Squirrel Hunting 9/18/16

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So, I am sitting around yesterday afternoon stewing about my fishing tournament from the day before. I was watching the NFL and I had a ton of fantasy players getting me points. But, at the end of the first session of games, Griffin came up and said "dad, when are we going squirrel hunting again?"

Well, that was a good question. I hadn't really thought about squirrel hunting in some time, though it is one of my favorite fall pastimes. It is action packed and, if you hunt like me, great exercise. 

I did some quick research on my phone and, sure enough, it was squirrel season! 

I told him that we would go, if he would clean his room. Truth is, we were going anyway. I just wanted to get free work out of the deal!

He did his chores and we loaded up the old Ruger 10/22. 

Now, if you haven't read any of my squirrel hunting stories, you may not know that I hunt a little differently than many people. Instead of sitting and waiting, I take a more proactive approach. I will cover a lot of land and pursue any squirrels I see and hear. I want to get them treed and then pick them off. This Ruger of mine, which you can read about in the link posted above, is ridiculously accurate. 

We started out listening at watching. 

Within the first 50 yards, we had at least one squirrel near us. We could see it hopping back and forth between trees. Now, the challenge this time of year is, there is a lot of foliage and it is almost impossible to hunt them if they are in the top half of the tree. The leaves obstruct everything. 

This squirrel was able to move around without giving himself away and eventually we gave up on him. 

Another 100 yards and we came upon a hot area. This area always seems to hold a lot of them. Mostly this is because of the abundance of forage. There are beechnuts and acorns aplenty. 

There were two squirrels that were active and they were running back and forth so fast that it was nearly impossible to keep up with them. Luckily, they would bark at one another. 

One was on the ground and gave me a shot. Typically I don't like ground shots.This one was long and I had doubts that the squirrel would stay still. But he did and I squeezed a shot. 

I had virtually no hope that I hit it, but I didn't hear or see the squirrel move. 

Seconds later, the second squirrel appeared from a branch just above where the other had been and began barking. Pop! He held for a second before falling from about 20 feet. 

Sure enough, we had hit the first one and scored ourselves two! 

That being said, we had to get rid of both of them because they had "wolves," which are a hot weather parasite. I'd post a picture, but yall may not ever read any more of my posts! It took forever to explain what wolves and parasites were and how it wasn't actually the canine, nor would a grey wolf appear any time soon.  

We didn't hunt for too long because it was very humid and Griffin was getting tired from hauling his Daisy.  

Needless to say, it isn't quite time to keep them. Soon as we have a few frosts, though, it will be time for squirrel d'oeuvres! 

Squirrel Hunting 2/5/2015

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With deer season behind us and turkey season over a month away, my dad must have been going through withdrawals. Additionally, I had been striking out on fishing...as you can read from my last trip. So, when he asked if I wanted to go squirrel hunting late Thursday afternoon, I was all for it. I was doubly hooked when he told me we were going after fox squirrels. When I first started hunting them (back in the 90s), we had a good number of fox squirrels on our place. But, due to tornadoes destroying their habitat, we didn't have enough to warrant shooting them. So, it has been the better part of 2 decades since I popped one. Fox squirrels, if you didn't know, are much larger than their grey cousins...by a factor of 2 or 3. They are less dependent on trees and spend more time on the ground. Dad told me that a place on our family land in New Market had a ton of them and that we would be going after them. He even sent me this picture:

As you can see, there were at least a couple of them local.

Of course, I had to leave work after hitting the gym (yes, we have a nice gym at work, and I am trying to work on my fitness, per New Year's Resolutions) and grab my hunting stuff.

