Terry, George, Kenny, Leon, Antonio, Pancho, and I went and shot some ducks this past weekend and did pretty well. Here are some photos.

Pulling up to the spot in our new canoe

Tule making her way through the tules

Day # 1

TJ with his first Canvasback drake

The Group

Day # 3

Towsurfer.com

TJ on the inside bowl

Bryce, Jordan, and I took a day trip down to Isla Todos Santos for the first swell of the sleepy big wave season. Since there were 3 of us, we decided to take a panga out from the harbor instead of driving our jet ski out from the Coral. The night before I got ahold of our family friend, Rey, a commercial fisherman from Isla Natividad who lives in Ensenada in the off season, to find a panga for the next day. Since it was the first swell of the season, I knew it was going to be very crowded.

TJ and Bryce getting in the panga

Bryce and Jordan

The wave as we pull up

So the next morning we woke up leisurely and buddy car-ed down to the harbor with friend/ photographer, Rob Keith. Since the swell wasn’t going to peak until the afternoon, or so we thought, we ate breakfast at Victors in Ensenada, and made our way out to the island around 10 am.

After the 45 minute ride out to the island, we had a feeling there was going to be size due to the large open ocean swells in the channel. As we pulled around the corner we saw a couple big waves come through and got stoked.

TJ hopping in the water

A view of the island

Jaime's First Wave

Derek Dunfee

Bryce getting cleaned up and Jason Murray going in with the ski

Paddling back out

Bryce on a good one

TJ at the end of a big one

After riding a couple good waves and taking a couple on the head, Jordan, Bryce, and I returned to the boat with Jaime Mitchell for some lunch. After resting up Jaime decided to go back out for a couple more, since he was there shooting with Jason Murray. At that time we packed it up and headed back to the harbor.

End of the day Opaleye

Another great day out at Killers!

Media:

1. http://www.surfermag.com/photos/pacific-gauntlet/#135fefed2a

SurferMag.com

2. http://www.surfline.com/surflinetv/primetime/todos-santos-paddle-session_64777

Surfline Video

3. http://www.surfline.com/surf-news/big-nw-swell-hits-mexico_64780/

Surfline Photo- Slide # 16

4. http://blog.swell.com/check-it/todos-santos-paddle-session/

We just got back from Bridgett’s second hunt of the year where she, Hilary, and Marshall joined Terry and I to the lagoons to hunt some waterfowl. We had a great trip and shot a lot of ducks. Here are the pictures!

Marshall with his first Honker

The layout from the day

2 Honkers for the day

Bridgett and Hilary in the afternoon

After a successful trip in September, I knew it was only right to plan another trip in mid-November to target antelope and swan. After hunting non-stop for waterfowl, upland game, and big game for 2 weeks, we finally filled our tags. Here are the photos of our trip.

First morning out and we are already putting chains on

Doing some glassing on a clear cut after a long hike

Wolf Tracks

Black Bear Tracks

Breaking through the ice after my swan

Dane with his Snow Goose

Not bad for a morning hunt

Keeping warm in the sleet and snow

Waterfowl hunting

2 Black Necks

Male Hooded Merganser

Antelope Hunting

The deer of the year

Because of a busy year of weddings, parties, and work, Terry and I couldn’t make the true Duck/Goose opener this year, but we decided to slip away during the week to get a day and a half of action. Between 5 hunters and 2 dogs we did pretty well.

Tule bringing in her first Honker

Thanks for the back up Dad! Papa proud of Tule's retrieve

Terry and Tule with a respectable string of waterfowl in our new canoe

Finally a Canvasback, and a double!

The group after the morning hunt

Antonio and TJ after the final afternoon

Sunset

Terry, Josh, and I decided to go down to Mexicali the weekend after the true opener, to bypass the crowds of people. We were  met by a couple friends to enjoy shooting some dove, quail, and pheasant in the valley.

A lot of ringneck pheasant

Josh with a Gambels Quail

Jump shooting

Mallard

Nima, Antonio, and I were nominated to drive all the gear down to the recent Bachelor/Bachelorette Party down in Bahia de los Suenos, La Paz. We were very excited to take this responsibility on because we got to spend a lot of time in Bahia Asuncion to fish and  also were able to marvel on the beauty Baja has to offer.

We left Monday morning early and knew we had to be in La Paz on Saturday, so we dead headed down to Bahia Asuncion in one day to visit our friend Manuel to fish for a couple days. Here are the fish we caught.

Antonio and TJ with a small Gulf Grouper

Yellowtail and a bonito

Valle de Cirrios

Nima on the salt flats

Barracuda

Nima with his first yellowtail

Manuel's baby horse

Bottom fishing?

Chinese Croaker

The line up of fish

Berrendo Farm

Antelope Sheds

Nima with his prize Opaleye

Only in Mexico

After Day 3

After our 3rd day in Bahia Asuncion, we packed up and we were off again to our final destination to La Paz to celebrate Coco and Ryan’s Wedding. We brought down a lot of fishing gear, dive equipment, and golf stuff and were ready for a full 4 days in the most beautiful place on earth.

The group sitting in the shallows

Ryan with his first Striper

YFT after a day on the water

Bryce swinging at the ball on Seashore Paspalum

Dustin and his first marlin

Hilary catching the bait- Lady fish

Marieke with her first YFT

Bridgett and Hilary snorkeling

SUP

The 3 puffer fish

Dorado

Marieke and a Skipjack

A night of diving

2 Cubera Snapper

Ryan, Bobby, and I with the self timer

Terry doing what he does best

Terry just found an outfitter just a couple hours away from the house who knows where some healthy populations of Valley Quail are. He and Bryce took the first trip to test it out, and they were amazed at the large coveys of birds. Then, Terry, TJ, Nima, George, Kenny, and Leon went the other week. Again, we scored!

Bryce with a nice male

The Group

Stone corral and house far far away from civilization

This past September a group of us drove down to Mexicali to hunt the dove opener. There were 3 new hunters with us including: Marieke, Ryan, and Nima. Everyone had a great time and we shot a lot of birds. Here are some shots!

The group at the end of the first day

Marieke shooting a 28 guage

Mark and TJ

Tradition for the new hunters

About a week later, I decided to take a solo trip to meet my friends for a dove shoot in Mexicali. This was a special trip because it was Tule’s first trip after training. She did awesome!

Tule and TJ

The group

Dane and I thought up a year ago that we were going to go after what is known as the most difficult upland game bird in North America, the Himalayan Snowcock. So we did our research and found a cabin to rent, made a list, packed up, and after a flight for me and a 12 hour drive to the Ruby Mountains, we were off on a self guided hunt. We had no idea how difficult of a hunt it would be, but we will be back next year a lot more prepared. It is beautiful country in NE Nevada and we saw a lot of animals. Here are the shots that made the trip.

View of the Ruby Mountains

The cabin we rented at the Ruby Crest Ranch

Dane and I packed up and started the 8 hour hike up to the ridge

Carvings from a Basque goat herder

Dane checking the topography map

The river kept us cool on the way up

Spotting for Snowcock

Snowcock and Mountain Goat scat

A lot of time was spent behind the binoculars

TJ and Dane with Kings Peak in the background

Looking back down on the valley

Nevada Blue Grouse

Snowcock and Sage Grouse

After the long drive back to Montana, we logged a lot of sleep time to rest our wounds from the Snowcock hunt. Since it was upland game and bow season we were out the next day looking for the next spot. Here are some pictures!

Ruffed Grouse

The view from my tree stand