Fishing Steelhead

                                                          

I start this story off by saying I’m know up to par good fisherman. So you have to take it as someone starting out. I have fished for steelhead three times in my life before. Last year I caught seven or eight steelhead and that could be a fish story.

My friend called me up and said that the steelhead are on the move, and that last year was a good gear and this year was going to be three times better.

Now, steelhead is a rainbow trout that goes to the ocean. Adults are generally 20-40 inches in length. They go to the ocean for 1-2 years and come back to spawn. Most cone from Fish Hatcheries along the Salmon River but they are getting a lot more wild. A wild fish is one that spawns on its own in the rivers or creeks.

I got a new rod and reel for steelhead fishing. I got flies, sinkers, hoods and plugs. And you know how it is when you get into buying gear, you can just fall into it and never hit the ground, because there’s so much to buy. There’s always something new coming out.

So the big day comes. There are three of us going fishing. Now Bernie is the leader of this trip. He’s gone all over to fish in little places like Alaska and Africa.  Now you are getting a picture of a real fisherman. And if there are fish to catch, Bernie will lead.

Now there is Bud. He is a very good hunter and is just getting out of the house for a few days. He likes to talk a lot and he has been there and done it. So he can go on and on about things. And there is Michael. That is “me.” I like to show up and put my tine in. I go on the idea, If you put the time in, you will get something out of it. Maybe you’re not good at it but you will get something out of it. And go home happy.

Now steelhead fishing is an all day thing for some of us. It starts before the sun is up and takes til it goes down.

Now the first day I do ok in my eyes: two or three. Bernie catches five and that is all you can catch in a day. And he lets some go. Now the second day is a good day. I catch four and start letting some go. You can catch one under your limit and then catch and release. We end up catching seven wild fish on our tip. The limit is usually nine fish in your possession. You can catch a lot more but then you have to let them go. A permit costs about $18 for 20 outings. Then you go back and buy more tags. Bernie catches more than 200 a year. He doesn’t keep them all. He fishes two or three months at a stretch. It costs me about $500 total to go to the Snake River and fish for steelhead. It’s more of a sport than a way to catch fish to eat.

Fish and Game puts computer chips in some of the fingerlings at the hatcheries to trace them and follow how long they have been in the ocean and when they come back. So Fish and Game must scan your fish before you take them home. I’ve never caught one that had a computer chip in its head.

Bud is not into it yet, so time is going on for him. One day we are fishing by some other fishermen. Now Bud finds out that they are from his home town. And that the one man was just a year behind him in school. We fish by him for two days. We are doing all right. They are struggling. Now the second day we  are fishing  we are doing OK. And the people we are fishing by are being very serious about the fishing. 

Now Bernie is doing OK. And it is getting to him how uptight the people are by us. So Bernie talks to me and says that I should net the next fish he catches. Now we are talking about how I should net it for him. Then we are talking about how I should net the next fish the wrong way—and that is just between me and him.

So he hooks one, and I ask if I can use their net to net Bernie’s new catch. They say that it is OK  to use their net. He gets the fish close and I get the net to my waist. But Bernie says “no,  get the net over my head.” He says it just to me. He gets the fish closer and I slam the net down like an ax by the fish. It’s off like a shot in the water a little ways from the bank. Now Bernie is yelling at me to net the fish. 

And now the other fishermen are all in shock at me for how I’m trying to net the fish. Bud is there too and is in shock too, and thinking that Bernie is going to blow up about how I’m trying to net this fish. Now the fish is back again and Bernie is yelling at me to net his fish. I get the net over my head again and slam it down again by the fish. Now the fish jumps out of the water and jumps right into the net! 

Now Bernie and I are in shock because the fish that we weren’t trying to net is in the net. There’s always the one that got away, but this is the one that didn’t get away, even though we tried.

So all we can do is laugh and laugh. And the other fishermen that are in shock start to laugh too, to see such a sight. Now we are all laughing and there are no more serious fishermen at this hole. And so goes the fishing trip

By Michael H Vroman

  

  

  

Rifle, where are you going with that boy?

                                                                                                     

this is a 303 British rifie

       

The story starts out when I was just a young boy of 12. I always looked at the mountains, as I like to hunt deer. The deer lived in the mountains. And you had to get to the mountains to go hunting. My brother had a friend named Bud. He loved to hunt deer to. Or was it that he loved hunting deer and we came along a lot of times. Bud came along and picked me up and I would go hunting with him.

