Arizona Wanderings

Paying it forward: or why there are no pictures of quail…

December 10th, 2012

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It all started the evening before. Sometimes, I’m feeling lazy and I don’t set the alarm. I had made the choice to leave my hunting vest and shotgun out and ready to go. But being that I was pretty tired, and I figured that if I slept in, great. On the off chance that I would wake up early and not be able to sleep, I would still be ready to hit the road. The decision was made for me, when around 4:30 the fire alarm started doing that annoying chirping noise when the battery is about to die.

So, I waited out a few beeps before the wife nudged me out of bed. With the fire alarm taken care of, I made some coffee and headed out of the city to a quail spot that I’ve been interested in checking on. As I bumped along the dirt road, a covey of Gambel’s scurried into a wash and I quickly parked the truck and gave chase. I worked the area for a half hour and flushed several birds that did not present a shot. I proceded back to the truck and continued on down the dirt road when I saw a truck in the ditch.

The truck had it’s back axle buried deep in the sand. Two guys emerged sleepily from the bed of the truck and asked if I could give them a pull out of the soft dirt. Come to find out, they had tried to pull a u-turn the night before and had to spend the night after getting stuck. After 10 minutes of heaving, it was easy to see that my truck was not going to cut it. We stood there looking at the truck sunk in the sand, and as they discussed different possibilities, I could hear quail chirping around us in the canyon.

I could see they were both cold and hungry. I guess I could have been selfish and told them good luck, but when the one asked me for a lift back to town, how could I say no. He hopped in and I drove him the 45 minutes back to town where I waited with him at the towing station. Sure that he had the help he required, I nosed my truck back out of town. By now the sun was high in the sky and the thought of driving back into the desert to try and find some birds just didn’t hold the same appeal.

I know I did the right thing and I know that I should be satisfied with that. Call it what you will, the golden rule, karma, paying it forward, or just being a good person, I’m selfishly hoping that my actions this morning are going to pay dividends with some upcoming days in the field.

On a related note: I’m really digging the new Q5 Hunting Vest. I should have a more comprehensive overview in a couple of weeks, but if you are interested, check it out over at AZ Quail Today.

KC Badger Brown Trout Original Pre-Sale

December 6th, 2012

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If you’ve been living under a rock and have not been following along here or on facebook, the KC Badger Brown Trout Original T-shirt is on pre-sale right now. I even added a little incentive to the mix. So now, if you purchase one of the Brown Trout Shirts, I’ll throw in one of the AZWanderings 6′ furled leaders (that will be debuting shortly) for free.

KC Badger Brown Trout Original T-shirt

Rambling Review: Cabela’s Stowaway 6 Fly Rod

December 5th, 2012

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Rambling Review – Cabela’s Stowaway 6 Fly Rod

Cabela's Stowaway 6 Rod — Cabela’s Stowaway 6 Rod

Why:

I was looking for a backup 5 weight that I could easily transport, wether just throwing it in a pack for a backcountry trip or packing it into luggage for plane ride back to NY. Four piece fly rods are plentiful, but trying to find a rod that breaks down a bit smaller definitely narrows down your choices. At the end of the day, I cast a couple different travel fly rods and settled on a 5 weight Cabela’s Stowaway 6 Fly Rod.

First impressions:

The price – When looking for a back up fly rod, price plays a huge impact on my decision. My original thought was, “I’m not going to be fishing this on a regular basis, but instead only in emergency situations.” Cabela’s price was spot on for what I was looking for.

The components – The Cabela’s Stowaway 6 comes with a woven reel seat, chrome snake guides, SIC stripper guides, and alignment dots for quick assembly. This fly rod also comes with a rod tube.

The lack of a warranty – Many of the big fly rod companies now offer a lifetime-no-fault warranty on their rods. The Cabela’s Stowaway 6 Fly Rod automatically comes with a 90 no-fault warranty. If you want a longer warranty, you must purchase their extended warranty. As a consumer, this bums me out. I feel like I am being nickeled and dimed to death when they ask me to pay more at the register for an extended warranty. In all honesty, they could build that cost right into the price, tell me the rod has a lifetime warranty on it, and I would be none the wiser.

Field Use:

I bought this fly rod as a backup, but quickly it has become my go-to 5 weight rod. Wether slapping down hopper patterns or hucking heavy streamers, the Cabela’s Stowaway 6 does the trick. Cabela’s brands it as a moderate/fast action rod and I think that description is pretty accurate. It is a well rounded rod that excels in many different situations. This fly rod is a super smooth caster with delicacy for smaller dries, but enough punch to throw something with more weight.

The ability of the Cabela’s Stowaway 6 to break down to 18 inches is a nice feature when hiking in to some of the more remote creeks in Arizona. What I usually do, is leave the rod tube in the truck and hike in with the fly rod in the sock, then rig up once I am on the water.

Anyone who has fished with me knows that I am not gentle on my gear. I actually broke the rod tip (totally my fault) not long after I picked up the rod from Cabelas. Aside from operator error, this fly rod has it stood the test of time in the field and survived more than its share of abuse. The Cabelas Stowaway fly rod has plenty of backbone to steer those big fish away from log jams and rocks, and at the end of the day, get’s the job done.

