Fishing, Fossils, and Friends

I always seem to find cool turtles on my travels around camp

I really needed to get a post written before BOTH my loyal followers leave this wretched blog and do something more beneficial with their time - something like, um , watch the grass grow, watch the paint dry, ...

This is a 3 part post and spans the past 3 weeks.  First up - the fishing.

Yes, I actually got a chance to fly fish for 1 day in a creek I actually know, and in a place I actually felt comfortable fishing.  I got to spend a day with my Dad, brother, and few other friends at the camp in PA I have been fortunate enough to use (when I've had the time) for the past 30 years.  The camp, owned by my best friend, sits on the banks of Kettle Creek in Potter Co., PA.  It is a rustic log cabin with no running water and, to my way of thinking, is about the best place on earth.  The truly wonderful thing about this camp, and the part that pushes it into the stratospheric realm of legendary camps, is that here is absolutely NO CELL SIGNAL within 15 miles of the camp.  It truly is heaven on earth.

The view from the camp porch of Kettle Creek

The fishing on Kettle Creek and its many tributaries gives a trout fisherman all the possibilities he could ask for.  The main creek is primarily a put-and-take stocked trout fishery.  All the tributaries are class A Wild trout streams and harbor lots of small native brook trout.  A few of the larger tribs have some stocked fish in them, too.  And, the creek is dammed by Alvin Bush dam, so the option is here for lake fishermen, too.

I usually spend my limited time here walking into the rtibs and fishing for natives, but this trip I decided to fish with my Dad and brother and stay on the main stem and bigger tribs.  Remember - I had 1 day to fish.  It took me 6 hours to drive there Wed. nite, and another 6 drive home on Friday, so everything happened on one day - Thursday.  I woke up early and my brother and I drove up to Cross Fork creek to check it out.  This stream is one of the larger tribs and gets stocked as well as supports a wild trout fishery - both browns and brookies.  The lower section is crossed by a snowmobile bridge and is a good observation deck for the creek.  We stoped there and saw some nice fish in the main run.  I gave Pat and Brian that section, and drove upstream a few miles on a dirt road to fish a nice little stretch that often contains wild brookies.  Ended up getting a rainbow and a brookie that morning.



                                                                                                               A Cross Fork Creek rainbow

We met back at the cabin for lunch.  Pat had gotten a few of the rainbows in the lower stretch on dries and had a lot of refusals.  A good morning, overall.  I decided to try that stretch in the afternoon.  Luckily, no one was fishing it when I arrived around 3 pm.  I set up and decided that, with limited time, I wanted to rack up a body count and see how many fish I could catch in an hour and a half.  That meant stowing the dry flies - no apparent hatches going on - and going with "rainbow candy" - a tung bead red San Juan Worm.  It was, quite simply, a slaughter.  I landed / lost / missed enough trout that I actually took the worm off and put on a tandem nymph combo just to see if the action would be as fast.  It wasn't , but I still picked up a few more fish.  Total afternoon tally - landed 13, missed a LOT, broke off one big fish.  All 'bows.  Biggest went 17".

The evening meant an anticipated sulphur hatch on the main stem.  I went along with 2 of the guys from the camp and proceeded to land four browns.  I left early and went back to camp, very satisfied with my day.  Actually got a Kettle Creek Slam - brookie, rainbow, and brown in the same day.  Whhoo Hoo!

I got back to camp, made a fire, and had a couple of my favorite adult beverages - a Stone Ruination double IPA, and a glass of Blanton's bourbon.  Life did not suck that evening.

                                                                                          Camp, Stone Ruination, and Blanton's

PART 2 - More Sharks Teeth

The Shark Tooth hobby has firmly established itself in our routine and is definitely not just a passing fancy.  My wife and I go out every opportunity we have and walk the beach.  We really only find small teeth, but just really enjoy getting out there.  And, we know if we put in our time, eventually we'll find some good teeth.  Here are a few of the recent hauls:

                                                                                                      This was a 2 hour haul. 

 Most of the teeth are small, but the second picture shows a few of the better teeth - a Cow Shark tooth (the one with the multiple teeth on one enamel) and Hemipristis with a broken enamel.  The other piece is a Vertebrae - pretty cool.  Only the 3rd one we've found so far, and the largest so far.