Now we had an old rifle in our family. It was a 303 British, a gun that was used in World War l and ll. It was a very big gun. It had a wood stock that ran from the bottom of the rifle to the barrel. It was a good four feet long. And I was lucky that I was 5 feet tall. And weighed about 85 pounds.The gun weighed 20-30 pounds. And it was the only rifle I was allowed to use.

Bud loved to hunt in Franklin County. There was a road that ran up Mapleton. Then the road went to Willow Flats. The road cut off and went up Franklin Basin. At the top of Franklin Basin there was a mountain that they called the Knob. Bud always loved hunting the Knob. Now the Knob had a backside. And the backside had no road. So If you shot a deer, it was a big job to get the deer back over to the front of the Knob. Sometimes it took two or three days to get the dead deer over to the other side of the Knob. Even though the Knob had a front side, we always started there in the dark of the morning, and we always ended up on the back side to hunt deer. It always seemed that  the big ones were on the back side of the Knob. Now the big ones could be a doe, a two point buck or a four point. It did not matter, we always found it and shot it on the back side of the Knob.

I’m sure Bud also took me along because he enjoyed having a companion, and someone who could carry his rifle out while he was dragging the deer out. This was in October, so there wasn’t danger of the meat spoiling before we could get it to the truck. We would drag it so far and then go home for the night. Then the next day we’d go back for the deer. Instead of cutting it up there on the site, we always thought we had to drag the entire animal to the truck and not waste a bit of it. We were hunting more for the meat than for a trophy. We always wanted to bring something home, no matter what the size, and not come home empty-handed.

We went up and down hills, up draws and down gulleys, and past huge dead trees. There was a lot of history in those old dead trees. You could tell that some had been in fires. We walked past rock slides and always tried to walk around them. There was always something to see, as well as deer. From the back side we could spot the deer easier and there was less timber to hide them. We walked past beautiful scenery on the back side. We could see Preston and Franklin from there.

I don’t ever remember hauling the gun being a problem for me, even though it was so long and so heavy. One day we ran into a man we knew who said, “Now, where is that rifle going with that kid?” I was glad I had a gun so I could go hunting, so I never thought of it as being so big. But it must have been a funny sight. A few years ago I reminded him about his remark and he said, “Yes, I remember that very well.” He was an insurance man and knew everybody and liked to talk to everybody, and that way he could sell a lot of insurance, too.
  
Wikipedia says the rifle weighed just over 10 pounds, but to me it felt like 20 or 30.The rifle was 44 inches long and I was about 60 inches tall, so it must have been a sight to see me lugging that 303 British over the hills.

So now, whenever I think of hunting one of the first thoughts in my mind is, “Rifle, where are you going with that boy?” 

MY FIRST TIME DRIVING

           

It was a rainy day in October in 1967. It had been raining for about three days and all the back roads were very slick. Bud showed up and asked me if I would like to go hunting with him. I was about the age of 12. He was about 25. I was very short for my age. But I love to hunt for deer. We hunted a lot together over the years. So when Bud showed up and asked me to go hunting I was very excited. He had an old truck. I think they called it a pile made by Dodge. It was only a 2 Wheel drive truck. It was an army green color and had very large front fenders. The front of it looked like a face with a chrome grill for a mouth.

It was a 2 Wheel drive truck. So it could get stuck very easily. We were going up Sugar Creek canyon in Franklin County, Idaho. The road was always very slick. I wondered “What is he thinking?” but he was going to try to get up that hill.

We did not get up the road very far before we slid off the road. We slid into a very deep gully. It had to be at least 3 feet deep. The back half slid into the golly. The front of the truck was still out on the road. So it was going to be very hard to get the truck unstuck. He had a jack in the back of the truck. It was back in the time when you had bumper jacks that hooked to the bumper of your vehicle. The bumpers were very strong in those days. Those days were back in the late 60s. And the vehicles we drove then go back to the 50s.

