This comes to me by way of Ivan at the Yukon Goes Fishing blog.  I grew up in the Flathead Valley in Montana, downstream from the proposed mining that seems to be foiled for now at the headwaters of the Flathead.  The video is a beautiful trip to that area and shows what an incredible, special place the Flathead is. I hope the headwaters area can be turned into a national park in Canada along with Waterton and Glacier on the US side.  If you only ever see one national park, make it Glacier!  I have seen many of our national parks, and Glacier simply takes one’s breath away. 

Take 25 minutes and immerse yourself in the Flathead, thanks to EP Films.  If you’re an outdoor photographer, or you just like to look at stunning photos, this is an impressive film.

Flathead Wild ReEdit from EP Films on Vimeo.

Nothing like a little snack on the fourth hole fairway of the Fargo Country Club. The report is that the coyote killed the deer.  Lacking a comprehensive story, I wonder if the deer was sick or dead already and the coyote just had an opportunity for a meal.

Source: Urban Wildlife in Fargo, story on KFGO’s website.  Their source was listed as Jim Monk.

UPDATE: This WDAY story reports that a woman witnessed the kill and that the coyote took about 15 minutes to bring down the deer.  She took photographs but has asked not to be identified.

Prompted by the Outdoor Blogger Network, I’m posting a photo I took in 2007 of one of my favorite places, Orwell Reservoir near Fergus Falls, MN.  Sunset is a magic time there, and my family has spent many an hour fishing for smallmouth bass, channel cats, and crappies.  It is the site of my daughter’s first catfish from a kayak, good memories of fly-fishing for smallies, and a great place for watching eagles.  It has a 10 hp motor limit, so it is free of wakeboarders and jetskiers. Click to enlarge.

I hear the dinner's pretty good at these folks' house.

We had visitors on Christmas eve here in Wahpeton.  It’s one thing when the in-laws come for dinner, but turkeys? They invited themselves right up my next-door neighbor’s sidewalk and then proceeded out of his driveway and down the street, much to the delight of all in the neighborhood except for the one grinch who had to honk at them.

Merry Christmas, everybody!

Hurry up, Ma! It's cold out here.

Bellies full, the turkeys head to the next house.

My wife and daughter had a comfortable viewing position from across the street.

Brent over at Northwoods Wanderings and Aroostook Flyers and Tyers (and Maine Fishing Forums) has an ice fishing photo contest going on.  Check it out.

I wonder if it would be considered cheating if I Photoshopped this paddlefish photo to make it look like I caught it through the ice?

I submit for your viewing pleasure my photographic study on a custom fly rod and filet knife built by Bob Cumming (www.cummingknives.com) for me, with my great uncle’s creel.  Details: Rod is an 8 weight on a Lamiglass Perigee blank, STH reel, knife is ATS-34 steel with Bob’s beautiful handiwork.

It’s been a busy summer doing things like building a fence and working for food, but one of the highlights was a trip to the Boundary Waters in mid-June.

Here’s what I learned:

1. Kayaks (especially the plastic kind) are a *#$%## to portage.  Next time: Kevlar canoe. Double portages won’t be necessary and I might keep my sanity.

2. Better shoes than trail hikers would help on muddy, rocky portages.  We did OK, but everything was muddy this June.  It was so wet it was hard to find dry firewood.

3. You can never travel too light.  There are things I would leave home next time, although we did a reasonable job of reducing everything into a set of gear that probably didn’t exceed thirty pounds for two people. Kayaking probably forced us to get used to a level of gear that would work out very easily in a canoe.

4. bwca.com is a great resource and pumping campsite info, portages, etc. into the GPS made finding things very convenient. (Yes, we did have maps and compasses for backup).  

5. Finding campsites early in the day was a bit of advice I was given prior to our trip, and it was wise.  We got the last campsite on the lake we wanted.  If we had not been able to camp there, another long portage would have loomed at the end of the day.  We also made camp as it started pouring for a few hours.

6. A waterproof digital camera was worth its weight in gold.  My wife bought me an Olympus Stylus Tough 6000 that was my constant companion.  The pictures of our trip show some great memories.

7. Get in shape before you go.  I should have done a better job of getting out and getting active before we left on our trip this spring.  Although I survived and didn’t collapse, a lot of things probably would have seemed just a little bit easier if I was in tip-top shape.

8. Prepare, prepare, prepare.  We began our preparations as soon as we applied for our permit in January.  A couple of trial runs in the kayaks close to home made us feel very comfortable once we put in with all of our gear on the trip itself.