After I ran home and grabbed my 10/22, I realized that I was out of ammo. No, I  don't mean out of .22 all together, just the stuff I like to hunt with. In my 20 years of squirrel hunting, I have come to the inevitable truth that squirrels don't just taste tough. They ARE tough. I have used a lot of different ammo, but I have found that standard 36 grain round nose ammo will just punch holes in them without being fatal (that is, unless that hole is in a head). The first one I ever killed ended up with 7 holes put through it. I have missed several kills, and not from missing the squirrel, but because I hit it and the squirrel was able to find a knot hole or nest in the tree. However, if you use hollow points, the additional shock and surface area gives you a large advantage. If nothing else, the shock will knock them out of the tree, which may do the deed for you. Using the right ammo is one of the main reasons I have had such success hunting in the last year. You can read about one of those trips here.

Local sporting goods stores such as Academy, Gander Mountain, etc are frequently sold out. When they DO have ammo, it is frequently plinking ammo that is ridiculously high. Though I detest going to Larry's Pistol and Pawn, they are the only place that consistently has exactly what I want: CCI mini-mag HP. And, once again, they came through for me. They were offering 500 rounds of the aforementioned ammo for under $50. Again, this isn't cheap ammo. This is very high quality hunting ammo. I may or may not have picked up a WASR-10 AK47 while I was there....which was the reason it took me an extra hour to meet dad.

When we met up, we had around an hour to hunt, which isn't much time....but it was better than nothing.

Unlike my typical trips where I walk fire lanes and roads, we were hunting for these guys who were very local. So, we set up camp to wait for them. I climbed up a metal stand and waited.

In the distance, I could see plenty of grey squirrels playing. Dozens of them. Unlike our place in Harvest where the majority of the trees are young (due to the tornadoes), this area is an established forest featuring massive trees that housed 5 or 6 different squirrels. And, on occasion, I would see that many on one tree. I was getting antsy to climb down and go after them, but I realized that these trees were 100 yards or so into the woods and I would not be able to slip up to them as I can in Harvest, by utilizing the roads and trails. So, I waited.

Minutes later, I heard a squirrel rummaging in front of me. Every once in awhile, I would spot this little grey squirrel, who would pop out from behind this tree 10 feet from me just long enough for me to put the scope up. Then, it would dart back behind the tree. It would emerge on the other side and repeat the process.

Concentrating on this little guy allowed a fox squirrel to slip up from behind me. In fact, had dad not texted me, I might never have seen it. As expected, it stayed on the ground, which made it hard to shoot. These little 36 grain bullets deflect off of anything, so I held my shot. It made a circle from behind me and eventually ended up on the road directly in front of me. However, it was a long shot.

Now, my 10/22 is a lethal little rifle. As you may recall, I built it last year with a lot of good parts. However, I sighted it in for only 50 yards...as the vast majority of my shots fall well under that. Even so, I took a rest and shot. The squirrel took off and crossed the road where it bounded into a tree. As it barked at me, I lined up another shot. And another. And another. The gun simply wasn't sighted in for that range, which was pushing 75 yards.

The good news was, I had it treed. As a kid, this was usually a disappointment. When they get into a tree, it's hard to find them. They get flat. They get into corners. And, they aren't afraid to move around the tree and keep you on the wrong side. As a kid,  I would get impatient and move on.

With 2 solid years of experience on my hand (referring to becoming a serious squirrel hunter the last two years), having them in the tree was now a massive benefit. I popped out of the tree stand and ran(Yes, ran. The last thing I want that bad boy to do is start tree hopping). When I got there, I knew he hadn't moved trees because there wasn't a nearby tree to jump to. What I was worried about was if he would go down the backside of the tree and take off running on the ground.

Slowly, I would scan the tree, up and down. I look for anything irregular. Sometimes you see their ears sticking out. Other times you see their fuzzy tail. They are sneaky dudes, for sure. And this one was a wily one. For 20 minutes I moved around the tree. The tree was fairly small in diameter, so I wasn't sure HOW he was evading me. I assumed that he was just moving around as I moved.

Eventually I called for dad to come help.

I got still and asked dad to move around the tree. Sure enough, he scrambled to stay out of sight of dad...not knowing I was there.

