Enhancing hunting opportunities for all hunters

An old hunting buddy told me, “you make your own hunting luck in these mountains”. The past few seasons I’ve had my share of that kind of luck.

This fall, in late October, I took my 43rd bull elk in my 43 years hunting them. In early November I lucked into a nice mule deer buck on US Forest Service land. Two years ago I had the good fortune of finally drawing a bighorn sheep tag after applying for over 40 years. My sheep hunting partner, Brandon Wynn of New Mexico, and I hunted the mountains in our hunting district for 21 days before we saw our first rams. We’d endured grizzly bears in camp, slugged through over 2 feet of snow in search of bighorns from 6,600 to over 10,000 foot elevation. Due to our ages, I'd just turned 70 and Brandon 60, we called ourselves “Team Geriatrics”.

I took a fine ram in mid-October and Brandon scored his later that month. Our rams turned out to be the best rams to come from our hunting district that season.

With the good hunting opportunities in Montana on our public lands I’ve always felt I should give back to organizations that preserve and enhance hunting opportunities for all hunters to enjoy. With that I’ve joined as a life member of Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation (#1291), Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, and Montana Wild Sheep Foundation (#398). These organizations enhance hunters opportunities by providing life-long memories of wild, fair chase public land hunts with friends and family.

As 2021 ends please join me and give what you can to support these fine organizations that do the good work so all future generations of hunters can enjoy what we have experienced. Thank you, and I’ll see you in the woods or on the river.

Wild Trout and Bighorn Sheep

Rainbow trout poses for mug shots.

It has been a busy week.

With warming weather and good dry fly fishing I’ve felt a bit constrained by my promise to write a couple articles, and getting programs ready to present to students and fly fishing clubs.

Yesterday though Jackie and I took a few hours off and left home driving upriver hoping to find rising trout and wintering wildlife. We were not disappointed.

We headed to Earthquake Lake to check on the bighorn sheep herd that winters there. I was lucky last fall to draw a bighorn sheep tag after applying for 40 years. My friend drew a tag too. He’s 60 and I’ll be 71 years old.

We teamed up to hunt bighorns calling ourselves “Team Geriatric”. We both took fine rams, the 2 biggest rams of the hunting district. We hunted several days, camping at 10,000 feet elevation running into bighorn, grizzlies and mountain goats. Stay tuned here as I will write our story soon.

Yesterday Jackie and ran into bighorn ram #14 (you will see this orange tag in his ear in photo), and his harem just below the Quake Visitors Center. They looked pretty good considering the long-cold winter.

Bighorn ram #14.

From there we headed downstream and snowshoed into the Madison River upstream of Babbling Brook where we found a few fish rising. Check out our photo of a rainbow that fell to a #20 Scotty’s Midge. After his release he hung around for a few mug shots.

In this letter I am excited to feature conservation projects and programs that are both founded and headed up by my good friend Todd Tanner. I’ve know Todd for many years, he is a true gentleman, a passionate angler and hunter devoted to protecting and preserving our wild and native fish and wildlife.

I have worked with Todd on his award winning films, “Cold Waters”, the 2016 winner of Best Environmental Short Film Award, and “In the Heart of the Rockies” a wonderful film that premiered on The Sportsmans Channel. Make sure you watch both short videos linked here.

Todd founded Conservation Hawks a few years back. CH is " a group of passionate hunters and anglers devoted to protecting our sporting heritage and passing on a healthy natural world to our kids and grandkids. The group’s prime focus is on climate change and its motto is “Hunters and anglers defending our future”.

For the past 2 years me and my close friend and former business partner John Juracek have worked with Todd on his “School of Trout” project you can goggle to find out more. This wonderful program "brings anglings finest fly fishing experts to share their wisdom and experience”. I’m proud to be a part of Todd’s school held each October and encourage you to goggle “School of Trout” to learn more, and sign up! Space is extremely limited so check it out today and I hope to see you this October!

Thanks for reading this and I’ll look for you on a Yellowstone country river this spring.

Stay tuned weekly for more conservation news and fishing reports.