fly fishermens dream

The Big Horn Mountain range is known to be a fly fisherman's dream due it its many lakes and streams, beautiful hikes, and lack of grizzly bears. These lakes and streams are full of fish. Because of its high elevation, they are highly populates with Brook trout. As many may know the Brook trout are very cagey but love dry flies. This makes for a very interesting fishing trip.

The Paint Rock Lakes are located just above Shell Cannon by the Shell reservoir. This is one of my favorite places to go camping and fishing. There is a upper and a lower Paint Rock lake connected by a little stream that is full of Brook trout. What makes this stream so fun to fish is the fact that you have to sneak on to every hole. Some times because of the low cover, you have to belly crawl just to catch a fish. But believe me it is worth it. One of the best flies is called the Mosquito or the Joe's Hopper. I can promise if you use one of these two flies you will not go with out dinner in the Big Horns.

Last Chance

This post is for my father in-law but if it can help any one else that would be great. This year the Wyoming Game and Fish has made it possible to buy the leftover Elk, Deer, and Antelope tags. They will become available to the public on July 7 at 8am mountain standard time. You can buy them on the Wyoming Game and Fish website or at any store in Wyoming that is set up to sell hunting licences. Click here to see what arias have leftover tags. It is best if you fill out your information be for hand so on the morning of July 7 you can just click the tags you would like to buy and check out. the tags will be sold on a first come first serve basis. So you want to get it done as soon as you can. I hope this is a benefit to those who missed out on the first draw.

Destain to Hunt

From the time I was little I had many experiences that allowed me to gain a love for the outdoors. Many mornings my dad would come in and wake me up at 5am to take me hunting. This to me was a chance that I had to spend time with my dad in the outdoors with no one around. I grew to love the outdoors and looked forward to spending time with my dad.

I remember falling a sleep under the tree stand wile my dad waited for his trophy buck to walk by. when I would wake up my dad would tell me how a doe and her fawn would walk over to me and sniff my feet to see what I was. How much I wanted to be awake for this to happened it always seemed like the deer would come buy when I was sleeping.

Every year I would look forward to going hunting with my dad just to have the chance to be inches from a deer and for it not to realize that I was there. As years went buy I eventually had the experience to be that close to a wild animal. Still to this day I look forward to hunting season just to spend the time with my dad. I look forward to the opportunity to take my kids hunting.

The Wolf

In January of 1995 an event happened that changed the lives of those people living near Yellowstone National Park. This is when the gray wolf was reintroduced in Yellowstone National Park. Many people thought that the wolf would stay in the park but they are not like people where you can tell them to stay somewhere and they will do it.

From the start wolfs have been a problem killing lots of livestock and wild animals. The moose population has significantly been affected since 1995 and in a article in missoulian.com online news it talks about the elk herds decreasing in numbers do the increase in wolf population.

At the end of President Bush's term he tried to take the gray wolf off the endangered species list. As of now the wolf is off the list in Montana and Idaho. But what about Wyoming we were left in the dust because we wanted to take them from an endangered specie to a predator. They are a problem even in the park. In May of 2009 the park service because it was chasing bicyclists and approaching cars and causing problems.

I feel that the gray wolf needs to be taken off the endangered species list. By doing this it will make wolfs afraid of humans and help maintain them in the park.

Draw Results

It use to be that you would fill out your hunting applications and mail them in to the Wyoming Game and Fish. Then four months later you would recive a letter in the mail with your tag if you drew and a check returing your money for your tags if not. Now the Game and Fish have finally moved up in the world of technology and have made it possible to fill out your tags online. This has made the draw faster moving up the date of the draw to find out what you will be hunting. This year they moved the date from July 7 2009 to June 24 2009. All you need is your name zipcode and date of birth to find out your draw results.

Long Range shooting

As a hunter in wyoming you may know that there is a lot of land to cover, and you can't always have the perfect distance or spot to shoot a big game animal. That is why the type of gun scope and even bullets you use can help prepare you for a successful hunt.

Growing up I have always used a Winchester bult action 270 with a Redfield scope. I have had many peeople tell me that i need somthing bigger like a 300 mag. I have not had a prolblem killing elk or deer at all it is actually my favorite gun to hung with. I would advice you to find a gun that fits you and you are comfortable shooting and practice often. If you do this you will be confident in your gun and not miss when that big bull or buck walks out.

An improvement to your gun that i would recommend is the long distance scopes made by Aaron Davidson in Burlington Wyoming. Aaron has made some modifications to his scopes making it possable to kill animals at long distances. He now holds the world record for the longest shoot ever taken and cought on tape to kill an antelope. It ranged in at a 1200 yard shot.

On Foot or On Horseback

As a hunter in Wyoming you may know that there are many different terrains that range from the high mountions to the low grassy plains and everything in between.Whether you decide to hunt on foot or horseback compared to hunting out of your truck or on the road. Will increase your chances of filling you deer or elk tags. We all know that the road hunters are really just too lazy to get out and work for the trophy animal. But the real question is whether hunting on horseback is more effective that hunting on foot. They both have there advantages and disadvantages but in reality it depends on your resources.

Not everyone has a horse or access to one so most people in Wyoming hunt on foot. There are many arias that have great hunting and are very easy to hunt on foot. Some of the places that a foot hunter might want think about hunting is the big horn mountion range there are many roads that wind around through the big horn mountions making it an easy to accesses and yet some of the biggest elk and deer have been killed up there and not to mention that the wolf population is a lot lower than most arias in the state of Wyoming.

Another aria that is an easy access for foot hunters is called the north fork. it is located west of Cody and runs to the right and left of the road that runs to Yellowstone. I have many friends that have hunted this aria and as successful ever year.