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

Steelhead

The rainbow trout (oncorhynchus mykiss) is a species of salmonid native to tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in Asia and North America. The steelhead is a sea or lake run rainbow trout. They are anadromous usually returning to freshwater to spawn after two to three years at sea; raoinbow trout and steelhead are the same species. Several other fish in the salmonid family are called trout; some are anadromous like salmon, whereas others are resident in freshwater only. The species has been introduced for food or sport to at least 45 countries and every continent except Antarctica. 

Venison tenderloin on an open flame

Tonight's dinner in the woods

Recipe:Butterflied Venison Tenderloin Steaks

Here's one that team GTO will definitely be making this week at camp. A simple yet tasty way to prepare your harvest this fall.

Ingredients

1 venison tenderloin cut into 3/4 inch butterfly steaks
1 cup Speide Sauce (check your grocery store's marinade aisle)
2 tbsp sea salt and pepper

Cut your tenderloin into 3/4-1 inch venison steaks and place into a sealable freezer bag with 1 cup of Speide Sauce marinade. Seal bag and make sure sauce in liberally applied to all the steaks. If more is needed add more sauce. Place steaks into the refrigerator for 2-3 hours. Light your charcoal or propane grill, preferably hardwood charcoal. When grill is ready take out your steaks and liberally apply sea salt and fresh cracked pepper to all the steaks. 4-5 minutes on each side until your reach a nice medium/medium rare and pull off the heat immediately. Serve right away either naked or with your favorite sauce. A nice chimichurri would be wonderful over the platter of steaks.

The next time you harvest a beautiful white tail or elk try this one out

Cheers

Billy

Fall Trout

The fall can be one of the best times of the year to catch big trout in lots of waters.  Here in WNY we have the best of all worlds, while we can chase the salmon run up tributaries off Lake Ontario, sneak up on chrome steelhead off Lake Erie, or retrieve big gaudy streamers though the wild trout waters all over the area and catch the large browns that have done a great job avoiding the summer pressure of fishermen.  The limited pressure on the rivers and creeks this time of year makes it a wonderful time to get out there and land one of these beauties.  Deer hunting helps kill the pressure of crowded banks and streams.

What techniques can we use?

Like the early season don't be afraid to hook up a strike indicator and drift your favorite nymphs through the riffles and deep pools along your favorite trout stream.  Theres not much of a hatch in WNY to match this time of the year, but all time favorites like the hare's ear, red headed brassie, or pheasant tail nymphs will get the job done.  Pick a seam outside the fast current where food would pile up and drift your indicator through making sure you have enough weight on your line to get your nymph low and basically feed it to the big brownies.  If this isn't working don't be discouraged the trout might need some help realizing how fun it is on the end of your tippet.  If drifting that favorite nymph isn't creating the desired results  then it's time to drop a dropper of the back sub-surface wolly bugger or small streamer.  Tie an 18 inch section of fine tippet off the leading fly and drop a small nypmh off the back.  The top streamer or bugger while getting attention of the fish will either get the job done or get enough attention to hunger the fish enough to gobble up the trailing nymph.

Another option for fall time trout is beating the banks with streamers.  The bigger, gaudier, and flashier the better.  Give these bulls something to chase, something that looks like a meal.  Look for undercut banks, down trees, boulders or large rocks.  Places that huge trout can hang out, feel protected, and run out for food all in a small area. Short, quick burst, erratic retrieves with bunny streamers or mouse flys will drive big buck trout crazy and result in a definite hook up.

Fall trout fishing can be some of the most fun you can have on the water all year round.  Big wild browns is my goal usually, but I'll settle for just about any kind of trout.  If anything this will be one of the most enjoyable times for you since the pressure will be low and you can experiment with multiple techniques and flys.  Fill that fly box up with multiple nymphs, wet flys, and big gaudy streamers.  floating strike indicators or no, a couple split shots or floating line take your pick.  It will all work out as long as you work on the perfect presentation in the perfect holding spots on the creeks where these smart trout have been hold up all summer long.  Good luck out there and remember to enjoy the outdoors while you're out there hunting, fishing, and grilling the outdoors.

Cheers

Billy

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