Paying Tribute

Back in the fall of 2006, Boomer and I went on what was to be his last pheasant hunt.  With his graying muzzle, Boomer brought his A-game to the hunt.  He was spot on and worked the field the like a spry young pup.  I snapped a shot at the end of the day with the birds hanging on a fence post.  Flash forward to 2012.  Boomer has been gone for 2 years and Deke is doing his best to fill the all-around-dog shoes.  We hunted the same patch of ground and found birds.  I couldn't help but put the birds up on the same fence post and snap a shot of Deke.  RIP Boomer, you were an incredible pup.

2006

2012

Pretty cool you can see the lines in his pads.... Not cool that his tracks were top of all other tracks on the trail.  We made a lot of noise...

5-4-3 If You're Scoring at Home

The triple play.  There have been 689 documented triple plays major league baseball.  This year, and not in the MLB, a very nice triple play was performed.  Three visits to that piece of heaven north of us, Yellowstone National Park.  8 years ago Rooster made his first trip to the park.  The years of soccer and skateboarding have reduced his visit counts to the park.  It was wonderful to get back in the park with him last week, along with Gear Guide Wyatt and G-man.  The fishing was tough, the big orange bugs have moved up river and the fish were full.  We had to do some recon and searching, but managed to find a few players who swung at a tailing slider on the outside corner....

8 years later, still hitting home runs...

A mouthful of big rich bugger

Untouched sky.  Polarizers at Noon day can create dramatic effects to skies and clouds

The Gear Guide with colored up Yellowstone Cutthroat

Rooster's first trip to YNP.  Throwing knuckle balls to Brookies on the Gardner river, with Ricardo.  Time flies... pun intended.

Barkeeper, Give Me Another

Another round of Yellowstone.  With Sweets flying home for the weekend, WildeMan and I decided to head back to the park.  It was most adventurous, we were charged by a bison, dodged falling rocks in the canyon, and bumped into a wide eyed angler who just got an up close look at a grizzly, 5 minutes before our arrival.  But we did manage to find some fish and some gorgeous back country.

 Wet wading, big fish, on big flies, on top.  Life is very good to us

Come to papa

 WildeMan with a beautiful choice of flies and a terrible choice of teams

A place like no other.  Bucket list the Yellowstone backcountry.

Say hello to my little friend...

The Chubby Chernobyl dressed in salmon fly colors.  Fun tie, fun fly, fun with fishes.

 Not a very good idea to try and smuggle sheds out of Yellowstone National Park.  Yeah, they don't like that....

Stress Balls

I'm not sure who invented them, but somewhere in corporate culture someone came up with the idea of putting company logos on kids rubber balls and calling them "stress relievers".  The idea is to squeeze them over and over until the stress you are feeling from your job leaves through your hands and into the ball.  I have a couple on my desk, but the only time I feel stress relief is when I throw them at my coworkers.

That may work for cube farm slaves, but when Sweets and I feel day to day stress, we hit a river.  When things really start to work life into a wind knot, we hit our nirvana, Yellowstone National Park.  "The Park" during July is our super sized stress ball.  When we are done squeezing as much fish time as possible out a 2 day trip, stress has left through our hands and into gorgeous Yellowstone Cutt's.  Aaaaah, I love it when I've been relieved of all my stress....

Do you see any stress? See? It worked.

Always take the time to enjoy where you are...

Putting stress on a VXP

We always take the time to hit our favorite Brookie stream before heading home

Hello, Bonnie

If you go fishing and you only catch one fish, make sure she's beautiful.  Sweets and I got away for a couple of hours last night and hit the Logan.  I had a couple of hits before Sweets spotted a nice fish sipping against a cliff wall.  Since I was on that side of the river and couldn't see exactly where it was holding, Sweets was able to put me on the fish.  We didn't know how nice of a fish it was until she ate.  I love Bonneville Cutt's.  I love this Bonnie the most.  I stopped fishing after we were introduced.

Even her butt was sexy

As usual, Sweets had a higher fish count

What does one do at Jackson Hole ski resort in the summer?...

You convert ski lifts to bike lifts and mountain bike... downhill. 

That white spec you see is a para-glider.  They were jumping from the top of the mountain to the valley floor.  Transit time? 40 minutes!

Ketchup

No, not ketchup as in the red gooey stuff you put on.... well just about everything.  I'm talking ketchup as in playing catch up.  It's been over 2 months since we last checked in, but that doesn't mean we haven't been fishing or having fun.  Schools out, summer has begun, the snow pack was non existent in the West this year, and the local rivers have already cleared.  Fishing has been fantastic, so fantastic I've left the camera at home for most of our trips.  Below are a few shots from the last 2 months and a promise to update everyone on a regular basis.  See ya next week.

Idaho Rainbow

 

Green River Brown

 

Wyatt with said Green River Brown on

 

The eclipse hit Cache Valley pretty good. 

How to Make Sweets Cry

Making Sweets cry is certainly something I don't ever strive to do.  However, here's how:
1.  She catches a whitey
2.  She breaks her Sage while landing the fish

 I don't recommend purposefully trying it, but she was in near tears the other night when she came home from the Blacksmith Fork.

Uh-oh, Houston?....

How to make Sweets smile?  Upgrade!

First order of business was to get it slimey

Picked a good day to go...

Rusty from over at Livin' the Dream invited me along on a sled ride.  He rode.  I pretended and took pictures.

Pucker up for Sweets!