Scott's Cast and Blast

Lake In The Dunes Pond

I looked out the door at 4:30am, and knew that with the stars shining bright and moon radiating the dark sky; it was going to be a beautiful day.  We had a long drive ahead of us, but it was all going to be worth it if I could shoot my first pheasant.  Since I just sold my Beretta, it was up to my old trusty Mossberg to do the work.  We got everything loaded into the jeep and headed out to pick up the rest of the crew hunting with us.  Even my brother-in-laws new English pointer puppy Gage, was excited for the hunt. 

Anna Reservoir

After picking up the rest of the group, we headed to Anna Reservoir in Summer Lake, Oregon for a little early morning fishing.  I had never been to Summer Lake; I only knew there was a wildlife refuge there.  When we rounded the last corner that brought us above the town, we came into the basin that was surrounded by the most magnificent mountains.  They were dusted with snow, but the lower portions were painted with brilliant colors.  They are known to house deer, elk, and mountain sheep, and the views were spectacular.

Roy and Bob

Thanks for showing us how it is done

Myself hanging out fishing

We got out our fishing gear at Anna Reservoir, and loaded up the bait on our hooks.  I have been told that this reservoir has had record breaking bass and trout taken out of it.  I was ready for the challenge of being the only girl in the group that day, and I knew I had to keep up with the boys.  I had my grandpa’s old rod and reel by my side and was ready to catch a fish.  Unfortunately, I was not the first one to catch a fish, Roy our oldest member of the group did, but I chalked it up to more experience with the pole.  He had his fish on a stringer in the water, when our friend’s lab puppy Breezy decided to explore what was flopping around in the water.  She tried to grab the fish and it startled her as it flop in her mouth.  She let it go quickly, and moved away from the fish.  She didn’t want anything more to do with that thing.  We all got a good laugh from it.

Enjoying the scenery

We finally got the call from Russell Scott, the owner of Lake in the Dunes.  He had released the pheasants for the days hunt, and we were ready for the hunt.  We loaded up our fishing gear and made the few miles drive out to his place.  His ranch is also surrounded by the beautiful mountains, and was a great backdrop for the days hunt.  He introduced us to the land and gave us our instructions for hunting the property and we were on our way.  My brother-in-law David took his dad and Gage, the puppy and hunted alongside Russell, my husband, and I, with his dog Luke.  It was impressive to watch Luke work, the natural instinct that is bred into those dogs is mind blowing.  He was on point with those pheasants so quickly, and what a rush it was when he flushed them out.  One pheasant flew up from a ditch so close to all of us, Darren could almost touch it, and three of us pulled up at the same time and brought it down.  That was my first experience at bagging a bird. 

The hunting cabin

A place inside the cabin to relax

Darren and Bob

Myself and Gage

We had so much ground to cover, as the ranch has 480 acres of area to hunt that I know of.  There are several man made lakes that are great for fishing and duck hunting.  We hiked miles upon miles, and with the dogs nose as our guide, we hit pheasant after pheasant.  After a few hours of hunting, we needed to take a short break for some food at the cabin.  I realized next time I come out for the hunt, I definitely need to stay at the cabin.  It was really nice, and what a peaceful place to watch a sunset. Since our bodies were refueled, we were anxious to get some more birds.  Little did we know Russell had planted a white pheasant.  As we approached an area of thick grass, the dogs got excited and out of the brush emerged this all white pheasant.  What a surprise this was and the game was on.  The pheasant offered Darren a great shot and he blasted it with his Benelli. Right after that he took a black pheasant, it was an exquisite looking bird, and so amazing to see.  I have not had this much fun ever, I was on a hunting high. As we were hiking Russell spotted a pheasant trying to hide in the distance.  I closed the gap between the bird and I, then took aim and shot.  Another bird down and I was so elated with what a great shot opportunity I had.  There was going to be some good eating at our house tomorrow.

