300 yard pass.

We caught our fish on # 7 floating & Husky Jerk Rapala's in Firetiger and Perch colors.   We trolled with only six rods – four planer boards and two inside rods, with the most effective speed being 1.7-1.9 mph.    We never fished deeper than five feet, and got as shallow as 2.5 feet.    I know what some of you are saying "Walleyes 2-5 feet deep in the middle of the day?".  Yup, they are in there when the food is there, and will bite readily all day long when the water is dirty.

I think too many walleye fisherman around here spend too much time looking for crystal clear water to fish in.   What I have found on Canyon Ferry and most walleye waters is they usually tend to be deeper and a little tough to catch during the day with clear water, especially with little or no wind.  Often this time of year I go shallow and spread things out with the planer boards and crank baits and can catch them that way no matter the water clarity, or the wind speed, usually.   Like Rickey Bobby, I want go fast.    Crawling along at .6 mph trying to coax a bite out of a reluctant walleye sometimes drives me nuts, that's when I want to go fast and troll cranks.   I will however fish slow and use bait and Gulp if needed to catch walleyes.   I have my preferences on the ways I fish, but will do anything legal to put more walleyes in our boat.

Thanks again to all my customers for giving me all the business they have, and for helping me make this business so successful.   With the good word of mouth/references, I think my customers are some of the best salesmen I have.

Tight lines, and keep you rod tip up.

Paul

April 25, 2009

FWP biologist Eric Roberts with a 13.5-pound Canyon Ferry

walleye netted and released 4-22-09

March and April were very busy around here.    Thanks to the popularity of my seat covers I've had to work seven days a week lately and haven't had much time to recreate in Montana's great outdoors.

I did however manage an early walleye fishing trip to Canyon Ferry.   I had just sold my 16 foot Lund Laker to a young family, and was without a boat for the first time in my life.   I was freaking out. Walleye season never closes in Montana and the ice was off Canyon Ferry.   Giant pre-spawn hen walleye's roam the shallow south east side of Canyon Ferry reservoir each spring.    Every year anglers head out in hopes of catching the next state record walleye.   I still don't have my replacement boat registered so I can't go fish, dang it.   We ended up with a 2005 19 1/2 foot Lund Tyee Magnum.   We'll love the added room size of the new boat for sure.

I was able to catch a walleye boat ride to Canyon ferry with a good friend from Whitehall Montana.   Keagan and I were going to show him our system for catching walleye's on crankbaits and planer boards.   At 11, Keagan has been fishing with planer boards literally his whole life, as I started using them some 13 years ago.   We caught two 15-16 inch walleyes and lost a big one right at the boat in a few short hours on the water.   Which was pretty good despite most all other anglers aren't catching anything.   

Here's the big fish story.   I took the rod from Keagan because he thought it was a snag on the planer board and I tried to free it, until it slowly started moving, and stayed on the bottom, tell tale signs of a big walleye.   After a trolling motor co-pilot malfunction and two line tangles, the fish got off, five feet from the boat.   Maybe I should have given the rod back to him, but we have lost several fish that way.

People say, "how can you tell it was a walleye?".   Well, after catching several walleyes over 27 inches, up to 31", you know what they feel like.   They're just heavy on the line and stay down, they aren't big fighters.   Carp and trout both fight hard, pulling and head shaking the whole time, plus they come to the surface shortly after being hooked.   Plus that, Keagan saw it, he said it was a huge walleye, he's seen plenty in his 11 years, so I believe him.  

The walleyes in Canyon Ferry are part of the reason I moved to Three Forks some 11-12 years ago.   When Montana Fish Wildlife & Parks discovered walleye in their trout nets in Canyon Ferry some 12-14 ago they were gill netting and killing all walleyes caught in the nets.   That was until local walleye anglers screamed foul.    The nearest walleye waters were hours away, Canyon Ferry is only 40 minutes from me.  

They now use Merwin nets to capture the fish and then release them back into the reservoir, hooray.   The fishery guys now are seen as more friend than foe of years previous.

When I heard the story years ago, and saw pictures of the netted a pair of behemoth hen walleyes weighing 20.2 & 19.96 pounds I freaked!   They released one fish into either Holter or Hauser reservoir, and the other died.

I knew the reservoir would be a great walleye fishery!   To date, it is one of the only successful, natural reproducing reservoirs in Montana that not heavily stocked, most of the walleye waters in Montana are.

Canyon Ferry receives a tremendous amount of fishing pressure, with hundreds of boats angling daily during the peak bite in spring and summer.

The limit on the lake has been the same for several years, 20 walleyes per day, 40 in possession, and only one over 28 inches per day.   The 28" rule is very new.   Us walleye fanatics consider the "limit" more of a bounty than a limit.   Most good/successful walleye anglers on CF (Canyon Ferry) practice catch and release, keeping only a few to eat.      We caught nearly 300 walleyes last year and kept maybe 50-75, just enough for a fresh fish dinner every Saturday night and a package or two for the freezer.  