The following batch came from yesterday.  It was a pretty tough day of beachcombing, but once again my wife found all the good stuff.  The larger teeth in the center are all Tiger Shark teeth she found.  The round white pieces on the lower right are pieces of fossilized sand dollars.  The large piece in the center with the lines running through it are a nice piece of sand dollar - the smaller pieces are the individual segments from a larger piece such as this.   I found pretty much nothing.

Finally, we come to the part about friends.  Many blog posts have been written about hte friendships we all develop - usually unexpectedly - via our blogs.  One of the folks I really wanted to meet up with has been Howard Levett - the author of Wind Knots and Tangled Lines.  Well, the stars aligned and we got to share a dinner and a LOT of conversation on Thursday night.  The one thing both of us agreed on was htat we WILL do this again, and it will involve a stream somewhere.  We enjoyed a buffalo steak and a never ending supply of stories throughout the night.  Howard is as genuine a person as I expected him to be, and he compliments my "Life List" of bloggers that I've met perfectly.  That list began with Rebeca Garlock, includes the now retired (?) Kari Murray, Mike Agneta, and Howard.  An "A" list of bloggers if there ever was one!

Beer and Buffalo steaks!

Wow - a real post!  I might have to do this more often!

Shark teeth return, and I actually went fishing one more time

I've been buried with work, but no one wants to read about that nonsense.  (Although any of you who follow the OBN realize that we've both had a pretty busy summer so far)  The lure of the shark teeth is still present in my household, and my wife and i go out whenever we get the chance.  most of the time its just for an hour or 2, but we still go out and comb the nearby beach.

We haven't found any monstrous, cool Megladon teeth, or really many big teeth at all, but we have found a few gems that are small.  In fishing terms, these would be the brookies and cuts from the headwater streams - small, but incredible in their own way. 

The last 2 times out, my wife has found an Angel Shark tooth.  These are very uncommon, and very small.  The larger one shown below is a real beauty, as far as fossilized Angel shark teeth go.  We have found  a total of three of these since February.

                                         Fossilized Angel Shark teeth


The next best thing - also found by my wife - is our best Cow shark tooth to date.  These odd, small teeth are also a relatively rare find.  (Noticing any patterns here - she finds all the good stuff)  We've found 4 pieces of Cow shark tooth since we started, and this si far and away the best one to date.

                                         Fossilized Cow Shark tooth

She also found a pretty nice Hemipristis, or Snaggletooth shark tooth a few weeks ago.  I did find one good thing a couple of weeks ago - our second fossilized porpoise tooth. 

                           More Miocene Era fossils - Porpoise tooth on L, Snaggletooth Shark on R



And, last weekend, I took something she found a few months ago down to Calvert Marine Museum to see if they know what it was.  One of the naturalists got all excited when he saw it and told me it was a fossilized Parrotfish tooth.  Hmmm  not what I would have thought, but he was really interested in where and when we found it . Said it was one of the few he had ever seen.

                                                                                            A parrotfish tooth fossil

You never know what you might find laying in the sand.  This beach bum thing is kind of cool.

I DID go trout fishing - with a fly rod, no less!!! - in PA, and had a great day in Kettle Ck and Cross Fork Ck, but that will have to waiti until my next post - I don't want to tell ALL my stories on one post!

Another One Bites the Dust - 2 new states in 2 months!

Last week I needed to go to Missouri for meetings.  When I checked the flights into my destination a few weeks before, the prices were astronomical.  I don't care if it's company money or my money - I HATE getting fleeced by airlines.  So , I looked at a few alternatives.  One of the alternatives was Little Rock.  Hmmm - I could stop and visit with an old friend who just happens to be a potential OEM vendor for us.

Who just happens to be a fly fishing fanatic.

Who just happens to have a family place on the Little Red River.

That, my friends, is how plans are born!  And this one came off without a hitch.

I met James at our pre-arranged spot in Heber Springs and we were quickly off on my first ever Arkansas fishing adventure.  This trip, unlike any other I can recall, was a TRUE joy - I used James' rods / reels (he's a fellow Winston devotee), used his flies (ALWAYS defer to local knowledge), went in his boat, and, best of all, we wear the same size waders and wading shoes, so I used those as well.  It would be really easy to get used to this kind of treatment, but I really don't expect it to happen again very often in the foreseeable future.  However, if there are any volunteers out there, feel free to email me!

