MOOSE!!!

Cabela’s is an awesome store!

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Fighting A Two Year Old For The Cabela’s Catalog

My wife’s Facebook status from last night:

“My husband and my baby just got in a fight over the new Cabela’s catalog. Lord help me!”

That’s my girl!

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Why Travel The World When So Much Is Out My Backdoor?

This picture of Little E made me think about why I love the outdoors…

I have this conversation with a co-worker of mine a lot. She is a globe trotter; and loves to travel to destinations all over the world. She has great pictures of herself in famous places; and the wonderful things she’s seen. To tell you the truth, it is very impressive.

She tries to convince me that I should go overseas too… I would if offered a free trip… but I like finding beautiful things in my own backyard.

I know that my friend finds Nebraska beautiful too, so this is not any dig at her…

I was able to spend some time the last couple weekends at some fly fishing shops and a couple of different Cabela’s stores. Whenever I go into an outdoor store, I love seeing the trophy pictures from patrons and staff, the native aquariums, and the taxidermy displays. Cabela’s does a great job of featuring native animals in their stores, and seeing the trophies that came from my own backyard is amazing to me. My daughter loves to see them as much as I do, and gets so excited to see them. She will make moose antlers at the moose, fish faces at the aquarium, and growl at the lions.

To the side is the world record for the largest typical mule deer. In addition to fly fishing, I do some deer hunting in the fall and turkey hunting in the spring. I vastly prefer fishing, mostly because I can release the fish unharmed (catch and release a topic for another post); but I am not opposed to the harvest of fish and game. One on the most exciting things about hunting for me is seeing the deer/turkey approach. Every time there is a feeling that my heart is about to jump out of my chest. I can only imagine what it felt like when the mule deer above came into sight.

That is what I love about the outdoors. You never know what will walk out of the woods or be at the end of your line. Seeing the pictures, trophies, and aquariums of the local animals helps keep me going. Seeing the amazing animals that people have found within a drive of my backyard, and knowing that every time I go out into the field I might be next one to snag a trophy is half the fun.

I don’t know what it is like to look up at the Eiffel Tower, but I do know what it is like to catch a trophy fish, or see a huge deer run out in front of me… and all in my own backyard. I have the same gitty reaction that Little E does in Cabela’s… and it takes all my effort to remain clam and perfectly still… and keep my heart from beating out of my chest…

Nature is awesome…

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First Fly Rod

This is for whoever searched Bing for “Getting Started Sportfishing” today, and clicked on my blog…

While you can spend hundreds of dollars on a fly rod, this post is to show that a first rod can be very affordable.

I got started on fly fishing 2 summers ago after watching a guy fish next to me at Holmes Lake with a fly rod and being mesmerized. It took a little convincing, but I convinced my wife to let me spend some money and buy one. I didn’t have the several hundred dollars necessary to buy a nice rod, and not knowing if I would like or even be able to fly fish, I decided on an entry level rod. I decided on this… mostly because it was the cheapest rod that Cabela’s Kearney store sold.

This is the Cabela’s Cahill Fly Rod Combo. It came with the rod, reel, backing, fly line, and leader. This combo and a box of trout flies cost me around $75.

Cabela’s Page for this combo

I have been impressed with this rod since the day it came out of it’s box. It was an excellent first fly rod. I bought a 9 foot, 8 weight rod on the advice of a salesmen (who I would later realize knew nothing about fly fishing… that will be a later post), who recommended it would be good for bass fishing. In hindsight, I wish I would have gone with a 5 weight rod. A 5 weight is a better middle of the road rod… a good rod for panfish and small bass… which is what most beginners will be fishing for. I think a 5 weight is also a better weight to learn on since it feels like it casts a little easier for me. A 9 foot pole is a good first pole length for still water fly fishing since it helps keep your line higher in the air during your cast… and the razor sharp hook tied to the end of it that much further from your body!

I have never taken fly fishing lessons… I would recommend them as it would save you later having to fix faults in your casting… but after a failed first trip to Holmes Lake where I deposited about a third of my flies in the top of trees or snapped them off over the lake, I managed to get the thing to fly cast.

Now that I have worked out my cast, this rod has done well for it’s price. If you are considering getting started, this would be my recommendation. It’s low cost makes it low risk… if you hate fly fishing, you are not out a ton of money. It is a four piece rod, so it breaks down to a small size and stores easily. It casts well for it’s price and is a great beginning rod…

Now that I have been fly fishing for a couple year, I have moved on to a more expensive rod. If you find you like the sport, that is a good move. While this rod is a good beginner rod, I quickly desired a rod with better casting qualities and purchased up (although I still did not spend near what I could have still!)

Other then wanting a smoother casting rod after i became more experienced, the only bad thing I can say about this combo is the reel… the drag is pretty useless and has always seemed flimsy. I have since replaced the reel with Cabela’s next model up their price points.

However, my original 8 weight Cabela’s Cahill Fly Rod is still in my rotation… it comes on the float tube with me regularly for bass fishing. The 8 weight does a decent job casting large bass bugs. And since the heavier rods tend to have more of a back bone, I always have this rod with me whenever I am in “big fish water”.

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