IA Born

I finally found a couple of pics of a Royal Wulff Jacob has tied previously. I don't recall is this is a #12 or a #14, but he did pretty darn good for a first try.

Derek is definitely a good dude, and not just because his wife has family in Iowa, not far from where I grew up! Derek didn't hesitate to make a donation to, and fly request from, my son for his black belt promotion fee.

The $550 is the studio's fee for the black belt promotion. Its a 24-hour program filled with activities, including community service, on top if the non-stop training the candidates do. The money covers the cost of the activities they do, as well as supplies and the boards that are curmt throughout the night for the next day. Every black belt candidate in our studio has community service obligations throughout the year-long journey to complete in order to be able to even test in their respective October promotion.

Correct. We're doing it on donation. It helps him work harder to produce better products.

Out of curiosity, where did you get that the Coconino NF is closed to shooting? Their Stage 2 Fire Restriction order from June 13 does not exempt shooting. It would be specifically called out in the prohibited acts at the top. https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd748492.pdf And (edited)....I just saw Red Rabbit's similar response above. Sorry for the duplication of info...

I'll shoot you a PM shortly. Thanks!

I'll get some pics of his most recent flies in the next few days, but the link from last year's request has a bass popper, woolly buggers, pheasant tail, original elk hair caddis (much better now), and a mudler minnow.

Directly from the closure order: "This Order will be effective on July 15, 2020 at 8:00 pm, and shall remain in effect until November 1, 2020 or until rescinded, whichever is earlier."

Exactly. Sean lives in the valley, so 80s in early October is "cool". We were in the mid-80s last year on Jacob's deer hunt in 35A and it was freaking roasting, especially for us northerners.

Like others have said, you have to download maps of the areas you're going to hunt if you're not going to have reception out there. That's the only thing I don't like about OnX. A friend got me a subscription as a thank you gift a couple of years ago, or I wouldn't have it. The more I use it, the more I like it. My wife and son both have accounts now, too, thanks to a connection with NWTF/OnX and we can keep track of each other while out shed hunting, hiking, or mountain biking by sharing points. I like the "share waypoint" feature of OnX, too. My close friends and I share points with each other all the time. I like the boundaries, water, land management/ownership features as well, like others have said. I also like the aerial feature, especially when I have the hybrid aeria/top feature turned on. Topography is just as important, if not more so, than aerial in my humble opinion. I also have Flatline Maps with Avenza. I like those because they automatically work in airplane mode without having to download extras. They have great aerial and land ownership, as well as roads. The topo features on Flatline are great. The biggest drawback to Flatline for me is that you have pay for every unit map you buy and you can't share waypoints. I frequently bounce back and forth between my Flatline and OnX when I'm out hunting, hiking, and mountain biking. Its hard to beat the $30 annual subscription (or whatever it is) for OnX, though.

Does Makayla have the early (Oct) or late (Nov) youth tag, Shawn? Jacob has the Nov youth 33 tag, so we'll be down there a couple of times before his hunt. Everything that has been said about the burn and roads/monsoons is true. If you can get in the youth camp, I highly recommend it, assuming (hoping) it will be happening by then.

Thanks, Tim!

I don't know. I pinch my barbs anyway, so I never really worry about that reg...

Thanks, everyone! As much as I drive that way for work meetings, I always forget about the local fly shop! I'll be sending Mulepackhunter a message and, possibly plan to head up on a Thursday night, camp on public land, hit the fly shop and pick brains while getting the local flies. That's what I do every other town I head to, so it makes perfect sense for here!

I wish renting a boat or hiring a guide was financially feasible right now, but its not. Some day, though...

Life got crazy after we posted this and then left for Telluride. 4Runner has been sold.

My wife decided she wants to go back to the Jeep life she had when we first met. We're selling her 2017 4Runner. Its the TRD Off-Road Premium package. We added a trailer brake control, but never towed anything. Its been on dirt roads, but never used the 4WD other than Flagstaff winters. Its in great condition. All the info and pics are in the CraigsList link below. PM me if you are interested and want to come see it. https://flagstaff.craigslist.org/cto/d/flagstaff-runner-trd/7141843376.html

Life got crazy after we posted this and then left for Telluride. 4Runner has been sold.

My wife decided she wants to go back to the Jeep life she had when we first met. We're selling her 2017 4Runner. Its the TRD Off-Road Premium package. We added a trailer brake control, but never towed anything. Its been on dirt roads, but never used the 4WD other than Flagstaff winters. Its in great condition. All the info and pics are in the CraigsList link below. PM me if you are interested and want to come see it. https://flagstaff.craigslist.org/cto/d/flagstaff-runner-trd/7141843376.html

Sorry, was gone for a while and forgot about this. I used to hunt private land near the Stephens State Forest in Southern Iowa, near Chariton. There are several different units of that State Forest down there. I'm pretty sure we were near the 1000 Acre Unit.

As soon as I saw that rod bend, I figured it was a goliath grouper. Its on my son's and my bucket list, but I told my skinny-little-turd son that we'd need five spotters to hold him in the boat!

I've only been able to buy Apex TSS loads on their website. I know you can get the Federal TSS loads from Sportsman's, Bass Pro, and Cabela's. The 3-inch #7s patterned great out of my son's 20g, but just wouldn't eject/reload properly because of the muzzle velocity.

My son drew the 33 youth tag in November. I haven't been in that unit since we lived in Tucson over 13 years ago. Time to do some scouting, both e-scouting (love OnX) and a trip or two down there!

TSS is expensive as heck, but worth every penny. I had my son shooting the Federal TSS #7s (3" 20g) for this spring and he almost decapitated his bird at 16 yards. His Weatherby is finicky, though, and won't consistently eject loads moving under 1200 fps. Federal TSS is 1150 and it didn't kick the next round in the chamber. I had him pattern and test an Apex 3" 20g with #9 shot and it put 60 pellets in the kill zone at 30 yards, as well as ejected the spent case and loaded the next round. I'll be switching my 3.5" loads to Apex next season.

The road is open and Ashurst has been liberally stocked in the last couple of weeks. Its a crazy weekend, but holler if you need something when you're up here. You're about 20-25 minutes from my house.