Geezer Pheasant Season....

Geezer Pheasant Season....September 22-26, 2014.

The state of Washington has a two day youth hunt sometime in late September.  This was a great idea to get kids out early and hunting without the competition from adults.

The wonderful idea was followed by a Geezer Pheasant Season where hunters over the age of 65 can hunt pheasants for the week following the youth hunt.  Not sure this hunt is a good idea, but it does get Bugaboo and Snowpatch out for an early hunt.  My "Geezer" friend gets to hunt without much competition while I get to walk along and take pictures of the entire crew hunting pheasants.

This fall we got a "good citizenship" collar for Snowpatch and it made a world of difference.  Now that I can reach out and touch him from 50 yards he his become a very well trained dog!  Seems he knew those commands all that time but chose to ignore them!!

It was an opportunity for Snowpatch to get good and dirty.  Bugaboo got the chance to find every noxious weed in Grant County and lodge them in his tail.  If you look carefully of the picture of the three of them you will notice that the flowing tail of Bugaboo now has the appearance of a rat tail.

Hunting with Bugaboo and Snowpatch does have the appearance of a mis-match.  It takes Snowpatch a bit longer to cover the same ground as Bugaboo.  Ok, a LOT longer.  But on any hunt there are those long stretches of ground where you are only walking and not hunting.  So I at these points I merely throw Snowpatch in the back of the vest and he rides along for free.  I do wish he would bark when he scents a pheasant while in the back of the vest.

Here I am carrying Terry's auto and Snowpatch!!  That auto is heavy compared to my SKB side-by-side in a 20 gauge.  Snowpatch does throw you off balance as he prefers riding on the side rather than in the middle.  He did hang in there and rode for an hour or more watching Bugaboo go on point.

The final count was only four wild birds.  Terry never did shoot a release bird!!  It looks like it will be another slow pheasant season.  Maybe next year it will be time to hunt another state for birds.

The other excitement for the week fishing for a couple of days with Terry at the beginning and the end of Geezer season.  At one secret lake I managed to hook and land the largest fish of the year and that included Minnie.  It was 22 inches long and about five pounds.  It is still swimming with a slightly sore mouth.  The other lakes were not as kind.  Big Twin produced five fish in three hours of fishing but none topped 15 inches.  The other secret lake produced one hell of a strike, but no fish. It is hunting season starting Saturday for quail and chuker.  Snowpatch and Bugaboo are ready!

The other event of Geezer Season was that the Dodge Ram got constipated.  The soot filter maxed out and the rengeration burn to get rid of it failed.  So it sits in Ephrata for a week now waiting for replacement parts. Thanks to the Federal Government for their clean air regulations which require that the truck runs at 5-20 MPH when ANY emission item fails.

This is fine if your truck lives in the city.  Here is a picture of the Dodge Ram right before it "failed" its emission test.  Someday in the backcountry of Idaho, Wyoming, or Montana somebody will die when the truck "fails" during the first fall snowstorm of the season.  Meantime, I guess I better make up a "survival" kit in case it decides to quit running in the middle of somewhere a hundred miles from a paved road.