                                                         The Little Red River

We launched his "White River Jonboat" - not sure if that is a recognized boat style or just a local term - and started down the Little Red River, in the tailwaters of Greer's Ferry Lake.  There was virtually no water being generated so it was very low and clear.  It also didn't take long before I started seeing fish, either spooking in front of the boat or rising up ahead.  The river is really a series of long, deep pools connected by shallow rocky stretches.  This river is (was) home to the former world record brown trout, a 40 pound, 4 ounce behemoth landed in 1992 by Rip Collins.  The pools are deep (20'?) and there is a LOT of downed timber in water - perfect habitat for giant brown trout.  There are a ton of rainbow trout in these waters, too - nice snacks for the big browns.

Even though it was mid-afternoon under a clear blue sky and bright sun, there were periodic rises along the river.  We saw a few caddis flitting about but attributed most of the surface activity to midges.  With little current, we opted to fish the deep pools.

This brought another new technique to my repertoire - sinking flylines.  In all the years  I've flyfished, I have NEVER fished with full sinking lines.  I have done very little stillwater flyfishing - the places most sinking line fishing is done - and when I have fished stillwaters, Intermediate sink lines sufficed.  I've fished sink tip lines in heavy currents for trout, and thrown ridiculously heavy sink tips for stripers along the Massachusetts coast, but never full sink lines.

                                                          A small-ish rainbow

Since I haven't fly fished for over a year for anything , picking up a full sink line was not the ideal way to start, unless you want to look stupid.   Which I did in dramatic fashion.  After working the kinks out of the casting stroke and getting used to the line, the casts were pretty easy.  And, after a few pools, we got dialed into a pattern with a moderate retrieve of a local version of an Olive Wooly Bugger about 10' - 12' down.  It resulted in nearly a fish (or at least a hit) every cast.  Cookie cutter rainbows - all between 12" - 15".  Some stockies, a few wild fish, and some that James ID'd as McCloud strain - beautiful, bright stripes on their sides.  All in all, I believe I landed about 45 rainbows that afternoon.  There were times that I would hook a fish every cast for maybe 20 minutes.  Oh yeah - got 1 little wild brown while nymphing, too.

The fisheries in northern Arkansas may not be the first words out of every fly fisherman's mouth when asked to name the best fisheries in North America, but they certainly ought to be on everyone's short list.  They are certainly different - bait fishermen and lure slingers float alongside the fly fisherman, and many trout become dinner.  But the shear quantity and size of the fish in these waters is truly astounding.   When the power generating turbines are running and the river rises, the big fish from these deep holes move up to feed.  And, of course, the brown trout spawn in November, which I understand offers combat fishing for giant fish at it's finest.  James' best brown to date is a fish he got last year that he estimated at 23-24 pounds.  He has taken numerous 10-15 pounders.  Somehow I see a trip to Little Rock in my future, maybe in the mid-November timeframe ...

                                                 Tippet the Fishing Dog.  Note the clear water

The Shark Tooth Gods Smiled ...

Well, at least they smiled on my wife! We went back to a local nature park that allows beach access and started walking. On the way to the beach, we passed a large tidal pool and were amazed at the number of crabs we saw cruising around in the pool. Welcome to Maryland! Once we got to the beach, we started our hunt. I wear my trusty Muck Boots and try to walk along the "debris line". This in the edge where the shells / junk / fossils get caught up in the wave action and there is usually a drop of of a few inches to a few feet, A lot of the heavier shells tend to get stuck in this area. I figure that big TEETH will be there, too. It's difficult to see into the water, even if the water is clear. The constant wave action means you just have to peer in between the small waves. It's a great plan on paper, but, at least for me, it doesn't usually pan out.

Upper L - Sand Tiger Shark. 3 Hemipristis. 5 Tiger Shark. Lower row - Mako Shark. All 13 Million year old Miocene Era fossils

My wife decided she would just walk along the high tide mark and look for stuff laying on the beach. "Hah", I thought. "What a foolish idea. If there were ANY teeth up there, they have long since been picked over by the other folks who have tramped up and down the beach. Silly woman." A few minutes later - "Oooh - look at this one" She reaches down and plucks a mako tooth from the sand. The first one we've ever found. Hmm - obviously a once-ina-lifetime event. "Oooh - this one is bigger." Another nice Mako. Maybe she's on to som ... "Oh my God Joe - look at this one" She reached down and plucks a magnificent (for us) 2" Mako from the sand. A really nice speciman. The kind you hope to find, but rarely do.