David and Gage

Gage and the Pheasant

Luke and Gage

Near the end of the day, we made out way to the back of the property.  This was one area where we knew birds had been released, but we hadn’t hunted.  So, we put Luke and Gage to work, and followed them.  In the distance we saw about 3-4 pheasants walking around and Luke got a bit excited and decided he need to get in on the action.  He chased after those pheasants, and they were out of there.  At the same time he flushed one up and Darren got a kill shot.  I think by the end of the hunt, the pheasants were wise to what was going on.  There was a mixture of good hiders, and runners, which made it all the more challenging.  It was another successful hunt, and extremely fun at that.  Even though I was the only girl on the hunt that day, I think I held my own.  Who says a women can’t hunt alongside men.  I haven’t walked that much in a long time, but got some good hunting in.  I highly recommend this hunt to anyone of any skill or age level.  We had to work hard to get these birds, and it was completely worth it.  It was very addicting and I am ready to go back. The day turned out to be warm, with blue skies and we couldn’t have asked for anything more perfect.

Matt and Jeff

Russell and Darren

Russell and Myself

Our pheasants

Our bounty

Let the cleaning begin

The views from the ranch

To hunt at Lake in the Dunes see their website @ http://www.lakeinthedunes.com/

My buck

My husband and I always take the first two weeks of archery season off work, so we can get the upper hand on the animals.  This year however, Darren had to work out of state the first week, so he didn’t even get to hunt, and I ventured out on my own.  We had been getting a lot of promising pictures on the game camera, but none came in while I was there that I wanted.  Some nice little forked horns and does frequented our blind, but not the big ones I wanted. 

Deer from the game camera

The second week came and we hunted day and night with the possibility of a few good deer in our sights.  I was really anxious to try and get one of the big ones.  My chance finally came one evening.  We were all set up in our blind, and the deer were moving in.  They lingered eating away at the sage brush not giving me a clear shot.  The deer I was looking at was a 4×4, approximately 27 inches wide and 22 to 24 tall, field judging.  That would have been my nicest deer taken to date.  I watched patiently for about 30 minutes, watching them move in slowly.  Finally, he gave me a quick opportunity and I drew back and missed.  I wasn’t even nervous and I missed.  I just couldn’t believe it, I was so upset.  He was a dandy and I choked.  I am sure most bow hunters have missed at one point or another, and that was my time.  I just flat out missed.  The deer ran off and my night was over.  I went home with my tail between my legs so to speak and sulked for a few days. 

The one I wanted, and the one I got

WE decided to try our hand at elk hunting and give the deer a chance to calm down since there education in getting  shot at.  We hiked a couple miles in the sand one cool brisk morning waiting to hear the call of the elk.  And then we heard it, in the distance, the distinct sound of a cow call.  Our legs started moving to a quick jog, in hopes we could catch up to them.  We could see the elk about 150 yards out, milling around in the trees.  So, this was our opportunity to put the sneak on them.  We got within 80 yards and they were talking quite a bit.  Then they turned and spooked, they ran like there life depended on it.  We looked and some other hunters came through the trees.  I am pretty sure the elk high tailed it out of there and the elk hunt had ended for the day.  It was quite exciting however while it lasted.  My blood was pumping and I got my morning exercise in after 5 miles of hiking in the sand. 

An Elk Hunting Sunrise

The next week, we decided to go back to our faithful deer hunting hole, and try and get a muley.  A group of deer came in about 6:30pm, and were quite curious.  The doe kept circling us and tried to wind us.  Each time she would come in to us and sniff a little and then she just looked like she wanted to figure out what we were.  I looked back and there was a small forked horn and then a larger one that I had seen the previous year and really wanted to try and get.  He was only about 40 yards away, but I thought it the doe kept around us, he would get curious too, and come in closer.  Sure enough, he slowly started to move in, and was feeding in the sagebrush.  I waited till he gave me a nice broadside shot then I drew on him.  I released and the arrow made it the target.  What a nice sound and knowing I made a good shot was even better.  We waited about a half hour then went and looked for my arrow.  It blew clean through him and was lying right where I shot it.  It had good foamy blood on it, so we tracked it out 100 yards and there it was piled up in the brush. 

Curious buck and doe

Curious doe

I am glad I got the deer because the next weekend after my husbands morning hunt he was having serious stomach pain.  I ended up taking him to the hospital and he had to have an emergency appendectomy.  He was out the last week of hunting and that ended out season.  We will have to hunt the Westside for late season elk and deer.  That should be fun.  It definitely made for a memorable archery season. 

