Greenbacks have been on retired veterinarian Tom’s mind for the past 5 years. Greenbacks on brush-choked-dead-fall-log-jammed backcountry streams like described in John Gierach‘s books. Bushwhacking his way to find those secretive Colorado gems and taking them stealthily on delicately placed dries tied by his own hands. Easy? Not if you have multiple sclerosis (MS). Tom…
Author: birddogdoc
Have bird dogs...will travel. I enjoy chasing my setters and FB English Cocker in wide open spaces. (Fly fishing is something to get me between the bird dog seasons!)When not chasing my bird dogs, I'm thinking, reading or writing about bird dogs! The perfect day to me is hunting upland birds with my brother Andy in the bird rich Uplands of Idaho! There's nothing better than dogs on point and puppy breath! I love the tradition associated with upland gunning and birddogs. I'm also a classic America double gun enthusiast...nothing like carrying a 100+ y/o smooth bore on the short-grass prairie.
Trout Hunting on Michigan’s Famed Au Sable River
The internet can be a good thing. I’ve made many great friends with similar passions and neuroses via the means of the information super highway and this blog. Dale Hernden from Lo Banks has been trying for years to get me to Northern Michigan to see the Au Sable wilderness and the Holy Waters. I’ve been…
Canine Reproduction Part III: Parturition
My river is blown with the snow-melt runoff. It’s gonna be a helluva runoff season too with the snow base at 130 percent of normal. Grouse season is a mere three LONG months away. It’s time to renew auld acquaintances and do my do-diligence’s at work so that I get enough attaboy’s for the Fall….
Freethought or Possibly Opening Up a Can of Worms for Bait Fishing
I have received several emails from bird hunters asking of my opinion on certain bird dog immunizations including the Rattlesnake vaccine by Red Rock Biologics. I have not vaccinated my dogs with this vaccine because of the USDA conditional license status this vaccine carries (If you read the bottom line on the photo which reads,…
Wayne Simmons’ The Story of Jules Verne: A Watch Pocket Dog
Stoically, I wait on for the upcoming bird-dog season and the aspen auxins to change the leaves from the green to golds of the Colorado blue grouse country…the caddis are hatching on my home waters seducing recluse big-browns to the surface. Before long, I’ll be in the Colorado high country hunting greenback cutthroats with mayflies, yellow…
Two Flies to Live & Die For!
Parachute Adams Kaufmann’s Classic
The Master
People just don’t say things or write them the way they used to. Not to dwell on nostalgia…but we live in the days of instant gratification…the days of go big or go home. I recently finished a great book on 1776 giving the first hand accounts of General George Washington‘s first year as the commander of…
William Harnden Foster Painting
Here’s another William Harnden Foster painting for your blog: Sport’s Peerless Pride, the 1939 National Champion. My old friend Earl Crangle, the legendary professional trainer, rode Pride’s brace that year (Earl was 19 at the time) and even helped scout for Pride’s handler, Dewey English. I remember Earl telling me “I saw every jump Sport’s…
Dreams
When I dream at night, it’s setters in black and white with shadows on the grasslands, a gentle breeze, and the chaotic whir from the mass exodus of a cubby-30-birder-covey of scaled quail on the Colorado cholla-choked prairie. Spring’s not far. She’ll bring love-struck gobbling turkeys and freestone bred Salmo trutta gulping caddis…but until then…I’ll…
Upland Ways 