I lined him up while taking a rest on the tree next to me and made a clean headshot. Deff not the biggest fox squirrel I have ever seen, but he will eat good! While we didn't get any more shots off, getting one of these rare guys was worth the hunt.

And, getting to spend time with my dad is always worth the effort.

2014 Year In Review

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So, it isn't EXACTLY new years. On New Years, I was in Tampa watching Auburn lose to Wisconsin while stuffing my face with ball game food to the tune of $54, lying on the beach in 80 degrees, and going on a seafood bender. Resolutions weren't going to happen. But they will. Shortly. 

I didn't do resolutions in 2014. That explains why nothing seemed to get done, haha. Let's take a look at the 2014 Year in Review. 

Health

To be fair, I had surgery to repair a torn labrum and rotator cuff in December of 2013 and was out of commission for 2 months or so. Then, I had therapy for 6 weeks. Without the ability to lift weights and the pain on my shoulder do to running, I gave up working out. Though I did go back to working out, I never got in a rhythm. As a result, I packed on the 25 pounds I lost in 2013....and 10 more. So, here we are in 2015 and I look like crap, but I feel worse. Additionally, the loss in strength has been terrible for my repaired shoulder, which now pains me each and every day. I also suffered some injuries during the sports season, some freak, some my own fault, that are still nagging. 

Softball

Fielding

It was an...interesting....year in terms of softball. Defensively I played every position on the field except 1st base, and that's for obvious height reasons. I didn't play my cleanest season in the field. I had 2 bad games where I didn't make plays I normally would make. I can think of several flys in the outfield that I either dropped or didn't get to (after gaining weight, my speed was dropped dramatically). I did think my throwing improved. With the energetically repaired shoulder, I didn't wind up and throw it as hard as I could, which frequently let balls sail over heads. Instead, I threw a lot flatter and more accurate. Sure, balls had to hop a few times, but they went exactly where I wanted them to go. 

Hitting/Baseruning

I am torn on what to say here. After doing some research and some practice, my range went way up. I hit my first over-the-fence homeruns in 2014 and smoked many more balls over the outfielders heads. But, that comes at a price. My on base percentage dropped dramatically due to pop-flys. I did a better job getting basehits when I needed to. That is, with 2 outs, I put the ball on the ground instead of trying to hit it out. But, my baserunning suffered and I was thrown out more in this year than the rest of my life combined. That had a lot to do with my weight, but also with some nagging injuries that simply wouldn't go away. Namely, a hamstring injury so bad that it bruised. 

Teamwise, we still can't win a championship. We were 13-2 in NASA leagues and dropped 2 straight games in the playoffs to be the first out after EASILY being the most dominate team in the league. We oustscored other teams something like 285-85. We still can't win at the Sportsplex. And in NARF, we were undefeated in the regular season, which meant we suffered a 7 run handicap AND we limited to 5 runs an inning for the entire playoffs. 

Flag Football

Though the record didn't show it, this was probably the best team and execution we have had. We had a rough go of it early in the season. We made some QB changes and some changes in philosophy in mideason . By the season's end, we were playing better than anyone. Unfortunately, we didn't have anything to show for it other than some spectacular finishes to critical games.

Soccer

Soccer happened last in the year. That was a bad thing. Though I played more games this year than last year, I had a handful of injuries from softball and football that hampered me. In particular, a heel injury that wouldn't go away. It kept me from being able to plan and kick or backpedal, things a defender needs to be able to do. Additionally, the weight gain slowed me so that I couldn't run anyone down, a new experience for me. I had a lot of fun and really enjoyed playing more soccer, but I know the team was probably tired of me being a liability. The good news is, I got to play midfield for 2 games which led to 3 assist. I felt like the last 2 games gave me a lot of momentum for the spring season. 

Gardening

Alyse and I planted our most ambitious garden to date. We grow a ton of tomato plants indoors and then transferred many of them. We had so many that we had to give away a significant number. It was all for naught, however, as this year most everyone's tomatoes contradicted disease of some sort. It hit us hard and though we had planted 40 odd tomato plants, the output was more like 5. 

