Cole's First Grouse

Notice the size of the 12 gauge compared to Cole in this picture!

Cole is suffering! He is 8 and just big enough to not be able to do anything his older brothers get to; specifically hunt. When we moved here to Oregon, he became eligible for the mentor program. This means with a hunter's safety he can shoot my deer, elk, turkey, bear, cougar, etc. It's a good program allowing kids to become more involved at an earlier age.

Unfortunately he is still too small to hold a gun by himself. He has shot the single shot 20 gauge quite a few times and is better, but it is still too long. He has wanted to shoot a grouse for a very long time and we just haven't been able to get him on one. He missed some ducks the other day, shooting over their heads as they sat on the water. He was really excited to try and I really wished he would have killed one, but that's hunting!

Last weekend grandpa Isaacson and uncle Seth took Tyler, Corey, and Cole down to Troy, Oregon, to fish for the fall run steelhead. Tyler finally hooked a 26 incher losing it right at the bank. On the way home some grouse were in the middle of the road, so they scared them up into the surrounding trees and grandpa held the gun and took the kick of Seth's BPS with goose loads. The ruffed grouse didn't stand a chance! Cole thought they'd missed because all he saw fall was the branch! Grandpa told him to go pick up his grouse and Cole couldn't believe it! Seth said he had the most pleased, satisfied-with-himself look of any little kid he as ever seen! Cole is an official hunter now and can't wait to be big enough to shoot properly! I think we might have another addict in the family!

Wyoming Deer Season 2010

This is Corey's first year of hunting, and with us moving to Oregon at the end of the summer, we had to travel back to Wyoming so he wouldn't miss his chance to hunt deer at the age of 12. For me, hunting season was the long awaited "coming of age" thing I waited for. Driving was exciting, being 21 really didn't hold anything special for me since I don't drink, and so my whole life has been focused on the number 12! Anyway, it wasn't an easy trip to plan, but with the help of Grandpa Isaacson, we made it work.

We left La Grande around 4 AM with a goal of making Kemmerer, Wyoming, before evening. Our plan was to hunt Tyler's antelope that afternoon, and then meet my brother Adam, who did all our scouting for us this year, as well as packed a ton of meat, let others shoot before him, and basically acted as guide to his older brother and nephews, this weekend.

Antelope doe tags haven't ever been too difficult to fill. But this year all the does were on the wrong side of the road, or all the antelope we saw were bucks! The country around Kemmerer rolls, it doesn't break. And the sage brush is tall, so it makes for difficult stalking and shooting, especially from the prone position. We had wind gusts of 40 miles an hour that day, with a constant wind speed of over 10 miles an hour. There were thunderstorms moving through and this made for difficult hunting.

Tyler's first attempt was spoiled by sagebrush deflecting his bullet. It was an easy 300 yard shot, but the bullet struck way low. We moved on and finally found this doe with a smallish buck and her fawn. Tyler hit sage brush again, but recovered with a good shot behind the shoulder when she stopped at 200 yards. We hunting until almost dark without getting another shot. We even hunted the private property Adam shot three antelope in 10 minutes on 4 years ago but only saw one buck.

We needed to be to our meeting spot before dark to find Adam, set up camp, and get ready for the deer opener the following day. So we drove off with one antelope tag unfilled.

We got up at 2:45 AM the next morning and drove to the trail head (we camped about 8 miles down the road in grandpa's 12 x 14 wall tent) and raced some other hunters on horses up the trail. We won the race, topping out before they did, and thankfully they headed off to other country. We climbed to the top of the 10,000 foot peak and waited for daylight. The wind was really cold and it seemed like the darkness would never give way to the morning...........but finally it was light enough to see. Adam spotted three bucks right away; one I could tell was a shooter. We worked our way quickly across the ridge back, covering the .5 mile in a short time. I spotted 5 more deer on a distant peak on our ridge, but we never did get a good enough look at them to see anything about them. Adam saw a group of 5 bucks a few weeks before in that area and we kind of figured it could have been them.