Bud got the jack out of the back of the truck. I jacked the truck up and Bud pushed on the side of the truck up towards the road. We would get the truck up about three or 4 inches and the truck would slide off the jack towards the road as Bud pushed on the side of the truck. Bud is a very big man. He is about 6 foot four and weighs about 230. So when he pushes on something, something is going to move. We worked at this for a long time until the truck was back on the road. But it still wanted to slide back into the gully. Bud came up with the idea that I would drive the truck while he pushed it from behind.

Now I’m not a very big boy or person. I think that I was under 5 feet or smaller. So when I got in the truck to drive, my eyes were looking in the middle of the steering wheel. When I looked out the window, I was at such an angle that I could only see the sky and not even the front of the truck. When I stepped on the clutch, I had to grab the bottom of the steering wheel to push down on it, and I was on my tippy toes when I did it.

Bud turned the steering wheel and the wheels in the way that he wanted the truck to go. He got everything set up and it was time for me to use my driving skills. That had to be funny because I had no driving skills. But we were going to give it a try. We had no choice. So Bud got set. And told me when to let the clutch out.

He yelled, “Go!” I let the clutch out and gave it the gas. The truck swing out of the gully and I stopped the truck before we could get into more trouble.

I had to be a sight. The top of my was head even with the bottom of the window. My hands were on the bottom of the steering wheel. My tippy toes were on the gas and the clutch. I can see it all right now. It had to be a funny sight.

There were worse spots further up on the way up the hill and we knew we’d never make it.

Bud got into the truck and he drove away and we went hunting somewhere else that day.

Getting The Newborn To The Barn

It was just another ordinary day. I thought. It was a snowy day in December. We had just finished feeding the cows in the field in Sugar Creek. Dave is driving the truck. It has a flatbed on the back of the truck. We have three large bales of hay on the back; they are 3 feet by 6 feet. Each bale has four strings that hold it together. I cut the strings and push small sections of hay off the bales. Dave drives along and I throw the bale sections off the back of the truck one at a time. The cattle follow the truck and start eating the hay that I throw off. I try to make a long line of the hay so all the cattle can eat. There are about 50 cows in this field.

We get done feeding the hay and Dave says there is one cow missing. How he knows that there is one cow missing I do not know but he knows. Dave drives the truck back to the gate. We go to the other end of the field and the gate is open. The snow is about 2 feet deep and we can see where the cows have  walked through the open gate and have gone up in the upper field.

 

I get out of the truck and walk up to the gate. I start to follow the cow trail I walk and walk and walk. I walk up through the field to the upper fence line. The trail goes parallel to the fence. The cow has walked a good mile up the field. The cow has gone into a grove of maple trees on the side of the hill. I walk up to the cow. She has a newborn calf it is lying in the snow. So I try to go over to the calf. But the cow will not let me by the newborn calf. There are some maple trees on the other side of the calf. There are three small trees in a row. They are like a small fence behind the calf. So I go over to the three maple trees on the another side of the calf. I try to reach though the trees to the calf. The calf is just a little bit too far away for me to get it up. The cow tries to go through the trees to get to me but she cannot go through the trees. But I cannot reach the calf through the trees and it will not stand up for me.  I try to maneuver the cow to go on the other side of the trees. So the trees and the cow are between me and the calf, but to no avail.  The cow will not go on the other side of the trees and she will not let me near the newborn. If I could get the calf to stand up and walk, maybe I could get the cow to follow the calf down the hill.  I work at getting the calf to stand up but to no avail. It will not work. She still won’t let me near the newborn.

Picture your self 2/3 of the way up this mountain. That's where we were. 

 So I walk all the way back down to the truck. I tell Dave that the cow has a newborn and will not let me near it. So we stop and talk about it for a while. We come to the conclusion that we will go get the horse to get the cow down off the hill with the newborn. By the time we get back to the farm it is too late to go back after the cow and her calf.

So the next day we take the truck with the bales of hay and the truck with the trailer. The horse is in the trailer. We drive back up Sugar Creek where the cow and calf are. We start to feed the cows like we did the day before and after we feed the cows Dave gets the horse and we saddle up the horse. Dave gets on the horse and goes back up to where the cow and calf are. I am waiting at the bottom of the Hill for him to return with the cow and the calf. It is some time before he gets back to the truck but when he comes back there is no cow and no calf with him. He says he tried to get to the calf. But the cow  kept on ramming the horse with its head, and before long the horse was scared of the cow and would not go near the newborn or the cow. So he came all the way back to the truck with no cow.

