Jiggs gets caught mid-way through repositioning his point as a rooster ringneck bursts from sorghum strips during a late-February preserve hunt near Oral.

By Kevin Woster

You’ll excuse me if I get a little nutty over pheasants.

Even pen-raised birds.

There’s something about that big, brassy, loquacious rooster battering its way up from dense cover that just positively trips my trigger like no other game bird on earth. (Speaking of tripped triggers, are you out there Schoenbeck? Have you come down yet from your three-month rooster high?)

So I couldn’t resist when South Dakota Mines athletic director Hugh Welsh asked me to tag along on one of his weekly - then some - trips down to the Cheyenne River valley below Angostura for a winter pheasant hunt.

Actually, he handled the hunting at Dakota Hills preserve. I trailed along, snapping pictures, inhaling the warm - 50 degrees, baby - winter air and admiring both the classic pheasant turf and the strikingly incongruous deep purple backdrop of the Black Hills.

Wow.

A guy doesn’t have to pull the trigger to get all lathered up over that.

Hugh did manage a few triggers tugs, however. And he introduced me to a fine young English setter named Jiggs.

I’ll be writing about that in an upcoming story in the outdoors/recreation section of the dead-tree version of the Journal.

But I couldn’t help but offer a bit of a preview here on TIO.

GO JIGGS!

By Kevin Woster

OK, it’s Saturday, and Hans Stephenson has told his fish story to readers of the Journal. For the rest of us, hanging out here in the wild tules of Take It Outside,  here’s the truth according to Hans (the picture, of course, is down below):

It just so happens that the land of the kiwi is also the land of giant trout.

New Zealand is home to many introduced species like trout. But its symbol is still the odd little bird we know as the kiwi. However, fly fishers don’t travel 26 hours to sneak around looking for flightless nocturnal birds. We go in search of those fish.

That’s where I found myself this January. On the third day of the adventure we headed to the backcountry in search of what makes New Zealand a fly fisher’s Shangri-La.

The blades of the helicopter maintained their rhythmic hum as we jumped out onto the gravel bar. We gave a quick run-through of our gear and signaled for the pilot to take off. Ahead lay one of the greatest stretches of trout water in the world. As the drone of the helicopter faded completely we were left to take in the sights and sounds of the Rangitikei- an utterly pristine river on New Zealand’s North Island.

 Rich, Bryce, and I headed upriver in search of our quarry. At mid-day, after several shots at fish and getting a couple to the net we came to a nice pool. We spotted a few fish feeding and cruising about the pool. After a bit of careful deliberation I took a cast at a nice rainbow. 

“He’s got it!” Bryce yelled. I had seen the rainbow streak halfway across the pool to grab the nymph, but despite setting the hook quickly I found no trout attached.

“No Worries, Hans, there’s a big one at the top of the pool,” Bryce said.

 Using his guidance I finally focused on a dark shadow hugging the edge of large rock just off the current line. I was determined to not miss again.

The first cast was dead on. The shadow drifted towards the nymph. The indicator telegraphed the subtle take. I lifted the rod and felt the weight of a good fish.  The fish headed for the cover of the deep water at the back of the pool. The rod throbbed as the trout dug to the bottom of the pool.  

Bryce, Rich and I peered into the deep blue water and kept a keen eye on the fish as it worked back and forth in the current. The clarity of the water belied its depth and the size of the fish. As the fish tired and it came closer to the net we began to realize its true size.

Inch by inch I gained line on the rainbow until Bryce slid it gracefully into the net. I distinctly remember Rich uttering “Oh my Gosh”. Bryce and I chose a few other colorful phrases.

This was the biggest fish I had ever caught. I couldn’t ask for a more perfect example of rainbow trout. It was a joy to catch, and to see swim off into the stream.

After seeing the photo, a customer of mine said I should give up on rainbows. I had found “the one.”

He might be right, of course. But I have to believe in “another one.”

Hans. Rainbow trout. Recently. That’s all we’re saying for now.

By Kevin Woster

No big trout in Rapid City?

Get serious.

Local flyfishing guru Hans Stephenson hauled this brute out of Rapid Creek behind Baken Park recently, tricking it on a Size 8 Royal Coachman with a rubber twister tail.

OK, maybe not.

Hans will tell the real story of the trout this Saturday in the Journal’s outdoors/recreation section. Then I’ll bring the pertinent details to the readers here at Take It outside.

