Hobby Sports

With hunting season now long over, many of us are now venturing off to our local streams with fly rod in hand in search of some wild trout.  I caution those who are, beware of poison oak!  Recently I learned that my fishing buddy Tuck has been infected.  Infected so bad that he had to go to the emergency room.  The contamination spread throughout his body including his cock and balls.  Yup.  You heard me.  ON HIS JUNK!  When Chul first notified me that Tuck had suffered this horrible fate, my first reaction was, like any good fishing buddys would be, not of empathy or pity, but to laugh my ass off.  Laughed so hard I nearly peed myself.  Yes.  I am that kind of "buddy."  The type that laughs at a friends misfortune.  I think that type of person is what is commonly referred to as a "Douche."  In my defense Chul too was laughing his ass off when he told me.  So I guess hes a douche too.


Heel up buddy.  You poor bastard.  You poor itchy-crotch-on-fire bastard.  At least you have another story...A good one too!

And Tuck I hope you arent upset I posted this story, dont worry no one reads this crappy blog anyway.  Although I have not known you for long, I do know you wont care because you are good humored but if you do, I dont care.  Afterall Im a douche, remember?  If one good thing has come about from this, at least the skanks of the San Diego bar scene are safe...temporarily...until Tuck heels.

Looking To Next Season

For whatever foolish reason, I thought our season ended at the end of the month.  It was not until I picked up one of our hunting regulations booklets last night did I realize it ended this weekend.  I had planned on heading out on Monday and hunting until end of the month.  Im glad I checked otherwise I would have looked pretty stupid driving 5 hours only to realize I was poaching birds out of season.  So I let my old man know and made a mad dash to reschedule my calendar since my sisters family is in town I told them theyre on there own Im outta here. With that I  head out to the market to get supplies before the store closed.  I spent the night packing the Rover and getting ready.

I awoke this morning and Im not feeling well.  I believe I caught whatever my niece had and it may now be game over.  Im pissed.  If I remotely feel better tomorrow Im heading out otherwise its going to be a long bitter off season.  Nearby States, Arizona, Nevada Utah and New Mexico have "extended" seasons (I call them extended because the are longer than what Im used to in CA) that go into February, perhaps Ill have to make an upland trip if I cant finish out this season here.  Sickness already cost me a pheasant hunt earlier this season now it might have cost me the closing weekend.  Thats bullshit!  Back to bed to try and get better.

Funny, I started this blog three years ago, as my personal hunting journal.  Prior to starting this, I had hunted at least 30 days of the 90 (or 120 if you count the early mountain quail season) bird hunting season.  Since starting this blog though, those days dwindled to pathetic numbers, as seen by the number of actual hunting posts within this blog.  I hope to rectify that this year although, I dont think Ill be getting to the 30 days from the past, I certainly hope the hunting posts do increase this year.

The old man and I decided to take a day and half hunting trip to my usual locations.  We left here around 10am so that I could bypass all the downtown LA traffic.  We made good time as I decided to drive around LA, although it was longer in distance, the lack of traffic saved us much in headaches and time.  While reaching one of my honey holes, I noticed all the dirt roads that allowed access were now posted with "No Trespass" signs.  Great.  The only way to reach my spots legally, is to park on top of the mountain traverse ascend toward the public lands.  Well having forgotten our sandwiches in the car, not having breakfast, and not being in hunting shape, and the combination of higher altitude air, I quickly gave up this idea after about a half of a mile in.  We headed back to the Rover and I decided to hit another not as "honey" but good enough hunting hole. 

The drive to this area from the honey hole is not far.  We made it to to Joels Spring and parked as we ate our sandwiches to fuel up.  Within the first 10 minutes of the hunt Kaiser and I were on birds.  A covey of about five flushed wild in a an area that kaiser was working.  On my first shot, I managed to hit a female valley quail with my 20 gauge size 6 B&P F2 ammo out of my IC barrel of my Merkel 47e.  She fell out of the sky like a sack of potatoes.  Although some consider it too big, Ive decided to start using size 6 shot for quail.  By using it, I cripple less birds and most die immediately making the birds easy to find for the dog.  I can then spend less time searching for a downed bird and more time actually hunting.  Also if I run into chuckars, I will not feel undergunned.  For the rest of the day we were finding singles or pairs.  No big conveys.  Most of these birds were smart, holding tight, and flushing behind a tree or other obstacle so making it impossible for a shot.  We came home with only one bird this evening hunt.  While driving out, as the sun was making its last appearance of the day, a covey of 15 quail flushed in front of the road toward the safety of their roasting area for the night. We made no attempt to go after them as we had only a minutes of light left.  We headed to town for a nice hot Italian meal before we headed to out motel to rest up for tomorrow. 

I always check the crops of the birds I take.  Looks like this gal was feasting on Junipers.