Hi All

 

Happy New Year !!

 

Hope everyone had a great holiday and are now ready to have a great 2009. I haven't been out much since the last report. I have been remodeling the main house here at the lodge. I tore up my bathroom, hallway, closets, a bedroom and the basement. So everything has been pretty trashed around here for the better part of a month. I should have the upstairs projects done in the next 2 weeks. It all seems to be  coming together a little better now that the holidays are over with. My wife's office is done along with one of the closets so at least she's happy to have someplace new to work from.

 

After Thanksgiving Holiday I went to Nebraska bird hunting with some friends. The weather was nice. Conditions were good, no snow and all the corn was harvested. Deer season was over and the bird hunting was great. We have a few fields we cannot hunt till after deer season ends. So we get first dibs on those fields with birds that haven't been hunted yet this season.

 

 The Quail hunting has been on the rise the last 2 years. We almost killed just as many Quail as Pheasant both years. It was tough not having my own hounds for the first time in 17 years. Although it was nice traveling light without all the dogs and their stuff. Not sure if I'm going to get a new bird dog right away. I may just focus more on Fishing along with Deer, and Elk hunting again and getting a few animals on the wall in my game room.   

 

I was out with a friend, Chris, trying to fish Steelhead December 26 th. but almost all the boat launches were impassable on the PM. They had close to a 3 foot curb of hard packed snow and ice for the first 40 foot by the road and then you would of had to deal with 3 foot of powder once off the road.( I needed Grave Digger or Bigfoot) So fishing that day was a bust. After that I was on the phone and the Internet beating the drum to get some plowing going on around here. Well it worked and all the boat launches are plowed out now except the State owned ones which are Sulack and Wahalla. They haven't been touched.

 

I went ice fishing with another friend, John Robinson, on Jan. 3rd. John and I caught just under 40 gills and crappy thru the ice only keeping the bigger ones. So we left the ice with about 1/2 of them and the other half were told to grow up. Ice is about 6" to 8" of hard ice with very little snow on it due to the last melt off and rain we received after Christmas on December 27th.

 

After the big melt off, the river was out of it's banks and tough fishing was had for most for around a week. It has settled back down and a few fish are being caught again. I was out yesterday with Chris again. This time we were able to get on the water and fish at a freshly plowed launch. We were on a plugging mission. It was slow for a while in good spots too and then the bite came on at about fish  : 30 or we just found them don't know which ?? but we landed one each with another slap so we were 2 for 3 in 3 hours of screwing around. 

 

Don't forget it is Permit Season.. I just sent in for my Arizona Elk Lottery for my second year and my Michigan Spring Wild Turkey Lottery.. a lot of this has to be done by February or March in many states..

 

It has been a busy winter so far with all the projects, the family moving up and getting situated up here in school and work. Soon Spring will be here and Winter will be just a blur. Speaking of Spring it won't be long and the main Steelhead run will be here. Don't wait till the last min. to make your Spring reservations the 2009 books are open. Or if you would rather brave the elements to have a section of river to yourself there is plenty of fish in the system this winter to play with.

 

Fish -On

 

Clint