We peaked over the ridge top right above the three bucks. The front one was the biggest, but the back buck was good too, so we followed Adam advice and Tyler and Corey got set up to shoot one each. Corey shot first and hit low, Tyler shot his first shot, but a little far back, Corey shot again and hit his buck. WWIII, minus the nukes, opened up after that as we tried anchoring the wounded deer.
Tyler and Corey's bucks died within 150 yards of each other. Tyler had shot the bigger buck in the lead, and Corey's was a year younger, but almost the same size as Tyler's; he had shot the back buck.
We took pictures, gutted, skinned, caped, and packed Corey's buck back to the truck (a 3 mile one way pack). Grandpa was really excited to see us! We decided he would take Tyler, Corey, and Jantzen antelope hunting so Tyler could fill his last tag, while Adam and I went back to get Tyler's deer. We covered the 6 miles in under 2 hours.
I was pretty dead that night having only slept 12 hours in 3 days, and packed out the two deer with Adam. So I slept through the next morning hunt. We broke camp and met Adam at his house around supper time.

He and I got up at 2:45 AM again, Friday morning, and headed for one of my favorite places. Two hunters beat us up the trail, we were a half an hour behind them, and they ended up shooting a nice 4 point that morning. Adam spotted 3 bucks feeding a mile and a half across some huge country. We spent the rest of the day getting to the bucks, which were actually closer to the truck. At dusk we snuck across a huge open hillside across ravines, washes, and scree slopes, all the while staying quiet on the best game trail I've ever walked. We snuck right in on the bucks and jumped them.

When they came out at 200 yards I shot mine. He rolled back down the hill and out of sight. Adam decided to pass on the smaller buck. As I was shouldering my pack, Adam looked up to see a monster buck headed over the ridge top at 350 yards. Because he was holding both rifles he didn't get a shot. He did, however, climb the rest of the way up the basin and try to see if the buck had maybe slowed down on the other side, but it hadn't.

We took care of the buck, each took half, and I got the head, and we headed for the truck, 3 miles distant. The night was moonless, at least at that point, so we had a hard time cutting across country and finding the game trail we used to get in there. We were able to work together, remembering land marks, bushes, rocks/rims, to finally find it. Once on the trail we cruised on out of there. I lost the pack trail a few times on the way down, but we finally made the main trail around 10:30 pm. We were to the truck by 11:30 and home, to Adam's house just after midnight. We took care of the deer and made it to bed just after 1 AM.

It was a LONG day; in both miles and hours. We walked around 15 miles in rough, broken, rimmy country with heavy packs and sore feet. We had few trails to follow, cutting across country most of the day. Amazingly we made really good time coming out. It could have been the pain that drove us along, but I think it was more just good company! I love to hunt with my little brother! The GPS said we were moving at around 3 miles an hour on our way out, once we hit the main trail for the last 1.5 miles to the truck. The next day we cut a cord of wood for Adam and his family and enjoyed good food (Jared says aunt Emily is the best cook EVER), a movie, and had a nice visit with Adam's family. We got up fairly early the next day and made it home in time for me to make my graveyard shift.

Opening Day of Grouse Season 2010

Today was the long awaited day when the bird seasons of 2010 began. I got up at 4 PM yesterday, after my graveyard shift and didn't sleep until noon today. I had to pull over and sleep while the kids explored an old homestead and orchard with Jesse, our Shorthair pup. Since we moved back to Oregon we have been looking forward to hunting grouse, huns, quail, pheasants, chuckars, and the waterfowl.

Today we took our new pup, Jesse, a German Shorthair Pointer, out for his first taste of hunting. Since he doesn't even know his name yet, we just got him 5 days ago, this was just a "get your feet wet" type of a day.

We picked huckleberries on Monday night and I took the .22 and 20 gauge shotgun to see how he would do around gun shots. Needless to say he was in good shape.

The area we headed to is an old logging road in the bottom of a very thick, brushy draw, with a stream in the middle of it all. Lots of grouse like to live and die there . Unfortunately someone was hunting it when we got there, so we headed high, looking for Blues. Instead we found some Ruffed Grouse.

