A great week of pheasant hunting and fishing
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Last week was one of the best weeks I have had in a long time. I got to take a business trip to Kansas and then up to South Dakota. The purpose of the trip was to check out some other clubs and see how they run their activities and their day to day operations. Our first stop was a hunting and sporting clays club about 80 miles out of Wichita. The name of the club is Flint Oak and it is one of the nicest hunting clubs I have ever had the pleasure of visiting. We were shown around the club by Chris Jarvis and Jeff Oaks. Two great guys that really know their stuff when it comes to hunting birds, shooting clays, or going after big large mouth bass and wipers! The first day was just spent just touring the facility and the 5000 acres that they hunt on. It was very impressive to say the least and extremely well organized. On day two we woke up, had a nice meal and great service, and then it was off to hunt some pheasant and quail. We hunting with two sets of pointers that morning and it was fun wathcing those dogs work. About 20 minutes into the hunt I got my first shot at a pheasant. There now one less pheasant on their ranch. 🙂 We hunted for about two hours getting a couple pheasant and a couple of quail. The birds were like rockets that day and if you weren’t dialed in quickly they were out of range in no time.
After the hunt we went back to the Lodge and had yet another great meal (Sorry Cam no pictures) and it was off to do some Bass fishing. This was especially exctiing to me as I have never fished for Bass before in my life. Chris and Jeff knew this and made damn sure I was not leaving that place until I had a Bass in hand. Their pond was awesome and very well managed. I was fishing with an eight weight rod that Chris had loaned me and was stripping a pink and white clouser that Chris had tied up. It didn’t take long before we were hooked up. We only had time to fish for about and hour and a half but by the time we were done I had set the New club record for a wiper (sp?) caught on a fly rod. Dumb luck really but that six pound wiper was like catching a freight train!
After our fishing adventure it was off to shoot sporting clays. Flint Oaks sporting clay course is second to no ones in my opinion! Challenging would be an understatement for some of the shots! Great time and great hosts! I went to bed that night with a smile on my face and a bruise on my right shoulder. It really doesn’t get much better than that!
The next day we jumped aboard a private jet and were off to South Dakota to Pheasant hunt at a club called Sutton Bay. I am here to tell you that there is no shortage of pheasant in South Dakota! The trip to South Dakota was quick and comfortable. I could really get use to flying on private jets. 🙂 We hunted that morning. There were seven of us hunting and the hunt was quite a bit different then the one in Kansas. The first difference was Sutton Bay only uses Labs to hunt with. The second thing was we spread out in a big line and walked through corn and milo fields. At the end of the rows three guys stood there blocking the birds from running out the ends while the others with the dogs pushed the birds up into flight. A LOT of pheasant were harvested that day. You barely had time to reload for your next shot as there were Pheasants everywhere!
That afternoon part of the group went golfing and Jeff Oaks and I went out with one of their guides to fish. Chuck was our guide and he was a real nice guy but did not fly fish. We chucked big lures to King Salmon with no luck and then did some bait fishing for small mouth and walleye. Jeff caught one smallie and I stood there wondering who forgot to bring beer. This is not my kind of fishing and to be honest I was bored to tears! The good part about it was we got to pick Chucks brain a little and got some good info on how they manage their hunts.
We had a nice dinner that night and the next morning hunted again. Great stuff once again but weather was turning bad to it was back to the airport and back to Witchita.
When I got back from Wichita to Missoula it was time to head out to the Big Horn with my buddies for some good old fashion trout fishing. We got there late on Thursday, played some cards and caught up with what was going on in everyones lives. We awoke to hollowing winds on Friday. A cold front was pushing through and the winds were blowing a steady 20 mph with gusts up to 40 mph. The fishing was ok but I can honestly say it was the worst fishing I have ever had on the Big Horn only getting about nine fish to hand. Saturday was the exact opposite!
We woke up Saturday to no wind heavy clouds and about 50 degrees outside. All of us were giddy because we knew that the fish Gods were smiling down on us and it was going to be a great day!
We started out chucking streamers and then went to nymphs and at about 1pm we had the best dry fly fishing I have ever had in my life! The water was covered with blue wings and mahoganys! My buddy Mark and I each fished to a pod of fish that had to be two hundred strong and none of them were small. We caught so many fish in the 18 to 20 inch range it was almost silly! We had to have each caught sixty fish that day with most of them coming on dries! It was awesome!The night was capped off by trying to drink the rest of our adult beverages and some Texas Holdem’. I managed to win the last hand and walked away from the table a little richer.
I can’t wait to get back!
This is my first shot at photobucket so things may be out of order. I wanted to share though. Give a few posts and I will get better!
Joel
Here are a couple more photos from the trip. These were taken by my buddy Mark. I love this first one of this Brown Trout. The colors just seem to jump off the page at you!
The coolest thing about this photo is that you can see all of the baetis on the water. Happy times for sure!
The thing I like about this one is it shows you just how hard it was not to smile! God I love it when the fish are keyed in on dries!
Thanks PoudreRiver! The BH is on my high priority list in the fall. I hope to never miss out on it as it is just too good for my soul! I need to get Deb down there one of these times so she can get a taste of that drug!
As far as the holdem thing goes I got really lucky. The guy I ended up going against in the final two is a great player and he easily had double the chips I had. I got some really good cards though. Twice in the last ten hands of the game I was dealt pocket aces! I’m all in baby!!!!
Joel
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