Better day @100 yds Flintlock

[PJM]

one question. What do you keep in the tent to deter critters, especially the big hungry ones?

[RanchRoper]

Bear spray, I'm not that good of a pistol shot, besides in this country just packing a pistol anywhere other than a licensed range will land you in jail, let alone shooting it. PM Castro won't have it. This range and club is BP only and not licensed for pistols so I would not put the owners in a pickle either. I keep the flintlock ready to shoot too, but didn't work out too well for Dicrapio in the Revenant.

[PJM]

I am impressed. I would get little sleep. Have had close quarter encounters with black bears ( sow and triplets)that worked out well. Grizzlies and wolves are another issue. Stay safe. For a country with so much wilderness ans back country\, the handgun laws are surprising.

[RanchRoper]

I’ve had lots of bear encounters over the years too. Blacks and grizz. We get them all here, big cats too. Just have prepare as best you can.

[RanchRoper]

How many fish did you catch

I am not much of a fisherman....although fly fishing looks relaxing.

[Mr. Neutron]

I am not much of a fisherman....although fly fishing looks relaxing.

I love flyfishing. Did it just last week on the upper Deschutes River in Oregon (a really, really good trout river in these parts.... ).

It can be relaxing, sometimes, I suppose. You have to be able to enjoy hooking your (kinda expensive) flies on streamside vegetation you're trying to fish under. And then walking up on a rattlesnake playing "La Cucaracha" in the brush as you try to get closer to whatever tree or brush has that fly.

Yeah. Real relaxing......

And I already have plans made to go back. The fishin' was REALLY GOOD!!!!

[Mags]

I am not much of a fisherman....although fly fishing looks relaxing.

I love flyfishing. Did it just last week on the upper Deschutes River in Oregon (a really, really good trout river in these parts.... ).

It can be relaxing, sometimes, I suppose. You have to be able to enjoy hooking your (kinda expensive) flies on streamside vegetation you're trying to fish under. And then walking up on a rattlesnake playing "La Cucaracha" in the brush as you try to get closer to whatever tree or brush has that fly.

Yeah. Real relaxing......

And I already have plans made to go back. The fishin' was REALLY GOOD!!!!

My favorite spot is about 1/2 mile below the Wickiup dam on the Deschutes River. Camping over at the Davis Lake campground.
Fly fishing is sort of mindless fun once one gets the knack for lying out the line on the water and whipping it back and forth. I remember as a beginner a bit of trial and error consternation getting the layout to go correctly. Took a lot of practice.

[Mr. Neutron]

In my post above, I forgot to mention to RanchRoper what a great group he shot after the sight adjustment! I can't shoot like that, but I can recognize when someone with skill can. As much as I practice offhand with my BB rifle, my targets resemble more of a shotgun pattern. Again, Sir, Great Shootin'!

And sorry for the hijack on flyfishing. Mags, my wife & I fished around the Terrebonne area last week, as we were staying at the Smith Rock Resort for our 43rd wedding anniversary. We've both enjoyed flyfishing together most our married life. I do have to kinda "edit" the areas we fish when we fish together, and try to find her places with plenty of room behind her to backcast. She's very nervous about wading, so she fishes mostly from the bank. For most of the Lower Deschutes (Maupin area & down river), this works out fine. The fish tend to hang out mostly in the shallows near the shore, around basketball sized rocks in water moving at a walking pace. She dry fly fishes these areas with pretty good success. But the fish also like to hang out under overhanging branches from the streamside trees. The fish feel safe there, and there's always caddis flies dancing around those branches. These present a challenge for her to fish, so she typically skips that sorta deal.

I will wade out a safe distance, and try to cast in towards the shore, and under those branches. Sometimes I pull it off, but I also donate a lot of flies to those tree branches. And last week near Steelhead Falls, I found a "merciful" rattlesnake on the bank as I went to get one of those flies. He rattled at me as I got close, and I appreciated the warning. I "pushed" him away with the end of my fly rod, until I could get my fly outta the tree. Then I chased him a bit more with the rod, just to hear him rattle. For some reason that sound both frightens me initially, then turns into a kinda cool sound of nature, for me anyway. He never struck, and crawled away every time I bothered him.

If anyone is wanting to read a really great illustrated manual for beginning flyfishers, get a copy of "The Curtis Creek Manifesto" by Sheridan Anderson. This is The Best book for folks wanting to learn about flyfishing I've read. I've given copies of it to friends who wanna learn flyfishing, and everyone really likes it.

[dave77]

I've never fly fished but had a friend who did. Once we were fishing at a small local lake slowly trolling a small wet fly and we could hardly get the fly in the water before we'd get a bite. People fishing from the shore probably using a egg and a marshmallow or a worm weren't getting any bites at all. The 3 of us all had our limits in less than a hour.

Saw a video of a guy fly fishing in a small river and he had his fly tying gear in portable set up and would grab whatever bug was currently hatching out of the water and tie a matching fly right there.

Trout can be very picky, we were fishing at the mouth of a very clear river and Salmon were spawning further up the river. We could look down and see dozens of very large lake trout feeding on the eggs that broke loose. We tried running different lures right past their noses and they would not touch them, unfortunately we didn't have any eggs with us.

[RanchRoper]

Fly fishing sounds like more trouble than it's worth, I'll just shoot 'em.