Meanwhile, try that Size 8 Royal C behind Baken Park, and add a squirt of bacon juice.

Who knows what you’ll catch.

By Kevin Woster

The South Dakota House sang its own version of that song yesterday when members voted 41-28 to approve what is being referred to as the mentor bill.

And, indeed, there would be plenty of mentoring involved if HB1263 becomes law. At least, we hope there would be.

If you’re going to send a 10-year-old kid afield with a loaded gun, it’s a good idea to have some pretty intense adult supervision. 1263, which now heads for the Senate, is designed to provide that - while lowering the legal hunting age from 12 to 10.

The adult mentor would need to pass a firearms safety course before taking the kid out. And they could only hunt in small groups of six or less. The kid couldn’t be banging away at antlered trophies, either. The law would provide a special license good only for anterless big-game animals.

1263 passed by a reasonable-but-not-overwhelming margin in the House. Without having asked on senator about it, I’m guessing it could have a tougher trip in the Senate.

The editorial-page editor of the Rapid City Journal takes another hike to the high ground - this time literally, on M Hill.

A close look at the names inscribed on one of the many M Hill plates for the School of Mines Class of, uh, a long time ago, revealed some great engineers, including a pheasant-hunting, football-playing Hardrocker named Raymond Chaussee. (Yeah, my oldest sis - no, not the mouthy one from the HB1261 discussion below, the other one  - married a Frenchman…or about as close to Frenchman as Chamberlain could get.)

Downtown Rapid City seems positively picturesque from the top of M Hill. And we’re pretty sure it wasn’t just from oxygen depletion after the hike up.

By Kevin Woster

Come on, let’s take a walk.

It’s not far. Just down past the concrete fish along bike path, over the foot bridge by Charlie Abourezk’s office - where Jeff Fransen gazes out his window and dreams of  bald eagles and innovative legal proceedings - and up the hill.

To M Hill.

It’s a fine patch of real country in the middle of Rapid City. And it’s going to get better, as it’s developed into a recreational attraction for hikers, mountain bikers, birders and all-around outdoor gawkers.

I was just there myself, along with the editorial-page editor of the Rapid City Journal, a woman of high intelligence and discerning taste in almost everything except life-long hiking companions.

It was my first time to the top, even though I’ve been driving past that big “M” since I was old enough to get nauseous in the back of our ‘56 Pontiac station wagon on vacation trips from the farm in Lyman County to the cabins at Canyon Lake.

It’s a mighty fine hike. It’s a mighty fine hill.

And from the top, it’s pretty clear that Rapid City is a mighty fine place to live.

By Kevin Woster

I bring you thoughts today from my big sister.

She’s a university professor who really doesn’t like the idea of well-armed students in her classroom. So she’s more than a bit unsettled by the South Dakota House approval, by a 63-3 vote Monday, of HB1261.

The bill, discussed by Nancy First in a column below, is now headed for action in the state Senate. It would prevent higher-education institutions from regulating or restricting people on campus from carrying or possessing firearms, in accordance with state law.

The schools could require students living in dorms to keep their weapons in a locked guns safe, when not in the students’ possession.  But that’s about it for regs.

My sister - who’s a heck of a teacher, by the way - is pretty unhappy about 1261. She’s not anti-gun. She grew up in the same home I did, where all the guys hunted and guns were part of everyday life.

She just doesn’t like the idea of bunch of pistol-packing students in her classroom. I guess I can understand her concern.

I understand college kids wanting to have their firearms available for hunting and target shooting and, well, OK, self defense. (Although at 56, I’ve can’t think of a single instance where I needed a gun to protect myself from another human being.)

But packing a gun into other campus buildings, including classrooms? Hmmmmm.

If nothing else, it makes you wonder what effect it might have on the grading curve: Did the guy with the Glock in the front row really deserve that A? Or was the teacher just a bit intimidated?

And will the teachers start packing heat as well, and maybe wearing protective vests?

I could live with that, I guess. And my sis? Well, with 1261 cruising through the Capitol, she’s especially happy to be retiring soon.

With some serious gun talk in Pierre these days, I asked gun-rights advocate Nancy First of Jack First Guns in Rapid City to share some thoughts:

 Here they are:

By Nancy First

On Jan. 30, I went with some friends to Pierre to oppose a bad bill and to support a good bill.