I think this is a Hemipristis, or Snaggletooth

Our trophy Mako. OK - her trophy Mako

We ended up the day having found more bigger (again - big for us) teeth than we've ever found before. [Actually, we ended the day with my wife finding more than we usually do. I didn't add very much to the total haul, but I did a great job of carrying the jackets in my backpack, and occasionally getting water out] We tallied 6 Makos, 5 Tigers, a couple of Sand Tigers, a bunch of misc. teeth, some cool sea glass, a few nice Ray skutes, and some very nice coral. On the way out we stopped by the tidal pool and I scooped out a crab. Tried his damnedest to pinch me, much to my wife's pleasure. Put him back after taking his picture.

Another Fishing post - will they never end??

I just got to experience my first "Opening Day" in my new state, and I have to say, it IS a rather interesting event. No, not the home opener for the Nats or Orioles (although the Nats do have the best record in the National League at the moment). Not even the Opening Day of Trout, an elbow-to-elbow event held annually in my original home state of PA. Nope - it was my first "Opening Day of Trophy Rockfish" season, and I was there with every other boat in the state that could float. In the Spring, the big female striped bass - or rockfish, as they are known locally - move into the Chesapakes Bay to spawn. The season started this year on April 21, and the limit is 1 per person per day, 28" or bigger. A co-worker had booked the services of Mid River Guide Service - Capt. Bob Wetherald - and had an opening for my son and I. Since Joey's birthday was the 22nd, I thought it would be a great thing to do with him. He had never been on a charter fishing trip, and the Bay can get rough, so I wasn't sure what to expect. (I DO know what to expect from me - I get seasick if it's too choppy) Sat. the 21st the weather called for 5-10 from the S, freshening to 15 from the SW. Thunderstorms building in the afternoon. It certainly wouldn't be glass calm but we were getting an ealry start - meet at the dock at 5 AM - so we could (hopefully) get out and back before I got sick. Capt. Bob had been out the week before - catch and release fishing - and knew exactly where to be to find the fish. We left the dock at Solomons at 5:20 and by 6:15 we had the planer boards out, line set, and were approaching the area holdig the fish.

Joey with his first rockfish

A double At 6:30 we had 3 fish on, fought them to the boat, and put 2 in the fish box. The smaller one was legal but not the size we were looking for. Bob had the fish dialed in, and by 10:30 we were bringing in the lines and stowing the rods for our run back to the dock. All in all we hooked 12 fish, landed 10, and brought 4 back. We could have undoubetly hooked and landed more fish but, as the day progressed, the number of boats increased monumentally. It became a bit of a chore to turn the boat and keep the planer boards out of other folks boards. The timing to return to the dock was perfect. All the ones we kept were between 36" - 39". REALLY nice rockfish. It was my first big rockfish, my son's first rockfish ever, and - I didn't get sick! Neither did Joey. An evening dinner of freshly caught rockfish bites was enjoyed by all!

A nice rockfish for my son

the boat limit

me and Joey with our rockfish

An actual fishing post, and another state falls from my list

Imagine, an actual fishing post on Flowing Waters. Not a shark tooth post, not a cat post. Real, honest to God fishing!

I recently spent a week in Texas and Louisiana working with a few of our reps in the field. During the course of the week in LA, we got a chance to sample some of the fishing the bayou is famous for. And I got to cross off another state from my list.


Dawn on the bayou




Those of you who actually read this mess may be familiar with a list I keep on the right hand side of the Blog. It is my quest to catch a fish in all 50 states. I have been stalled at 39 for a few years. This was my first opportunity to fish in LA, and I took advantage of it.

We spent the night in a fish camp near Cocodrie, south of Houma. We actually weren't too far from the home of Bayou Woman, a blog I still follow - see my list on right. (Great blog, btw) the morning had us launching the boat at daybreak and looking for trout..


