Looking for a great late summer/early fall fishing trip? Head to Sitka for the salmon run starting now!!!
The Salmon are Running in Sitka
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OC Attends Jared Allen’s H4WW Event
Last weekend, I had the pleasure of attending Jared Allen’s annual Night Ops golf event held in Scottsdale, AZ to raise funds and awareness for Jared’s foundation, Homes 4 Wounded Warriors. Jard and his staff do a wonderful job of supporting war veterans who return to the homes after being wounded in battle. Jared hires crews to refurbish the home to make it accessible and manageable to the specific injury that the soldier returns home with. Everything from slight remods to full fledged custom rebuilds are part of the program. Outdoor Connection is proud to be a supporter of such a great cause. This year, OC donated a Kansas whitetail hunt to the winner of the ever popular “slip – n – side” contest held during the afternoon of golf. As you turn the corner and head down the back nine, you must get out of your cart and make your way to the “slide”. This year the slide was two feet of soapy, watered down plastic installed by the soldiers who were part of the festivities and hosted by Jared. At the end of your slide, a soldier would place a small American flag in the ground to mark your spot. After everyone had taken the turn, the finals were announced. Making the top five and advancing to the finals, which took place before the nine holes of night golf took place, were: Max Hall, Richie Incognito, Jared Allen, Jeb Corley, and Randy Bartlett. Jeb, a good bit smaller than the rest of the finalists and somewhat unknown (as he was the only one who was not in the NFL) took his spot in line and when the finals we through, Jeb came out victorious. Jeb will be packing his bow for Kansas this fall. The event was a greats success and much bigger than the previous year’s (this was the 2nd) and look’s to be even bigger next year as word starts to spread. If you would like to become a supporter of Jared foundation, just let us know.
Some of the other notables in attendance were Jim McMahon, David Wells, Johnny Knoxville, Randall McDaniel, Calaius Campbell, Larry Fitzgerald and many others. A special guest in attendance was also the chopper recently built by Paul Jr. on the TV show American Choppers. The bike was built for Jared and the H4WW program and includes the H4WW logo cut into the rear fender and embossed into the leather seat.
I look forward to attending this event next year and again am proud to say OC is behind such a great program.
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OC Supports Jared Allen’s Homes 4 Wounded Warriors
This weekend, OC President Marc Glades, will be heading to Scottsdale for Jared Allen’s Night Ops II golf event. This annual celebrity event takes place to support the awesome cause Jared is working for with his Homes 4 Wounded Warriors project. OC is very proud to be part of the event and in supporting the cause as well. If you are not aware of Jared’s project here is a release that describes it:
Jared Allen’s Homes for Wounded Warriors is a non-profit organization created for the sole purpose of raising money to build or modify the homes of America’s injured Military Veterans. H4WW helps to build or modify homes so they are handicap accessible and comfortable for our wounded vets.
Homes for Wounded Warriors was formed in October of 2009 by the MN Viking Jared Allen after he returned home from his USO trip to US Military Bases in the Middle East. Jared Allen was moved by the commitment, dedication, and sacrifices that our soldiers make every day to protect our freedom. He wanted to say thank you to every soldier in the only way that Jared Allen knows how. By embracing the conflict and making a positive life-changing difference in the lives of those who need it most, Jared and his H4WW will help make life for wounded vets just a little bit easier.
What an awesome thing to be involved with. Our thanks to Dylan Vicha for getting us involved.
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Discounted Argentina Wingshooting for the Family
Special Promotion:
Outdoor Connection’s wingshooting outfitter in Argentina is offering a great Father & Son program, for those who love to hunt with family. This promotion at La Zenaida Lodge runs from June to September, where the sons go for a 50% discount. Also, we have the Father & Son promotion from October to December, where the father pays $1,400 and the first son/daughter goes for free. Any additional sons/daughters in the group go for 50% off. You can’t wait to head to Argentina if you are planning on taking your son/daughter or both with you. This deal is as good as it gets.
Halibut Regulations in Alaska
The regulations on halibut fishing in SE Alaska were recently released. Here is a short summary from our friend Greg Kain at Kain’s Fishing Adventures.
New Halibut rules for the 2011 season
Kain’s Fishing Adventures spends much time, effort and money to ensure the best regulations possible for the guided sport fishers. It is our goal to maintain long term sustainability of the resource as well as fair access to the resource. Myself and many other members of the Southeast Alaska Guides Organization (SEAGO), Alaska Charter Association (ACA) and Sitka Charter Boat Operators Association (SCBOA) have worked endlessly to improve our regulations. Last weeks meeting in Anchorage was our last attempt to push for better Halibut regulations without over harvesting the resource. Regulators were not willing to take a chance. The commercial Halibut fleets catch was also reduced by 47% on there catch limits. Next I will focus my attention on strengthening the Halibut resource while working with regulators for a long term plan for the guided sport fishers to increase our allocation of Halibut.
2011 Halibut Regulations: 1 Halibut per day with a maximum size of 37 inches (25 pounds).
It would be easier to explain building a nuclear sub-marine in a paragraph then explain the halibut situation. Halibut are managed by pounds and the harvestable biomass are fish that are over 32 inches long, are very low. First, since 2004 the Charter fleet has exceeded its allocation of Halibut. Second, the number of large Halibut being killed has grown. Halibut weighing 70 pounds and larger are females that lay approximately 1 million eggs. To insure the halibut stocks do not continue to drop, additional regulations have been placed for the 2011 season. Catch limits from Washington State to the Bering Sea have been reduced significantly.
