On a warm day, Cash, drinking from my hydration pack.

Just a quick reminder to all of you who are running your dogs in the off season, in regards to excise and training. As temperatures rise lets all be conscious of the heat. Making more water available to our dogs, shortening the length of their runs, and trying to use the cool morning and evening hours for their exercises will help keep them safe, healthy, and happy. Every year dogs die from heat exhaustion that could have been prevented, and sadly it is nobody fault but the dog handlers. Lets make sure that this does not happen to any of our dogs...

In most parts of the country snake season in now upon us, so lets be conscious of that as well. I have bumped into one rattler already. Any unusual swelling or unusual behavior during, or after, a run this time of year earns an immediate trip to the vet. Running your dogs in the early morning hours always gives you the best the best odds of avoiding snakes. Snake bites can happen at any time though, so be prepared. There is a ton of good information on the Internet regarding snake bites and dogs, and obviously you veterinarian in the best resource to answer all or your questions. So, if you haven't already, please take the time do do a little research. It could save your dogs life.

This is a great time of year to take your dog(s) swimming. It is great for their health, their joints, and their overall conditioning. For you guys with retrieving dogs this is standard practice, but for us pointing dog people it can be part of our summer conditioning program as well. I have seen a few pointers that hate to swim, but most love it. My dogs love to swim and are very good at it. They have had lots of opportunities to swim since they were just puppies, so now when the rare opportunity arises for them to make a water retrieve, they are all over it. And at the end of the day, hunting dog or not, most dogs just love to play in the water.

Jay Kincaid

Do you have a favorite bass fishing lure? We want to see it!

Do you prefer a tube worm on a Texas Rig or a wacky worm on Carolina Rig? When you’re on the lake are you more likely to pull out your crawfish jig or the spinnerbait? Whatever your style, we want to see pictures!

Send us a picture on Twitter of your favorite bass fishing lure, and you will be entered to win a FLW Fishing Tourmanet used lure from Joe Nech!

Also, be sure to check in on Joe Nech’s Twitter handle, @joenech for updates through the rest of the week as he participates in the FLW Fishing Tournament at Beaver Lake in Arkansas, from April 26-29.

The details for#glacierlure:

You must follow @glacieroutdoor on Twitter.

You have until Monday, April 30th at noon to send us your pictures

Tweet must include the hashtag #glacierlure



And that’s it!

As I was running Saturday morning I couldn’t remember the last time that I had ran on pine needles. The dogs and myself started down on west 4th street, ran up to the ditch trail, over to Hunter Creek, and up to the falls. It was beautiful up there in the big trees and I was kind of in shock that I had never been up that far before. I had hiked up hunter creek a few years ago and fished some of the pools, which by the way hold a lot of trout, but I had never made my way up to the falls. This is for sure going to become a regular run for me on cool to cold days. Rumor has it that the canyon is occupied by a large number of rattle snakes during the summer months, so as far as I am concerned that is not time or place to be running with dogs. I believe the rumors, as I distinctly remember getting buzzed by a snake on the before mentioned fishing trip. Unfortunately with the warm weather on the forecast this week, that probably means that I will not be running that particular trail again until late fall, as I always run with the dogs, adapting my running depending on the time of year to places that are safe for them. Saturdays run was one of the most enjoyable runs that I can remember in a long time.

Saturday afternoon I took my Step Dad out fishing at Pyramid Lake. It had been a long time since he had caught a trout on a fly rod, so I figured this would be a great opportunity to get him going again. It was really windy and rainy on the way up to the lake, but as it often works out, it was beautiful down at the water. Only a few quick rain showers and lots of sun to keep us warm. We had a great time, and ol’ Pops put three nice fish in the net. He took me fishing a countless number of times when I was a kid so it was really nice to take him fishing for a change.

Jay Kincaid

It seems like it has been forever since I have gone out and caught a trout. Last Saturday I was able to sneak out for a half day, and I spent that time fishing up at Pyramid Lake. I was still a bit slow, but at least fish were being caught. I was lucky and caught a fish on my first cast. The rest of the anglers on the beach didn’t particularly appreciate that… After that I hooked two more fish, and that was it. My buddy Paolo was catching them pretty good and he was standing right next to me, so at the least I was entertained during my own slow periods. Nothing really big was landed that I saw. I guy about 50 yards down the beach lost one right at the net that would have probably gone around 6 pounds. I thought for a second that guy might have an epic meltdown after losing that fish, but for the sake of my own entertainment, no such luck.

Saturday morning I ran 20 miles in the mountains with the dogs. Two years ago, or even last year, Porter would have never been tired after a run like that. Saturday he was dragging just a bit. Maybe it was just an off day for him, but never the less, the thought of him getting old breaks my heart.

Jay Kincaid

I would love to be able to post picture of grand adventures and large trout. The reality is that between running, wrestling, and changing diapers I have had little time for anything else outside of work. I have fished the river for a few minutes a handful of times in the last couple of weeks, but with no success. I even made a trip out to Pyramid Lake to try to catch a big lake trout, but after starring into wide open waters for a couple of hours with no action I packed up and called it a day.

Last week I sprained my knee while wrestling. I thought that I had really hurt myself, but it turned out to be no big deal and after a couple of days I was off and running again. It wasn’t as bad as I had feared. I have about 6 weeks of training left for the 32 mile race in May, so there is no time to be sitting around not running.

The good news is that the dogs have been getting a lot of miles in with me while I am out training for the trail race next month. They are fit and happy, and if hunting season was to start again tomorrow they would be all ready to go. I got my big game applications sent in, so now it is just waiting until mid June to find out if I drew any tags. This is always a big deal as I comb through hunt statistics from the year before like I am trying to break some kind of military code. I also try to stick to a strict diet of meat on the day that I send in my application, for good luck, of course. I am feeling it this year, so maybe I will get lucky. With that said, I think that I am going to get lucky every year, but the tags that I am looking for seldom show up in the mail....

I am hoping that this weekend I will get a full day on the river fishing. It has been a while since I’ve caught a good trout, and hopefully I can change that soon.

Below is a picture of me back when I was a just a little guy trying to catch a trout. Some things never change.

Jay Kincaid