bullwidgeon

Yes on the collared peccary draw 2 years ago. When I called to yell at the AZGFD lady on the phone about having to drive all the way to 36A to shoot a poor old peccary she said if you have bogus points and are in the max pool it happens. Apparently 1 bogus point was max for 33 HAM that year and I didn't draw it. The only way to get around it is to only put one choice on your app, especially for hunts that historically have leftover tags. And for the record 36A sucks for vicious peccaries compared to 33. I saw a few but they were quite docile, I didn't get charged and have to shoot my way out of the herd like I have to in 33 every year.... Bret M.

Get a job goofball. Stop hanging out by the pool every day.

Went down and fished the Sea of Cortez last week and it was pretty good. Here are some pictures.... The water was a perfect 80 degrees or so and super clear. Dorado, very prolific fish found almost world wide where the water gets above 65 degrees, also called Mahi Mahi or Dolphinfish. Super delicious firm white meat. Another dorado Pez Gallo or Roosterfish, found in the Pacific along the coast from Baja to South America. When they chase a bait that huge dorsal sticks out of the water, they pull like freight trains and often times the smaller models less than 50 pounds jump like h3ll during the fight... Definately one of my favorites to fish for just for the awesome surface strikes and the fact that most of them are caught along pristine beaches in 2-50 foot deep water. They supposedly are not good to eat, I haven't ever tryed to eat one though, so who knows... Yellowfin tuna, these are what the red meat in sushi usually is. I like it shashimi'd or just half cooked on a hot cast iron skillet with sesame seeds and soy sauce and terriyaki sauce. Gnarly fish to eat, they fight pretty good too. Some sort of dolphin, not sure on the type. There were several hundred messing around out there this day, they like to see how close they could jump next to the panga and see how much water they could splash us with. Very curious creatures, I honestly think some of them were trying to see in the boat alot of times to figure out what was going on.... Bret M.

The fat b@st@rd probably just killed a cow or an elk and gorged for a day or two. Either that or he rolled a dumpster down in Clifton and struck the mother load. That's a nice one, have one of the boys whack him and post the pics here... Bret M.

Looks like Irv Earls place. Irv is the man, he sucks at fishing though.... Bret M.

Once a Coues deer gets 6 to 9 nine years old it seems their horns start to get gnarly for the most part and uneven somewhere along either side. Boone and Crockett takes points away for that. Stockwell's deer is fascinating in that it doesn't have all those deductions and is almost perfect symmetry wise. Will we see some true monsters killed in the future? Sure. Will one of them get big and old enough and retain the exact symmetry that Boone and Crockett scores by that Stockwell's buck has? Maybe, but I doubt it. More likely to see Non-typical or gross overall scores falling. Not net typical B&C scores. Farming them in Mexico is already occurring and deer have been in Zoo's for years even with that I am not aware of any Net Typical deer bigger than Stockwell's. Maybe some of the guys who collect antlers can shed more light on this... Bret M.

My uncles killed one down in the 36 units back in the 80's. It was missing it's nads, looked like a barbwire fence accident. It had velvet antlers and was all knobby and gnarly with a really bizarre looking rack. It is hanging in my uncles house to this day. I might have a picture of it around someplace or another, if I find it I will post it...

Dave, Long time no talk you old hippy. There was alot of Sierra Vista dudes at the Whitetail Club in Tucson this year. Anyways, we were fishing an hour South of La Paz down in B.C.S. Take care! Bret M.

Bill, There were lots of deer around, and I wasn't even seriously looking for them. Bret M.

We made it back and what a great time. If any of you guys are looking for a top notch hog hunt or turkey adventure for something other than Merriam's, them boys in Paso Robles have it figured out... Great place, great guys, great food! Here are some pictures from this weekend. Thanks again Jim and see you and Nolan this Winter!!! And those guys said these were small ones. I would hate to see a big one.... Bret M.

Good riddance codger.... Send me your house email, all I have is your work one. Bret M.

That's a channel cat, not a flathead. Good job on the bass! Bret M.

