Dog Days of Summer

Well things have been pretty crazy and hectic around the house lately.  We’ve been planning our most extensive fishing trip we’ve ever went on.  We’re heading into the Wilderness of Northwest Montana for six whole days in search of wild cutthroat trout and the elusive bull trout.  On top of that we’ve been setting game cameras and getting the bows dialed in for season.  Throw in work, some video editing, and a whole slew of other activities and times a flying.  On Friday we made it out to test a couple rods that we had set up to chase bull trout with.  Dan at Grizzly Hackle was nice enough to work with us on this project and get us set up to swing some junk in front of some bull trout this next week.  We decided to get on some water on the lower Blackfoot and toss a few to get used to these big rods.  First cast and I had a chunky little cutt on the end of my line.

We soon picked up and moved up river a bit.  Travis and I found some open water and started to find our grooves with the new setups.

I landed a few, and we missed a couple, but I feel better now about getting into the groove right away on our trip.  Hopefully we can find some bullies and trick them into clobbering our big streamers.

We followed this up by hitting the hills on Saturday and picking up a couple of game cameras that we have had up for a little over a month now.  We crawled up a gnarly road into our spot and began picking our way through the forest.  As soon as we made it off the dirt road we were more than impressed with how well the Optifade blended into the surroundings.  The Open Country pattern works amazing in a wide variety of habitats, and I was a bit skeptical at how it would blend into the darker green timber.  The pattern matches the color of the trees so well that it’s actually extremely effective, and I already feel more confident as a hunter with this camo.  If you want some of the best designed hunting gear be sure to check out sitkagear.com for more.

We had left this camera unlocked and when we made it to the camera the cable had been gnawed on and the camera was crooked.  We found the culprit after we reviewed the photos.

We kept scrolling through and saw a lot of 1-3 year old bulls.  We had a couple good ones swing through but no giants.

This bull was the largest we got on the camera in this location.  Unfortunately it’s a bit blurry, but he’s a good 6×6 and a definite shooter.

Another pretty decent bull for the area showing up on the 23rd.  If only his top ends would grow out a bit.  With the hot weather the wallow was dry.  Last year it wasn’t dry until the end of July so I’m hoping we can see some rain soon that will keep this area good and wet.   We decided to pull this camera and get back and shoot the bows a bit in a real world setting.  It’s always good to get out and shoot in the woods before season just to get that mental imagery in your head.

After some arrow flinging we picked things up and moved on to our second spot.  After an hour drive and a stop for some ice cream we finally were parked and ready to set out for camera #2.

We found a good number of rubs on the way in and got a bunch of solid footage for a new scouting short that should be out in a few weeks.  Hopefully it will get you stoked to get back into the elk woods.

After some delays to get a few shots, we finally made it to our other Moultrie which was set over a small water hole.

This was the first time we had set a camera in this area.  It’s always interesting to go check a camera in a new area.  You hope that your camera is going to have a good number of photos and some cool animals captured on the card.  We were lucky enough to see that it had taken 290 photos in just a months time.

We pulled the card and fired up the Mac.

Soon enough we had a few good bulls showing up on the camera.

This was a cool looking bull with solid character in his left G2.

We had a couple moose drop by for a drink.

Finally we had a group of five bulls swing by.  A couple of these bulls are shooters just based off the character of their headgear.  Speaking of wild headgear, just two day before we checked this camera we had one of the most unique bulls we’ve seen drop by.

One things apparent, he has something wild growing off the right side of his face.  It’s hard to tell if it’s part of his antler or some weird growth.  Either way he’s a crazy looking bull.

Overall the day was a success.  We checked two cameras, shot the bows in the woods, and filmed a short video.  We have some backup bulls to chase if the Breaks don’t work out according to plan.  Tomorrow we head deep into the wild and will be fishing for wild, native trout for six days.  The cameras gonna be rolling and we hope we can capture some great footage for you guys.

-Zack