My buck

Getting off the plane, 19 hours of no sleep and counting

Just hanging out on the fishing boat

The excitement was building, as we had been anticipating our trip to Alaska for a while. It was a major task just getting my husband to agree to the trip, since we didn’t want to step foot on a plane. I figured if I booked a late night trip, he could work for the day and sleep on the plane. So, we left Redmond at 8pm and go to Anchorage, Alaska at 12:30am and the fun began. Our friends picked us up about 1am, and after fueling up and getting some much needed Red Bulls, we made our way to Seward. Our friends brother-in-law owns a fishing boat and he was taking us for the day on a fishing excursion. We arrived in Seward at 3:30am, and got changed for the trip out to see, grabbed our rain gear and a camera and we were ready. It was still dark, but everyone was ready to hit the water, we need to get going or we would all be bound to fall asleep. With the cool salty breeze on our faces, we were much revived and ready for the day ahead.

The Bay

A kiss for luck

As we were headed out on Resurrection Bay, we had a otter great us, and I thought that had to be a good sign. We didn’t plan on going out to far in the open ocean because the swells were predicated to be 5-10 feet that day. The captain decided to take us to the mouth of the bay leading to the ocean. It could not have been a more perfect day. It was bit cold, but really no wind and just gorgeous views in sight. We got our pools in the water and almost immediately the silvers were fighting. One by one, each of us on board had a good tug-of -war with the strong swimming fish. It was a blast and we were having so much fun. As we were reeling in the fish one by one, we could see mountain goats on the surrounding hillsides. It was the most beautiful scenery I have ever taken in. I was just trying to get a capture these images in my mind, so I would never forget the untouched splendor of the area.

Our silvers

We limited out within a few hours of fishing on the silvers, and thought it would be fun to try our hand at halibut fishing. Since we were way out on the ocean, we didn’t expect to get any monster halibut, but I wanted something.

Small, but yummy halibut

 I love halibut and that was what I really wanted to bring home. I have to say halibut fishing is the most exciting fishing I have ever done, but as we were fishing we saw a whale off in the distance. I was instantly revived and ready for more fun. It was definitely hard to keep old man sleep out of my eyes as we were going on almost 30 hours of no sleep. The whale kept getting a little closer and then we got the pleasure of seeing porpoises. That was a treat in of itself. Finally, we got some bites on the poles and started reeling in the halibut. They don’t put up much of a fight, but they are heavy to reel in. I had a blast and we ended up catching six, and throwing back several rock fish the we caught too.

Whale

It was time to head back, as everyone was finally starting to lose the battle with tiredness. We saw a large group of seals on the way, and the coast guard doing practice rescues. We had some fish cleaning to do and then off to get some dinner. A big, warm meal was sounding pretty good about now, and a nice soft bed sounded pretty good too. After we got the fish cleaned, we made our way to local restaurant and had a great clam chowder and fish meal, and then headed off for some much needed sleep. We had been up for 36 hours now, and were pretty much exhausted. We fell asleep at 6:30pm and didn’t wake up until 6am the next morning. It was a little slice of heaven to get some restful sleep.

Fishing the Russian River

The next day we headed to the Russian river to see if we could catch any reds. We really didn’t have very good luck at that, but it was fun trying. We had lots of more days to try and we would get our chance on the Kenai in a few days at our friends house in Soldotna.

Yipes, don't let the fish go!

On the deck at the Kenai River Red Lodge

If you are ever in Soldotna you should look up Kenai River Red Lodge http://www.kenairiverredlodge.com/  had very comfortable beds and it was a great time being there with other guests from all over. It was nice to meet and hear all the stories of the other fisherman. It was also, a good central place to be able to leave and do other activities. .We

Clam digging

Oops, Darren broke the shovel

were able to go claming at Deep Creek near Ninilchik, and visit Homer in just a day trip. Claming was so much fun. We went with the group from the lodge and we all had a really good time. Our bucket started to get heavier and heavier and by the end of the tide, Darren had broken his shovel. So, he was out for the day and he got to carry the bucket. Then we teamed up on shoveling and hand digging. What a great new experience we had, and oh how I can’t wait to make some yummy clam chowder.

The mouth of the Kenai

Overall, it was the best experience I have had, and I am glad I could share it with my husband and our friends. I would highly recommend the trip if you have never done it. There were many memories made, and look for more stories to come.