Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Of Bucks and Browns

I may have mentioned this in the past but autumn is far and away my favorite time of the year.  It's when two of my passions come together...fishing and hunting.  I continue to be amazed at the life I've been fortunate enough to have, and the backcountry I have just outside my front door.

 

I spent a few days hiking the rocky ridges and draws, brush-busting through stands of Gambel's Oak, and still hunting the ponderosa pine covered mountainsides.



On the next-to-last day of my hunting season I connected with my buck with a 150-yard shot across a little valley.  I was lucky enough to have our oldest daughter, Rachel, there to help me field dress him and drag him out to the truck.  Luckily, this year I didn't have to pack him out on my back with multiple trips to and from the carcass.  What a blessing!



One tradition we have is for fresh deer heart after a successful hunt.  This year was no different.  I marinated the heart from my deer for a day, sliced it up into three cutlets, and threw them on a raging hot grill, along with peppers and onions.  What a feast!


A few days later I found myself with a tenkara rod in my hand, in the company of my good friend Eric Lynn, owner of Mountain Ridge Gear.  We had poked our way along a hair-raising jeep road to a piece of private water in the canyons near my home.  We returned to a mile-long stretch of water, just a dozen feet wide, that's always filled with eager brown trout.



Here's Eric, having the time of his life...


Yours truly with one of many browns caught that day!


Enjoying a late fall indian summer day in the canyons with tenkara rods in our hands!