Cody is gone

 My Cody dog had to be put down on June 19th after an apparent stroke on June 18th. He was 14 years old and long retired from field trialing. Heartbreaking.

As a young dog Cody stacked up some impressive placements including a 1st in the Western Open Derby Classic at Red Rock, a win at the Cascade Shooting Dog CH AA derby, and followed up with RU CH at the Pacific AA CH and California Bird Dog Championship in 2015.

Cody was bred by Jerry Lewis and sired by CH Jetsetter out of Johnny's Jewel. I will miss him greatly

Above is a photo of Cody taken when I picked him from the litter at Jerry Lewis' camp in Beach, North Dakota. He was a clear winner even then.

Montana - the right place for a young bird dog

 When you have done all your basic yard training and started stop to flush with pigeons you need to move to wild birds if you want a bird dog. Rock and Cap are now derby age. They really needed the prairie experience and they got it this fall.

This is Rock with my friend Pete taking a break after working a large covey of sharp-tailed grouse in SE Montana.

"Lords of the Fly"

 

In "Lords of the Fly" Monte Burke brings the history of tarpon fly angling and the biggest names in the game to the page in this great accounting of the fish, men, gear, lifestyle, and the fishery that make the amazing sport. A spectacular page turner...

Bird Dogs

Val and Jill hunted hard and showed some wear at the end of this hunt; bloody-tipped tails and teets from busting brush, hocks and forearms chaffed from running through ice-crusted snow. Conditions were cold and cruddy; hunting was in about 8-inches of snow which had fallen a couple nights prior, thawed a little the previous day, settled, then froze and developed a good crust overnight.

We didn't start hunting until around noon because temps had dropped into the single digits that morning; temps while hunting were initially in the low to mid twenties and at the end of the hunt started dipping back into the teens.

Initially we hunted some stand-alone tule patches and clumps of whitetop, but didn't see any pheasant tracks, point, or put-up any birds. Things started to change the deeper we got into the property; I started seeing tracks and the occasional wild-flushing (200 yards distant) bird. I marked where a couple birds had landed and hunted the girls into that cover; this resulted in a couple points, and wild flushes, but no shots fired; the scent and birds in the air put a little spark in the girls hunt though, and the game was on.

We hunted into a huge patch of pepperweed, tracks were everywhere trailing into heavy clumps of brush, and the birds began popping distantly; in five minutes we put ten birds in the air, mostly roosters. In short order Jill was on a hot trail, having two barren stands in rapid succession with great intensity; eyes staring distantly, head and tail high-and-tight and not flinching as I went in to flush on both occasions. A hundred-yards further I saw her stack-up again; this time Val was off to her right and staunch as well. I made a dash toward both dogs and about thirty yards out the first rooster went crossing left, and at the shot the second rooster lifted and went crossing right...

The Jester

 

"Doubling Down"...

In an August 2, 2022 blog Greg McReynolds, Mouthfil of Feathers (mouthfuloffeathers.com), announced they were ..."doubling down on the blog, ...recruiting new contributors, and printing the book." The book, Mouthful of Feathers - Upland in the West, was released originally as an e-book and, is no longer in print. However the print edition, Mouthful of Feathers - Upland in America, is due to be released the summer of 2023. To pre-order go to the Mouthful of Feathers blog or mouthfuloffeathers.bigcartel.com.

As promised, the group has "doubled down." The print edition of the book is in the works, new contributors have been recruited, the reading is fabulous!

Double the fun... two new pups!

 I have lost two of my setters in the past six months... always tough when an old friend passes on.

But a friend in Texas gave me two well-bred setter pups. Funny how these things work out.

Here are  Cap and Rock at one year old.