Honk, Honk, Honk is all I heard for three straight weeks in late January as the 2010 waterfowl hunt came to a close. The bad part was that most of the time I was making it up in my head .  The good part was that there were enough Geese around that its all I could think about and wanted to do. Die hard goose hunters are pretty easy going and have great patience. So for me, I struggle sitting in a blind freezing to death with a hope that a flock might come. Like all hunting and fishing its the behind the scenes planning and scouting that assured me that freezing in a blind would be well worth the pain. 5 am my phone was about to go off, but it didn’t matter. I had been up since 4:30 am too excited to sleep. What I’d seen the following evening  boiled my blood with anticapation. I couldn’t wait to meet up with Derek and the rest of the group as we set up the decoys and preped our blinds. By the time we had the spread out we had missed out on two smaller flocks of geese that wanted to be where we were standing. We hurried and drove the trucks back  to the barn and started walking to our field, but before we got half way back we heard a Honk, Honk, Honk. Like clock work a pair of geese came straight to our spread, made one pass and locked up. Luckily Weston had stayed back at the blind and with two shots. Had our first two geese of the morning. By now Derek and I started jogging to get back to the blind, but again we had a group of five locked in and heading right at Weston. SUCKKKK! We though,  as they passed right over Westons head without a shot. We now ran to the blind. Getting there, I asked what happen!  Weston shrugged his shoulders and said “I didn’t want my hunt to be over yet”. Wow! I didn’t think I would ever hear a goose hunter say that. It didn’t really matter, our scouting paid off.  The 200+ geese that ambushed the corn the day before wanted another buffet. Flock after flock gave us a shot and after all was said and done, we had a ditch full of geese and a bunch of happy hunters. This was one of the best days of the 2011 waterfowl season. It was hard not to feel like we were in Cananda or Chesapekee Bay, but being surrounded by the grandour of the Rockies I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else in the world. Its a hunt Derek and I will have a hard time beating. Can’t wait for next year…

Our annual September Lake Powell trip was better then ever. (It even felt more like a vacation than a trip)  The weather for the most part stayed awesome giving us lots of glass for wakeboarding, surfing, sking and of course chasing boils. The main focus of the trip was water sports, since Liz and I had just picked up a Mastercraft X-30 the week before the trip. The ole Glastron was great and treated us well, but lets be real. Its not even close to as nice as an X-30.  With our new baby, I spent most of the off time checking out how things worked on the boat. (like the shower, bilge pump, ballast tanks, speakers, etc…) The rest of the time we hungout on the houseboat playing cards, eating, laying out, watching movies on the cliff walls and catching bass and carp that patrolled the houseboat. One of the best parts of the trip was that we didn’t have to go out side of our cove to find great fishing. The cove we stayed held lots of shad and where you find shad you find ambushing strippers and bass. So every morning and evening we listened for the boils and when we heard them its was an all out stampede to get to them before they stopped. In all it was a little piece of heaven on earth. There are few other things that rival a 7 day vacation to Lake Powell durning the first weekend in September. Its a magical place to say the least.  The pictures will help tell the rest of the story…

So  this past May the weather had a great time toying with us, some days were warm other were as cold as February. With this in mind and a close watch on the weather, I decided to head out to the lake in hopes of a summer like day and a little wakeboarding action. The water was glass, but was still wetsuit weather. (Which we didn’t have)  After a couple of runs we were froze, and just hung out wishing it was the August and 85 degree water. Sometimes its not about the action, but about the experience.  I bought a wetsuit today.

Over the past winter through spring and now into early summer, I have battled an addiction. That addiction was that I was spending countless hours working on and making changes to my motor boat and drift boat. (Known as my twin kids) I am a very hands on/active person so, hanging out in the garage doing little projects on my kids is something that is just as fun as actually using them.  But trust me, I will get them out now that they are starting to be where I want them. So here are a few of the improvements(I hope) I have made to the kids over the past few months.

Corna-(Drift Boat)

1. Raptor Lined the Inside Hull: The reason I decided to raptor line the inside of my boat was simple. I was sick of redoing it yearly, so I decided to choose something that was durable and can be easley cleaned by spraying it out. Plus it is waterproof and will help prolong the life of the boat.  To give it some more character(Like it needed it, with the lime green paint) I added black liner to the top sides and faded it into the white. Making it look tougher or something???

Before

After

2. Repainted the trailer: Having a nice boat, but a rusty trailer is not acceptable in my eyes. So I sanded it down, primed then spayed the whole thing with Rustolem Brand Truck Bed Liner Spray. Found it at Auto Zone for $8 buck a can. It seems to work a lot better then your typical spray paints. I have driven it to the Green a few times and it has held up great.

