A break from the Truckee

A few years ago a friend of mine inspired me to go out on his hunting trip with him, shortly after I decided I wanted to give it a try and I went and picked myself up a bow.  Now every August I spend 2 weeks in the desert chasing animals and working my ass off, usually gaining no more than the unforgettable memories, but this year was a little bit different.  I drew an archery antelope and deer tag in the northeast corner of the state.  For those of you who haven't been there, that region is amazing.  The Jarbidge range is much like the Sierras, only less people and much more wild.  The hundred of creeks that carve out the thousand foot deep canyons have the only bull trout population in the state (southern most population that exists) and plenty of rainbow, brook, and red band trout too.  The water is crystal clear and you can watch springs pour water out of the ground in many places.  The fishing can quite literally get boring with the over abundance of small fish that ferociously attack dry flies, nymphs, hoppers, and basically anything else that comes drifting their way.  To keep things interesting my friend and I like to see what kind of things we can catch fish on.  Last year he caught a fish using dental floss, a hook made from a beer can, and a grasshopper caught on the shore.  This year we spent a little more time hunting animals than goofing off on the river, and it paid off.

I shot this antelope at 42 yards from behind a blind you might say.  When I tell people about it and they ask if it was on water or spot an stalk... I say yes.  My friend and I were building a blind when he spotted some lopers coming in to water, we hit the ground and I crawled 10 yards to the truck.  Then, using the truck as cover, I got the shot off.  So basically it was a road buck, shot on water from behind a blind after spotting and stalking ha.  But in all honesty, I got very lucky with the opportunity and none of it would have been possible without all of the help from my friend Ross.

After I shot the buck, we had a few days to relax before deer season.  We spent this time fishing and driving around exploring.  We found a series of beaver ponds that looked amazing to fish, and sure enough... they were.  My very first cast tricked a small brookie in a matter of seconds and we continued to find hungry fish for the rest of the morning.

Like I said, after a certain amount of catching we were satisfied and started looking for new means of entertainment.  We set the camera underwater to try and capture some of the fish that we saw in every single pond we walked up to.

TU's message really hits home once you see how productive of a fishery untainted waters can be.  I hope to find more spots like here, hopefully with some bigger fish too!