Rio Grand Duck Hunt - Jan 09

On closing weekend of the '08-'09 duck season, my friends Jared, Abe and I went out for one last hunt on the Rio Grande. We'd been talking for a long time about float hunting the river in a small boat. Jared has a little boat so we decided we should just go for it.

Jared and I drove up river and floated down while Abe sat in some brush on an island down river with his dog spike.

We built a blind on the front of the boat to break up our outline. Worked decent, but it needed to be taller. The other problem we ran into was shallow water. His boat didn't draft much water at all but it would still run aground pretty often. It definitely made the trip longer and more labor intensive. We floated several miles. I bet we pushed the boat at least a mile of that. This ruined a few shooting opportunities because we had to get out and push several times when we were almost close enough to shoot. The ducks would spot our movement and flush out of range.

Later in the day, near dark, we went to a spot and stalk method like we normally use. We spotted a couple ducks down river so Jared got out and walked up shore. He took my single shot 10ga. He snuck up on the ducks and they flushed perfectly. He dropped a nice hen mallard. That was the last time that shotgun was fired before I oiled it up and packed in away during our time in Hawaii. Might be a few years before its fired again. I'm glad it retired on a good note. Good shot Jared!

Here's the view from our boat. It was a beautiful day and we had a blast. Any day outdoors is a good day.

Dalhart Pheasant Hunt - Dec 07

In 2007 my dad and I got an invitation to hunt Pheasant in Dalhart TX. The panhandle of Texas offers some of the best pheasant hunting in the country. Admittedly it's probably not as rich as South Dakota, but if everyone in your group limits out every day they hunt...what's the difference? The first morning we hunted the farmer took us to an old silage pit that had grown up with weeds. Earlier that year, during corn harvest, he'd pulled alongside the pit with the combine and dumped a little corn in it. We got out of the truck and while we were loading our guns about 25 pheasant flushed out of it! One guy managed to fire one shot and missed. We all stood there with dumb looks of disappointment. That was more birds than we'd flushed in years of hunting pheasant combined! Not only did these guys not seem to be phased by all these birds flying away untouched, it became clear that they had no intention of going after them out in the corn stubble. Just said, "we'll find plenty more. No need to wear ourselves out trying to walk through that stubble." We'd never been afforded such a luxery! In eastern NM if you flush anything you better go after it, no matter where it lands, because that might be the only pheasant you see all weekend.

We hunted two days and limited out by noon each day. We killed 27 roosters in all.

We hunted corners of mostly corn fields and a few wheat fields.

It was a once in a lifetime hunt for us. We're used to hunting all weekend in hopes of bringing home two or three birds in Eastern NM. Sometimes you hunt all weekend and come home with none! It was a real privaledge.

Sea Monster!!!

Working around the docks here at Kewalo Basin in Honolulu has some exciting things that come along with it. I get to meet lots of people from all over the world and see the most amazing fish that the sport fishing boats bring in each day. Here's the most amazing I've seen. This blue marlin was brought in by the Maggie Joe this afternoon. It weighed in at 795 lbs!!! It was roughly 12 feet long. I've never seen anything like it in my whole life. For size reference, compare it to the Ford super duty pickup below. Amazing!







The customer fought this thing for an hour and a half to get it to the boat. The crew worked another half hour to man handle it up into the boat.

I think this thing qualifies for "sea monster" status...it's way beyond just a fish.

Lots of people, including myself, posed for a picture only wishing we'd been the one's sitting in the fighting chair reeling this monster in.

Shortest Career Ever!

I'm currently waiting on some federal engineering job applications to bear some fruit. In the meantime I'm beating the bushes trying to find a temporary job. I thought it would be awesome to get a job as a deck hand on a sport fishing boat.

Last week I went down to the docks and met a skipper and his deck hand and talked fishing with them. He didn't have a job to offer but I talked him into taking me out for the day so I could try it out and learn the ropes of salt water fishing in the open ocean.

I met these guys at the docks on Sunday morning at 5:30am. and we headed out to sea by 6am. The customers of the day were 6 navy guys who'd come in on an aircraft carrier a few days earlier. Everyone on the boat was an experienced sailor...except for me, the farmboy misfit. ha ha.

Here's a cool view of Waikiki and Diamond Head. Diamond Head is the volcanic crater sticking up on the right.

As we started pulling out of the bay, Lane the deck hand, started showing me how to set eveything up. Their set-up included 6 poles: 3 on outriggers trailing 150' behind the boat and three more trailing 50' behind. Everything was fished top-water.

Check out this hook! I measured my hand for reference: my palm is just shy of 4" across. That's a huge hook!

Here's one of the reels. Roughly 6" round and 6" wide. Wound with 120# test line!

Okay, back to the story. Within an hour of leaving the dock I got really sea sick. Basically I puuked my guts out over the side of the boat for 7 hours and felt horrible for two more hours. The only time I felt decent was the hour we were in calm water heading away from the island and the hour we were in calm water coming back to the island.

All this to say, the decision is simple: as much as I love to fish, I don't care if I ever feel that miserable again in my life. Guess I'll find a construction job. ha ha. The navy guys assured me if I'd go two or three more times I'd overcome sea sickness. Said guys do it all the time on their navy ships when they're new. Honestly, I don't love fishing enough to get that sick two or three more times!

We did catch fish!! Here's about a 30lb. Mahi Mahi, also called a Dolphin fish. Brings about the highest price on the market here for eating. Picture doesn't do this one justice. They're beautiful when you first catch them. Their sides are neon green and yellow. We threw this one in ice after we got it in the boat and the ice did funny things to the color.

We also caught two barracuda that measured 24" plus. They had a wicked mouthful of razor sharp teeth. We hooked a Blue Marlin too. Deck hand said he should've weigh between 100 and 200lbs. As soon as one of the guys got into the chair and started fighting it, it came off. Of course the biggest one got away. It was awesome though while it was on the line.

We also saw dolphins, flying fish and a huge sting ray like the one that killed steve irwin the crocodile hunter. This thing was like four feet wide and about 5' from the tip of his nose to the tip of his stinger. He was haning out under the boat in the docks.

My outdoor journal

I've been wanting to put together a journal to record stories and pictures from various outdoor adventures including hunting, fishing, backpacking, etc. So I finally got around to starting it. Enjoy! -Mas