FWP reasoning for the high limit is they think the walleyes are over populated to the point of reducing the forage base and competing for it with the earlier preferred species of trout and perch.  

CF was filled in the 1950's when the Army Corps of Engineers dammed up the Missouri river near Townsend Montana.    At that point they put every kind of fish in there you could think of.   Trout and perch were the only two game species to take hold.  

Forty years after the reservoir was filled, it seems walleyes are taking over CF through natural succession, but bureaucratic influences are trying to suppress what is happening by naturally.

As you can see, Canyon Ferry is a very controversial reservoir.    Everyone that fishes it has an opinion on it.   Some are still of the "kill them all" mindset, while others like me, cradle and nurture it like a fragile young baby.

Turkey hunting has been a bust for me so far.   The only days I've had so far to go turkey hunting have been too snowy and too wet.   In the areas in eastern Montana that I hunt you can't go anywhere if it wet, plus the birds tend to hole up with heavy snow, not to mention it's not too much fun to hunt turkeys in deep snow.    I'm going to try to get out maybe next week sometime before the season closes.

Paul

March 10, 2009

The Fort Peck trip ended up being somewhat of a bust.   We came home with only three fish, but had a good time anyways.   The weather did the same thing to us again this year.   The day we got there a low pressure system turned it 40 degrees colder and the fish were tight lipped.

We had several tip up flags go up and felt the fish on, but didn't hook up so well.   I ran into my friends from Great Falls, they were staying for nine days, we were so jealous.   They caught 32 Northerns on their first trip this year in January, only one 20 pounder.   All three guys now have three Northerns each on the wall, all are 20-23 pounds.   Next year I'll try to spend more time up on the water next winter on Fort Peck, perhaps make two trips.  

We all got spring fever around here and decided to shoot 100 rounds busting clay birds and shoot the pellet gun.  Lori busted her first clay birds and Conner did to.   Conner seems to be a natural at everything.   He shot only twice, but busted both clay birds and he was done.

I worked Keagan from different angles to help him in different shooting situations next year.   He found out that the birds are much harder to hit side to side rather that straight away.

We went to Big Sky Archery and had Conner's new Diamond Edge bow set up.   While there I also found that Keagan is also in need of a new bow as his Browning Micro Midas 3 won't be strong enough to hunt with next year and is a bit outdated. 

 I thought it was tough to outfit myself with hunting gear, now there is three more to set up, because Lori wants to start shooting a bow.   We'll start her on Keagan's old Midas.    Keagan is not too heartbroken handing his bow to his mom so he can get a new one.  

Practice makes perfect still proves true.   Keagan has been shooting his new Diamond Edge with deadly accuracy.   Hitting 50 cent piece sized targets from 10 yards five out of six shots or better. 

The local turkey population survived the winter well, hopefully Montana Fish, Wildlife, & Parks will allow more tags as we are in a special tag drawing area.   My friend George still has a bunch of turkeys around his house, I just hope I draw a tag.   If I don't draw a tag I can go anywhere east 100 miles and start hunting the general area for turkeys.    I've taken many birds from the Custer National Forest near Ashland.   Lots of public ground, and lots of birds, but a six hour drive for me.

Non-residents remember, the non-resident big game combo application deadline is March 15th. -  Paul

February 12, 2009

Fort Peck, winter of 2005: Conner (left) age 5 with his 11 # walleye,

and Keagan age 7 with his 12 # Lake Trout.

Yeeha, it’s time for the annual ice fishing trip to Hell Creek on Fort Peck Reservoir!!! This year it will be just Keagan and I. My shop is being painted so I’ll be shut down until Tuesday, we might as well go fishing.

Fort Peck is a huge reservoir, 250,000 acres, 134 miles long, 1,520 miles of shoreline with a maximum depth of 220 feet. Some say, big water, big fish, definitely true here. Several veteran Fort Peck ice fishermen have caught Northern Pike over 20 pounds, walleyes over 10 pounds, and huge Lake Trout.

Some years have been good to us; other years like last year can be tough. It rained on me the first day, and then turned 40 degrees colder for the last three days.

This year should be better as temperatures have been stable and fishing reports have been good. So far the big walleye in Hell Creek is 14 pounds. I’m not sure about the Northern Pike or the lakers, but the 10-20 pounders are fairly common. Stay tuned- Paul

February 2, 2009

A series of events lately has inspired me to try to get more kids outdoors, showing them the skills to hunt and fish by starting an outdoor club here in Three Forks.

I want to do my part as an American sportsman to help save our outdoor heritage, and after conversing via e-mail with a 20 year old disabled Iraq war veteran, I got even more inspired to start the club.

