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Friday, September 9, 2011

Miles with Riles Sept. 9

Well my oversea friends. I finally made my first hunting trip of the season. Jeff, you'll be able to recognize the area from the pictures. It's the old log landing. I've been holding off for a cooler and hopefully damp day but it doesn't  look like it's coming for a while so I decided to take off early this morning and give it a go.

Dakota, Riley and I took off early this morning in hopes of maybe hearing a few bugles before we started hunting. One bull obliged us and answered our bugles three times. It was obvious he was happy where he was at and if I wanted to see him I would have to go to him. My archery days are over and I was just happy to hear his bugle.
Shortly after the sun came up a young red fox crossed our paths. As you can see there is a fire somewhere and the smoke is settling in. I heard there was a fire in Oregon that might be causing the smoky skies. Shortly after spotting the fox, Riley jumped a doe and fawn and hurried back to hide behind me. He's my 88 pound chicken when it comes to big game.

Our first blue came off the sage brush tops. There seemed to be a sufficient amount of blues in small groups but the scenting conditions were poor and Riley wasn't holding until he was right on top of the birds. Luckily some were holding tight enough for some five foot points. By the time we found the birds Dakota was tired and happy just to stroll along with us.
We hunted the top a little longer and took a couple more blues before heading for the deeper draws in hope for a rough grouse. It was a good decision because I had depleted the dog water and we needed to find some water. When we found the water we also found the roughs. The problem with those darn birds is they like the thick cover. They either flew through the thick underbrush or flew straight up in a tree and stared at us. Needless to say, we didn't get a rough. We did, however, spook a bear out of the thick stuff.


Although it's much better than what you guys are doing right now, it's a little early to get real excited. The dust and hot weather is tough on both the dogs and myself. Last week I had Riley at the vets getting a piece of cheat from his throat. Today he and Dakota were doing a lot of sneezing. I probably won't be out much until we get some moisture to knock down some of this dust but I'll keep you posted.

I hope the pictures I posted keep your hearts close to home. 

2 comments:

Karl said...

Good stuff Larry. I'm holding off for cooler weather. But...hearing someone is finding Dusky's makes me anxious to get out there.

larry szurgot said...

Karl, the Dusky's are definitely where the heat is. The roughs are in a little cooler areas but I have a hard time working a dog on them for some reason. I was up on the hill at 6:30 a.m. bugaling elk and it was 57 degrees. I was at about 5500 feet in elevation. Go figure.