For the first time this spring, Pete and I returned our canoe to familiar waters. It was nice to have a decent understanding of what we were up against and the payoffs were great. We were paddling upriver by 7:00 a.m. and fished for about 4 hours.

It didn’t take me long to get revenge on a longnose gar – a species which I missed 8 or 10 times last time we were in this stretch of river. Not a big one, but a start nonetheless. Before we got out of the first stretch of shoals, I had shot another 10 pound common carp and we had boated striped bass, spotted bass, and shoal bass…nothing big though.

Next up was a stretch of slack water that held some great bowfishing opportunities. I made my opportunity count on this 43 pound grass carp that had just tremendous girth. He gave us a run-around in deep, crystal clear water for 5 minutes or so before being beached in shallow water.

The next exciting fish of the day was our canoe’s personal best shoal bass. Pete landed this hefty “smallmouth” on a Zoom fluke and had a good 2 or 3 minute battle fighting in this strong river fish.

The colors were reflecting so well off this fish that I had to take another picture or two.

Not long after that, he nailed our first hybrid bass of the trip and of the year. We guessed it to weigh about 5 pounds. Zoom fluke again.

Throw in another dozen bass of smaller size and of the aforementioned 4 bass species and it was just a great trip. My bowfishing wasn’t quite over though as I ambushed this great longnose maneuvering through tight spots in a swift run. Stoned this fish and it never twitched in the fast current.

On the way out, we spotted a couple longnose gar that easily eclipsed the biggest gar I’d ever seen, let alone shot. In fact, they were so big that I went online after the trip to check Alabama state records. Maybe next time…

As far as the fishing goes, one of these trips we are going to catch the full “slam” of bass – which includes the 4 species of this trip plus the ever common in a lake, but hard to find in a river apparently…largemouth bass.

I’ve always been a fan of the show Heartland Bowhunter (even more so when Jeff Simpson was still a part of that production). I found this show called Montana Wild through a thread of Archery Talk and I think you’ll enjoy the hunts they video out in the Big Sky state of Montana. Check ‘em out. Episodes 1-3 of their 2011 season are up on their website now and they are great!

Selecting a pack was one of the most critical decisions for our September adventure in the Colorado backcountry. Has to be lightweight, but heavy and durable enough to take the beating that a 100-120 pound load of meat can dish out. Has to be roomy enough to hold all the necessities, but not too big so I am tempted to throw in items that are convenient but just going to weigh me down in the long haul. Has to be affordable, but still be high quality to stand up to 2 weeks of hard use. There were a lot of variables I was looking at and I arrived at a couple options – Full Curl backpack system, Eberlestock, or the Badlands 2800. I found an unbeatable deal on the Badlands pack and ran with it. So far I’m very satisfied.

It has a bladder insert that carries 96 ounces of fluids. 2 large central compartments with 3 or 4 additional pockets. Also, there are the 2 batwing flaps on either side of pack that hold a surprising amount of gear and these together to hold a stuff sack or an elk quarter if space becomes too limited elsewhere.

The one chief complaint I have about Badlands is their waist belt sizing. They have sized out a quarter of their entire market because any dude with a waist smaller than 33″ is not going to be able to cinch down their waist belt tightly enough to adequately suspend heavy loads from crushing their shoulders. Enter ingenuity…

The normal waist belt design looks like this, but after I got done slicing away the black support webbing and picking out 4 or 5 vertical support stitches, I had enough room to re-stitch some support seams and tie back down the side pockets (took it to the local shoe repair store for some heavy duty sewing machine work). It seems every bit as strong as the original design and I’ve bought myself the extra 2 inches I needed to have a functional waist belt.

Why Badlands won’t alter their own backpacks or offer packs with sized waist belts is more than I can understand, but it is a very poor oversight by their company! Regardless of my feelings about the company themselves, the pack is a lot smaller than most folks would use to roll out on a 4 or 5 day bivy, but buying top notch, lightweight gear has enabled us to shave weight in the gear department and even with the gear we are going to use to carry all that gear… Make sense??? It does to me!

I shot Gold Tip arrows 5575 Expedition Hunters with my Elite z28, but am switching to Beman MFX arrows (340 spine) for my Hoyt Alphamax 32. Why? Pretty simple when you can pick up a dozen arrows for $40 that retail in my local archery shop for $119.99. I had to cut them to length from the fletching end because of the HIT insert that was already installed, but had Pete re-fletch them for me and now they should do the job. I hate most products that have a flashy name attached to them and my feelings are no different about the cheesy Bone Collector labeling plastered to the side of these arrows, but for 66% savings I guess I’ll just sacrifice this time.

Fuse is a sponsor for Midwest Whitetail (if you missed it, Clint and I joined their prostaff for this fall), so when I was able to pick up this stabilizer for $50 it was a no-brainer. I like relatively heavy stabilizers with weight a long ways off the bow and this fit the bill perfectly.

This was another under $50 purchase from Archery Talk and another easy decision in selecting an accessory. My deer hunting buddy shoot a Hoyt CRX and has had great things to say about his NAP Apache rest. With the similar risers and rest shelves between our 2 bows, it made sense to use the same rest.

Before continuing on down in this post, jump back and read this post from several years ago when I was bow shopping for what would turn out to be my Elite z28.

I was rather affectionate about the Hoyt Alphamax 32, but ended up opting for the Elite z28. Well, now I get a chance to see which I truly like better because now I own a Hoyt Alphamax 32.

Has a black riser and camo limbs and is 32″ long axle-to-axle. Also, I stepped up the bow poundage and now own my first 60-70 pound bow. I’ve got it set at 69 pounds right now and after all this working out we’ve been doing, it feels like I’m pulling less weight now than I was before with my Elite z28.

I looked back and checked my records. I paid $425 for my Elite z28 2 and a half years ago and dumped it last week for $350 on Archery Talk, which is where I picked up this Hoyt for the same exact price of $350. I’d say that is a pretty cheap bow rental for my old Elite. This is free advice, but if you paying retail for new bows – YOU ARE A FOOL!!!