Summer solstice has long been a special day for me. I spent my first summer solstice in Alaska fishing all night with some new friends, waiting for it to get dark. It didn’t. Around midnight, we went to the local establishment for some refreshment between fishing spots. We were there just long enough for me to meet my future wife. Astrologically speaking, we had an interesting event last night. The full moon was rising at sunset on the longest day of the year. I don’t think I will be here 70 years hence when it happens again. I figured I better be fishing during the occurrence. I enjoyed an all too brief 45 minute evening rise period on caddis and then I skated up a brown under the full "Strawberry Moon". A fleeting window of opportunity, but worth the effort of being there. I was on the river a couple days last week. On Thursday, we...

Fishing this week has been good on the Coeur d'Alene River. Low river levels (556 c.f.s) are making for some very spooky fish. Big fish are using whatever cover they can find in the river. When your approaching your spot, do so in a stealthy manner and make your first cast a good one. Most of the time, the fish are onto your game after only a couple attempts or a fish is hooked in the hole. Resting the hole for a few minutes can definitely help. Usually, I will swing a streamer for my first cast through, to see if any meat-eaters are interested. After that, it's usually a dry-dropper setup. Terrestrials are working well. The Drive over Fernan saddle is an awesome way to get to the river from CdA. Check Out The Current River Flow Here

I recently purchased The Halon 6 by Mathews. I got the Halon 6,  70 lb Draw Weight and 28" Draw Length in Black Tactical. Coupled with a Mathews QAD Ultrarest, Blackgold Ascent 7 pin Sight and a 8" B Stinger stabilizer. Mathews' Halon 6: Quietest Bows I Have Ever Shot This bow is one of the smoothest quietest bows I have ever shot. The bow sits in your hand with little to no vibration at all. The weight of this bow is a little on the heavy side but I believe this helps in the way the bow handles overall. Want to see our selection of bows? The Sagebrush Shoot-Out and Halon 6 Performance The bow arrived almost 4  weeks ago and I finally got to put it through the grinder at the Sagebrush shoot at Hellsgate Sate Park  on March 12th and 13th and the Camp Wooten shoot on the 19th and 20th. This bow was highly impressive right from ...

My addiction began when I was a freshman in high school. I was hunting turkeys on a property I wasn't terribly familiar with. I had hiked in and set up underneath a large bull pine before first light. With daylight approaching, turkeys began to gobble in the distance. It quickly became apparent that they hadn't read the script as they flew down with the first few rays of sunlight and followed their hens in the opposite direction. As I sat there contemplating my poor luck and trying to put together a new game plan, I happened to look a few yards to my right and noticed an antler lying on top of the pine needles. It clearly wasn't pretty. With two tines chewed nearly to the main beam and bleached white from the sun, it would have belonged to a respectable four-point. Something clicked. Or maybe snapped, depending on how you look at it, co...

Waking up in the morning, stepping out onto your own property with no one around for miles- checking the weather and getting ready to run your own organic farm. For many people this is only a dream. Reality for most is a city life. A place where "outside the city" is a mythical place, and commuting is a second job. But a change is gonna come, and it's going to come from the organic sector, according to Doug Crabtree and Anna Jones-Crabtree. If you've dreamed of owning your own farm and producing all of your own food- while making a decent living- there's no time like the present to get into farming, and we sat down with the people trying to do get you to do just that: Vilicus Farm in Havre, Montana. Demand for Organics in the World Economy impacts Montana Farms  If you've been in your local grocery store lately, you're probably aware of...

When it comes to Northwest horse health, there are some shots your horse has to have- and if you don't, you run the risk of an astronomical vet bill- or worse. This blog is based off Zoetis' recommendations for yearly equine vaccinations if you need info on deworming schedules for your horse, click here... and if you need to buy dewormer or other equine supplements, click here. And now, without further ado, here's the yearly equine vaccination shot list- but remember this list is for horses that are ALREADY up to date. There's a DIFFERENT list for new horses. Your Horse Needs These Shots/Vaccinations Yearly  Equine Encephalomyelitis (Two Types)  a. Eastern Equine Encephalomyelitis (EEE) Spread by mosquitoes, symptoms include drowsiness, drooping ears, wandering, circling in pen/paddock for no reason, inability to swallow and stilt...

Fly Fishing on the Clark Fork River has been hit and miss, depending on where you go. I'm hearing better reports closer to St. Regis rather than below Cabinet Gorge Dam. However, evening fishing below Cabinet Gorge has been average for this time of year. So, if you are the kind of person that can only get out for a couple hours, hit our local stretch of the Clark Fork. Fishing in the evening has been slow up until the last hour of light. As soon as the river is completely covered by shade, the caddis take to the river and cover the surface. Oddly enough, an elk hair caddis wasn't my best fly. I did hook into one beautiful cutthroat on a #14 brown elk hair caddis, but my best fly was the good ol' #6 olive crystal bugger. I fished it with my dry line, so I was stripping it in just under the surface. Once I had figured this out, the action ...

Princess Twilight Sparkle: Culling Cattle Names in a 4-H Family Every spring, the kids pick out their favorite calf to show at the local fair. We have tried picking out the calf for them because, well, you want your farm to be well represented, but that didn't work. The kids have their favorites and that is who they want to take. There is no changing their minds. We do however have some influence on the names. We have saved some calves from some very interesting names like "Princess Twilight Sparkle" named after a My Little Pony character. Like with all young things, cattle need to be protected against diseases. Check out our cattle health section online here. Three 4-H Kids, Three Cattle Shows and "Tiny" the Calf Our daughter took her first fair calf Rose to the fair three years ago. The following year, her brother joined her by bringin...

We are in the thick of it. Recently, there have been lots of bugs seen on the Missouri River. Several different Caddis, PMD’s, Gray Drakes, Brown Drakes, BWO’s, Trico’s, Giant Yellow Mayflies and Midges. I’m not saying you should fish all these bugs or that they are hatching in big numbers. A few random BWO’s are not going to focus a feeding behavior. One small cloud of Trico’s is not going to create an epic spinner fall. A single Hex is not going to create a big stir. I just want to illustrate that there is a large variety of potential food out there. Small hoppers, ants, beetles and crane flies are also present and anglers are still fishing scuds and worms. How about a drowning mouse? PMD’s and Caddis remain the go to hatches for most angling efforts. Fishing the stages of these bugs should keep you in the game on any giv...