Many weekends find me camping out, either hunting or fishing in the Arizona backcountry. What’s ironic is that as wonderful and exciting as my time in the wild is, nothing really compares to the moment when I turn the truck on to my street and drive up to the house. The garage door opens, and I can hear the excited barks of my two pups, as I kill the engine of the vehicle. I drag a couple of bags into the house, give my girl a hug, and scratch the boys behind the ears. While I recount the weekend’s events to my wife, the dogs are going to find out the story in a different way. With their snouts buried deep into my hunting pack, their noses seek to find out what I was up to, where I’ve been, and if I was successful. Their tails never stop wagging, and they look at me with pleading eyes, hoping that next time I take them with me.

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It’s that time of year again here in Arizona. Cactus League baseball is starting to ramp up and the ISE show is back in Phoenix. Before heading over to the show, I threw my fly rod in the truck and I headed over to the carp ponds to see what was moving. The carp were around but it seemed that the bass were more apt to play. After getting my fly fishing fix, I wandered over to the Expo and met up with some good people and friends.

I was able to stop by and talk to Terry Gunn from Lees Ferry Anglers about the river. I have a trip coming up in the near future and all signs are pointing to great conditions. The guys at AZ Fly Casters were there tying bugs and on the end, Dave Brown from Dave Brown Outfitters was hanging out talking to people about bird hunting and fly fishing up in B.C. It didn’t take much, but I think I am going to have to go up and pay him a visit in the near future.

As I wandered through the displays, I recognized a familiar face in the archery tournament. Darr Colburn from Colburn and Scott Outfitters was there with his son, Parker. Darr was flinging arrows downrange and racking up some good numbers. I’m thinking for next year about trying to round up some stickbow guys to go down and make a traditional showing.

Next to the archery range was a Dock Dog Contest. It was pretty fun to sit and watch the pups showing their jumping abilities. Some of these dogs jumping over 25 feet. I think my dog, Budder, could hang with the best of them though.

Mike Stewart was manning the Desert Fly Casters booth while Cinda Howard was on the casting pond giving a casting demonstration. I had a really cool opportunity to meet fellow blogger, Marc Neilson, from Tonto Ramblings at the show. Mark was a really nice guy and I’m looking forward to doing a bit of fishing with him in the future.

Overall the ISE show was a good Saturday diversion, but I did feel that there were not as many vendors or people as past shows. What did you all think?

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A bittersweet day in the field found me scoping out my hunting stand for the upcoming turkey/deer archery season. The day was bittersweet because I know that with archery season comes the new school year. So while this week I am setting up a ground blind thinking about water and food sources for my quarry, next week will have me sitting in meetings and writing lesson plans.

Although I saw a good amount of fresh sign and even spooked a small flock of turkey, I still have misgivings about the upcoming season. Bowhunting in Arizona requires a good amount of time and an even more substantial amount of luck (in my opinion), and with my favorite creeks within a short driving distance from my hunting stand, my time is usually devoted to the wild trout who boost my confidence when taking a dry fly.

Although the pictures above look nice and sunny, I was caught in an epic thunderstorm that left me wet and cold as the temperature began to drop. Of course I could have turned the truck back down the mountain for the 100+ degrees in Phoenix, but why drive all this way with a fly rod in the backseat if I am not going to use it.

I chose to fish the top of one of my favorite creeks hoping to find the water relatively clear despite the rain. The water was a little bit high and off color which was perfect for the dry dropper setup. Usually this creek is choked with small rainbows in the 4-6 inch range with the occasional brown about the same size, but this day I got into the bigger boys and pulled 3 browns at 12 inches or more. This may not seem that great, but for a stream that trickles and can be stepped across most of the way up, I was ecstatic.

After an hour or two, with the rain still falling, the temperature finally forced me to turn around and head back to the truck for a fresh (well…dry) t shirt I found wadded up in the back seat and heat pumping from the vents. Satisfied that my hunting stand is up and that I found some bigger fish in the little creek, I called it a day and headed back down the mountain. I don’t really want to go back to work…

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