ness

+1

Never tied on a Peak. Like my Traveler though.

Good stuff. Love the long exposure/northern lights stuff.

OK -- I'll PM you if we end up going. It's about 50-50 right now.

Phil -- there's a ton of good WIHA around Greensburg. I hunted that and some private land north of there. There's a good Mexican restaurant right next to the motel on the highway, BTW. Possibility we'll be out there next weekend too. brittsnbirds -- tough break on your younger one. We've got a couple britts so I always notice your name and avatar. One is 10 and slowing down some. Got a pup a couple years ago so we'd have new blood coming in. Here they are at the motel evening of opening day: I try not to spoil them.

I've got the Apache & Gila on the bucket list.

Looks like a blonde lab to me.

Coolest? I s'pose it's the Colorado River cutts I caught a few years back. They've been darn-near extirpated in their native range (west side of the Divide in CO, WY) by introduction of rainbows and brookies. Hard to get to, at least where I was, and hanging on by a thread above a natural barrier that kept out the bad guys. Small fish that have really got the odds stacked against them.

Good on you, Chief. It's been a good conversation.

...looks up...drifts back with the current, watching...quick flip of the tail and he lets it go by.

...and, all the chemicals that we put on the yard, or put down the drain. There's just so much going in that it's hard to know what all the effects are. For a long time I partially wrote off the 'good old days' as selective memory from the old timers. But there have been such dramatic changes in my lifetime (and I seem to notice more and more all the time) that I'm not so quick to dismiss it these days. I went pheasant/quail hunting on a very sweet property in northern MO a couple weeks ago. I saw a dozen or so turkeys, no quail and one pheasant. The 'old timer' with us had tons of stories about the huge numbers of birds there in the 70's, and he's not the kinda guy to exaggerate. Of course there wasn't a turkey in the whole county back then. Maybe not even a deer. Definitely no cougars, and they just had a confirmed sighting a couple counties south of there this week. Everything's changing, and it seems like we're getting farther and farther behind in reversing the trends.

The sampling data I've seen supports Gavin's earlier point that there just aren't a lot of tiny rainbows through there. Personal experience seems to back it up too. I don't know what the factors all are, but the hatchery fish in there are certainly dominating the system and they're not necessarily going to be as successful at spawning as a non-hatchery fish. For generations and generations they've been doing it in-vitro with a helping hand from man. Maybe they've 'forgotten' how to do it.

Yeah, he looks phenomenal lately. Patient, quick, slippery. Amazing to see him grabbed and get 3, 4, 5 more yards. Jones is no slouch either. Love to see the slants to Bowe too. His head finally seems right.

Wow -- Baptist all to yourself? That's a rarity for sure. Sounds like a great day

Bump

What he said.

Nice report and photos. Lots of cool angles. Lots of good fish.

Expedited permits....hmmmm, kinda rings a bell. Wind is good.

Here's the one I got a couple years ago. No complaints. It's well-made, compact, lightweight and in your price range. I've never tried it out with a good looking blond though, but I'd bet it would hold up.

For birding, the ability to get close in is the most important thing -- which means a big lens or big zoom. But shopping based on zoom ratio alone is a little risky. You can pretty much assume that the image quality (sharpness, etc.) will decline the greater the zoom range. There's always a trade off -- it's in the physics. It's fuzzy big bird or sharp small bird. You can crop away and make the sharp bird bigger. But fuzzy is fuzzy. It may make sense to go with something with a little more modest zoom range, but with a better image quality overall. DPReview did a review of 'super-zooms' which you might find helpful. It's a bit dated, but it would be a fair assumption that the current models would share the genetics of the earlier ones. If nothing else, it will get you familiar with the things to look for. Here's a link

Old friends, beautiful country, tough walking, dogs working, missed shots, outwitted by birds, total fatigue, sore muscles, long drives -- that's pheasant hunting. Sounds like a great trip to me! I gotta get another trip scheduled.

No, not my beer can. My nephew and I did pick up a bunch of trash around the park and downstream when we were there in Oct. Nice place, and the locals take great care of it. Too bad there's so many knuckleheads who can't pick up after themselves. But hey, let's keep this thread upbeat!

Ditto. But, a great fish and that's all that matters.

Wow -- great trip! Thanks for sharing. PS: I think I know that spot