April Newsletter
Hey Everyone,
How is everyone doing? We are all fine here. I have been busy fishing for both spring salmon and keeper sturgeon and it has been awesome. We limited the boat yesterday for salmon and had 3 guys that had never caught a salmon before. They were stoked. It is always exciting for me to see the looks and actions of a first timer getting their first fish or game animal. It is the rewarding part of my job that just keeps me going. I think that everyone needs to reflect every now and then about your first fish that you landed or the first big game animal you shot. Some of you have heard my story of my first deer I ever shot. Growing up me dad never spent time with us teaching my brother and I about hunting or fishing so we learned it on our own. I was a hunting/fishing nut from an early age. I never got to do it much until I was about 12 years old where I could start getting out on my own a little. Anyway, I didn’t know anything about a buck or a doe or a season or a caliber you were supposed to use. I knew nothing except I loved going shooting with my .22 that I bought when I was about 10. Well, we moved to a little town called Ethel WA. When dad backed the U-Haul in the driveway, we saw 5 deer in the back yard. I went nuts. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, deer right in my yard. This was a dream come true. Did you ever see the movie “Where the Red Fern Grows”? That was me. I couldn’t stop thinking about those deer. Are there more? Will I ever see them again? Does that happen a lot to just have deer come in your yard? Well, one day I was out shooting my .22 single shot out in the woods behind our house and I could not believe what I was seeing. Three deer were standing not 30 feet from me. You have been there you know how hard my heart was pounding. I was shaking so bad that I thought there was something wrong with me. I had never heard of buck fever. I had never heard about a buck. But, there were deer right in front of me and I was loving it. I had to shoot one. I aimed my .22 at the head of one and there was no way to keep that gun steady. I was shaking uncontrollable. I held it as steady as I could and shot. Two of the deer ran off but one stayed there. I am sure just laughing at me but for whatever reason that one deer stayed. I loaded another shell, took aim and shot again. The deer just starred at me. Feeling like I was going to loose a chance of a lifetime, I loaded another shell as fast as I could, aimed and shot again. Again I missed. Did I tell you this is about 30 feet away? I had just been shooting fir cones off the trees at three times the distance and hardly ever miss but I couldn’t hit this deer at 30 feet. I loaded again and missed again. I did this eight times. Finally, the ninth shot I hit the deer and it dropped like a rock. I did it. I shot my first deer. I was jumping up and down. I was yelling and laughing. I had shot a deer. I could have died right there and been happy. I started gutting this trophy out and I am sure that was a site. I had never seen so much blood in my life and boy did that gut stink when my knife cut it wide open. I got it as cleaned out as I thought it should be and started dragging it home. I was about a half mile from our house so I figured it would be best to drag it to the road then to the house. I wouldn’t have to go through all the woods this way. I started dragging that deer and it sure got heavy but I kept going. I drug it right down Larmon road to my house. I am sure cars had to of went by and seen what I was doing but no one stopped and my chest was stuck out as wide as a 12 year old boys chest could stick out. I finally made it to our driveway and ran in the house yelling for my dad to come out and see what I did. Hey dad I shot a deer and at that time all deer hunting education was brought out. “You what?” Dad had managed to pop my whole bubble. I found out there was a season in which you had to hunt in. I found out there that bucks are boy deer with horns and does are the girls. I shot a girl deer. I found out there are guns you can use and guns you can’t use while hunting deer. A .22 is one you can’t use. There was nothing I did right in that hunt. But, one thing else I found out. Venison is good stuff. I did it wrong but I will never forget that first deer. After that I hunted every chance I had. A good friend of mine named Don and I spent every bit of time we had hunting together. My grandpa got wind of what I did and sent me out a 30-40 Krag and that was my first hunting rifle. The first doesn’t have to be the biggest to be your best. While remembering your first hunting trip or fishing trip, think of a kid around you that might need some a chance at his/her first. It is rewarding.
Let’s talk some fishing. Keeper sturgeon is red hot right now. Sunday we were done by 9:00am. I had a group that had to catch a plane so we had to be off the water by noon. It never fails. You tell me we have to be off the water at a certain time and we will hook an oversize sturgeon 10 minutes before we have to leave every time and we did just that. That poor guy worked so hard on that fish to get it up as fast as he could and he did it. We pulled anchor and I cleaned fish as fast as I could. They made it okay and that was a great day. I have had something happen that I can’t remember when it last happened. I have had two cancellations for this week. This is a prime time keeper sturgeon fishing folks. I could have booked these days 25 times but life happens sometimes. If you can go on a short notice it is open for full boats both the 17th and 18th of this week. Give us a call and we will get you in for those dates.
Spring salmon fishing is red hot also. We are doing great. I was told by a biologist to not plan on fishing past the 20 of April. He thought the quota would be reached. I have not heard anything yet so if you want to book a spring salmon trip I have the 21 and the 23 open. You have to understand that the F&G can close it at any time so we may not be able to fish but it is worth getting on the books just in case. We are getting limits just about every day and everyday it keeps getting better.
Remember May 16th we will start fishing for the trophy sturgeon. I have a few dates left in May and some in June. Give us a call if you want a lot of fun and some bragging rights. The first of July we will be doing some combo sturgeon and salmon trips with some steelhead being caught. We will do that through mid July then I am heading over to Wyoming to do some carpet work in the bunkhouse.
Remember if you didn’t get your hunting draws you were hoping to get, you can still hunt. I will have antelope tags available so give us a call on that if you are interested.
Thanks and keep safe in the outdoors. Don’t forget to take a kid fishing or hunting with you.