3. Repainted and varnished: Having a wood drift boat can be a lot of work if you make it. I decided to invest in nicer paint and varnish in hopes that it will last me longer than the cheaper stuff I have been using. It looks great and has been worth the extra cash so far.

Motor Boat

The motor boat has been a huge undertaking. I basically remodel the whole inside as well as added lots of cool little extras to make being out on the lake more enjoyable. 

1. Inside Seating/Upholstery: Out with the old and in with the new roomy wrap around seating.

Before

After

Added Bow Middle Cushion

Wrap Around Seating & Subs

Adjustable Swivel Captions Chair

2. Sound System: Whats better than chillin on a boat with your friends listing to good music? NOTHING. With this in mind I added a few more speakers(4) as well as a couple subs and tweets. 

3. Tower Lights and Speakers

4. Battery Switch: It allows me to change from battery 1, 2, both or off. This is great to charge both batteries at the same time as well as turning it off in-case you leave something on like the radio. Full batteries is the key.

5. Extended Swim Deck-Plywood coated in Raptor Truck Bed Liner

6. Repainted trailer: Same undertaking as the drift boat.

The only consistent part of this winters weather is that it has been inconsistent. Some days feel like spring is just around the corner and others are just plain cold and full of that white stuff that has made Utah famous. As an avid fishermen and snowboarder I am in paradise every winter. This years weather has given a  nice balance of deep pow and thick midge hatches. 

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This past week has been no exception. I found myself on the mtn 4 days this week and with break from the storm and a bright/warmer Saturday found me and my bro on my favorite midging water.  The scenery was beyond amazing with a couple new feet of snow, the river edges looked untouched and pure. The cherry on top was the steam that rose from the water engulfing us into the river. At times it was so thick that I would loss sight of my tiny midges and hope to hear a slurp as they pasted to the side of me. (That’s actually how I caught my first fish of the day) The hatch was on the whole time we were there (9am-3pm) giving us constant action on top.  At times it would shut off for a few mins, but out of nowhere  it would start back up relveling 50 or more noses breaking through the film. Like most fishing tiny midges with light tippets we quick released more fish than we could count, but were able the talk a few of them to trying our net.  It was great bro time and nice to be out of the inversion and on a stream getting a tan between missed fish and re-tying outfits.

Side Tip: I did learn something this trip. I learned that those that can actually see there midges floating on the surface hook up with twice as many fish as those that fish blindly to a certain area they think there flies are. Being able to see your flies is crucial! If you can’t change until you can. Also pin point casting is so important as most fish won’t move far in the winter to eat a small midge.

This years waterfowl hunt flew by like a Teal through the decoys.  I was only able to get out a handful of times before it was to late.  This season started out awesome with a great opener at FB and finished off with a crazy goose hunt in my backyard. 

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 Like the opener, I spent the last days of the hunt with my hunting buddy Brandon Carter,  his dad (Bob) and friend Rob.  I had gotten word from my little brother that geese had been flying into our families fields every morning, so I had to set something up before we missed our window. The plan was set and at 6:30 the following morning found us out in the freezing morning air setting up goose decoys and fixing our blinds.  The morning didn’t go exactly as planned, we hoped the at the geese would start flying in around 8 am, but by 9 am we had only been teased by 3 loners who didn’t give use the time of day. As the sun came out and the cold January breeze tried to push us out of our blinds and back to our warm trucks, we heard a faint honk that all waterfowlers know well. (And can’t get out of there heads)  Game on I though! For the next 2 hours we were graced by flocks of honkers looking over our spread, giving us the wing and a few locking up.  We were rewarded, but the real measure of success was the experiences that we will each take away and learn from this outing.  I know in the future I will sit back with my hunting buddies and recount this experience and laugh at the birds that turned away and the shots that were missed. Not to mention the ghost geese that come out of the fog when you least expect them. It was a crazy end to a great beginning!

Bling Bling Bling  

Spending time in the marsh has become tradition with my brothers. Every year we try and get out together to harvest some birds and refill our fly tying feathers. On this morning we didn’t have the best of luck as far as bagging a limit of ducks, in fact we shot almost two boxes of shells and only had one duck to show for it. Pretty crappy shooting by me! But it was great to be out and see the birds work the only open water in the area.

Its hard to beat a morning with my brothers in the marsh.

Since we had a few hours to burn we decided to hit the river for some winter trout. The fishing was constant with deep nymphs on almost ever drop off we targeted.  The midges didn’t show like we hoped, but it ended up being awesome anyway.

Life flight Heli stopped by to see how the fishing was…or maybe…to help out with the narly wreck that stopped traffic for an hour…pretty crazy stuff to have a front row seat at.

It was neat to see the differences in the two species…Especially in the colorations and spots. This was the first of a few doubles.