Hunter(s): Walt and Steve

Location: Lmuma Creek bottom preserve

Dogs: Sallie, Torrie, Scout

Wildlife spotted: Just birds today.

Time:1:00 pm until 3:00 pm

Results: 6 Roosters and 1 Chukar in the bag!

The weather over the past 2 weeks has been beautiful with highs in the 50's and lots of sunshine. The preserve is open until the end of the month or until we run out of birds. Take advantage of one last opportunity to bring the dog out for a hike and swing the shotgun!  

11/21/2009

Hunter(s): Eric, Rick, David, and sons

Location: Ten Dollar Canyon

Dogs: Sallie, Torrie, and 3 labs

Wildlife spotted: Just Chukars today.

Time:11:00 am until 1:00 pm

Results: 9 Chukar down

Despite a horrible weather forecast for today, we ended up with blue skies, comfortable temps, and calm conditions. The birds held well and we had some good shooting opportunities in Ten Dollar canyon - which the guys made the most of. So far we haven't seen any snow on the ranch. Cool nights make for good hiking on frozen ground, and it certainly doesn't hurt the scent trails. We are looking forward to a skiff of snow, though. It's always fun to cut brid tracks in fresh snow. We have a few days still open around Thanksgiving. Give us a call and make plans to come out and work off some of your turkey dinner! LODGE SPECIAL: Add a night's stay in the CRR lodge for only $99.00 to make it a perfect trip - yes, the hot tub is full!  

11/19/2009

Hunter(s): John and Steve

Location: Ten Dollar Bench

Dogs: Sallie, Torrie, and Fidget

Wildlife spotted: Mule deer, Big Horn sheep, and a coyote!

Time: 9:00 am until noon

Results: 4 Chukar in the bag!

We've had some perfect hunting weather over the past week with high temps in the 50's, clouds, and calm conditions. We broke down our Steelhead camps on the Methow and Klickitat Rivers last week, so we are excited to focus on some upland bird hunting! Wild Chukar populations are as good as we have seen them. We've been finding several large coveys of birds on every bench we've hiked, inlcuding some that have not held many birds the past couple seasons. The feeders we put out last season to help the birds through the winter have definitely made a positive impact. We're scheduling hunts and hope you can find a day to join us for a hike sometime over the Hoidays - which are just around the corner! LODGE SPECIAL: Add a night's stay in the CRR lodge for only $99.00 to make it a perfect trip - yes, the hot tub is full!  

10/8/2009

Hunter(s): Patrick, Knut, Steve

Location: Mount Baldy Preserve

Dogs: Sallie, River, and Fidget

Wildlife spotted: Mule deer, 50-60 Big Horn sheep, and Chukar!

Time: 6 Weeks away!

Results: 11 Chukar harvested!

It's shaping up to be one those typical Fall seasons... too many things to do, not enough time to do it all! It was a beutiful day on the preserve with great dog work, good shooting, and strong birds! The wild bird seson and preserve season is in full swing, so give us a call to schedule your date. Add a night's stay in the CRR lodge make it a perfect weekend trip!  

6/15/2009

Hunter(s): Getting ready!

Location: Mount Baldy Preserve

Dogs: Getting Fat!

Wildlife spotted: Mule deer, Big Horn sheep, eagles, hawks, and birds!

Time: 6 Weeks away!

Results: Call to reserve your day!

August 1 marks the start of our 2009-2010 bird preserve season. We will have our first shipment of Chukar in the flight pen and are now taking reservations for guided and self guided hunts. An early morning hunt paired with a half day fishing trip and a night's stay in the newly completed lodge makes for a great weekend getaway! Stay tuned for package specials!  

2/27/2009

Hunter(s): Roger, Floyd, and Steve

Location: Mount Baldy Preserve

Dogs: Sallie and Fidget

Wildlife spotted: 12 Mulies

Time: 9:00 - noon

Results: 6 Chukar in the bag, many more in the field!

Another beautiful day afield - sunshine, perfect temperatures, and great exercise! We have a pen full of healthy flight conditioned Chukars to liberate this season! For the remainder of the Spring Preserve season, we are offering the following Specials until the end of the season (March 31) or we run out of birds: Non guided preserve 149.00 (per hunter, 3 hunter minimum); Fully Guided 199.00 (per hunter, 3 hunter minimum); add a half day fishing trip for only 149.00 add'l (per hunter, double occupancy). The snow is gone, the weather is great. Pick a date and give us a call!  

2/25/2009

Hunter(s): Steve and Chris

Location: Mount Baldy preserve

Dogs: Sallie and Fidget

Wildlife spotted: 8 Mule Deer

Time: 9:00 - noon

Results: 4 Chukar in the bag, many more in the field!