Pros:

Price

The ability to break down to 18″

Smooth Castability

Cons:

No Lifetime Warranty

Prognosis: I think that the Cabela’s Stowaway 6 Fly Rod is a great rod. If your looking for a travel, everyday, or backup fly rod, check out the Stowaway and tell me what you think.

* Disclaimer:

The reviews at Arizona Wanderings are my honest opinion. Arizona Wanderings is not sponsored by or associated with any of the stated companies and is accepting no compensation, monetary or otherwise, in exchange for this review. My independent status may change in the future but, as of the date of publication, no relationship other than described above has been pursued or established.

New T-shirt: KC Badger Brown Trout Original

December 3rd, 2012

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Arizona Wanderings has teamed up with local legend KC Badger for the new artist series t-shirt design. For those that do not know KC is a household name in the BMX industry and a well known face in the fly fishing scene in Arizona too. I had seen several of his fly fishing art pieces around and was super stoked when he agreed to put something together for the new t-shirt design. KC did not disappoint and his signature style shows through in this image. It was cool seeing the whole thing come together from start to finish.

KC Badger Brown Trout Original T-shirt

I am doing a pre-order sale to begin with, so for this week if you are interested in supporting local art and business and getting a screaming deal on a t-shirt, swing by the Arizona Wanderings Shop and put in for your KC Badger Brown Trout Original T-shirt. Thanks for your continued support.

Check out more of KC Badger at The Dagger Zone

Fly Fishing Arizona: Holding on to the Dream

November 29th, 2012

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Spent the day in the mountains with my buddy Antonio, who from here-forth shall be known as Samurai Tony. The reason being that Antonio has discovered tenkara. We fished a nice creek and found some willing fish to eat our flies. Watching Antonio fish with his tenkara rod, I could see that he was having fun and I can appreciate that, but at no point during the day did I feel the need to run out a buy a tenkara rod. Without rehashing the tenkara vs. western fly fishing arguement, I did not see any substantial advantage of the tenkara rod over the rod/reel setup. At the end of the day, it was cool to see it in action, but until I see a situation in which a fly rod and reel will not work and only the tenkara will, I probably will not be picking it up.

The weather is turning a bit cooler in the mountains and the fishing has definitely slowed from the summer/fall-bigger-fish-extravaganza to the late-fall-my-fingers-are-cold-should-I-really-be-out-here-extravaganza. I found myself switching flies quite a bit throughout the day from streamers to mini-hoppers to small dries and then repeat. Pretty soon, there is going to be some snow and it will be a bit of a trick to get to some of those creeks. Looks like it might be time for a bit more quail hunting in the desert.

Arizona Quail Hunting with Dan Priest of AZ Quail Today

November 26th, 2012

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The clock read 5:15 when I rolled into the Wickenburg McDonalds to meet up with Dan Priest who founded both Arizona Outdoors Adventures and AZ Quail Today. We sat and drank coffee, just talking and telling stories and eventually decided to head out after some birds. It was nice to see some new country, and Dan’s dogs worked the desert while pointing several Gambel’s quail for us. Dan is a heck of a shot and it seemed the everytime the gun went to his shoulder, a bird ended up in the bag. My shooting was pretty standard and I ended up “pardoning” many flushing quail.

Meeting up with Dan was a real honor. Dan Priest has been hunting quail in Arizona for the past 50+ years and has seen it all. Throughout the morning I learned a great deal more about quail hunting from his vast experience in this state. One thing that I was really excited about was the new Q5 bird hunting vest that Dan has been developing. I wore one through the morning and it was one of the most comfortable vests that I have ever worn and it is very functional. The other cool thing is that they are 100% made in the Arizona White Mountains. I should have a more extensive review coming up in a couple of weeks, once I get out and hunt in it a bit more. Bottom line though – it’s a winner. Check out the Q5 hunting vest here.

It was a great day and in field, and I am very thankful to have been able to meet up with Dan. I hope to meet up with him again to do a little more Arizona quail hunting.

Wall of Fame: Texas Quail Hunting

November 22nd, 2012

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Check out these photos from Pat and his recent Texas quail hunt. Note the awesomeness of the I “Quail” AZ t-shirt. Thanks Pat for your support.

The photos are from a recent quail hunt here in Texas. My hunting partners were my nine year old son, Sean, and our dogs, Angel and Sassy. Sean started the day off right by taking a bird over Angel’s first point that morning.

I lived in Arizona when I was younger and some of my best memories growing up are from weekend adventures exploring the state with my brother, dad and uncle in an old International Scout. Your stories and photos bring back a lot of great memories and I hope to get Sean out there to do some exploring of our own.

I love the quail t-shirt and I am happy to support the site. Keep up the good work.

Pat

Fly Fishing Arizona: Windy

November 19th, 2012

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Jake and I met up for a quick day of fishing. The morning started beautiful and cold, and about the time we had our fly rods strung up, the wind started. It howled on us the rest of the day and made casting either direction a bear. Many of the pools had ice and it leads me to believe that the high country really is about to close up. Jake saved us from complete skunk and pulled this beautiful brown out of a deep pool. Great day in the outdoors, but cold and very windy.