whiskey dick ranch

[whitey]

How did the trip over the hump go for all of you? Maybe I am jumping the gun a little should maybe wait and give you guys a chance to wake up Lets here how it went. Right on hope everybody had fun.

[Echo Mules]

Awesome

Will get some pics up later.

[JJHACK]

Over all I would say we had a great time. The operation is very new and has a couple bugs to work out, but he will get them worked out and I see that he will have a good future in this hunting operation. He's got lots of room, and a great easy access location. Plus he is going to improve a campsite location for campers to pitch up during the hunt.

I don't want to go into the "bugs in the operation" as it's way too early in the business to dwell on a couple things that were not a big issue anyway. I'm not sure how many birds were killed in total but there were a lot of dead birds at the end of the day. Bushman was totally spent by the end of the trip. He must have put on 50 miles. He laid still all the way home and was stiff to get up after we got home and he had to get out of the truck. Then he slept without moving the rest of the night! Today he's back to full power, but he was drained last night!

I think he pointed 10 or 12 birds (a few he pointed twice) and flushed two in minimal cover. He retrieved all that we shot, including one we thought was winged. We had to run up a hill as he flew over the crest. Before we got to the top he was on his way back with the bird. We were both surprised as that bird was still flying last we saw it. I hunted the whole day with Josh otherwise known as "Rivertraveler". It was my pleasure to have hunted with such a good guy, we had a really great time sharing the hunt.

This was The second Gamefishin group event, and certainly not the last one. I'm gonna go out on a limb and suggest that this will happen again at Wiskey Dick ranch. I think the next event will be a two day hunt though. That way we can have the second day to clean up the left overs of the first day, and add some new birds for a second group of hunters. That would make a Saturday night gathering for more people.

One thing is for absolute certain, you cannot have too many good dogs at this place, it's huge and the sage brush hides the dog quite often when it's on point. It also makes it very hard for the dog to see where you are at so he can hunt close. I've hunted a number of different places this fall and winter, but this one has some special challanges with the tall dense brush.

I'm sure there will be plenty more feedback from the group. Over all a success in my opinion, and lots of fun getting to meet the guys, and the polite and well behaved young hunters as well!

[Radiator]

Well I'll be the first to post a couple of pics. Had a great time and many thanks to everyone who both participated and organized this event. Had a great time and my dog absolutely loved it!! She's still tired from the trip but she worked her hiney off for our group.
I hope to do this again with some more fellow gamefishers next fall!!

Rob (Radiator) with his dog Sage

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My friend john on his second bird hunt ever

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Sage worked hard for us and she had a ball!!

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[stillwater]

Thanks guys! my boy and I had a great time hunting and meeting all of you, unfortunately I don't have any pics of birds since I was letting my boy try and get his first bird. He did get three shots off and my buddy did knock down three. Depends on how much I have to spend on baseball for him my plan is for both of us to return in Sept. We finished the weekend off fishing at Fio Rito where Stephen hook into a nice trout!
Also like to thank Echomules for the sweet and sour duck, like to get the recipe if you don't mind
The morning before the hunt

Stephen and Josh looking for some birds

Stephens trout

[whitey]

Where is fito rio or whatever the heck you called that lake. Anyways Nice fish. Good to hear you all enjoyed yourself. Me and 3 of my buddies are heading over next saturday. Any suggestions you guys can offer up will be a great help.Thanks and great hunting

[stillwater]

Are you hunting or fishing? Fio Rito is located just outside of Ellensburg off I-82. You'll see it on the left side as your heading to Yakima

[whitey]

Stillwater, We are hunting whiskey dick on Saturday. I have a Cooke Canyon pointing lab my other buddy has a tiger mountain pointing lab, its always great hunting with these dogs. We get all kinds of remarks when we mention pointing labs, people dont believe it until they see it. I still have the same question what should we do to insure a good time? We wont have anytime to fish because we are just running over Sat. morning and coming back home that afternoon. Right on stillwater thanks for the info,look forward to reading more of your guys post..

[Echo Mules]

Great time!
It was really great meeting all those I have conversed with but never met. Here are a few of the highlights caught on camera.

Zeus had a great time playing with Bushman, while the old dogs kept watch.

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The boys were all about the same age and we had the Feathers and Fur Little League Tourney going on at all times.

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The wind finally died down Friday night and good times were had around the fire.

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Zeus on Point.

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Stillwater's group.

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JJ and Rivertraveler

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Zeus on point

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End of the day Pose

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[stillwater]

I know what you mean, I just bought a Tiger Mountain Lab he's almost six months now in fact he back over with them getting some pro training, can't wait to hunt over him!
You find Darin your host there willing to work with you on whatever you want to do, he'll take you down from his place a little ways where you have plenty of space to hunt just tell him what you want, just take your time and let the dogs work. Three guys and two dogs should be a lot of fun!

[RiverTraveler]

First off, a big thanks to Stillwater and JJHack for putting this hunt together for all of us to enjoy! I had a great time on this hunt and it marked two firsts for me too. This was my fist “farm/ranch” hunt and my fist time hunting over a pointer. Both of which are dramatically different than kicking sagebrush on public land... Whiskey Dick Ranch has some nice land that it sounds like he has just procured and will manage game on for the foreseeable future. I’m looking forward to seeing how this place progresses over the years.