It rained all day and so it was pretty wet out there. All the boys wanted to go, so we headed out this morning with a gun for everyone but me--I was supervisor/safety dude. We hiked a mile or two and had just looked over a small part of the earth that didn't fall when Adam partook of the fruit, and were headed back. We'd eaten fresh huckleberries and enjoyed the walk through the trees and meadows, but hadn't seen any grouse yet. Just off the summit of the ridge, I spotted an adult grouse walk across the trail in front of Corey and Jesse. Corey and Tyler put shells in and snuck up to where the grouse had disappeared into the thick trees. Corey spotted his immediately and shot through an alder branch to get his. Tyler crawled back into the thick trees and brush and spotted the other, taking off its head with my old 870 Wingmaster with the 30", full choked barrel. Unfortunately we didn't see anymore, but Cole and Jared and I are headed out again soon so they can get some too.

I'll post this now, but I'll edit it after getting some sleep. I'm going on 31 hours right now without sleep, so I'm a little off on my thought processes.

Salmon Fishing the Imnaha River

Seth's 34 inch, 15-20 pound, chinook, hen salmon

Seth got home from work around midnight. I was up waiting for him. We got our gear together and left town by 2 a.m. We got to the river around 4:30, fishing below the town of Imnaha for starters. We caught NOTHING, NADA, ZILCH, ZERO, well that isn't completely true. Seth landed a 10 inch smolt. So, around noon we headed up river, looking for good spots above town. We finally found some good water that was free and started fishing. I took off up river, exploring, leaving Seth to fish the whole he had spotted a salmon in. About an hour later he came to find me, packing a 34 inch hen. She was HUGE. Her own body weight pulled her gills away from her body, detaching her lower jaw from her body.

We headed back down to the gravel bar he had caught her on and I hooked up after 10 minutes of fishing. It was a good fish, not huge, but strong. I got it to the bank, almost to where we could get to it when two of my hooks straightened; I lost it!

Next cast I hooked a really big fish. I fought it hard below me, but wasn't gaining much. The hook pulled free as it tore line downriver. It had straightened all three of my hooks! Seth hooked one more before we left. It was a beautiful day! Lots of fun, with 4 fish hooked, one landed. I would have liked to have landed at least one of mine, but I guess I will just have to live with the rejection!

Losing my first salmon!

Losing my Second Salmon

Yellowstone with Family

We headed to Yellowstone this weekend with my in-laws (mom, dad, and brother Kyle and his family). The weather wasn't great, but we had a nice time. We left Afton around 5:30 am arriving at Jackson Lake (our first stop) to fish around 7:30 am. The water was calm and the fish a little sluggish, but we did okay despite the cold water temperatures.

I took the 4 boys to the lake fishing on Friday morning to "try it out" and we did well. But the fish were really sluggish, hitting only the slowest moving spoons and lures. We ended up getting two big suckers, so took them home, filleted them out and made some cut bait out of them for fishing with the in-laws.

Jared caught the first fish, a nice 18 inch mack, on a red and white kamlooper. Bruce, my father-in-law, thought he had a snag; macks don't go too crazy when hooked. Jared landed it triumphantly, yelling across the lake how he had landed his first mack ever and it was HUGE!

Cole was the hero of the day, hooking the most but not personally landing any of them. He let his brothers, sister, and cousin reel in all his fish. He was using sucker meat on the bottom and almost lost his steelhead rod to a 19 inch mack. He caught the end of rod as it headed out to sea. Corey landed that one; his first mack ever.

Abbie was the next recipient of kindness from him, landing another mack of around 20 inches. It snagged her up on the bottom and I had to pull it loose; thank goodness we had 12 pound test on! When it came loose Abbie fought it in the rest of the way. This was her first mack ever also.

The last mack of the day Tyler got to reel in. Cole was slowly reeling in his bait when the 23 inch mack hit hard. He handed Tyler the rod and let him land it. What a great kid! I hooked a few fish that others landed as well (a cutthroat, brown, and a mack that got away). It was a good start to a great day.

