Pismo Adventures - Blog

December 28, 2019 by Mike

The heat in the San Rafael Mountains will beat down on you after 10:00 a.m.  It will probably be unseasonably hot or windy when you finally get your days off to hunt.  This is what you wanted.  Right here on the edge of your comfort zone you grow into the type of hunter you’d like to be.  

January 10, 2019 by Mike

What is a good day of fishing? A good day of fishing with Pismo Adventures actually starts the night before.  Make sure you have a fishing license.  If you are in for a one day license you might as well buy a whole year.  The peace fishing brings in this day and age is worth the price.  Make sure to buy in January when new fishing licenses come out.  You can maximize the time for the year.

October 16, 2018 by Mike

What a great trip we had to the North part of the port.  I’m the fisherman, but you knew to drop a line in the kelp beds and not the rock. 

October 16, 2018 by Mike

Here is a little shameless self promotion.  This link will take you to the Pismo Adventures amazon affiliate page.  There are no requirements to shop there, only if it is convenient for you.  Take what is useful on these blogs, leave the rest.  My intention is that it helps outdoorsmen to realize that these experiences are more than a hunt.

October 14, 2018 by Mike

I just got back from my trip to Colorado.  I don’t know if this makes any sense, but the big take home thing I learned is: Colorado smallirado.   I had this big family tradition hanging over my head of going out of state to hunt.  Now that I’ve done it I realize that hunting right in my own state and sometimes just two hours from my house is just as awesome.  I thought I did enough training to be ready spiritually, physically, and mentally.  It turns out I was wrong.  If all those things were in place maybe I’d have seen more elk.

I left my wife at home with two children alone, an eighteen hour drive, and a considerable expense.  In fact at the end of five days of hunting I saw no elk.  I’ve seen more elk on the 41 freeway heading to visit family in Fresno. I did learn some valuable stuff.  Although that leaves me discouraged.  I allow myself to work even harder to kill an elk.  

The first time I saw elk was back in 2006.  I spotted a herd with a giant herd bull.  I could see his rack with a naked eye from hundreds of yards away.  I had to leave before I could hunt them because I didn’t set aside enough time for the hunt.  I had a flight to catch back home.  I thought I was prepared.  

On this recent hunt I missed my two children so bad, I had a bellyache.  I kept changing my thoughts to focus on the moment.  I didn’t set up the camp as far as I wanted because it was hot and I was worried about getting all that meat out by myself.  I couldn’t use the road I planned to get to the trailhead with because the oil company bought the lease on the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).  The company decided not to allow the public to use the road to access the BLM on the other side of the oil lease.  To add to all this I saw zero elk. 

I did find a giant four by four mule deer the penultimate day.  I crept thirty yards from him, but no deer tag.  As weeks went by I contemplated this elk hunt and there were additional things I learned.  

I’d do it all again.  I look back now and consider how far I’ve come since 2006.  Now I can hunt alone.  I bought all the gear for backcountry hunts.  I’ve killed bucks in the backcountry and packed them back to the truck in the heat.  I train with a huge rock in my pack.  I’ve been out of state four times now.  I’ve done research using paper maps, websites, and google Earth.  I would have attempted few of these things had I not become an elk hunter.  Now I just need to be patient until elk seasons rolls around again.  I can buy or draw another tag.  I know I’ll do it all again.