Throwing Pala's on the Provo River

Last Thursday Shifty invited me to join him on the Provo River and throw some Rapala's for shallow water browns. The Provo River is a revered flyfishing blue ribbon fishery. So when we go for the browns on the Provo I always crush my barbs down so it is quick and easy to release the fish. The Blue Ribbon designation puts a slot limit on the river of 15 inches to 22 inches released back to the water. I rarely if ever keep fish from the Provo so it makes sense to debarb the hooks.

Strawberry Marina Ice Fishing

Saturday the boys and I loaded up and headed for Strawbery Reservoir. The weather in the valley wasn't ideal with a misty rain coming down and then as we went up Provo canyon it turned to snow, by the time we reached Deer Creek it had stopped and there a bubble over the Heber Valley and no weather was happening. We stopped got breakfast took 40 up over Daniels, the canyon had snow covered roads but no snow was falling. We got to the marina a little late due to issues but we still found a parking spot. Unloaded the tent and snowmobile and readied everything for the run to our spot. I took Parker out first with the tent and left him to set up camp and went back to get Jimmy. Jimmy hopped on and we were back at camp in a few seconds. The 800 Ski-Doo flat out flies! Dad would have loved riding on this thing.

Texas Hog Hunt

Last weekend we attempted to check off a box in the to-do list and went to Texas to hunt feral hogs.  Our friend and co-worker Josh Kempsell set up and invited us to join him and his brother Robby in Texas on a hog hunt. Jim and 2 of his sons and myself headed southeast on Southwest and landed in Dallas 2 hours later. Josh met us and we headed to the hotel for the night.

Friday morning Josh and Robby met us at the hotel and we loaded up to start our adventure. Stopped for some provisions and Ice for all the meat we were going to get. I was introduced to Academy Sports, more on this later. We fueled up and headed for Crockett, Texas where M.Y. Ranch is located. Two and half hours later we arrived at the ranch and met Walter the ranch owner-operator. We signed our lives away with his paperwork and to cover him for everything, including not seeing or getting a pig, you will see why this is important as the story unfolds. After all the business Walter took us on a tour of his property. A beautiful 1300 Acre ranch in the southeast corner of Texas. Hardwood forest and yellow pine with many open meadows and feed plots. Strategically placed feeders and blinds spotted the ranch in most of the different terrain of the ranch. Multiple ponds and bogs were found with creeks and rolling hills. We saw many deer in the tour but no pigs.