While we were fishing a pair of Canadian geese came into the bay and landed across from us. They were up on the bank for a 15-20 minutes when they noisily flew a short distance back into the water. A red fox came out of the trees and reduced their little of family by a few heads. We watched him kill and eat all the goslings. It was pretty cool. I liked what my father-in-law said, "if I had a .22 I'd save the rest of them." But in a National Park that would be slightly frowned upon.

We left the lake around 10:30 am. After getting into the Rockafeller Parkway I spotted a grizzly just off and above the road. It was digging up the mountainside less than one hundred yards off the road. A lady from Teton County pulled up in her van, along with a 1,000 other park visitors, and got out her 500 mm lens. I commented to her she didn't need to show up my wimpy 17-85 mm lens like that, and she offered me to use her lens! So, I hooked my cannon body to her enormous lens and took some SWEET pictures of the bear.

We hit West Thumb geyser basin next and had a freezing cold walk near the lake (still iced over by the way).

My father and Mother-in-law enjoying the spring weather on Yellowstone Lake near Big Cone geyser, just up the lake from Fishing Cone geyser.

Kyle and Amy's Family freezing together on Yellowstone Lake. Clay, the baby, was a lot of fun. He is quite the character. He and I get along quite well!

My family with some of Kyle and Amy's kids mixed in at Yellowstone Lake.

A geyser in West Thumb Basin. It took this picture because of the flat, smooth stones in the pool in front of the geyser's vent.

Lyndie practicing her alphabet on one of the signs. She actually knew which were "O's". Jared has been working on his alphabet a lot lately and Lyndie's favorite song to sing is the alphabet song; her version can be quite entertaining! So it was cool to see her recognize some of the letters she has been learning with her older brother.

After West Thumb we headed off to Whiskey flat picnic area along the Firehole River for lunch. It sits just north of the lower geyser basin. We had hotdogs and brauts with potato salad, potato chips, cold fried chicken, smoked pork ribs, a lots of junk food. We needed 1,000 gallons of hot chocolate, but we were out of mix, so we suffered in the cold. After lunch we made out way up river to Black Sand Basin and then on to the upper geyser basin to see Old Faithful erupt.

It was a great day/time to be in the upper geyser basin as Old Faithful, Grand, Riverside, and Castle geysers all erupted within a few hours of each other. I saw all but Grand (The one I've most wanted to see) enjoying the rainbow at Riverside geyser when ever the sun came out, and the enormous amount of water spilling over the huge geyserite cone of Castle.

We saw lots of elk, antelope, deer, a few buffalo and lots of people. The weather wasn't great, but I love the unpredictable spring of the Rocky Mountains. We ate a cold dinner of fried chicken, rolls, chocolate, potato chips, and smoked pork ribs in the Old Faithful parking lot before heading home. We got back to Afton around 1:30 am and slept quite soundly, actually. I can't imagine why!

Riverside Geyser, with the rainbow it is so well known for, erupting.

Morning Glory Pool, Upper Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park

Lower End of Upper Geyser Basin at Dusk, just above Morning Glory Pool. This picture was taken off the bridge that crosses the Firehole River just below Riverside Geyser.

Castle Geyser in the Upper Geyser Basin

Lyndie noticed she had a shadow while we were walking back up to Old Faithful Inn that evening. The sun was at a really low angle in the sky, so her shadow was 15 or 20 feet long. She commented to Kim how big she was. It took us a minute to figure out what she was saying and then realized it was her shadow she had noticed. I took this video of her just after that, playing with her shadow.

Spring Cleaning

Today I raked our yard, front and back, with my brothers WAY cool Husqvarna tractor and "attachable farm implements". The spring tooth pulls the dead duff from the lawn, and the "sweeper" picks it up. I did my yard, the front and back yard of one neighbor, and the front yard of another in the time it would have taken me to do just my front yard.

My three youngest boys went out and helped to bag the grass we collected. They play/work hard, and have fun doing it. I sure enjoyed watching them and helping out.

