Antelope Landowner Tags Available

If anyone is interested, I just bought two more landowner antelope tags for a ranch in Nevada. This is arguably the best antelope hunting ranch in Nevada with bucks taken every year in the mid 80’s and at least one that I know of was over 90 inches. The season dates are August 22 through September 5 and you can hunt on the ranch and all of the public land in unit 032 as well. This ranch has 4,000 acres of alfalfa and these hunts are always 100% success. You can buy the tag and go on your own for $2800 or I am doing a 3 day fully guided antelope hunt with meals and motels included for $3750.

You can call me at 530 885-1492 if you are interested or send me an e-mail.

American River Shad and Stripers

I hope everyone is doing well and weathering the poor economy. I've been on the American River the last two days shad and striper fishing and here's a quick run down of how it went.

Wednesday I met a buddy of mine and we got on the water about 11 am and only fished for about 3 hours (not exactly prime time but it was all the time we had). We spent more time fishing for stripers than shad and caught one and lost another. We stopped and fished for shad in two spots for a total of one hour and landed 10 which is pretty good for the middle of the day. For those of you that have not shad fished before, they are about 2 - 5 pounds and put up a great fight on light tackle spinning gear or fly rods.
Yesterday, I had two clients and one had never fly fished before so we split our time between stripers and shad. We used conventional gear with plugs for the stripers and landed two and lost two and saw quite a few more including one that I would guess to be about 20 - 25 pounds.
We landed about 10 or 12 shad and lost at least that many more on flies and conventional gear both. The shad were not biting as well as the day before but we saw hundreds of them. They are pretty thick in there right now. The stripers are just starting and should get better between now and the end of August.
I am running a special until the end of June for half day shad and striper trips on the American River. My normal rate is $325 for four hours of fishing and the special price is $300 and I'm doing five hours instead of four. This includes drinks and all your gear but no lunch. We can fly fish or use conventional gear on these trips. I'm also running a full day special (8 hours with lunch) good on the American or the Yuba and is good until the end of August. If you book two trips at my normal price of $425, you get $75 off your second trip.

2009 Nevada Deer Draw Time

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. It's that time once again to apply for the nonresident guide draw for mule deer tags in Nevada. For those of you that aren't familiar with the guide draw, it offers you about four times better odds of drawing a tag than the regular draw depending on what units you apply for. I usually average about 60% draw odds in this drawing.

Last year we had 100% success again for all of our guided Nevada mule deer hunts. The biggest buck we took was a 31 inch 4x4 with eye guards taken by Mike Barkdoll (see picture under deer hunting in our photo gallery) and we saw a bigger buck on that hunt but weren't able to find him again.

On my website you'll see that I have raised my prices to $3950 for a one on one hunt and $3450 for a two on one hunt but I am offering last year's prices ($3250 for two on one and $3750 for one on one) to everyone that gets their deposit in before January 31, 2009.

I am taking deposits now and the people who get their deposits in first get their choice of dates over the ones that get them in later. I am getting a $1500 deposit and if you don't draw a tag, I will refund your deposit.

I will have a booth at the ISE show in Sacramento again this year (booth # 1202) come by and say hi if you get a chance.

Successful 2008 Big Game Hunts; Still time to Mountain Lion, Coyote andChukar Hunt

My big game seasons have just ended and we had another great year with 100% success for every species. I just returned from my fall mule deer hunts in Nevada and while the deer population was down this year, we saw some really nice bucks. Mike Barkdoll was fortunate enough to take a nice 31 inch buck on his hunt and it was the second biggest buck we saw during his hunt. (You can see the photos of Mike's buck on my website in the Photo Gallery under Nevada Deer Hunting.) We had actually seen a much bigger buck 3 times in a day and half but couldn’t get a shot at him. When I spotted this buck at about 1 miles first thing in the morning, we thought it was the bigger buck but after a stalk to 300 yards, we realized it was a different big buck and Mike was able to take him at 310 yards. Congratulations Mike.

I am heading back to Nevada today to guide chukar hunters and soon we will be lion hunting. I have rented a house on a ranch in central Nevada and will be running my chukar and lion hunts from there. We stayed at the ranch house for all of my deer hunts and it was a huge hit with all the hunters. If anyone is interested in chukar, lion, or coyote hunts, I still have availability for this year.

The chukar hunting is better than it was last year but not as good as three or four years ago. We were seeing plenty of birds the first 5 days of the season and had a couple of days where we shot limits.

Hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving.

2008 Nevada Antelope and California Elk Hunts

My guided Nevada antelope and California Roosevelt elk hunts have gone really well this year.

In August, I spent a week out scouting for my Nevada mule deer hunts. I spent all of my time in central Nevada. The deer population is down from last year due to a fairly severe winter. I did however see some really nice bucks. The fawns from last year did not do well and many of them did not make it through the winter so there was a noticeable lack of forked horn bucks.  After that, I had three antelope hunters to guide in Nevada on a private ranch. I had bought these Nevada landowner antelope tags from this ranch for the second year in a row and was really looking forward to a fun hunt and wasn't disappointed. This ranch has more antelope than anywhere I've ever been. In twenty minutes all three hunters were done. Last year we chased one antelope for four days before we were able to take him. You just never know when you're hunting.