I want it so anyone can join at no cost, no matter where you live. We’ll have instruction for shooting archery, rifle, and shotgun, along with the necessary skills for hunting including the art of tracking, spotting game, and outdoor survival. We can offer wilderness survival classes and overnight stays in the mountains. I also plan to talk to my landowner friends about having organized youth hunts for deer as the whitetails and mule deer are very abundant around here.

We will also cover fly fishing, being as we live in the heart of blue ribbon trout fishing and are surrounded by experts in the field of fly tying and fly fishing.

I can’t leave out my favorites, the warm water species like walleye, bass and northern pike. We live 40 minutes away from the reservoir that we caught nearly 300 walleyes out of this summer, including Keagan’s 32 incher. We have three sizeable bass ponds in Three Forks city limits with a healthy population of largemouth bass over 3 pounds, up to 5-6 pounds. Fort Peck reservoir coughs up more 20 pound plus northern pike than most lake systems in the country. Small northern’s in Fort Peck are 4-5 pounders, and that’s no fishing tale. No kidding, I’ve never caught a pike up there under four pounds. Some veteran ice fisherman I’ve run into call 8-10 pounders “little ones”, and most of those guys have caught their 20 plus pound pike already.

I see lots of worry in the magazines and on TV that we are losing our kids to the indoors as numbers continue to drop. I thought, what the heck, I can do something.

We live in god’s country, surrounded by fishing and hunting opportunities for more species than you imagine. I stand bewildered when I see kids standing around town with their hands in their pockets, saying “There’s nothing to do in Three Forks”. Hey, there’s a lot to do around here, someone just needs to show them what’s right in front of their noses and how to enjoy it.

What I need from some of you is some advice on how to go about this. I know there are several youth outdoors clubs around the country, so if someone has some pointers for me I would greatly appreciate it.

Oh yeah, the Lindsoe family (us) is looking to hunt wild hogs for our first time this March down south. We want to go some place warmer than Montana and bring home some wild pork, I hear it’s delicious. We could even bring down some elk meat for a barbeque. I would willing trade seat covers for a place to stay and a good place to hunt for all of us. Just e-mail me if anyone is interested. - Paul

January 16, 2009

This is Conner’s friend with his first perch/first fish out ice fishing.

Four days in the shop and I had 50 hours in by Thursday night; I decided to take Friday morning off. I had to go find some perch because our first attempt this year was terrible. We made four or five moves last Sunday, but couldn’t find the biomass of perch. As you can see, I did today.

I got a late start this morning after getting caught up answering e-mails and loading gear. I am usually completely ready the night before, but today I wasn’t. I left the house in a huff, making some wise, snappy comments to my family as I left. I had just started out on my 40 minute journey and I thought I better call Lori and apologize to my family for my comments. After all, I didn’t want to start my fun fishing morning like that, plus possibly ruining my mojo on the hard water.

I went light today as temperatures were already 25 degrees above zero and was expected to reach into the 50’s. No fish house, no underwater camera, no stove for cooking, just me and the Honda, Vexilar, auger, six rods, bait, and coffee. I wanted to go light and be very mobile, catching my limit of 15 perch well before noon because I still had to do some seat cover work in the afternoon.

It took me three moves today to find the perch. I looked for any moving green marks just above the bottom, dropping a line in and trying to catch it.

The bite was decent and the fish had good size so I drilled five more holes, setting them in a six pack configuration. I used a mix of dead stick rods with small tube jigs, and some with slip bobbers with tube jigs, but focused mostly on the Vexilar jigging a small Firetiger Frostee spoon.

My Vexilar and Frostee caught the big ones, but one of my new micro rods spooled with 4 pound Fireline and a yellow tube caught the rest.

Before I knew it I was up to 14 perch, needing only one more to fill my limit. The Vexilar lit up like my neighbors Christmas lights (we don’t usually put any up, too busy hunting) and I got excited. Soon it was thump, thump on the rod and a snappy hook set later, I was reeling him up, slowing down before maneuvering him through the hole as to not knock the little bugger off the hook. I’ll be darned, it was white and green, a dink walleye. Unfortunately for him he became lunch when he couldn’t swim down the hole. Oftentimes when you bring a fish up from 45 feet deep their air bladder pops out of their mouth and keeps them from making it down to the bottom.

Moments later I reeled up my last perch and settled in for some photos. I guess I should bring one of the two tripods I have to set up my camera. That way I won’t have to lay on this cold ice for a photo. Some guys were cruising around looking for a spot to fish as they hadn’t had much luck so far. I flagged them over, showed them the hot holes, and told them of my top tactic for the day. Pound that lure into the bottom, and slowly raise it up 8-12” and jiggle the pole, deadly.

My boys are fired up to go on Sunday and Monday morning as they are off from school and are itching for a great pandemonium perch bite like I had today.