Another beautiful day afield - sunshine, perfect temperatures, and great exercise! We have a pen full of healthy flight conditioned Chukars to liberate this season! For the remainder of the Spring Preserve season, we are offering the following Specials: Non guided preserve 149.00 (per hunter, 3 hunter minimum); Fully Guided 199.00 (per hunter, 3 hunter minimum); add a half day fishing trip for only 149.00 add'l (per hunter, double occupancy). The snow is gone, the weather is great. Pick a date and give us a call! Special is valid until the birds are gone!  

2/4/2009

Hunter(s): --

Location: --

Dogs: Ready for action

Wildlife spotted: --

Time: --

Results: Preserve Update!

We have a pen full of healthy flight conditioned Chukars that we need to turn loose by the end of March! For the remainder of the Spring Preserve season, we will offer the following Specials: Non guided preserve 150.00 (per hunter, 3 hunter minimum); Fully Guided 250.00 (per hunter, 3 hunter minimum); Cast N Blast: Guided hunt with lunch and afternoon float trip 395.00 (per hunter, double occupancy). The snow is gone the weather is great. Pick a date and give us a call! Special is valid while supplies last!  

1/5/2009

Hunter(s): Johnny, Ted, and Steve

Location: Lmuma Creek bottom

Dogs: Ginger, River, Sallie, and Fidget

Wildlife spotted: Lots of sheep!

Time: 11:00 am - 2:30 pm

Results: 2 Chukar, 2 Quail .

This cold weather has made things tough for us on the hunting and fishing end of things. We like to think we're pretty hearty souls, but we draw the line at single digit temperatures. The weather forecast is showing a warming trend now, and we're looking forward to a strong finish to the wild bird season. Our preserve season extends all the way through March, so we'll have plenty of days in the field ahead this Spring. We have about 8 inches of snow on the ground on the lease. The South facing slopes are clearing off, and that's where the majority of the birds we've found have been spending their time. There's still plenty of time to come out this year and burn off a few of the extra calories you consumed over the holiday. We're also going to be doing some Coyote calling over the next few weeks. The amazing photos above were taken by our friend Norm Hersom!  

12/15/2008

Hunter(s): The Shop guys

Location: Mount Baldy bench

Dogs: Ginger, River, Sallie, and Fidget

Wildlife spotted: A few mulies and a Golden Eagle

Time: 11:00 am - 3:00 pm

Results: 4 Chukar in the pouch.

We followed a good staff meeting at the shop with a nice hike on the preserve. Many of our fly fishing guides and staff had not acutally been on an offical preserve hunt, so we took the opportunity to give everyone a run through on our released bird program. We all had a great time and enjoyed watching some mostly good dog work and mostly poor shooting! We're in the middle of a cold snap right now, but it looks like things may warm up by the weekend and we'll be ready to hike the hills. Give us a call if you're up for some fresh air and exercise.  

12/8/2008

Hunter(s): Tony and Steve

Location: Rock Slides and Lmuma Creek

Dogs: Sallie, and Fidget

Wildlife spotted: Big Horns, Mule Deer, and Mallards!

Time: 10:00 am - 3:00 pm

Results: 3 Chukar and one Valley Quail in the game bag

The weather is nice and the bee hives that were in the Lmuma Creek bottom have been picked up and trucked to CA for the winter. This means we'll start hunting the Lmuma Creek bottom now, which is one of our better Quail areas on the ranch. We're still awaiting the winter season, but certainly not complaining!  

11/24/2008

Hunter(s): Tracy, Hayden, Tom, and Jerry

Location: MacPherson Canyon, Mack's Canyon, and the Waterfall Draw

Dogs: Chase, Sallie, and Fidget

Wildlife spotted: Big Horns, 2 nice buck mulies, and a Red Tailed Hawk with a Chukar!

Time: 9:00 am - 3:30 pm

Results: 8 Chukar and a Valley Quail in the pouches!

More unbelievable November weather with sunshine and temperatures pushing 50 degrees. We had a great hunt yesterday all the way around - nice scenery, good shooting, and good dog work. There's really no shortcut to getting out and covering some miles. There's going to be long stretches where you don't find anything, but that's just part of getting where you want to be! Of course we found a bunch of birds near the truck on our way back from a good 3 hour trek. We're still waiting on this year's first skiff of snow. Some of my best hunting has been in the first week or so of this event, as even the larger coveys of birds hold better and head for the South facing slopes.  

11/21/2008

Hunter(s): Brian, Patrick, Tom, and Jerry

Location: Mount Baldy bench

Dogs: Millie, Sallie, and Fidget

Time: 9:00 am - 1:30 pm

Results: 8 Chukar and a Rooster pheasant in the pouches!

