Yard Work in the Arizona Desert
Over Presidents Day weekend, I was joined by my dad and nephew Coby in the Virgin River Gorge section of the Arizona desert for some "yard work" with Gillie.
As fly fishermen, our respect for game and nature extends beyond the river,
into the field ...
Over Presidents Day weekend, I was joined by my dad and nephew Coby in the Virgin River Gorge section of the Arizona desert for some "yard work" with Gillie.
Mike, Scott, and Troy spent a beautiful sunny winter afternoon in the field with Gillie, and she worked hard finding us some pheasants.
Mike and Troy made some great shots on some tricky flushes. And, we learned to let Gillie hunt - it's now very obvious that she actually knows where the birds are better than we do (duh!).
John, Ryan, and I headed to the field for a "birthday" hunt. Some fine roosters and a surprise chukar made our day, and I'd like to shout out a special "thanks" to John and Ryan.
Gillie gets exponentially better each time in the field, and at 9 months old she makes me proud. All that talent, and a great friend & companion - love that girl!
Sometimes the impromptu outings are the best. John and I took Gillie for a walk, and she found us some pheasants.
Rease introduced me to some new friends as we opened the Montana elk season at Jerked Prairie in Beaverhead County.
Gillie's second day hunting game birds was very successful. After this great outing, we're ready to take on the season.
The emotions that good hunters need to cultivate are love and service more than courage. The sentiments of the hunt then become translated into art.
-- James Swan
In a civilized and cultivated country, wild animals only continue to exist at all when preserved by sportsmen.
-- Theodore Roosevelt
He loved the warm sun of summer and the high mountain meadows, the trails through the timber and the sudden clear blue of the lakes. He loved the hills in the winter when the snow comes.
Best of all he loved the fall … the fall with the tawny and grey, the leaves yellow on the cottonwoods, leaves floating on the trout streams and above the hills the high blue windless skies.
He loved to shoot, he loved to ride and he loved to fish.
"When you have shot one bird flying you have shot all birds flying."
"They are all different and they fly in different ways but the sensation is the same and the last one is as good as the first."
-- Ernest Hemingway
We cannot but pity the boy who has never fired a gun; he is no more humane, while his education has been sadly neglected.
-- Henry David Thoreau
When some of my friends have asked me anxiously about their boys, whether they should let them hunt, I have answered yes - remembering that it was one of the best parts of my education - make them hunters.
-- Henry David Thoreau
At home a friend will ask, "Been bird hunting?" You will say that you have, and when he asks, "Have any luck?" You will think of what you have held in your heart instead of your hand, and tell him that you certainly did - without a doubt.
-- Gene Hill, Field & Stream, 1990
I don't regard nature as a spectator sport.
-- Ed Zern
If some animals are good at hunting and others are suitable for hunting, then the Gods must clearly smile on hunting.
-- Aristotle
I kill when I hunt and do not apologize for that, although I reserve the right to think about its implications. I also hunt without killing - whether by accident or design - and I do not apologize for that either. There is room in longbow country for a spectrum of tastes and attitudes, and that is as it should be.
-- E. Donnall Thomas, Jr.