Week number 2 and we're still blogging

Well it's the second week of the year and we are still living up to our promise of a blog a week. With that being said I am not quite sure what were going to tell you guys about. The weather in WNY has been brutal at best. We've had rain storms a three day blizzard and temps ranging from 50 degrees to -10 degrees. That doe snot take into account wind chill factors by the way. It's been cold and fishing has been all but impossible. We're headed out on Friday to try to drum up some new, fresh steelies but nothing since we've spoken last. 

What we have been up to though is taking GTO outdoors to the next level. We're expanding and it's exciting stuff. Www.gtooutdoors.com is live. Our very first website for our little start up company. Stop by to the site to see some team GTO pictures and videos or to purchase your favorite GTO products. Need a new fly rod or spinning rod built specifically for you by rod building professionals? Stop by www.gtooutdoors.com and we will point you in the right direction to get that rod for you. All our current products and a couple you might not have heard of from GTO are all up on the website. We have also got links to all of our social media sites on the website. Facebook, twitter, YouTube, blogger, you name it and we have a link to it so you can get your fill of team GTO. 

Did I say YouTube?  I sure did. Within the last week GTO has launched the team GTO YouTube channel. We will eventually be doing a regular web series on this channel and there is a trailer up for you all to see.  Also up on the channel catch a couple of our goose shorties from earlier this season.

YouTube up and going and www.gtooutdoors.com live and going strong. It has been a busy week in our small outdoors kingdom. This upcoming week should be even busier with new videos going up, new rods in development, and the design of new fly patterns and lures on the conventional fishing side.  On top of all that we will be filming three out of the next seven days. Steelhead steelhead steelhead we gots the silvers on the brains.  That's about it for this week. If I think of something I forgot I might make a special post for week number 2 of this 52 week adventure. 

Cheers

Billy

2/52

Recipe: Roasted Leg of Venison with Root Vegtables

Roasted Leg of Venison

-team GTO 

Ingredients: 1 leg of venison trimmed up

1/2 cup of olive oil

Salt and pepper

3 tbsp garlic powder

1 tbsp onion powder

3 sprigs of thyme

5 carrots

5 potatoes

2 turnips

3 onions

1 cup beef stock

1 1/2 cups good red wine

1. Peel and rough chop vegetables 

2. Rub leg of venison with half the oil and generously season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and thyme

3. Place a roaster pan on med high heat and heat remaining olive oil

4. Sauté vegtables with some salt and pepper and a sprig of thyme until vegetables are nicely  colored 

5. Deglaze pan with stock and wine

6. Place leg of venison on top of vegtables, cover with foil, and place in the oven at 425 degrees

7. After 3 hours remove foil and finish of in the oven uncovered for 30-45 minutes. Take out when meat tenderly falls from the bone and has good color

8. Let leg rest for 15-25 minutes before carving. 

This is a great recipe for the holidays. From our GTO family to yours have a great safe holiday season

Billy

Report from a Duck Blind

These past couple weeks have been exciting, hectic, and busy all wrapped into one. WNY is alive with wild life activity and GTO Outdoors is trying to capitalize on it all. With the whitetail rut winding up and the steelhead running out of the Great Lakes up into the tributaries there's plenty to do. Add on top of that trying to keep on top of this start up company and sell our brand to the masses. For those that do not know we have hand tied flies, roe sacks, and jars of salmon skein for sale. You have a couple options of how you can get your hands on said products. First you can stop by either Nature's Prize in Akron NY or Captain Bobs Outdoors in Clarence NY as they carry a full line of GTO products. Second you can email us at grillingtheoutdoors@gmail.com and tell us what you would like. We will get back to you ASAP and get your order filled. For those with no Internet and do not live near WNY give us a call at (716)560-0364 and Bill will be glad to help you get your hands on whatever your needs may be. We will be simplifying this process also in the next couple weeks as we are expanding our coverage online and will have a fully functional website up and running by the end of November. You will be able to view all available GTO Outdoors products and purchase right from the site. The website will also have photos, videos, links to this blog and all our social media sites along with much much more. We will make an announcement once gtooutdoors.com goes live.

In other news besides missing deer with the bows and chasing steelies and big browns out of the lakes it is duck season!!! One of GTO's favorite times of the year. This year has been treating us well with multiple birds on the ground. Now things could always be better, but we are having a blast and this sick obsession is taking time away from other things. Not only are the birds raining from the sky, but the hysterics and mischief that has been happening in the blind is a great time. The best part of the whole thing is we do not believe the migration has kicked in yet and we have until mid December to keep it up. We are Hoping to get some white tails on the ground next weekend during the firearms opener in NY state so that we can get back In a duck blind to keep the good season going. With all this going on we have been delinquent on our blog posts, but ill try to keep on the guys to post more in the upcoming weeks as we really ramp up our hunting, fishing, and grilling of the outdoors. Till then we leave you with some photos of our harvest during the bird season this year.