The bad bill was HB1086, introduced at the request of the South Dakota Board of Regents, which would have banned legally carried guns on South Dakota college campuses.  The good bill is HB1261, which will prohibit our institutes of higher learning from regulating or restricting the legal carry of guns on campuses; in effect, it is the opposite of the bad bill.

HB1261, which will ensure law-abiding citizens of their basic human right of self-defense, was sponsored by these forward-thinking, freedom-loving legislators: Representatives Brunner, Cutler, Howie, Jerke, Kirkeby, Koistinen, Noem,Betty Olson, Rhoden, Steele and Van Etten, and Senators Dennis Schmidt, Apa, Greenfield, Kloucek, Maher, McNenny andNapoli. 

This bill was heard yesterday by the House State Affairs Committee, consisting of  legislators Brunner, Cutler, Deadrick, Dykstra, Faehn, Gillespie, Hargens, Krebs, Miles, Moore, Rave, Rhoden, and Turbiville.  These patriots voted unanimously to pass HB 1261, and they unanimously rejected HB1086.

The hearing began with testimony from proponents of HB1261.  It is easy to support a bill that gives our students and college staff the right to defend themselves with a legally carried firearm on college campuses; after the Virginia Tech massacre, it makes perfect sense.

 From a woman’s standpoint, I testified about a national concern for campus rapes and abductions.  I talked about how a woman is nearly always at a physical disadvantage to men, and a firearm is our most effective means of self-defense. 

 The sole opponent of HB1261 was an attorney representing the Board of Regents.  Since there is no logical argument for making defenseless sitting ducks of our college students and staff, he was reduced to making up imaginary scenarios where innocent people were accidentally slaughtered by well-meaning, gun-toting civilians.  He pointed to the problems that law enforcement officers might encounter, officers who would surely shoot the good guys, not being able to tell them from the bad guys.  He said that they would shoot anyone with a gun coming out of a surrounded building.

This is where the testimony took an interesting turn.  Martin Sonnenfeld, a retired law enforcement officer, had already chimed in with his opinion about how police officers are rarely there when we need them – they show up later and clean up the mess and take a report, hence the need for our own guns for self-defense. 

After the Regents’ attorney’s testimony, a couple of on-the-ball committee members called upon Sonnenfeld to offer his opinion about how law enforcement was trained to handle these types of situations.  Sonnenfeld assured the committee that the officers are trained to identify people before they shoot them. Imagine that!

I am proud to say that South Dakota is leading the nation in sensible self-defense gun laws.  Our heroes on the House State Affairs Committee fearlessly stood up to the Board of Regents and represented South Dakotans as we should be represented.  

I want to see South Dakota eliminate ALL of our dangerous gun-free zones, including courthouses and bars.  Only then will the law-abiding citizens of South Dakota be free to exercise our basic human right of self-defense.

Until then, little South Dakota’s HB 1261 is big news for freedom-loving gun owners everywhere.

(Nancy First is a Rapid City gun shop owner and South Dakota coordinator and board member for the Second Amendment Sisters.)

 

     

The McCaulley brothers - Phil, left, and Andy - draw their respective beads on a rising rooster flushed from a road ditch during the 2007 pheasant opener.

By Kevin Woster

Matt McCaulley captured this classic image of South Dakota road hunting during the opening day of the 2007 state pheasant season.

McCaulley, a Sioux Falls lawyer and former state legislator, was hunting with his dad and brothers over near Emery, bagging birds with his camera while they fired weapons that were more outspoken.

They did some road hunting on the drive back to Sioux Falls, and spotted a rooster in the ditch. With some quick action, they were in position when the bird flushed from the thick ditch cover and flew over the fenceline and off toward safety somewhere on private land.

Not so fast, ringneck, the McCaulley boys said, speaking with their scatterguns. They dropped the bird and made an unarmed retrieve over the fence on private land, completing a roadside hunting scene that has been going on in South Dakota virtually since the first official season in 1919.

They also enjoyed the legal standing granted after a legislative/court battle that ultimately affirmed the long-assumed, widely practiced authority of a road hunter to shoot a bird in the air over private land - if it has flushed from a public right-of-way.

My guess is, the McCaulleys weren’t pondering the fine points of law at the time. They just wanted to get their bird. (Their lawyer, standing behind the camera, was well aware of the legality of the process…)

Nice shooting, guys. (Including you, Matt.)