..Thats what I told myself only moments after being busted by a doe while bowhunting last night..
I mean sure it was fun to stand there motionless for two straight #@&% hours and not move a muscle, but I could have been fishing instead.
..But nope, I decided to only float one day (picture above and those that follow) and on my second day-off instead I went "bear hunting"... Or that's what I told folks anyway.
Truth is, I just went and checked out the Boulder River for the first time (ever) and fished all of ten minutes and though I did in fact have my gun loaded just in case, to say I was 'hunting' would be a stretch.
Mostly I just cruised around like I often do and "vege'out"....
Not sure thats a word, but you get it...I just turned off my mind and forgot about everything and focused on nothing....
Montana is perfect for that mindset and is why I stick around and now call it home. I dont need to be wasted on drugs or whiskey to get there (anymore); instead it just comes with driving backroads you've never been on, nor likely will ever be on again; and before long your 'lost'...but the kind you know you'll find your way back from.
Either way, I hunted instead of fished, and my random ideas were as futile as my last minute efforts.
I'd spotted by pure chance a monster buck cross a small parcel of 'public land' right at dusk, before it entered another massive piece of 'private' and thought "I could maybe cut him off if I timed it right..."?!
This discovery took place on my way back from the Boulder, and had the younger buck travelling with him not stopped directly in front of my truck, I'd have never seen "the monster" in the first place (an easy 140 class whitetail) that is who was waiting for his pal just off the side of the embankment...
...So I couldn't sleep all that night, and when my ealry-shift at the fly shop ended at 3PM I hopped in my truck and hightailed it back toward the Boulder (a 1.5 hour commute) on the brief chance those same two bucks 'might just take that same path the very next day...'
...and instead was met with a big momma doe traveling with her fawn along the same exact route instead, and she promptly stood mere feet from me and snorted for ten or fifteen minutes till I finally waved my hat at her so she'd "buzz off and go away.."!
..........
No biggie really, since I'm still near dead set on 'a big muley' since moving here; and while that whitetail buck was huge, he wasnt near as big as this fella (above).
Unfortunately he too spends most of his time on private land, so we'll see whether its' fishing I choose for the next few days off, or hunting, or a bit of both...
Moe
