The modification was just a little bungee cord that could really add stability:

Bears really lend themselves to video. Generally when they come in you’ve got minutes, if not hours, before they leave. They also can’t see especially well so a little movement won’t bother them. For me the cameras help pass the time, and they also make for good conversation at dinner:

This was our second hunt with Garrett Brothers Outfitters and I couldn’t recommend them enough. If you’re thinking about a hunt with them feel free to drop me an email at dukkillr@hotmail.com and I’d be happy to expand on my thoughts.

Check back occasionally. I hope to get my hands on a few more of the kill videos. I promise I’ll post them as soon as I can.

This hunt was very different. The crew that I hunted with this time aren’t really sleep-in-the-truck kind of guys, so we booked with Table Mountain Outfitters. They are based out of Northeast Wyoming, not far from Douglas. When we got to camp there were antelope and mule deer walking around within range of the kitchen!

The next morning The Old Man and I headed out after breakfast. Our guide’s plan was to spend the first hour or more looking over bucks and helping us get a feel for what it was we were looking for. My limited antelope hunting experience had already taught me that it was tough to tell an 80″ goat from a 70″ and perhaps even harder to tell a 70″ for a 60″. With three pairs of binos and a spotting scope we picked apart maybe 40 bucks over a hour or so. Too shot, too thin, no prongs, etc… In a relaxed morning hunt I looked over more bucks than I did during the entire 2008 hunt. Bucks like this one were literally everywhere you looked:

After a while we started covering more ground. It wasn’t long before we found a shooter buck. We hid the truck behind a hill and started trying to close the distance. Around a hill, down in a wash, and at 200 yards we couldn’t find the group we were looking for. We crept forward to 150 yards of where we thought they were when I spotted a doe looking at us. I lined up for a standing shot on a set of shooting sticks while the guide and the old man dropped down below sight line. The buck came towards us to investigate but only his head was visible. The guide took my white hat and waived it in the air to “flag” him. It gave me the 20 yards I needed to see his chest. A short but somewhat uncomfortable standing shot took care of business:

Good length, great prongs, and fantastic mass throughout. I was very pleased!

I’ll tell you about The Old Man’s hunt tomorrow.

Actually the view is great, but it’s the fishing that matters right?

Well this year was perhaps even better than last in terms of big fish. I caught two northern over 40:

but neither was big enough to knock The Old Man’s fish out of the top spot:

Unfortunately, this year’s trip was not all perfect. Before dinner on the second night my mother slipped on mud and grass while walking between her cabin and the dinner cabin. She fell and broke both the bones in her lower leg. It was a bad situation, but it could have been so much worse. Our crew included a radiologist, an RN, a dentist, and a guy who has run clinics and radiology departments all his life. They got her reasonably diagnosed, splinted, and relaxed. The other huge stroke of luck was that there was a small float plane already parked on the dock. There is one worker in camp to keep the generator running, boats gassed, and cabins from burning down. This year that worker happened to be the owner of the operation and he happens to be a bush pilot as well.

We were able to get her on a four wheeler and then down to the dock, very slowly. From there we shuffled her backwards into the back of the plane, added The Old Man, and away they went. Despite being hundreds of miles from help, they were seen at a crappy Canadian clinic only a few hours after being hurt. The next day they were at a real hospital in KC and now she’s got screws and plates holding things together. It was a terrible accident that certainly changed the mood of camp but it could have been much, much worse.

Fortunately for us, they had to leave before surf and turf night:


One of the guys in our group gets part of his trip subsidized by the rest of the group in exchange for doing all the cook and supply logistics. I consider him to be irreplaceable!

Anyway, we ate well and crushed the fish. The wife and I boated 50-80 walleye each day including this stud that the wife caught (but wouldn’t hold for the picture):

Guess what… we booked the same week next year…

* I occasionally get google hits for “Harrop Lake”. If you get here and have been to Harrop, drop me a line. I would love to hear what others think. dukkillr@hotmail.com

I thought it was interesting that the word, “poaching” does not appear in the story. It makes sense if you think about it. It’s not poaching to kill a neighbor’s cow. Just because this happened to be a whitetail doesn’t make it a wild animal. In fact the story says as much:

“He basically went in there and killed a pet.” Peabody was a tame deer, and Knight said it may have played a part in the animal’s death by approaching Jernigan.

But not to worry, you can still buy plenty of tame deer. After seeing this article this afternoon I spent a few minutes looking for big high fence deer you can kill. It seems like to me $86,000 isn’t even that good of a deal. Most of the time you don’t even need to go through the farce of buying a hunting license. Makes sense, since you’re not hunting.

