First fish of 2015

Been out a few times this Spring. Been skunked several times. Once on trout, and five times on bass. Finally got a couple little ones the other day, and a bigger one. It's nice to finally get on the board. Got 'em all on the "blue collar leech"

Inhaled it.

North American Hare (Jackrabbit) Chili.

Ingredients

• 2 ounces died ancho chiles (4 to 6) stems and seeds removed and flesh torn into 1-inch pieces
• 2 cups rabbit stock
• 1 (28-ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes
• ¾ cup crushed corn tortilla chips
• ¼ cup canned chipotle chilis in adobo sauce plus 2 teaspoons adobo sauce 
• 2 tablespoons Vegetable oil
• 2 pounds ground rabbit, I used 1 cottontail, and 1 jackrabbit
• salt and pepper
• 2 pounds onion, chopped fine 
• 2 jalapeno chilis, stemmed, seeds reserved, and minced 
• 6 cloves garlic
• 2 tablespoons ground cumin
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano
• 2 teaspoons ground coriander
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1½ cups beer
• 3 (15-ounce) cans pinto beans, rinsed

Instructions

1. Combine ancho chiles and 1½ cup water in a medium microwave-safe bowl and microwave until softened, about 2½ to 3 minutes. Drain and discard liquid.
2. Place ancho chiles, tomatoes and their juice, remaining 2 cups water, tortilla chips, and chipotle in adobo sauce in a blender and process until smooth, about 1 minute. Set aside.
3. Heat 2 teaspoons oil in a Dutch oven until oil starts to smoke. Add ground meat, 1 teaspoon salt, and pepper and cook until well-browned, breaking into pieces with spoon, 10 to 15 minutes. Drain meat in a colander and set aside.
4. Heat remaining 4 teaspoons oil in Dutch oven and add onions and jalapenos with seeds. Cook for approximately 5 minutes, until onion is nicely browned. Stir in garlic, cumin, chili powder, oregano, coriander, sugar, and cayenne and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
5. Pour in beer and bring to a simmer. Add in beans, ancho-tomato mixture, and meat and return to a simmer. Cover and reduce heat to low. Cook 50 to 60 minutes, stirring occasionally.

I think this recipe could stand to be a lot spicier. I also used only one large jalapeno with the seeds removed. I made this for my family so I wanted to keep the spice down. 

1 Jackrabbit, and 1 cottontail.

De-bone the rabbits.

Put all the meat through a grinder. If you have your Grandpa's old one, use it.

Put all the bones in a pot, let simmer while you put everything else together, about an hour.

All the ingredients ready to go.

Put the dried chiles in 1.5 cups of water, and microwave for 3 minutes. Drain water.

The rabbit stock. You can use water if you want. I prefer the stock, more flavor.

Chiles, tomatoes and their juice, 2 cups stock, tortilla chips, and chipolte blended a minute until smooth.

Brown meat with salt and pepper.

Browned meat.

Simmer onions, and jalapenos.

Add the spices, and brown.

Add the beer. I used a Newcastle.

Add beans.

Add the tomatoe chile mixture.

Add the meat.

Bring to a boil, and simmer for an hour.

A good day for chili making.

What to do with left-over beer?

Northern Nevada rabbits.

Went out after rabbits for the first time this year yesterday. It was a perfect day for it, clear, and about 30 degrees. We concentrated our efforts on the south facing slopes of hills, with plenty of rock piles. Cottontails use the rocks for cover, and come out to eat in the sun. We walk slow, keeping an eye out for rabbits holding still, trying to see them before they bolt. Sometimes you get lucky, and get a shot. Sometimes they bolt out in front of you, and you have to hope they stop within range.  

We saw two bunnies at the first spot, but didn't get a shot.

The next spot is a nice little bowl with a huge rock pile on top of it.  I saw a bunny jump on the way in, he stopped after about 15 feet, and froze. I got him in the cross hairs, and took him. A clean neck shot, just a little low. We walked up and around, and spotted a Jack, he ran about 40 yards, and stopped. I got him with a head shot. Two rabbits down, with another spot to go.

We walked for about another three miles, checking rock piles as we went. We saw a couple more jacks, but they ran for miles without giving us a shot.

All in all, a great day with my boy, and a good friend.

The Jack will be made into tamales, and the cottontail will be made into a delicious French recipe. My favorite.

Fantastic 2014 Mule Deer opener.

The 2014 Mule Deer season started like most other ones. The biggest difference this year was the location.  Thanks to the Old Man's five bonus points our whole party drew the coveted 194,196 tag. To us, that meant that we're hunting Peavine. The best thing about Peavine, besides being covered with deer, is the location. I have seen deer about seven minutes from my front door.

We started the morning in my driveway, and then went to McDonald's.  We had some coffee, and a couple of muffins, and waited for the sun to come up. Did I mention how close it is? 

