Lately I've logged in a lot of time on the river as well as a lot of time on the vise (summer-school procrastination at its finest). A few weeks ago I was anchored up on the lower Mo and watched a 5lb brown come out of the depths and eat a dead or dying fish that was on the rise to the surface (the baitfish was around 5"" long). Putting my biology and fishing backgrounds together, I came up with a weightless, foam headed, articulated streamer that mimics a dying or dead fish on the rise. Needless to say after doing a little research, I wasn't the first to come up with this idea. I'm still experimenting a little bit, but so far 2-4' of 8-12lb. maxima on a streamer express, stripped two or three times, then paused allowing it to rise has been the ticket. I'm yet to LAND any brutes, but I've hooked into a few, and let me tell you the take is...

I read a quote from Charlie Smith (Crazy Charlie who invented the most famous Bonefish fly in the Bahamas of all time) from when he was up fishing in Montana with some guide friends-I can’t remember which magazine it was (Fly Rod and Reel, Drake, American Angler or another one of my other favorites). Charlie swore that he was catching Bonefish up in Montana, and when the guys asked him why the fish didn’t fight as hard up here in Montana as in the Bahamas he replied in pretty obvious fashion-"There is no shrimp and crabs to make them strong." The Whitefish is a native fish for us here in Montana and while it lacks pretty spots and most likely won’t put you in your backing-I sure seem to see a lot of grins when they are being caught-including myself.

With my family and a few close friends, it's time to head back to my favorite lake for our annual (for the most part) pilgrimage 800 + miles north to Lake Amisk, Saskatchewan. Although the walleye fishing has always been priority #1, along with an elaborate shore lunch, my friends and I have begun to take the fly fishing opportunities for pike just as much, if not more seriously. This is a slam dunk trip if you live in the NW. It's close, it's inexpensive, there are unlimited opportunities to fish uncrowded water and a lot of big fish. We make the trip inexpensive by being our own guides, renting or bringing our own boats, cooking food at the resort ourselves, and driving the whole way up. I have been making this trip since I was in 1st grade when my grandpa, dad, and uncles took me up there, and I remember breaking ice that May on our w...

Currents of Belize from McJ Digital on Vimeo. This is one of the coolest little documentaries on Belize. Currents of Belize from McJ Digital on Vimeo.

T-Posts, Tensile Strength & the DL on Fencing  When it comes to running fence in the Northwest, there are a group of veteran ranchers and farmers who will have all the answers- and they will have been doing it the same way for decades if not longer. For those of us not yet  indoctrinated into the realms of t-posts, corner bracing and wire strainers- there are some basic questions we have such as which T-post should I use for my specific application- running fence for horses is going to be different than running fence for cattle. So let's get into one of the basic components of fencing. T-post strength. We got a question in on #AskNorth40 that went like this: What weight T-post would be good for running a barbed wire fence? Jesse gives us a lot of information in this clip. He gives us 1.25 T-posts, which are a t-post with 1.25 pounds...

It's that time of year again... the store is filled with a little extra noise, a little extra bustle and you can feel the excitement of some of our youngest customers as they scan the youngest arrivals to our store. You guessed it... the chicks are in at North 40 Outfitters in Spokane, Washington. While our fowl breeds vary by store, if you come in on or after Valentine's Day (February 14), you'll be able to pick out some new additions to your flock, or even get started as a backyard chicken farmer. If you are interested in getting started with chickens, you'll want to check out our chickens 101 page. This page covers everything you need to know about raising your first meat or layer birds from getting them the right brooder set up to transitioning them to their adult feed and everything in between. Raising your own chickens, turkeys or o...

  Okay, I realize one thing about archery right now.  Everyone around me knows way more than I do.  Everyone is a mentor to me at this point, but the way that I've learned other skills is by reading everything that I can, slash YouTube; then digging in and doing it and learn what not do through failure.  Not so much this time.  My main fear in archery being the bow string hitting my forearm (I should probably wear a forearm guard) or blowing up in my face, I've seen people do that and I'm okay NOT learning my lesson the painful way.  So, this time, I'm excited to learn from Rob's instruction on how to shoot properly. The first thing we realized is that I was shooting too low, consistent but low, even though the pin was at its highest possible point.  So, we first had to order new mods for my bow to increase my draw length and ...

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