Yes mom, they are in their socks! We know how to get things get done around here!

Fly Fishing The South Fork

Tyler, Corey and I went on a fly fishing trip this last Saturday to the south fork Snake River, below Palisades Dam. We started fishing at 9 am and got back to the Explorer at 9:30 pm. It was a LONG day, but fun.

Corey just started fly fishing this last year. He got a rod, reel, etc., for his birthday this last February. I wanted to get him out to fish with it and christen the rod properly, with lots of action. He used it a month ago and hooked a few nice trout, but never did land them. So I hoped the fabled south fork would be just the ticket.

The south fork can be an amazing river to fish. I have stood in one place for over an hour, landing white fish on every cast. I could literally see over a hundred fish feeding in the riffle at my feet. I've had other amazing days on the river catching trout by the arm loads, and I have friends that have experienced days that put mine to shame. I wanted my kids to experience that kind of success with their fly rods, and so we planned the trip.

The day was beautiful, sunny and then overcast, calm, then a light wind that built to a gusty breeze, some snow fell, then a little rain. The river was low and clear, perfect water conditions for fly fishing. You just couldn't ask for a more beautiful spring day to fish. It's just too bad the fish didn't realize it was supposed to be a magical day! We did okay, catching quite a few fish, but it wasn't a numbers day, it WAS a white fish day, to say the least. We found some trout, but everyone we talked to (drifting by in boats) had a slow day as well. Lots of white fish, but the trout weren't to be found!

Corey hooked quite a few fish nymphing with his new rod, but never did land one. It is an eagle claw, $20 Wal-mart rod. Not your best equipment for sure. I figured it would be a good starter rod, but it's action is slow and the rod is fairly unforgiving for a young angler; it actually fished pretty good for me. I traded rods with him in the afternoon and he immediately cast better and hooked two fish, landing both. One was a cutthroat trout of around 14-15 inches, the other a nice white fish. The higher end rods are much more forgiving for young fly fisherman that don't have a great casting stroke yet.

Corey's 1st Nymphed Trout

Around 7 pm we started back for the car, hoping to hit the better holes on the way back and maybe pick up a few more fish. I cut across the dry beds of the river checking out the side channels that will be full in a few weeks when they start to release water for irrigation in the Idaho potato fields. I was just wanting to see what was in them, and I found a small gold mine; spawning fish.

We worked them for an hour, hooking 3 or so and then putting them "down". The red they made was over 8 feet long and a few of the fish were quite respectable. It was a blast watching my kids sneak in on them, cast a small glo-bug into the mass of bodies and hook up!

We never did land one, and when the action died we followed the channel out to the main fork, finding other pods of fish. Tyler worked an egg expertly, especially for a 13 year old kid, with a hand twist retrieve, while I watched from the cut bank above, calling out fish locations to him and his brother. Tyler hooked two bruisers that pulled free after a short fight. The commotion spooked the small pod of fish pretty good, so we moved on down the channel where I found a large pod of trout and white fish. They were hanging out in deeper part of the channel, 100 yards from the main flow of the Snake. The kids pestered them until almost dark with out hooking up. I finally joined the circus, hooking 4 fish in around 15 minutes, from that pod. They took the egg so gently, you really had to be on your toes and watch the line to "see" the take.

Corey landed the first fish for me, a 15 inch cutthroat. Then Tyler did battle with a 20 inch brown that I hooked. It took him a few minutes to land it; lots of big runs and some good head shaking. I hooked two more cutts (one might have been a hybrid cutbow) that Corey landed. We got home at around 11 pm and pigged out on hamburgers with lots of jalapenos and fried onions, and then potato and pasta salads on the side. We went straight to bed after our midnight snack! It was a great day!

This is Corey's attempt at the spawners.

After losing his fly, Corey watched while Tyler gave it a go. No one landed one, but it was fun to watch them sneak in, cast, blunder, cast again, hook-up, lose the fish and then look at me like I was supposed to fix things!