I didn't like the idea of extra parts. So after all my glass got stolen a year ago and I was going through the "decide what you want process" with a giant insurance check in my hand and I came to the following conclusion. Get a pair of 12x50 Ultravid's and a little Zeiss 15-45x65MM spotting scope. I used to pack a pair of 10x42 Trinovid's around my neck and 15x56 Swaro's in my pack, pre-theft. The Ultravid's, you can free hand alot better than I ever could with the Swaro's and with the 12x power I see the same amount of animals that I did with my 15X if I am "tripod-upped", I just dig the scope out to tell exactly how large they are on the farther animals. Back in the old days even with the 15x's I wished I had a scope a-lot of the time anyways. I am sure the Duovid's are allright, I just didn't want any extra moving parts and the Ultravids were the clearest glass I had ever looked through even though the magnification wasn't the same. I did look at the Duovids, Ultravids, new (at the time) 15x Geovids and 15x Swaro SLC's during this procees Bret M.

There are so many big cats and trout eating sized bass that when the flows drop and the trout get corralled in pools I have a hard time believing many of them would get to be holdover sized.... Once the tubers start weekends are unfishable there anyways unless you go at night. Its a pretty decent fishery considering how much use it gets and how close to a major metropolitan area it is, just not for trout. Bret M.

If you catch some little planter trouts on the lower Salt, use them as bait, Flatheads love them. Bret M.

If you have crappie lights for your boat, you can tie up to the giant tires around the marina. Start chunking with cut up chovies and mackeral strips, about 1 inch peices. The striper bite can get unreal. If you can get larger live bait like big shad or medium sized waterdogs and free line those out along with a few chunk poles you might really get some nicer sized stripers. You do have to keep lots of chunks or chum in the water to keep the fish around it seems like. We have had them right up behind the boat in the lights on wide open chew several times doing this in the past. Good luck. Bret M.

Meeting on Feb 9th to set seasons dates and prices tags will be available sometime after that, who knows how long after that, it's the Res, they do what they want and you better like it or go home. Bret M.

I had one exactly like that, even manufactured close to the same datethat got stolen last Spring. It was a sweet little gun, I paid $300 for mine, then put a HS Precision stock on it and a Burris scope. Never got a chance to shoot it before it got liberated from me. I got another 700 in 264 last summer, but this time went with a new 700 CDL with a 26 inch fluted pipe and slapped another HS precision stock/Burris scope on it and had the trigger done. It shoots awesome with lightweight bullets. So far it likes 107 Gr Matchkings, 120 Grain Gamekings and 120 Gr Ballistic tips, the only bullet I have found that it doesn't like are Barnes Tripleshocks in 120 so far. I am going to try to load up some 100 gr Hornady's and 129 gr SST's this Spring/Summer for it. I have not been happy with any of the 140 Gr factory loads and have ordered bullets from www.cpcartridge.com until I get the rest of my reloading stuff set up around here. I hope you end up enjoying yours as much as I have enjoyed mine.... Bret M.

That deer is Amazing, super gnarly!!! Bret M.

I got a message saying it was in 37B. WHo really knows though. Bret

There are resident elk in the salt cedar jungle between Safford and the Res that never leave the river bed and never see the light of day. Good luck getitng them out of there though. Bret M.

Dave, That really is terrible news. Bill was a helluva hunter and really nice guy. My thoughts and prayers go out to Adam and the rest of his family and friends. Bret Mattausch

I was sitting on the fence North of Aravaipa looking for sheep a few years ago and 90 inch bucks were chasing does everywhere in that D-West unit. I was seeing 3 or 4 good ones a day. Did you guys hunt up there? Red Rooster peak, Ash Creek, Lookout mountain area? That stuff looked gnarly from the "fence" or maybe the rut was just wide open that year and this year it wasn't.... Bret M.

Foote Creek.

Is there going to be a fund to reimburse the goofballs who went down and spent a bunch on gas and ammo sh*tc@nning all those goofy goats he let loose? Aww nevermind, I am just glad the foul things are gone and the Bighorns are finally doing good again. Bret M.