Sometimes the birds were diving, other times they were just sitting. But there were fish below them


We caught plenty of these little guys. But catching any fish is good!




I love to fish new ways, and I had never fished with that standard of the trout / redfish world, the popping cork. We fished plastics under popping corks most of the day. The secret, like any tidal area, was catching the tide right, and looking for birds. Some things are universal. We spent the morning going from bird pod to bird pod. Some had a lot of fish, others a few. The trout were generally small - the 12" minimum was reached by maybe one out of 4 or 5 fish. As I found out, it is early for trout. They are moving from their wintering areas to the spawning areas. EVERYONE says come back in May / June / July and limits of big trout are the rule . Today was a good numbers day by my standards, although the locals thought it was pretty slow. I had a great time, we caught fish, and that's all the really mattered.


The grocery / gas / bait store on the canal


All i could think of was "Forrest Gump"


At the end of the morning, we ran across Lake (???) and fished some barrier islands on the outside of the lake with live bait. Here we got a few bigger trout, and one big redfish ate the guides bait. At least I thought it was big. We ended the day with 22 trout and 1 red.


A little better trout


Nice red


A wheelbarrow of fish, destined to become fillets shortly



Beautiful day on the water, took some delicious fillets home, and knocked off another state on my quest. Doesn't get much better than that! And I think I've got another state or 2 up my sleeves this year!

More teeth, and sometimes it's good to be pathetic

We continued on our quest to find more fossilized shark teeth. It's really just a good excuse to get outside and walk along the beaches, but I am really intrigued by this whole fossil thing. We're finding more and more of them, but all the ones we find are very small. My wife and I both keep thinking we'll find some bigger teeth sooner or later, but so far - just little stuff.

The interesting factor with this new "sport" has to do with the tides. The generally accepted principal is to go out on a falling tide, about halfway between high and low tide. We've been finding more, though, on high tides. Go figure. This past time out was a high tide so we had only a small section of beach to explore (the water goes tight against the cliffs at high tide and, unless you wear waders or the water is warm, you are stuck with a small piece of beach)


sand tiger shark (l), snaggletooth shark (r)



Fossilized porpoise tooth



Crushing plates (skutes) from Eagle Ray

All fossils are 13 - 15 million years old


Still, we were finding s lot of fossilized Sand Tiger Shark teeth and Gray Shark teeth on the short stretch of beach. We did, however, find our first fossilized porpoise tooth - pretty cool, actually. A local fossil guy came by and asked how we were doing - we replied with the usual "finding a few small ones". He reached in his pocket and gave my wife a "small" megalodon tooth he had just found about 50' away! "Small" was his verbage - not ours. I would have been doing backflips down the beach if I had this. He showed us pictures of one twice as big he found the week before.


Megalodon tooth. This one is not a "great" find (to the hard core fossil folks) because it is small, the point of the tooth isn't perfect, and a section of the serations on one side are missing. I think it's pretty darn cool, though.



Our best finds of the day


I guess that's what keeps you coming back. And why being a pathetic fossil hunter sometimes pays off.

Spring is Coming, First Fish, and more Teeth

My quest to find all the fossilized shark teeth in the world continues, albeit unsuccessfully.

But - Spring is coming fast. The spring peepers call loudly each night, and the flowering trees are at their peak. When I took the picture of the just-budding magnolia, signs of spring were just emerging. Now, a week and a half later, that same magnolia is losing some of its magnificent flowers. I'll try to get some pics for another post.




I decided that, with the temps this nice, the bass must be moving in our little development pond. Went down there on Sunday and got my butt kicked. One strike (missed it) on a buzzbait. A ton of strikes on my little Cubby jig, but not one hookup, except for this little largemouth. Oh well - first fish of the year.



Our cat (yes, the cat returns) is adapting to the warmer weather by shedding mountains of her "winter coat" on a daily basis.





Finally, I made it over to an undeveloped State Park on the Potomac in Charles Co. It is supposed to have some sharks teeth there (it did). But, a better find occurred - I found out it is home to arguably some of the best shore fishing for largemouth in the Potomac. A bass boat was out a long cast from shore, so I engaged the fishermen in a little chat. Seems the big bay is matted with weeds all summer, but they are just emerging now. The guys were catching 1-2 pound LM pretty frequently on swim jigs and chatterbaits, and said the big fish were just moving in. I figure that, in 2 weeks, the weeds ought to be halfway to the surface, and I'm going to be there. Buzzbaits, Zara Spooks, swim jigs, and spinnerbaits ought to produce. I'm pretty psyched to give it a try - looks really nice.