We decided to unsaddle the horse and leave the horse there for another day. For two more days we do  not go after the calf. On the third day, the cow is down off the hill to eat hay with other cows. Dave’s a fast thinking guy. He told me to go shut the gate. So I go up and close the gate. So the cow cannot go back up in the field for her newborn calf. Then we drive the truck in the field and feed the cows like we usually do. After feeding the cows we settle the horse and Dave and I took off after the calf.   Sometimes when the cows have a calf in the field and the calf or cow is not doing too good we take the calf back to the barn. Sometimes when there is a lot of snow the calf cannot walk in the snow too good. I have a sled and I put the calf on top of it. I strap the calf down to the sled and then the cow can see the calf and follow it back to the barn. I always have a sled around just for that occasion and today is a good day to use the sled.

It is not a very pleasant day. The snow is coming  own quite thick the wind is blowing and it’s not going to be a good day to go after the calf. Dave takes off with the horse and I have the horse by the tail. And I’m glad the horse has a very long tail. And behind me is a sled and up the hill we go. I am doing a very good job keeping up with the horse but now and again we have to stop and I have to catch my breath. The snow is coming down hard and the wind is blowing. The trail that we have been taking to go up to the calf is all but buried. So we blaze a new trail to the calf.  When we get up to the calf there are a bunch of holes in the snow where the calf has been lying down over the last few days. I catch the calf and strap it down to the sled very tight so it will not fall off.

We get everything set and back off the hill we go. Dave takes off on the horse. I have my hand in the tail and the sled is behind me hooked to a rope. Boy we had to be a sight to see. I always wish that somebody was there with a camera to take a picture of us all in a line going down the hill in the snow. I think that would be one picture for a calendar. You couldn’t look at it and not smile seeing us all going down the hill: Dave on the back of the horse with his head down from the snow. Me behind his horse my head down fighting the blowing snow. The rope behind me hooked to the sled, and the calf tied down to the sled and looking around wondering what is going on.

We get down off the hill. By the gate the cow is waiting there. I go back to the sled and untie the calf and take it off the sled. I get the calf up and walking and take the calf over to the gate where its mother is waiting. Waiting to go find her newborn calf. But I have the calf down here. I put the calf through the gate. The cow smells her calf and is very happy that this is her calf, and they take off down though the field.

Dave and I stand there amazed that we got the calf back down to the cow and we will never forget this day as long as we live.  It has been five years since Dave and I did that rescue. We still talk about it to this day and a smile always come across our faces.  

The day we brought the calf back to the barn.                                                            

Joseph Smiith

Joseph Smith

Rough Stone Rolling.

By Richard Lyman Bushman

I just got done reading a book call Rough Stone Rolling. I was very impressed with how it was written start to finish.

You would have to ask yourself how would a man like Joseph Smith get involved in religion and do so much in writing religious text. His family had very little religious meaning to them. His mother wanted religion but could not figure out which church to join. His father did not like religion at all. Then there was Joseph a young boy at the young age of 14 becoming involved in religion. I think as a young person we all look at religion sometime. And ask where we stand.

You have to be amazed how Joseph Smith said he saw angels or God and his son Jesus Christ in a vision. How could it not be true? And all these things take years to develop into a religion. It even took Joseph Smith many years to develop into being a preacher or a prophet. You have to ask yourself many times over and over who was teaching this religion thing to him.

I like this book because it seemed not to hold anything back over the years of Joseph’s lifespan. Things that are going on in Joe’s life and in the history of the times in his lifespan.

How did he write the Book of Mormon? What would make him think about keeping a record of things that were going on in his life? You have to be amazed that he would rewrite the Bible and write the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price. Joseph Smith would have to be a genius in religion. Or a prophet of God. Again, was he a religious genius or a prophet of God?

As I read this book I was always asking myself is this true about Joseph Smith or is it false? The more I read the more I wondered. The more I wondered and the more I wondered.

This was a very very good book.

But by the end of the book it came to me that it had to be faith. When it comes to religion, no matter how much you study it always comes down to faith. That’s what it comes down to, faith in what you believe. And what is right. And can you live it.

                                                                                         By

                                                                                  Michael H Vroman