Under the Tree

"Josh, wake up, it's Christmas!"

A body stirred under the blanket and then took off for the door, feet sliding and skidding all the way. 

"Christmas, it's Christmas!" 

"Wow! Did Santa empty his sack here?"

Josh's mom tucked her feet under her and watched while he tore through ribbon, tape and wrapping paper. 

"Look at all the fishing gear!"

"Josh, did you miss one, that one in the corner?" 

As Josh was making a bee line for the corner, the doorbell rang.

"I got it mom."

"Who is it?" 

"Uncle Dave and he's got presents!"

Josh was lifted up in the air, "you're getting big!" 

"Big enough to go fishing?" 

"Yep, that's why I'm here."

Josh's mom nodded. 

"I don't have a rod."

"You forget about that corner?" 

Josh grabbed the box from the corner and looked at the tag, "but this says it's from dad," he looked at his uncle. 

"Last rod he made, knew he might not make your first trip, so he wanted you to have this." 

Josh quietly tore off the paper, and pulled the rod tube from the box.  The cap was spun off and the pieces assembled. 

Josh threaded the line as he'd been taught. His uncle helped him with the leader and tied on a piece of yarn. "You remember what your dad taught you?" 

"Elbow on the shelf, stop the rod, follow through." 

Before heading out, Josh stopped to read the inscription on the handle, " 

"For my son, my hand is on your hand, your cast is my cast, love Dad." 

"Uncle Dave, you think he can see us?" 

"I'm certain he's smiling right now. Now let's see if he was right about this rod." 

The air was still, the morning light shone gold, and line sailed through the guides on a Christmas morning. 

 

 

-Stuart Van Dorn

Merry Christmas

Warm wishes to you and your families as we celebrate this Christmas and holiday season.  May you all enjoy health and wealth, and have a prosperous new year.  

 

From Stuart and me to you all, have a Merry Christmas and happy holiday season.  

 

 

Deacon the Wonderdog - My First Pheasant Hunt

Stuart and I have been extremely busy over the last few weeks as we try to finish up 2014 with a bang.  The last couple of weekends have been spent out on Lake Michigan chasing lake trout, lake run browns and cohos with Austin Adduci from Grab Your Fly Charters.  Austin's been great and put us on fish, but we'll get to that later. 

The company I work for has offices around the Midwest and I work with some great people.  One thing most of the guys who sell for us have in common is a love for the outdoors.  For some that means they're avid hunters, others of us avid fishermen.  I had gotten wind of a few guys looking to set up a pheasant hunt at a game farm up in Wisconsin and was offered up an invitation to join to take some pictures.  I'm not much of a hunter and thought going along to take some pictures would be a good introduction in to the sport and if I enjoyed it, I knew it wouldn't be too hard to convince everyone to go again.  

After a late night at our company holiday party, we arose early a bit sleepy headed, but ready to hit the road and get the day started.  A quick couple hours in the car, watching the sun come up over the farmers fields, and we were one of the first to arrive.  The day was quite foggy and overcast, unseasonably warm for December.  As we gathered our gear and downed our coffee, they got the birds out and readied them to be dropped in the field.  An odd thing to look at the birds you know will soon wrapped up and ready to be seasoned and tossed on the grill.  

I was with three of my co-workers, Nick, Tony and Matt.  All avid hunters and great shooters that do a good amount of both deer and bird hunting.  Nick brought along his dog, Deacon, who would be working up the birds for us.  I'm a big dog guy and was excited to see him work.  And boy did he work.  

After getting the go ahead, we grabbed our gear and headed out to our field.  Broken almost in to segments, the guys noted it would section off nicely, allowing Deacon to work everything thoroughly.  And like that we were off.  

It's amazing how fast 4 hours can go by.  We walked the field, kicked up birds, and had a blast.  Getting to watch Deacon work was like watching a craftsman ply their trade with grace and expertise.  He worked back when the wind was in to us, worked away from us when the wind was at our backs.  I'm not familiar with training dogs or what goes in to it, but I have to say, this was impressive.  

The guys got their lot of 25 birds and we even bagged a couple of black pheasants.  As part of the deal I worked out first dibs on the feathers and walked away with more feathers than a guy can use.  Though those black tail feathers are gonna look good on some nymphs.  

Needless to say I'll be for sure getting out there and doing this again, only this time lining up the beads on the barrel of the shotgun, not a lens and camera.