I had the pleasure of hunting with Jim (JJHACK) and his awesome pointer Bushman for the majority of the day. As you might expect Jim is an awesome hunting partner, a great guy and one heck of a good shot. As for Bushman all I can say is WOW! Barely 6 months and he hunted for 5 straight hours without stopping and without loosing focus. He pointed 8 birds in cover and flushed the 2 that wouldn’t have held in very light cover anyway. It was just awesome to watch him work... All I can really say is I want one... On one point he hit point so hard he slid for about a foot and pointed the bird behind him. It took a minute to stop laughing before we could flush the bird!

We started out the day as the middle group since there was just two of us and we could work around the other groups. The fist bird we found pretty quick but was such a low flyer that Bushman was right one his tail and the only safe shots were a bit above the bird without putting the dog in jeopardy. Bushman stayed on him all the way to the landing zone and pointed him again. This time the bird went straight up and Jim landed him with one shot.

The rest of the morning pretty much went like clockwork, bushman would point the birds Jim and I would trade off jumping them and shooting. At the end of the morning hunt Jim had his 5 and I had 3. Should have had 5 also but one just got away... twice... (there’s always that one bird...) and the other wasn’t a safe shot as the hen flushed toward Radiator and David’s group.

Latter in the day after a late lunch I had the pleasure of hunting with Stillwater (Mark) and his son Stephen. We knew there were more birds out there and Stephen was still after his first pheasant. What a great father and son team! Stephen was a very consciences young hunter and obviously shares his fathers love for hunting. I had a great time getting to know this Father & Son duo. Marks two flushing labs did a great job also both worked close to us (no more than 35 – 50 feet out) very well trained for flushing dogs! Although we didn’t find anymore birds it was nice to spend the rest of the day in field and get to know more fellow hunters.

Thanks again guys for setting this up! It was great to get to meet so many of the guys from the hunting form! Can't wait for the next hunt!

Here’s some photos from the day.

The Land

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Jim and Bushman

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Jim watching Bushman work

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Bushman on point

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Me Flushing behind Bushman

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In Flight

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Jim and 3 roosters

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My Birds

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Me and Stephen

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bird size

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[X5fishinmachine]

Some pretty healthy lookin roosters!
Looks like great cover for the birds too.

See any 'yotes or rabbits over there?

[Snoqualmiesteel]

Nice!

If you don't have plans for those feathers, send me a PM. I'd be happy to take some off your hand for fly tying

[stillwater]

See any 'yotes or rabbits over there?[/quote]
My partner seen a rabbit and Echo Mules said he had seen 10 but no yotes

[Radiator]

Didn't see any yotes or rabbits myself. I did see a ton of yote sign and I know for a fact that a buddy of mine goes over to that area every spring and shoots tons of them around his trainers place. For anyone who plans on hunting this area I'll share my thoughts on the quality of the birds and the hunting in pure sagebrush land. Please keep in mind that my dog is a pure flusher and does not point one bit.

The quality of the birds is very good in terms of size and maturity. For pen raised birds these things are plenty squirrly and will give even a very seasoned dog a run for it's money. The roosters were a bit of a stinker a few times on my group. As David can attest to, there were a few that simply refused to fly. My dog Sage literally was nosing their hind end and they wouldn't go airborne. With that in mind I would suggest hunting in a V pattern with 3 people. The middle hunter runs the dog while the others are about 15-20 feet forward. This will enable the two side hunters to "run" forward if necessary to get the bird to fly. I had one 10 feet from me looking right at me and I ran right at it and it wouldn't fly. With this type of cover they know that they can run at top speed with no resistence and can get away. We did lose 3 birds to this happening cause Sage was too close for the ground shot.

This is TOUGH hunting. If you and your friends have multiple dogs I highly recommend it and bring tons of water. There is none and there really isn't anywhere for the dogs to cool off. Have some water for the dog in your vest to help wet the whistle and keep the nose running. Once they start breathing almost entirely out of the mouth, rest 'em for a few moments. I garuntee anyone after hunting this type of sagebrush for years that once your dog is overheated you're done. If your are lucky enough to have multiple dogs, rotate them to help keep them cool and full of energy. Make no mistake about it, this was a ball and one of the most challenging release hunts I've ever been on. I do this 5-7 times a year all over the state and I came home with a smaller precentage of birds than normal. However, this is due to the quality of the birds and the fact that this type of terrain is hard stuff to hunt. These are just some of my thoughts on this place and I hope it helps some of you when you go out there. Kind of my own .02.

[HickvilleFF]

I go to central, and would like to maybe hit up that lake with the pic of that nice trout. Do ya think you could pm me with a little insight into the lake, maybe gear tips and directions on how to get there?? i would love to have somewhere to fish on those boring college nights. any help would be much appreciated!

[TheSilverSlayer]

Yo hickvilleFF: I go to central too. Fio Rito lake is just outside of ellensburg off the vantage highway. It gets alot of big trips but so does matoon which is in ellensburg. To get to matoon from campus, turn left off university way onto main, follow main untill you get to the subway on the right, take that right. Drive untill you see I-90 and take a left at the public fishing sign.

If you wanna hit the ponds up or go do some shooting after break PM me.

[stillwater]

One other side note on the birds is most of them where not his, he had to go buy 45 more birds to cover are group. So if this is something we want to do next year we might want to get it on the calendar yearly just to give him a heads up.

[David]

I thought I would add a couple pictures of my pup with her first pheasant. She did pretty well finding a couple and working within range. She wasn't all that interested in retrieving flapping pheasants, but we can work on that. Has a great time hunting with Radiator and friends. His lab did a great job of finding and retrieving a bunch of birds. Thanks to Stillwater and JJ for putting this together. It was a fun way to introduce my dog to birds.