I guided three California Roosevelt elk hunts this year. My first guided California elk hunt was on the Del-Norte hunt (hunt 414) and my hunter took a nice 6×6 bull that I was able to call in to 15 yards and he was screaming the whole way. We had seen a bigger bull that would easily make Boone and Crockett but this bull was too nice and way too exciting for my hunter to pass. The bull got to 15 yards and then without any warning, turned and ran away and my hunter made a difficult running through the trees shot at 20 yards.  My second and third California elk hunts were on the Northwestern elk hunt (hunt 483) which was a new hunt last year. I was able to obtain a very good piece of private property (about 20,000 acres) to hunt on and was able to take a very nice bull and a huge bull in less than two days of total hunting. I called in 5 bulls and saw several other bulls in that time.

My first hunter took a nice 7x7 at about 180 yards. I actually called the bull in and it came on a dead run through the trees right at us. When the bull finally cleared the trees, I cow called and stopped the bull at 15 yards and he was staring right at us. The bull whirled around and left before she could get a shot. I cow called and stopped the bull at 180 yards and we moved over about 10 yards and she was able to make a good shot and take the bull. What a hunt, we had bulls screaming all around us.  My last hunter is one of the luckiest people in America. He drew the one and only nonresident elk tag in the entire state. Talk about hitting the lottery. I called him when I finished my first hunt because he was not scheduled to hunt for 4 more days. Jim August is a taxidermist in Portland and said he could come down early if the elk where vocal and they were definitely vocal. The next day I met Jim in town and we got settled into camp about 3 p.m. That evening we went out and in 45 minutes I called in a bull that we passed up and then called in the bull he ended up taking to 50 yards. I think it caught both of us by surprise. He had said that he wanted to take a record book bull and this fit the bill. Jim asked me what I thought and I said he's a book bull and was glassing him from only 50 yards trying to make sure he had all his points. I told Jim he was a 7×7 but I didn't see the two devil points he had coming off his brow tines. After about 60 seconds of discussion the bull turned and took off down into a draw. Jim and I walked over the edge and when he went up the other side, I cow called and stopped him and Jim shot. It turns out we both underestimated the bull, as it gross scored a little over 350 and will net around 337 or 338. Boone and Crockett minimum for Roosevelt elk is 290 so it will make the record book by over 45 inches. Congratulations Jim on a bull of a lifetime.

Check out the photo gallery for the newest pictures from these hunts.  Next up are my Nevada mule deer, Rocky Mountain elk and wild chukar hunts. I'll let you know how that goes when I get back in late November.

2008 Fall Hunting Season

It's finally my favorite time of year - “ hunting season! The season has been going well so far. I guided 3 Nevada antelope hunters last month and they all got their antelope within an hour of opening morning. Everyone was happy with their animal. Right now I'm guiding the California north coast elk hunts. My first client took a nice 6 x 6 bull on the Del Norte hunt. I start guiding for the Northwestern hunt tomorrow. I have access to some great private property and have seen some really nice bulls.

I'll be home the middle of September for a week or so before going out to Nevada to do some more scouting for deer season. While I'm home, I hope to get my 11-month-old yellow lab puppy on some quail. My older lab is now 7 years old, so I got a puppy to take over when my older dog retires. So far the puppy looks to be a great bird dog. She is a pointing lab so I've been learning a lot about pointing dogs. Both dogs will be raring to go come chukar season in Nevada. Chukar season starts in October, so if you're interested in booking a 3 day Nevada chukar hunt, let me know. My Nevada deer hunts start October 4 and run through November 5, but I still have room for some chukar hunters.

In November I'll be doing both elk hunts and chukar hunts in Nevada and plan on being home by Thanksgiving. Hope everyone has a great hunting season!

Summer Fishing and Fall Hunting Update

I hope everyone is having a good summer and trying to stay out of the smoke the best you can.

Fishing on the Yuba River has finally picked up. Yesterday we had a great day. I guided one person yesterday and we fished grasshoppers all day and landed an18 ½ and a 19 ½ inch fish with the average fish caught being 15 – 16 inches. Last week I was guiding an 11 year old boy and he landed 8 fish and lost 3 or 4 others. Most of the fish were 15 – 17 inches. Not bad for someone that age with limited fly fishing experience. I will be guiding for trout on the Yuba River until the end of August and then I’ll switch to guiding elk, deer, and antelope hunters.

The striper fishing on the American River has been pretty good and we've been getting anywhere from 5 to 15 stripers in a day. The shad fishing on the American is just about over for this year. It was a decent year for shad. We never had any days with huge numbers of shad but we never got skunked either. This year I started doing combination shad and striper trips and they were a lot of fun. If anyone is interested for next year, I will be doing these in May and June again next year. July and August are usually the best months to target the stripers on the American River. While it can be hot outside, so can the fishing. So if you’ve ever wanted to fly fish for striped bass on the American, now’s the time.

I am currently booking my fall hunts for mule deer, elk, antelope, and bighorn sheep in Nevada, and elk and mule deer in California. I am now guiding mule deer hunters on the G3 (Goodale) hunt in California as well as all my normal areas in Nevada. I just got permission to guide Roosevelt elk hunts on 20,000 acres that lies within the boundaries of the new Northwestern California either-sex elk hunt. The Northwestern elk hunt was new last year and there was one hunter on this property and he took a Boone and Crockett bull. He’s the only one to ever hunt this property for elk. If you were one of the lucky people to draw the Northwestern tag and are looking for a guided elk hunt, give me a call.

I hope everyone had some luck in the drawings and hope you all have a good hunting season. I’ve sold all of my Nevada landowner deer, elk, and antelope tags for this year but I still might get some more. I get calls all the time from people looking to sell a tag, so if you’re interested in a landowner tag, let me know what you’re looking for and I might be able to help.

Have a great summer and fall!