9. Make a checklist before you go and use it.  I modified a packing list someone posted on the Internet and thought it through many times before we left.

10. Talk to people who have been there.  I gained a lot of useful information by asking really stupid questions of people who had made Boundary Waters trips.

11. (I always have to turn it up to 11!) Wear a boonie hat. They’re awesome!

Now for some photos to prove we’ve been there:

Once again, the 3 Rs brings you fishing culture on a platter:

I found Eric Engbretson’s site www.underwaterfishphotos.com by way of Moldy Chum.  I love underwater photos of smallmouth bass.  It is very cool to be able to visualize what the fish look like “down there.”    

Another site that has some spectacular underwater footage is Kim Stricker’s Hook and Look.  His website also has multiple species photographed by sneaking up on them with scuba gear.  If you get a chance to see the TV show, he also shows lures in action and the responses of fish.

Finally, you owe it to yourself if you love trout to visit Pat Clayton’s FishEyeGuy Photography.  His underwater pictures of trout in streams are the finest I have seen.  Please go to his gallery and look at his photo of Yellowstone Cutthroats and the other gorgeous streambed scenes.  You will probably ooh and ahh and call someone else over to show them the pictures.  Incredible stuff!

Having nearly worn out a Fuji S-5000 digital camera, and with a birthday coming up in June, my excellent wife prodded me into allowing myself to buy a digital SLR the other day.  To satisfy the equipmentheads who may be reading this, it is an Olympus E-500 with 14-45 and 40-150mm lenses.  One of my wife’s areas of excellence is in finding good deals, especially with power tools.  Her latest achievement was finding me a $150 Milwaukee jigsaw for $50.  As for the camera deal, it was the E-500 with both lenses for $420 brand new.  

One of my strengths (or weaknesses) is looking at nearly every piece of equipment I buy as part of a system.  In this case, I realized that I could not just buy a camera and carry it around in a dufflebag and use it as-is.  Perhaps others can learn from my experience in setting up this rig for less than $550, including accessories.

Item #1:  Clear and polarized filters.  For outdoor photography especially, having some filters screwed on the lenses is a good idea.  It is a lot cheaper to replace a scratched filter than it is to replace a lens.  The polarized filter is probably the only filter that you cannot replicate in Photoshop, and is an obvious need for the outdoor photographer.  

Item #2:  Camera bag.  I chose a Tamrac Expedition 3 backpack because it would carry the camera and an extra lens, and I liked the idea of the waterproof zipper cover.  These will run anywhere between 50 and 75 dollars.  

Item #3:  Extra memory card.  I chose a high speed 2 GB CompactFlash card.  The extra few bucks for the higher-speed card means a faster write from the camera to the card, which translates into faster shooting.  

Item #4:  This one is free.  Read one of the many tutorials on Digital SLR Basics on the Web.  Then read the advice at Thomas Hawk’s website.  His discussion of such things as ISO is a good addition to a basic tour of the camera.  From one hour of reading, I was able to learn how to take slower shutter speed waterfall photos, how to manage ISO settings for low light, and aperture settings for different depths of field (i.e. how you can set your camera to have the hummingbird in focus and the background blurred).  Of course, the other required reading is your camera manual.

Item #5:  A beanbag.  It sounds silly, but rather than a hard window mount, a beanbag is very versatile.  While there are some on the market that reportedly do a passable job, the do-it-yourself system by Fred Hurteau looks like it should be hard to beat.  He even posts patterns for sewing the Butterfly Beanbag on his website, along with other DIY accessories such as the Flying Saucer Ballhead.  With the bag and the Flying Saucer, one should be able to do some pretty good shooting with a long lens over the car window, off a fencepost, or even from the ground.  And it can be used for digiscoping or a spotting scope setup, as well.  My wife’s sewing machine (and my woodworking tools) are going to get a workout.

Item #6:  Sign up for Flickr.  It’s free (or $25 a year for the pro account).  There is a lot of expertise and inspiration lurking on Flickr, and it is the easiest to use photo sharing site I have come across.  You can control permissions of your photos and keep certain photos private, share with only family and friends, or share with the world.  It’s also a good way to organize and back up your photo collection offsite.

Future plans for the camera include a lens topping out at 300mm and a macro lens, but for now I have a machine to do the majority of what I have been doing with my mostly-automatic Fuji.  I’m sure the Olympus E-500 will increase the quality of my photos, as well as provide me opportunities for shots I was simply unable to perform in the past.

You can view my wildlife and outdoor photography in the My Photos section of this blog.  It links to my Flickr galleries.

Click to enlarge.