No, that's not a typo - we did find a rooster pheasant in the bottom of Scorpion Creek that Tim connected on. It was wearing a band from Coyote Ridge, which is many miles from where it crossed our path. Despite harvesting a decent number of birds, we had tougher hunting yesterday than what we'd been experiencing recently. The Chukar we shot were mostly in pairs or by themselves, which leads me to believe they were probably birds that were liberated earlier this season. The larger coveys we found were runners, and all of them but one flushed out of gun range. Both the hunters and the dogs covered a lot of ground, and enjoyed every minute of it. The Big Horn sheep were out in full force, and we walked up within about 30 yards of a nice ram feeding just below the ridge line. As Patrick said, "Man, that's worth the price of admission right there!" Yeah... but a 15 bird covey at your feet is nice, too!  

11/9/2008

Hunter(s): Guy and Grant

Location: Mount Baldy bench

Dogs: 2 Shorthairs and a pointing lab

Time: 9:00 am - 1:30 pm

Results: 2 limits of Chukar!

With heavy rain in the forecast for most of Eastern Washington, we had a busy weekend on the bird hunts as the Canyon remained dry and comfortable. Good dog work and healthy bird populations have led to productive days in the field. The birds we've supplemented on the ranch this season are doing well, and nearly every bird feeder we've got out has been getting some attention from wild populations. This will certainly help the survival rate through the winter season.  

11/5/2008

Hunter(s): Chris, Doug, and Steve

Location: Mount Baldy Preserve

Dogs: Sallie and Fidget

Time: 11:00 am - 3:30 pm

Results: 7 Chukar in the bag!

We hunted 2 different areas on the ranch today - Ten Dollar canyon and the Mount Baldy bench. The birds on the bench held well and were holding in coveys of 2-10. We had some good shooting on the bench. On Ten Dollar, the Chukar had their track shoes on and didn't give us many good looks. The weather was perfect again with a very slight breeze and comfortable air temps. We've got some great hunting ahead of us in November and December. Our capacity is limited, so call now to get your date on the calendar..  

10/30/2008

Hunter(s): Matt, Pat, and Steve

Location: Mount Baldy Preserve

Dogs: Sallie and Fidget

Time: 9:00 am - 11:30 am

Results: 9 Chukar in the bag!

We enjoyed a great morning chasing Chukar on the preserve. We'd released 14 birds this morning, but saw many more than that. This reflects the fact that we had some great dog work today, and also shows our holdovers are doing well. Matt and Pat shot straight, and the birds cooperated nicely, offering lots of good passing looks. We also saw a nice ram and a ewe on the hike. We came off the mountain just in time for these two to jump in a drift boat and hit the afternoon rise on the river.  

10/13/2008

Hunter(s): Steve

Location: Mount Baldy Ranch

Dogs: Sallie and Fidget

Time: 3 pm

Results: Refilling bird feeders

We topped off 3 of the feeders we have up the Lmuma Creek bottom and took a good 30 minute hike at each of them. We found a couple nice coveys of Quail and a big covey of Chukar on Ten Dollar canyon. We saw lots of Big Horn sheep in the creek bottom on the way in and were entertained by a couple of Rams that had it out over a ewe that waited patiently by. It was quite a show... The nights have certainly gotten cooler and the morning fishing has slowed. A morning hike and an afternoon float - it's a great time to do a Cast-N-Blast.  

10/07/2008

Hunters: Chris and Steve

Location: Mount Baldy Ranch

Dogs: Sallie and Fidget

Time: 12 pm - 6 pm

Results: 3 Valley Quail in the bag

We covered a fair amount of country the past 2 days in pursuit of Chukar and Quail. Weather conditions were perfect yesterday with a slight breeze and overcast skies. Today the wind was blowing so hard on the ridgetops that we were pretty much forced to hunt the steep sidehills and creek bottoms. We saw, and had good points on 4 coveys of Chukar yesterday and only 1 today. With the dry conditions we're experiencing, the birds seem to be holding in larger coveys and running (FAST!). Quail populations are certainly good this year. We've gotten onto at least one good covey of Quail every time out this season. Quail are great because once you bust them up into small groups they hold extremely well. Overall, it's a great time to take the dogs and shotgun for a walk.  

09/25/2008

Hunters: Steve and Curtis

Location: Mount Baldy Ranch Preserve

Dogs: Sunny and Sallie

Time: 9 am - 12 pm

Results: Good dog work and lots of birds!

Our preserve season is now underway in the Yakima Canyon. Air temperatures have been a little warm recently, which makes it tough for the dogs to run too hard in the early season, but things are shaping up for a great Fall in the Canyon. From now through the first half of November, you have an excellent opportunity to come over and do a Chukar hunt on the preserve in the AM, and finish your day with a PM float on the Yakima River. The afternoon fishing program focuses on BWO's and October Caddis.  

NOTE:  The 2008 Wild bird season opens on October 4th. We have done a fair amount of pre season scouting, and the outlook for this year is excellent for both Chukar and Quail. Call now to schedule your date. Just a little heads up: our busiest hunting window is between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I guess there's a lot of people wanting to get some exercise during the Holiday smorgasboard!