Hidekazu & Akiko

Several years ago, I don't recall exactly how many, I met Hidekazu and Akiko.  They hail from Hiroshima, Japan and come out to fish with me every other summer.  Both are superb fishermen and are equally adept with fly tackle or spinning gear.  When I first met them, bass had their full attention.  They loved them!  Largemouth and Smallmouth trips were the only thing they wanted to do.

On a subsequent trip we changed it up a bit and did a float for trout with fly gear on the upper McKenzie.  They fell in love with trout and with fly fishing.

Just prior to leaving on our Elk hunt, Hidekazu, Akiko and I spent several hillarious days chasing trout and smallmouth.  Even though we have a bit of a language barrier, Hidekazu keeps me rolling in the bottom of the boat with laughter every day we're out.  In this pic Hidekazu is shedding yet another tear because Akiko's "decobatchi" (little) bass is bigger than his.

When I'm working on the McKenzie I usually have my folks fish a two fly rig and occassionally we'll get a double. 

Akiko managed to pull this feat off several times, again to the dismay of poor Hidekazu!

I'm hoping on their next trip to Oregon, I'll get to introduce them to a summer steelhead!

Huntin' with the boys

The past several days, the boys and I have been out hunting on our annual, early season juvenile elk/bear hunt.  Yesterday the boys put me to work!

Early yesterday morning, Ryan harvested this gorgeous little "cinnamon phase" black bear.  We had a heck of time getting it packed out with just the two of us, but we managed and had a ball! This bear had some distinctive traits aside from the long cinnamon colored guard hairs in its coat.

It's right-rear paw was deformed by the loss of three toes and claws.  Not sure what did it, but the injury caused some obvious atrophy to the right-rear leg. 

This is what the rear paw should have looked like.

Both front paws looked like this one.

I wrongly assumed that my work day had ended when I arrived home and finished preparing Ryan's bear...

Later that evening I learned that I was waaaaaaay wrong!

When Rhett (Ryan's identical twin) and I arrived back home at the ranch....at DARK! from our evening elk hunt, my oldest son, Kyle frantically told me that he had left his little brother, Hunter and Kyle's girlfriend Alicia way up on the mountain with Hunter's first ELK!!! 

By the time we got Hunter's elk down the mountain and hung at the ranch house, it was well after midnight!

A very long, very successful day of hunting for the Finnerty family!