Oh yeah - found a few teeth, too. Apparently these are from a different formation than the Calvert ones I usually find.

My New Favorite Hobby

What is this?? 3 posts IN THE SAME YEAR?? Yep, I've returned - better than ever! (Well, probably not, but at least I feel like writing again)

As you know, I moved last summer. The fishing opportunities in So. Maryland have been infrequent and, well, uneventful. At least so far. But, while fishing has always been my passion, I really like to do about anything outside around the water. And now I've found my new hobby.

I'm a fossil hunter.

A really bad one. One who doesn't know exactly what it is that I'm looking at on the rare occasion that I find something. But a fossil hunter nonetheless.

So. Maryland is home to a relatively unique feature along much of the Calvert Co shoreline on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay. There are cliffs rising up from the bay. These cliffs are home to a LOT of fossils, which continually wash into the Bay via natural erosion. And once in the Bay, they wash upon the shoreline, or at least in the shell / stone / junk that accumulates in the waves and on the beaches. There are only a few public or quasi-public beach stretches here, but they all have the potential to yield a handful of fossilized sharks teeth on any given afternoon. I had read about the teeth found here, and researched it (we joined the Calvert Marine Museum, which is well worth any one's time if you ever find yourself in Calvert Co)so I decided I would go and try to find my very own shark's teeth. My wife likes to meander around beaches too, so this is a perfect escape for the two of us when we get some time.

Saturday we found we had some time and headed off to Flag Ponds Park. Only a few cars were in the lot. We walked the 1/2 mile trail toward the beach. Along the way we were greeted with lots of evidence of last summer's hurricane.





We checked out the salt pond where we saw the cooter last week. Another one was spotted but this one was very spooky and across the pond. I think we'll see lots of cool stuff in this pond when the water warms a little. Hopefully some diamondback terrapins.



A Northern Red Bellied Cooter across the pond





We made it out to beach and started looking. Neither of us were really sure what we were looking for. The teeth are usually tiny and there are a lot of shell fragments and junk in the wave wash. The experienced fossil hunters use a clam rake with 1/8 - 1/4" mesh screening. We just brought a couple of white plastic colanders. I'd scoop a bunch of junk from the water, swirl it around to get rid of the sand, and check for treasures. Nothing. At least at first. Then, I found my first one. Of course, I only found one more, and my wife found 5, but at least we had broken the ice. We also found some coral and assorted other "stuff"




The real fossil hounds can tell you the species of shark by looking at the tooth. I can't - at least not yet. But I can definitely see myself getting immersed in this hobby, and soon enough I'll know what it is that I'm looking at. I do know that they are from the Miocene Epoch, and are about 17 million years old.





There's something about finding 17 million year old teeth that I find fascinating.

While this is a departure from my usual fishing rambling, I hope you find some degree of interest in it. It still revolves around my love of the Flowing Waters - tides, this time, instead of streams. I still plan to fish as much as I can, and have some trips planned for this summer (Including fishing at least 3 of the states I need to fill my 50 state quest) but I'm sure I'll spend plenty of time looking for teeth this year. Follow along - might be fun!

cooter

Last weekend we were walking through Flag Ponds Nature Park near our home in Maryland. We walked out on a small pier to a brackish water pond and saw a big turtle right next to the pier. I didn't expect to see any turtle, let alone a big one, since it is still February and the water is still cold. But, it has been a very mild winter, so I guess spring was getting a head start for this guy. It was close enough to get a great picture, except for the fact that I didn't have my camera along. I watched it for a while and hit the online turtle ID sites when I got home.

What I saw was a Northern Red Bellied Cooter.

Cool turtle, and the name just cracks me up! Juvenile - yes. Immature - guilty as charged.

At last, the final Alberta hunting post

This has been a record for me. Of course, it's a record in futility, but a record nonetheless. The longest stretch of non-posting in this miserable blog. It's almost enough to make me want to close it up and forget about it altogether.

Except I DON'T forget about it.

