Hello HT,
I'll admit off the bat that I don't know s***... (Including whether cussing is allowed/frowned upon/encouraged on this forum)
I grew up in Denver and have been fishing my whole life. However no one in my family is a hunter so I was never introduced to it. Now that I'm into my 30's I've started pursuing some new interests. Fly fishing has dominated my life for the last 2 years and I am most happy out on a stream with no one in sight. I've always had this idea of wanting to hunt though. I think it started with a desire to be self reliant, to know that if the world went to hell I could provide for myself and family. That is still there, but over time I started learning about the impact of the current food culture on the environment and I got this wild idea to harvest all of the meat I consume. I figured achieving that within 5 years was maybe possible. Then I started becoming reconnected with nature through fly fishing after wasting most of 20s doing typical 20 year old city guy things. Combine this all together with the fact that I don't know ANYONE who hunts, and that's the reason why I'm here.
Last year I decided to sign up for CPW's mentorship hunt program. I was contacted about an opportunity to hunt geese with a group of three other hunters and 2 CPW officers. While I was disappointed that this wasn't a big game opportunity, it ended up being fantastic. They really set us up for success. I fired 3 shots and killed two birds. I learned a ton and met some cool guys in the process. I won't be pursuing goose again this year as I found I'm not overly fond of the flavor (still ate all of it though). I then spent the remainder of last years hunting season try to find rabbit and squirrel. After many hours driving and hiking I discovered these are not nearly as easy to find/kill as the quantity sitting in my backyard led me to believe.. I did manage to shoot one fox squirrel out at south republican SWA and was pleasantly surprised how great it tasted. I then spent the majority of weekends this spring looking turkey... I had read somewhere that this can be a frustrating pursuit, and I was not let down. I saw probably 40-50 turkeys the whole season and they were always on private property or close to a road. I had a huge tom cross the road right in front of my 4runner down by rampart. While disappointed and frustrating as this was I did have a great time out in the woods and learning a new part of the state.
I've signed up for the mentorship program again this year and am seriously hoping to land a big game opportunity. However, in case that doesn't work out I've successfully drawn two tags that I will try to pursue on my own. To that end I'm gathering as much information as possible to prepare for this fall. Currently reading Steven Rinella's guide to big game and studying the CPW hunting atlas and onX whenever I have free time. Planning on stopping by the local CPW office for the GMU's I drew in to get some intel as well but I still have so many questions.. Part of me feels bad that all I have to offer this forum is questions.. I know one day I'd like to pay it forward. Also happy to swap hot fly fishing intel for hunting help as that's about all I can offer for the moment.
Anyways, I think that's probably long enough for an introduction. If y'all have any advice, are willing to be a mentor or even just want to shoot the breeze I am all ears. Hope everyone has a great season this year.
D-F-018-O2-R (the CPW guy from goose hunt said this would be an easy tag to draw and I'm pretty familiar with kemp breeze SWA, this will be my primary focus this year)
E-F-050-O3-R (saw a bunch of elk here while looking for rabbit figured I'd give it shot)
B
I'll admit off the bat that I don't know s***... (Including whether cussing is allowed/frowned upon/encouraged on this forum)
I grew up in Denver and have been fishing my whole life. However no one in my family is a hunter so I was never introduced to it. Now that I'm into my 30's I've started pursuing some new interests. Fly fishing has dominated my life for the last 2 years and I am most happy out on a stream with no one in sight. I've always had this idea of wanting to hunt though. I think it started with a desire to be self reliant, to know that if the world went to hell I could provide for myself and family. That is still there, but over time I started learning about the impact of the current food culture on the environment and I got this wild idea to harvest all of the meat I consume. I figured achieving that within 5 years was maybe possible. Then I started becoming reconnected with nature through fly fishing after wasting most of 20s doing typical 20 year old city guy things. Combine this all together with the fact that I don't know ANYONE who hunts, and that's the reason why I'm here.
Last year I decided to sign up for CPW's mentorship hunt program. I was contacted about an opportunity to hunt geese with a group of three other hunters and 2 CPW officers. While I was disappointed that this wasn't a big game opportunity, it ended up being fantastic. They really set us up for success. I fired 3 shots and killed two birds. I learned a ton and met some cool guys in the process. I won't be pursuing goose again this year as I found I'm not overly fond of the flavor (still ate all of it though). I then spent the remainder of last years hunting season try to find rabbit and squirrel. After many hours driving and hiking I discovered these are not nearly as easy to find/kill as the quantity sitting in my backyard led me to believe.. I did manage to shoot one fox squirrel out at south republican SWA and was pleasantly surprised how great it tasted. I then spent the majority of weekends this spring looking turkey... I had read somewhere that this can be a frustrating pursuit, and I was not let down. I saw probably 40-50 turkeys the whole season and they were always on private property or close to a road. I had a huge tom cross the road right in front of my 4runner down by rampart. While disappointed and frustrating as this was I did have a great time out in the woods and learning a new part of the state.
I've signed up for the mentorship program again this year and am seriously hoping to land a big game opportunity. However, in case that doesn't work out I've successfully drawn two tags that I will try to pursue on my own. To that end I'm gathering as much information as possible to prepare for this fall. Currently reading Steven Rinella's guide to big game and studying the CPW hunting atlas and onX whenever I have free time. Planning on stopping by the local CPW office for the GMU's I drew in to get some intel as well but I still have so many questions.. Part of me feels bad that all I have to offer this forum is questions.. I know one day I'd like to pay it forward. Also happy to swap hot fly fishing intel for hunting help as that's about all I can offer for the moment.
Anyways, I think that's probably long enough for an introduction. If y'all have any advice, are willing to be a mentor or even just want to shoot the breeze I am all ears. Hope everyone has a great season this year.
D-F-018-O2-R (the CPW guy from goose hunt said this would be an easy tag to draw and I'm pretty familiar with kemp breeze SWA, this will be my primary focus this year)
E-F-050-O3-R (saw a bunch of elk here while looking for rabbit figured I'd give it shot)
B
