There has been a lot of literature lately regarding the benefits of the use of gloves while fishing catch and release. Gloves allow you to grip the fish without having to tightly squeeze it, avoiding damage to its vital organs. Anyone who has every tried to hold a thrashing fish or even a still fish with bare hands understands that this can be difficult to do, and physically it is very hard on the fish. Always wet your glove before handling your catch to avoid removing the fish's protective coat of slime. Fish scales are covered by a mucous layer which helps prevent infections. Rough handling, especially with dry hands, damages the mucous layer and reduces the chances of the fish surviving after release.
We make fishing gloves for both warm weather and cold weather conditions that not only protect your hands from the elements, but also help make the process of release easier and safer for the fish.
We have donated gloves to biologists in Florida who are running specific tests on various fish species regarding the impact of handling fish with bare hands compared to handling them with gloves. We will be getting results later this year.

For years Glacier Glove has been selling our gloves to cyclists. We even have a picture hanging in our office of Lance Armstrong cycling with a pair of our gloves on. The design and materials of our gloves creates a very good product for winter cycling. Our 802BK is completely wind proof, water proof, features 2mm of fleece lined neoprene, and has pre-curved knuckles for a natural feeling grip. We are now proud to support cycling team Garmin Slipstream with our gloves to help support their cold weather training.

The Nevada Chukar season is over. Part of me feels relieved that it is finished so that I can take a few weekends and just relax, but another part of me knows that I am not going to just relax on the weekend anyway, and I would much rather be bird hunting than doing anything else. At any rate it is over. All in all it was a good year. On a scale of 1 - 10 I would rate the hunting in Nevada this year as a 5. I finished up with 103 chukar, a handful of quail, and 48 birds from Montana. That basically gives me 151 birds for the year. I shot a good number of grouse in September but they where not over my dogs, so I do not count them. I did find a new great spot to hunt grouse over my dogs so I will definitely being doing that this September.

For me there are two days this year that stick out in my mind; One of the days in Montana with my buddy Paul was just awesome. We both shot limits of Sharp Tails and we both basically had our limits of huns as well. We had one flush that day over Cash’s point where we shot 6 huns out of that one covey, and it was not a staggered flush. The other day is definitely the one hunting chukar with my wife Lisa. It was a nice sunny day, we had an easy cool breeze, an easy hunt along a ridge line, lots of birds, great dog work, a limit in about an hour, and she got to experience a chukar hunt that was as good as they get. Very cool.

This last weekend I hunted Saturday and Sunday. I shot 6 birds total, but certainly had the opportunities to get limits both days. The dogs held up on their end of the deal, I just didn’t get it done on my end when I had the chance. Not exactly how you want to finish up the season, but it is what it is. It’s not like this is that last time until next September that I will be able to shot birds over the dogs. I do a lot of “training” in the off season, which at this point isn’t really training, but regardless it means that I shoot a bunch of pen raised birds over the dogs. The dogs do not learn anything from this, but I know that they have a lot of fun anyhow, and so do I, so that is the simple motivation behind it. If I had to guess I probably shoot 50 – 80 pen raised birds every year during the off season.

Now it is time to start thinking about going fishing!

I decided to hunt on Saturday and go for a hike with my wife Lisa on Sunday. Saturday I hunted an area that produced 12 coveys of birds earlier this season. I had not hunted it once since then but I thought for sure that some of those birds would still be there. After four hours of hunting and moving one covey of birds I think that it is safe to say that those birds have migrated out of that country and are some place that I am not familiar with. On my way back to the truck my gps dog tracker started beeping, letting me know that I had a dog on point. It showed Cash at almost 350 yards away on point. So, I started walking and about 10 minutes later I came over the hill and sure enough there he was locked up solid. I flushed the birds and was able to kill one which was a great reward for the dogs.
Sunday Lisa and I went for a two hour hike with the dogs and honestly after Saturdays hunt there was no part of me that wished that I was hunting. My goal at this point is to finish up the bird season strong and then get ready to start fishing. We are desperate for moisture in a big way in Nevada. There is still a lot of time, but at this point things have me nervous for bird hunting next year.
The picture above shows cash on point, and if you look closely in the distance you can see porter honor pointing.

Saturday started off great. Paul, Randy and I all had two birds within the first 20 minutes of the hunt. At that point it seemed like a slam dunk. It turned out though to be a lot like most of my hunts lately, and at the end of the day I had only bagged the same two birds that I start off the day with. Paul and Randy each managed to pick up one more bird each. Another hard day!
We stayed Saturday night in Winnemucca and then headed out past Battle Mountain Sunday morning. We hunted an area that Paul had hunted in the past. I have hunted the same mountain range but farther to the south. We hunted specifically for Chukar first and managed to find enough birds to get 3 in my bag in the first couple of hours. Paul had bagged 2 birds during the same time, and I am not sure how many Randy shot because he changed plans, not that we really had a plan, and hunted back around in a different direction and never got back together with Paul and I. One really cool thing that happened is that one of my dogs, Cash, ran down into a little canyon and spooked out 3 bull elk. That was the first time that I have ever got a flush on elk and Cash was very excited about it. He thought for sure that he was the big dog on the block. Unfortunately I did not have my camera on me.
After Paul and I finished that first hunt we got in his truck and drove out to the flats to a place that he had done really well on Huns in the past. In the next hour we bagged 7 Huns between the two of us and both had our limit. I have shot Huns in Nevada, Oregon, and Montana, but there is something about Nevada Huns that get me really fired up. All in all it was a great weekend and as far as I am concerned, taking into account great dog work by all the dogs and the mixed bag of Chukar and Huns, it was the best hunt in Nevada this year for me.

Jay Kincaid