For example, take a look at the website here. Now I don’t know the specifics of Ruttnut Hunt’s personally but I found this revealing. From their page:

All of our hunts are totally confidential…. When you are hunting with Ruttnut Guide Service our hunts are kept 100% confidential. Guaranteed.

Why are they offering the same guarantees as high priced hookers? I’ll give you a hint… Sunlight is the best disinfectant… I can see the hypothetical conversation now:

Guy Shooting Tame Deer: Why isn’t he afraid of me?
“Guide”: It’s because you’re such a stealthy and skillful hunter! Now shoot already, I’ve got $25,000 to spend.
GSTD: But we’re just standing here 50 yards away and he’s looking at us like he expects to be fed.
“Guide”: It’s that apple cover scent I sprayed on. Quick, shoot him before he gets away!
GSTD: Where would he go?
“Guide”: Look, we’ve got 200 Million acres of prime habitat he could escape into. Shoot him NOW!
GSTD: Then how could you sell me a 1 day guaranteed hunt for this exact deer?
“Guide”: If you don’t shoot now I’ll sell this deer to another GSTD!
GSTD: You promise I can make up a story so I can tell everyone about what an experience this half day hunt was?
“Guide”: You read about our confidential guarantee didn’t you?
GSTD: BOOM!

Now he’s tried his hand at guiding pig hunters. Some parts of the story might sound familiar. Great story, even better pictures. Take a look here.

I talked to Tred yesterday and his spirits are high. They think they have the cancer under control hopefully!! He should be heading home in about 3 weeks? not sure.

I am trying to find a utv for him to get around the ranch on. We also ordered a special needs saddle that should be done in about 8 weeks.

Thats all I Know.

Thanks Dan

From here.

Tred is now in the process of going through Chemo treatments and will be returning to rehab soon after. For Tred and Anni this is life-changing and life challenging. Tred is not poor by any means but how can anybody prepare themselves for this type of disaster? To equip his house to be handy-capped accessible will be close to $100,000 dollars. I have posted a couple of messages from his wife Anni so you can see what they are going through.

“We just found out today that Tred has full blown Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia, a rare but very treatable form of lymphoma. The aggressiveness and sudden onset leads us to believe that it may be the cause of the paralysis and perhaps even reversible over time. We have been moved to Porter Hospital where Tred’s cell phone works just fine and we will be there for 5 days for plasma pheresis and chemo. This again has kept me from getting a letter out but I promise tomorrow, now that the discovery is done. FINALLY!!!!!! love, ANNI”

“Hi Dan, The damage signals on Tred’s spine are progressing, moving up to his neck now. We are basically starting from scratch now, trying to come up with the correct diagnosis. We have EVERYBODIES attention now, and they are all over us with tests in every quadrant. The good news is that if they can find the cause soon and find a solution, possibly some of the damage could be reversed. Yes, I am way too busy. I am struggling to put together a synopsis of where Tred is right now medically. I absolutely would love to rely on you to manage all the posts and keep an eye on the threads. However, I don’t have enough time to follow the streams but if you can please print them out if possible, for reading as time allows. If you see something especially good or valuable, timely of course forward it to my email or call me. Thank you so much Dan, you are such a good friend!”

“We are trying to put together a fund raising effort for all of his medical and new living equipment needs. They will probably amount to around $100,000 can you believe it. Anyway, if you would send a letter to friends and also pass along to me any websites that you think would be good. Here is the info: Donations can be made in Tred’s name to The Vail Valley Charitable Fund, which is a 501(c)3 charity, and funds are tax deductable. Their address is: PO Box 1275, Avon, CO 81620, or call 970-845-6339 or pay by credit card on line at www.vvcf.org Be sure to mention that it is for Tred. You may also make deposits to Wells Fargo Bank, Tred Barta medical fund. Routing #102000076, acct # 8990772827.

Read the rest here.

So I think this makes the 16th consecutive year I’ve been to this lake. We’ve dealt with 3 owners and about 10 different arrangements of transportation and management. This year’s adventure included landing a small private plane on this abandoned airstrip so we could get picked up by the float plane. Beavers had apparently decided to build a dam that backed up water on one end of the runway… not good…

Fortunately our two expert pilots managed to make yet another wonderful landing and within a couple of hours we were fishing.

This year the area had been colder than usual. As a result we didn’t find the concentrations of fish where we often do. The first day the wife and I managed to put 45 walleye in the boat but we didn’t catch any hogs and most of the other boats caught fewer fish than we did. The second day we started to adapt and found that most of the walleye were feeding closer to shore on rocky bottoms. Most of the day I threw a suspending jerk bait and caught a ton of walleye and northern including this guy:

43 inches and good for big fish of the trip (and a few bucks)!