Paul

January 9, 2009

George invited me out for another goose hunt today, and I said, “heck yeah”. Today’s hunt started much better than the last goose hunt. After the 30 second drive to the gate, I had it open in record time, I was really feelin’ it.

It only took about 20 minutes for the first flock to come and they set right in, thirty yards right over my head heading into the landing pocket. I had those three geese I was going to shoot already cleaned and in the freezer. That was until I shot three clean holes in the sky, never touching a feather, George never shot. What happened to my mojo? Come on, the gate, our last hunt, I can’t miss, but I did.

The next flock came about 5 minutes later with only a few soft greeting honks from me and followed the same pathway. I folded a goose cleanly on my first shot, missing on my second shot and rocking a bird really hard on my third shot. I watched him just tumble out of the sky, stone dead, about 100 yards away. Hmmm, things are looking up. After missing out on the shooting George moved over to my side of the decoy spread. Soon another flock from the Jefferson River and came wing locked once again into the spread. A few soft clucks and honks and they passed over my right shoulder from behind. I sprang up folding two birds cleanly in two shots. That’s more like it.

George managed to scrape one bird out of that bunch and that was it for the morning. The geese flew to the other field again, so after eating some birds and giving some away this weekend I should be below my possession limit and be able to go out one more time next week. He decided he better take his 10 gauge next timeout after seeing what one can do with one in two days of goose hunting.

Saturday is hockey day for us this weekend. Lori and Conner are in Miles City Saturday (4 hours one way) for two games and Keagan and I are here for his two games.

WE ARE GOING ICE FISHING SUNDAY!!!!! Finally, we are going to make it out ice fishing. The ice is 17 inches thick, and the jumbo perch from 10-13 inches are on the bite on Canyon Ferry. I’ll let you know how we did.

Paul

January 7, 2009

I finally made it out to a barley field to hunt geese. This is after going on numerous scouting runs, finding geese, but not the landowner. Then I found the geese again, but everyone else found them too, right before I had a chance to get after them.

The place I ended up on was on my friend George Scoffield’s dad’s pace. George operates Scoffield Outfitters and outfits for white-tailed deer. They shoot deer in the 140-150 inch plus range, which is pretty good for this part of Montana. He doesn’t outfit for geese, but enjoys hunting them.

It was nice for a change, going to a place where I didn’t have so early because I wanted to get the spot before someone else. Yup, I got there thirty minutes before shooting light.

I threw my stuff in George’s truck and off we went. The drive wasn’t too far; I think it took us maybe three minutes, with two and half minutes spent on me wrestling to get the gate open. I knew what was coming from George and I just laughed. George usually says something like “Yeah, those guys from town usually have trouble with that gate”.

We had the spread laid out in no time with two Finisher blinds with snow camo facing the landing pocket, into the warm wind. As usual it took an hour before we saw any geese. A group of eight birds flying south following the Jefferson River saw our spread and bombed straight in. The birds passed over my head at 20 yards, I sprang up out of my blind and folded a bird with my first shot, and then proceeded to shoot two holes in the sky with my remaining shots. I couldn’t believe I missed out on at least doubling out of that flock. George took one shot with his 20 gauge and dropped a bird also. The next few flocks of geese turned their noses up at our spread and continued at a bee line to where ever they fed last night. George said about 150 geese had been in the field we were in the day before we were there, so I felt fairly confident we could pull a couple of more flocks in.

I began to get aggressive on my calling, clucking loudly with some squeals in there while George got on the flag. I’ll be darned, here they came, a flock of about 10-12. Just like the first bunch they passed right over my head, this time at 15 yards. I popped the blind open, sat up and dropped three birds, boom, boom, boom, right in a line, 10 yards apart from each other. Cool a triple on geese, and I was hoping to get a shot or two today and maybe one goose. The Browning BPS 10 gauge might have been a little much for the close decoying birds, but works so well.

George has other shotguns including a 10 gauge, but opts for the lighter 20 gauge and close shots.

Being filled out; I sat back and enjoyed the rest of the show. George tumbled one more out of a flock with a single shot from his 20 gauge shortly thereafter. We sat for 5 minutes thinking it was over because it had gotten quiet. I decided to go sniff out a wounded goose of George’s and get a little exercise. On my way over to the downed goose I saw a nice bunch birds doing the snob routine again and avoiding us and I got loud and aggressive on the calls clucking like 25 birds fighting over a grain spill. They immediately responded and banked toward George and the decoys. He hit them with the flag, and some calls and in no time a goose tumbled from the flock and he lowered another, but it kept going.

Yeeha that was a gas! I can’t wait to go again. George said we could go hunt another area this Friday that the geese were using too, a little farther away, maybe five minutes, depending on if that gate whips my butt again.

We are ice fishing for jumbo perch on Canyon Ferry this Sunday, stay tuned for the story.

- Paul