Cheers

Billy

PS. Many new products coming in the next couple weeks. They will all be available on gtooutdoors.com. Thanks guys

Overtime

Tis the season. The season I wish there were thirty hours in a day and nine days in a week. The salmon run is in full effect out of Lake Ontario, bow season is starting to get good, and duck hunting opens in a week. From stream to stand as much as I can leaves little time for blogs to be written, face books to be posted, or twitters to tweet. I love October and everything that goes along with it. I love fly fishing for huge salmon and steelhead. It's a treat to grab a huge brown trout while drifting for these awesome fish. When not wading the tribs of the Great Lakes I sit in a tree stand admiring the changing of the leaves. The beautiful transformation passes the time as I sit in stealth and await a trophy whitetail. As the days pass and the weather changes those same whitetail begin to change their behavior patterns as well. Do they know why this happens? Do we know why? Mother Nature changing the environment right in front of our eyes.

In the coming week we will be going to our southern tier operation for four days of bow hunting and fall brown trout fishing. We will prepare the camp for weeks and weeks of debauchery, camaraderie, and hopefully a productive whitetail season. The whole idea of a hunting camp is what drew me to the sport. An escape, a place we gather to de-stress and fulfill our primal urge to harvest and provide. It might just be an outhouse and trailer from 1984 but it is a sanctuary that I look forward to coming back to every time we leave.

October, a time of change, a time of harvest. The month of Halloween, the month of hunting, fishing, and cooking. Huge salmon, nice big browns, bucks and does preparing for the upcoming rut, and flocks of migrating ducks and geese. I might complain about my lack of time or how busy I am, but I truly do love putting in the overtime in the field, in the woods, or waist deep in a Great Lakes tributary. Stay tuned for reports from the many adventures coming up throughout the next couple of months as we hunt, fish, and grill the WNY area.

Cheers,

Billy

Get outside

  Anyone claiming to be bored needs to get outside. Turn off the tv, the computer and all your other electronics. I understand hunting and fishing equipment can be expensive. 

  NY state has so much more to offer. Theres tons of state parks and land to hike on, walk on, fish on, hunt on or even ride your bike on. There's some very picturesque parts of NY that aren't hard to get to.

  If your into fishing theres countless possibilities. Even in winter. Don't have ice fishing gear you say. Theres streams that don't ice up that offer steelhead fishing all the way till spring. Hook into one of these "muscle" heads just once and you'll be hooked. Theres many small streams all over that offer good bank fishing for trout. Then theres enough park ponds and lakes that hild largemouth and panfish to get you through the summer. Which takes you into fall and the salmon run off Lake Ontario. Having just got involved in this myself for the first time. Let me tell ya. This is some fun fishing. Drag screaming runs. Fish that fly out of the water. Not to mention its just a beautiful time to be outside. 

  If you can pull yourself away from the salmon and steelhead streams, theres more than enough to hunt. Deer hunting starts in October and goes till December. Throw some duck hunting in there. Before you know it the snows flying and your spending late nights a field hunting coyotes. Then it's spring and your turkey hunting. Theres a little break to be had during summer. Thats when you can enjoy your quarry on the grill, or in the smoker. 

  Theres a whole years worth of activity. Stop being bored. Get outside, make some memories with friends. Maybe you'll even meet somebody new. 

Josh

The Salmon Run

One can't explain the craziness that I experience during the annual fall Lake Ontario salmon run. I don't know if its the acrobatic aerial displays that the fish put on or the screaming of my fly reel. It could possibly be the fight, oh the biggest fight felt from any game fish in the WNY area. This year has been no different. The salmon started entering the Lake Ontario tributaries in the beginning of September and have really started coming upstream now that the evening temperatures have started to drop. We have been seriously filling our sickness, I mean addiction to these beautiful fish for two weeks now. Lots of hook ups, lots of broken lines and leaders, and one straightened hook have paid off a couple of times when team GTO has had the pleasure of not only landing the salmon, but and early run beautiful brown trout. While we have mostly fished locally, 18 mile creek or oak orchard, this coming week we will be traveling to the world class east coast fishery known as the Salmon River in Pulaski NY. Reports coming in say we will be hitting the Salmon and the Oswego rivers in the peak of the season. Lots of Chinook, Browns, and Steelhead are being reported throughout the river. Telling this to a salmon addict is like dangling smack in front of a crackhead. Everything I do I cannot focus on, all I think about is throbbing in my forearms as my fly reel screams with line tearing off into the backing. The long drawn out fight and finally if I'm lucky grabbing that huge trophy from the net, twenty pounds plus of muscle that just fulfilled my salmon addiction.
I'll try to get serious about this blog and post regularly again. My partner in GTO, Josh, has also agreed to contribute to the blogosphere. Stay tuned for more stories as we get into our busy season hunting, fishing, and grilling the outdoors. Until then here's a couple picks of some nice fish we've gotten this week in the WNYarea.

Thanks,

Billy