It constantly bothers me that I've let the blog lag. So, I'm taking that s a sign that I really should keep doing this, and maybe figure out a plan to devote just a tiny bit of time to it. I don't need much time - it doesn't really have a goal or an end point. Just enough to let the few people who care that I still go out in the outdoors occasionally, and I still enjoy it in my own little way. With that - the end of my hunting story.

There was one thing missing from the end of the story. A simple post about the things that made the trip successful and enjoyable. When I looked back on it, there were 4 components that made this a great trip. (Well, 6 really, but we'll get to that). And here they are, in no particular order;




GOOD GLOVES I took 2 pair on this trip and used them both daily. The lighter pair is from Glacier Glove; the heavier from Manzella. Both performed the job for which they were designed. Since it was never too cold, I used the lighter ones more often than the heavy ones. But, first thing in the morning, the heavier gloves were a godsend. Since the hunting was from a blind, there was plenty of time to remove the gloves if you saw a deer. I know this luxury might not be afforded in all situations, but it was here, and these 2 pair of gloves were terrific.




GREAT BOOTS I have always been a big fan of Muck Boots. I own 4 pair of assorted shoes / ankle highs / lightly insulated, and these Woody Elite (rated for 60 to -40 degrees!). These boots kept my feet comfortably warm - but not too hot the entire trip. I still don't understand how they keep you so comfortable when they don't have a big, heavy, cumbersome pac insert, but they do. All the Muck Boots I own are great, and these might be the best of all. I recent ly read an article about a guy hunting Arctic Wolves in Nunavut and his choice of footwear was Muck Boot's Woody Ex Pro(rated to -60). He loved them, and I couldn't agree more. These boots ROCK!





GREAT AMMO No matter now good everything else is, if your ammo isn't the correct choice for the game you are after, the trip may not have a happy ending. And nothing could be worse than wounding and losing a trophy animal due to inferior ammo. I was shooting my old reliable .280 and the ammo was Hornady's new 139 grain GMX. I've always favored Hornady over all others - although there are many excellent ammo choices available - and once again it did not let me down. I was using a lighter load than most of the people at the camp - a lot of 300 Mag and 7mm Mag guys there. But I promise you - this 139 GMX will perform perfectly on any whitetail or mule deer in the world. My first shot was low in the chest behind the shoulder, and it took out the lower lung and creased the heart and liver. it also exited the deer behind the other shoulder. While mine was a smallish deer for Alberta, it still dressed at 215 pounds. the second sot hit the deer in the spine and did what any bullet will do in that situation - drop the animal in its tracks. Once again, Hornady Ammo proved to be outstanding.




RANGEFINDER This is something that was new to my hunting experience but is something I will not hunt without in the future. As soon as we got good light each morning, I would focus the Nikon Rangefinder in on various trees / bushes in my shooting lanes to know the exact yardage for a shot at those distances. I was completely comfortable with shots out to 250 yards and the rangefinder let me know exactly where that comfort zone ended. It functioned flawlessly in the cold and its compact size made carrying it a breeze.


So - what are the other 2 things that made this a great trip? Simple. First is the Lodge. Ron Nemetchek's lodge is not fancy, but it is imminently comfortable and allows you to recharge after your days hunt. The food was excellent, beds were good, and everything was comfortable. I know a few other s who have hunted this area of northern Alberta and hunted out of wall tents. the accommodations were miserable and cold, and they never felt like they were recharged when they woke up. To a man, the guys who were in the tent wished they had spent a few extra bucks and hunted with Ron or a similar operation. On our hunt, the temps weren't severe but, when they are up there, I can't imagine not being able to get inside a warm camp and comfortable bed after the days hunt.

The last, and most important element of any hunt is the people you hunt with. I would have had a great time on ANY hunt with the guys I hunted with , regardless of the success or failure. Great friends make for great hunts, and miserable people can ruin any hunt.


Now - A quick note about this blog. I actually went out to a local beach today looking for fossils - sharks teeth, bones, ... Found a few uninteresting pieces, but talked to others who found some great sharks teeth and another who found a Mesozoic Pd. whale vertebrae. So, I am pretty sure I will be spending more time outside doing what I love to do, and exploring my new home state of Maryland. I WILL post more frequently (really!) and will revive this floundering blog.

At least I hope I will.