About Wade Lemon Hunting
At Wade Lemon Hunting, we are committed to quality Trophy Hunts. We have successfully been guiding and outfitting clients since 1978. We specialize in giving our clients an experience of a lifetime and harvesting trophy world class animals.
The Begining of WLH
When Wade first told me he wanted to be a Professional Lion Hunter I laughed. I had never heard of anyone paying someone to take them hunting. I grew up in a family who loved to hunt. I thought you worked a 9-5 job and then for play, you went hunting, Not for a job!!
I didn’t discourage but didn’t encourage either.
Wade has a one track mind. When he wants something or gets something in his head, that’s all he thinks about. I think this is why he is so successful in hunting. NO hunt or track was to hard because he won’t give up until it’s caught. It would stay on his mind until he figured out how to get it done. Wade has always jokingly said he hunted because he wasn’t smart enough to do anything else. Realistically to make a living doing what you enjoy, you have to be pretty dang smart!
When the lion season opened his adrenaline was pumping and he was gone hunting. You know that song, by Brad Paisley, “I’m going to miss her”. That pretty much sums up my life with Wade, If I would have given him an ultimatum, he would have been singing that song!! Some of us are competitive in sports, Wade was in lion hunting. He was up the earliest and had checked every canyon before most others had awoken. If someone else beat him to a track it ruined his whole day. He was driven and focused on only one thing and that was to catch a lion. He would get so focused and so stressed out, chewing His fingernails to the nub, but as soon as the lion was caught he turned into a different person, happy, fun, and relaxed. I think I finally gave in realizing that no matter what, He was going lion hunting. Why not make it worth his time.
At first we called our business, Rock Canyon Cougars and worked under that name for a couple years. We named it that because we were living in Clawson, UT, at the time, in a single wide trailer house and the Canyon directly West of Clawson was named Rock Canyon. So Rock Canyon Cougars it was. I remember the first compensation we ever received for a lion hunt was a brand new Kenmore Microwave oven. We were so stoked!!! Wade later partnered with a well-known lion hunter in Nevada and Idaho named Marvin Todd. Wade operated with him for a few years as Diamond Ranch Cougars, hunting in Utah, Nevada and Idaho. Wade would work construction in the Summer months and then quit and Lion hunt in the Winter months.
Operating in other states required “Special Use Permits” for Forest Service and BLM. We realized we didn’t have a “Use” permit to guide in Utah so we checked with the Forest and BLM and they didn’t know anything about these permits or requirements. We were certain at some point in time it would be required, so we sat down, with Bill Dye the Ferron Forest Ranger over the Manti LaSal Forest and Kim Bartell over the BLM in Vernal, and together we figured it out. We were issued the FIRST SPECIAL USE PERMIT IN UTAH, to guide on the BLM and most of the Forest Districts.
A few years later, we renamed our business, Wade Lemon Hunting, with the help and suggestions from former clients and close friends.
There was a new hunting organization just starting up called Safari Club International, out of Tucson Arizona. We decided to attend a SCI Hunting Convention in 1984. We have been exhibiting, as a family at SCI, rotating from Reno to Las Vegas and a year in Orlando now for the last 35 years. We have also been advertising in their quarterly magazine for the last 35 years.
Kenny Jackson, one of our very first actual clients and life long best friend, taught us a lot about the business part of WLH. He owned and operated his own successful business and openingly and willingly shared his knowledge with us. He even took us shopping and helped us purchase our first Fax Machine and helped us with advertising and customer relations, something that Wade and I had no clue about. Kenny passed away in 1994. Our youngest daughter, Kenlie, was born on His birthday in 1995 and was named after Him.
Another one of our early clients and dear friend, Joe Jennaro, owned several warehouses in California. For many years He sent us a semi truck load of Dog food. We would store it in Kenny’s warehouse “Jahabow Industries”, until the mice got so bad we had to move the dog food to someplace else.
Early on, we had a client from Japan fly to the US and hunt lion with us. He didn’t speak any English at all. I met him at the airport and stood with a sign with his name on it until he found me. He had hired an interpreter to help him after he landed. She was able to tell me that he had no hunting clothing and would need me to take him shopping for everything. Long story short, with a lot of nodding and pointing, we were able to find everything that he needed for his hunt. Our language barrier made for a quiet ride home. Wade knew a young man who had just returned from serving as a Missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Japan. We hired him as an interpreter. We learned that as far as this Japanese man knew that he was the first guy from Japan to kill a Mountain Lion. We also learned that he didn’t like American food. Wade’s Mom cooked up a wonderful dinner for him the first night of Roast Beef, Potatoes and gravy. We watched as he shuttered taking just a few bites. I guess I would do the same if eating raw fish in Japan. Wade and Bennie Curtis caught him a huge Tom lion in 9 mile Canyon a couple days after he arrived.
Big game hunting in Utah has changed a lot over the years. I used to drive, with all my kids at that time, to the Springville DWR office many times each week to purchase our Hunters hunting license. Now this is done online. I actually miss driving and visiting with the ladies at the Springville DWR front desk. I made, what I consider, life-long friends with those ladies. They were all so accommodating, kind and willing to help.
On the day of the draw results, I with my kids, would drive to Salt Lake City and wait as the successful names were drawn and posted outside the DWR building. I would have to hand write names, phone numbers, and addresses of all successful applicants. I would then mail each successful hunter a brochure in hopes of booking a few Hunters for the year.
Big game hunting in Utah has made substantial improvements since then. Populations and Quality on every unit around the state has improved. In the early years an influential friend named Don Peay started Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife, (SFW) and created the Utah Conservation tag program. Utah now brings $8-$10 Million dollars a year for wildlife. Habitat improvements, game transplants and other conservation programs have resulted with better populations, and better trophy quality than any time in Utah’s History.
Now instead of having to wait for the draw to be physically announced. We are able to buy Tax Deductible Conservation Tags and Landowners Tags for our clients without depending on the luck of the draw.
Because of this guaranteed tag program and increased game numbers we have been able to grow WLH into a group of focused professionals that share the same competitive focus and determination that Wade has had for Wade Lemon Hunting since day one. Instead of waiting at the DWR office for a paper to be posted with draw results, we spend all year booking hunters and going to Landowners, and Conservation Auctions to obtain these Tags for our hunters.
It’s amazing to see where Wade’s Dream of being a professional Lion Hunter has taken our family. We have met many life-long friends that have influenced us for the good, We have learned life lessons that have helped us improve and make needed changes, we have traveled the world and hunted and learned from the best. We acknowledge the Lord’s hands in directing our lives. We are so very blessed!!!