Our philosophy hasn’t changed – the experience and camaraderie, with friends and family remains unchanged, you cannot put a limit on any of these things. We recognize that fish to take home is an important part of the experience; we ensure every fish caught on our boats are expertly taken care of, from the moment it hits the deck, till its frozen and boxed for shipment home. As we navigate the ever changing regulations, we are committed to provide you the experience of a life time, top rate service and enjoy it on the beautiful salt water wilderness surrounding Sitka, Alaska.
2011 King salmon limits highest in years:
Non-resident king salmon bag limit:
May – 2 fish per day with a 5 fish annual limit
June-Sept – 1 fish per day with a 5 fish annual limit
2010 Non-resident king salmon limit was: 1 per day with a 3 fish annual
Posted in Alaska Fishing, General Information
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Donations for Joplin
As you all know by now, the city of Joplin, Missouri has been devastated by the recent tornado that ravaged the city limits this past weekend. One of our outfitters, Kendall Kelso was spared his home but, that his son Kody was not as fortunate. Kody lost his home and all of his belongings as well as his vehicle. As the week has past we have learned more from Kendall’s brothers, Keaton and Kirk, regarding the situation that they face in Joplin including the death of the mother of Kody’s fiance’. As of today, we have set up four different donation levels on the OC General Store site (found at www.outdoor-connection.com) to make it easy on you to make donations to Kody. We are hoping to send a check to the fund from OC by the end of next week, thus giving you this full holiday weekend to determine how much you would like to donate if at all possible. All you have to do is log on to the OC General Store from either the public site or the agent site and you will see a product called “Kash for Kody”. There are four donation levels set ($10, $20, $50 and $100) and the product is listed as a Promo Item. Let’s do what we can as a company to support one of our good friends in this industry at a time of great need. Thank you in advance for helping Kody.
In the Outdoors,
Marc Glades
President
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Raini takes first Tom
Proud pappa story here. Last weekend I was lucky enough to join my daughter as we pursued her first turkey. Here is the sotry straigh from her:
On Saturday morning, while I was sitting at the table eating breakfast my dad came up to me and said that there was a big tom turkey at the edge of our alfalfa field and asked if I wanted to call it in and see if I could shoot it, and of course I said yes. We changed into our camo and headed out to the edge of the field. The tom made his way into the woods before we moved into place so we were fairly comfortable he was not looking our way. My dad put out some decoys and began to call him in. After about 45 minutes of calling back and forth between my dad and the tom, he still hadn’t come across the field since it had just been mowed and baled. My dad instructed me to crawl out of the trees and stay as low and as quiet as I could. We decided to move to the other side of the field. The side where the turkey was. I hoped my dad knew what he was doing.
We had to be even quieter as we crawled into the other side of the woods to find a spot to sit in the trees. My dad set out a decoy on the edge of the alfalfa field. I set at the base of a tree with low hanging branches right in line with the decoy. My dad moved further away and started to call to the turkey. He gobbled right back. It took no time at all to get him to come down the tree line to us. Soon he was right in front of me. Then things got crazy because he turned and started to walk right towards me. He was twenty feet in front and looking right at me. “Take him”, my dad said. BOOM, he went right down. I blew a little of his tail off but he still made some awesome meat and took some really good pictures. I want to thank my dad for taking me out that morning and helping me get my first turkey, and also Lou Hoop for letting me put my picture and my story onto his website. I was a great experience and I hope that when other people read this, it will inspire them to want to go out and get a big tom turkey to. Thanks again!!!!!!:)
What a thrill to sit with your 14 year old daughter and experience something like this.
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Grand Slam Success
I finally got my GRAND SLAM! I had a super short, but awesome hunt out in the Black Hills of South Dakota. We arrived at noon and went out for an evening hunt with our guide, Tom. We were just driving around looking and listening for turkeys and we saw a big gobbler with a hen down on some flat ground. We kept driving, pulled over and got out. We walked up a steep hill and Tom was stopping and calling along the way and the tom would not answer. Tom, my dad, and I climbed up the hill and found a good spot to sit down. I didn’t have a chance to sit down and settle in so I was in an uncomfortable position. I was ajusting myself and Tom was sitting right behid me and quietly whispering, “DON’T MOVE!” and I was thinking there was no way I could sit in this position. I slowly tried toadjust myself and Tom whispered a little bit louder, “DON’T MOVE!!!!” I finally stopped moving and I looked to my right and saw a super red head peak up above the hill. He was walking pretty quickly so I didn’t have much time. Tom was whispering “Take him, take him!” I had to wait until he walked in front of the bush and then I shot him with one shot. I didn’t even have enough time to think or even have a chance for my heart to beat. It all happened within about five minutes! My Merriam had a 1 1/4 inch spurs and weighed 20 pounds. At first we could see the beard was large and thick but I was shooting uphill. My shot was a little low and I shot the beard off. Ron Schara shot a turkey two days later and donated his beard off of his turkey so I could use it to mount mine. There was a great group of people in camp. It was a lot of fun sharing all the turkey hunting stories in the evenings over a great dinner each night. I would like to thank Keaton in Kansas for the eastern turkey, Rance in Texas for the Rio Grande turkey, Pat in Florida for the Osceola turkey, and Tom in South Dakota for the Merriam turkey! I would like to give a BIG than you to Outdoor Connection for setting me up with all these awesome hunts!
By KayCee Nelson
Posted in Turkey Hunting Reports
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