Day 3 the wife and I hiked up to a smaller lake where we often catch big walleye and this year was no exception. We each caught several in the 20+ range including this one:

I also snapped a few pictures of our youngest members really getting into some fish

The fourth and final day was hot and sunny. The wife and I found a windblown bay in the afternoon that was covered in pollen and baitfish. The walleye and northern were in a feeding frenzy like I’ve only seen one other time in my years up there. We brought 76 walleye in the boat plus probably 50 northern. Several times I’d have her wait to bring her fish in so I could get mine back in the water. It was incredible:

We only kept enough fish each day for a shore lunch. We’re booked for the same week again next year after all!

I’ve been fortunate enough to visit Canada nearly every year for more than 25 years. I’ve visited several fishing operations over those years ranging from full service to no-service. Without a doubt this is the best combination of quality fishing and freedom without being uncomfortable. If anyone is interested in contact details drop me an email. Everyone should experience Canadian fly-in fishing at least once.

I started seeing bears almost immediately but again, nothing that would even challenge P&Y. For probably an hour the same bear was wandering around the bait site. He’d eat some meat bones, wander around behind us, then come back and eat some more. Then suddenly his head snapped up, looked off into the woods for second, and ran. I got ready but the intruder followed the first bear into the woods behind me. For the next few minutes it sounded like two giant lumberjacks fighting back there. I couldn’t see it but it sounded like they were tearing trees down and throwing them at each other. Eventually the smaller bear ran past us on the way to parts unknown.

This guy was the victor:

Unfortunately my expert evaluator and I agreed that he wasn’t what I’d been holding out for. You can see on the previous video that he’s about 1/3 of the way up past the second ring on the barrel. The biggest bears will approach or be over the barrel while the minimum for shooting is around the second ring. With an hour to hunt I decided to pass…

But the bear didn’t leave. And no other bigger bears came by to run him off. I was willing to let him walk and hold out for last hour but the stupid bear wasn’t playing along. For the last 30 minutes I was checking the time every 5 minutes. With 10 minutes of shooting time left the bear gave me a broadside slightly quartering shot and my will power gave out.
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So that wraps up the trip. My 20 inch bear will have to wait until next time. But I can promise you there will be a next time. I had no idea how much fun bear hunting would be. I had expected to get bored sitting on a bait pile all week, but I was completely wrong. There are usually bears around and they keep you entertained. It also turns out to be an incredible rush when they get mad and start growling at you.

I couldn’t recommend Garrett Brothers enough. Pat and Brian are like kids in a candy shop. They love bears, love hunting, and genuinely love when someone scores on a big boar. They run a great camp with more than enough sites and a very healthy bear population. We had hundreds of square miles to spread out in and I doubt we even touch 10%. The facilities and equipment were as good as any hunt I’ve been on. Their wives cook wonderful meals and run camp while the boys are out running the river or helping hunters. Frankly, I think the girls worked harder than Pat and Brian.

Anyway, it was a great experience. If any of my readers have questions don’t hesitate to drop me a line: dukkillr@hotmail.com

Bears started appearing almost right away. First a young boar came in a made himself comfortable at the cookies.

This was the bear that really started The Old Man’s fascination with antagonizing the bears. We started off just trying to figure out how much movement or noise you could get away with before they’d spook. It quickly became obvious that they really didn’t care how much you moved around or if you made noise. The only thing that concerned them was when he broke a big stick. We surmised that he cared about that because he thought it might be a bigger bear, not some dumb scmucks up in a tree. He eventually ate all the cookies and wandered off.

Later a bigger boar came in and The Old Man played with him too. He didn’t get scared, he got mad. He came over under the stand growling and popping his jaw. He’d look up in the trees trying to isolate exactly where the intruders are. A couple of times he’d go around behind our tree and start to climb. The Old Man prepared to throw something at him but he never climbed high enough to be a threat.

The final bear of the evening was the infamous beaver stealing bear. We caught his trick on video:

By working the rope tighter he was forcing the beaver within reach of the tree. Genius!

When we got back to camp we discovered that Rick had stuck his second bear, a nice chocolate:

And the only lady in camp had shot a very big black boar:

It measured more than 19 inches and was the second biggest of the 14 bears killed. She was on her first bear hunt with her dad who was hunting in a different stand. This boar climbed the tree before she ever had a shot. After she convinced it not to eat her he presented her with a broadside shot at 3 yards. I hope to get the video of this kill too. You could see steam coming from the 30-30 hole as it ran a few yards and tipped over. Not a bad way to start your bear hunting career eh?

So now there are only two of us left hunting and we’re down to the last day… Stay tuned…