We headed up the mountain at about 6:30. We could see headlights in front of us, not a surprise, this is an easy and close place to hunt deer. It only took a couple of minutes to see our first deer. A couple of does. We headed around to the west side, and spotted three bucks on the top of a hill. Another hunter was glassing them so we went around him. We almost immediately spotted about twenty deer, with at least one nice buck with them. My friend Katie had the first shot, she got out of the Sammy,  walked up the road a bit, aimed, and fired. Miss! The deer didn't really panic so she took another shot. Miss! This time the does took off over the hill, and he was right behind them. We drove around to cut them iff, and sure enough, they came down right in front of us. Katie took two more shots and missed. I thought she may have hit him once, so I took a quick shot as he was running over the next hill. I missed. We ran up to were they went over, and didn't see them anywhere. I told Katie that we needed to go up to the next drainage to look. I looked one more time, and saw his antlers above the brush about two hundred yards downhill. I sat down, aimed, fired, and missed. Unbelievable! He only walked a few yards, but I had a much better shot at him. I took my time, aimed right between his shoulders, and put him down. The shot went through his back, and out his front shoulder. A nice 4x3, 26 1/4 " wide. By far my best buck ever.

After a brief visit with the Game Warden, the real work began. It took me and Ian about two hours to cape, and pack him out. It's good to have strong skinny friends! If you look close, you might see Cabela's down there.

While me and the Old Man were taking my buck back to the house, Katie and Ian took the Sammy back out. They ended up spotting a small spike. Katie got into position, and missed? She took three more shots, and missed all three. Ian told her to aim high. She aimed about a foot over his back, and hit him in the spine. All morning her scope must of been off. Disappointing that she had a couple of shots at a good deer, but at least she got it done in the end. Spotted, stalked, and shot all by herself. A great first deer. 

They got the deer back to my house around 10:00.  We got it skinned out, quartered, and on ice in time for the afternoon hunt. We headed back up the mountain around 2:30 in the afternoon. We checked a canyon on the northeast side, but only saw two does. We headed back to the west side, and I decided to take a side road towards a pond I've seen deer at before. On the way I spotted four does on a hillside. We decided to go take another look at them, while glassing the original four does I noticed two more to the left. I looked back at the other four, and saw a big buck come out of nowhere, and put his nose in one of the does. I told Ian to get a good rest and get ready. He shot, and hit him. He kicked both back legs out, and walked a couple of yards, and stopped. Ian shot again, and dropped him. What a great buck. 4x4, and very symmetrical. Gorgeous.

After Ian's deer went down, we noticed another buck by the other two does. The Old Man took the shot, and put him down. A big forked horn. Look at those brow tines!

Two deer down at once, a true double. We got them field dressed, and in the truck in no time. Home before dark on opening day, with four deer in the box. Unbelievable!

 

With one day of butchering, and one day of grinding, they were packaged and ready to go.

A happy freezer, for another year.

November bass.

Took a trip to Redding California for Halloween this weekend. Between pumpkin carving and trick or treating, I was able to get out for a couple hours.

I missed one on top, but wasn't able to get any more strikes. Theses two I got on a streamer, stripping it really fast.

It was a beautiful day, and I was able to see a ton of ducks too.

Duck opener 2014

Better late than never... The opening day for ducks started like most of the other ones. Up early at five am. Out of the Sammy by six. Lugged sixteen newly rigged decoys about a quarter mile to the spot. Set up and ready about ten minutes before shoot time.

Just me and the Old Man today. I set up the decoys to hunt the south side, but wouldn't you know it, the Old Man got stuck in the mud, and couldn't make it across. I should of switched the decoys around right then, but I didn't.

The first duck came in right after shoot time, a hen pintail. My first one at this spot. Not too much longer, and we had a group of four gadwalls circling.  They came right in, but on the wrong side, got two more down.  A group of seven gadwalls were next, right in our face. We got four more.  I finally switched the decoys around, and the next group was four hen mallards.  They all came to the decoys, and we shot the same bird.  One more down.  It slowed down quite a bit after that until a pair of woodies came in right behind me.  The old Man got the hen.  All in all a great opener for us.  Eight birds in about two hours.

Walking out

A little opening day drama. Apparently some goons were shooting too near a house down the river from us.  Not us, we were "way over there"

Surf and Turf...

Northern Nevada style.

Met a couple of friends last night for some doves, crawdads, and frogs.  A regular Trifecta!! the doves were basically a no show, no surprise there. This is still the worst dove season ever. Me and the boy showed up at about five pm. We got the report...two frogs spotted, none hit. 

We decided to try a foggy looming spot across the river. We pulled our crawdad traps, and let about six or seven go. We headed over just before sunset, and I was able to get one dove on the walk back to the car.

The boy was the first one to the water, and before I could even get the light on it, he had the first frog. He was on fire all night, he nailed four more, and let me get two with the gig. This kid is quickly becoming my hero.