Cucumbers, on the other hand, produced so well that I had to quit picking them. We ate a ton of fresh ones. We made a TON of pickles. And we gave away bushels. Still, we had more than we could deal with. I have an entire closet of pickles, even after giving away a lot for Christmas. 

Squash, much like last year, was hit or miss. We would get production for awhile, then the plant would die...even with baby squash on the vine. Though I didn't see the direct evidence, I suspect that the same parasites that killed them last year did the same this year. I have a plan for next year.

Okra was another booming crop. We froze gallon upon gallon of it. Then, I made around 10 jars of pickled okra. It was so good that much of my family demanded it be used for all the holiday parties as well as for Christmas gifts. 

Hunting

In 2014, I spent more time squirrel hunting than ever, at the request of my grandmother who detests the tree rats. As a result, I had a banner trips. On one trip, I killed 8. Thanks to a bountiful harvest, I served squirrel d'oeuvres at several parties. I thought they were awesome. I attribute the success to my new Ruger 10/22 I put together, which has been amazing. 

Deer hunting has been decent. I bagged a small doe early in the season, then went after a large buck which I believe ended up being poached. After a long streak without seeing a decent buck , I finally got one right before Christmas. 

I didn't get a chance to make many turkey hunts. In fact, I think I only went on 1....but, dad and I doubled up on a set of jakes which ate supremely well. 

Fishing

In many way, I am really disappointed in this year's fishing. I didn't catch any monsters nor did the numbers really pile up. In fact, I caught less fish in 2014 than I have since 2008. The biggest fish caught hovered right at 6 pounds. A lot of the reason for low numbers is I didn't fish as much. We had 2 kids in sports and obviously we play a lot of sports ourselves. In addition, my boat (now sold) was out of commission for the 2 best months of the year. 

But, before I am too hard on myself, I remember some GREAT things happened. Josh and I found a magical place on Guntersville that I hope produces each year. I am inclined to believe so. In a 2 week period (2 tournaments) we caught 6 fish over 6 pounds. We stroked them on Logan-Martin. We caught out first 20 pound sack during a tournament on Guntersville. I won Angler of the Year in my club and the Club Classic on Wilson. So, it wasn't all so bad.

Prepping

Not much going on here. I did start a slow process of integrating a plan to prep on a budget. I wrote about it earlier in the year. Essentially, I want to buy a little something each and every paycheck. I did manage to stock up on 5.56/.223 and 7.62x39 a good bit. You know how I feel about it, if you think you need more than 1,000 rounds....think again. I have slowly added foodstuff and other less-prepped items like fasteners. I learned a lot of lessons in 2014 about gardening and food preservation. To me, that's more important. Additionally, I did a TON of reading this year on some of the classics that I believe will really help me....if the time comes. 

Blogging

It was probably the best and consistent year of the blog. Sure, STATISTICALLY I have had more hits in a single year, but that was mostly because of a 10,000 hit month. I went over 100,000 hits this past month. I think the coolest part was that the audience is so diverse between my Auburn fans, fishermen, and preppers. I am still not getting paid for it and I don't get much in terms of interaction with fans. But, there is always next year! 

Deer Hunting 11/17/2014

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My dad bought me a muzzle loader for my birthday last year, though it was after the muzzle loader season (well, the week between just muzzle loader vs gun).

But, we did dial in the iron sites on it, which I have to admit, CVA does a good job on the iron site selection. Afterwards, the gun was put in a case and left.

Muzzle loader season opened this past Monday. After getting work done, I was able to slip out and head towards the mountain. My dad had built a new shooting house in an all new location that I thought was going to be perfect, especially considering the 10 mile and hour wind that was pelting the west side of the mountain. Located on the lower south east side, it would offer me some protection. Well, I should say, it offered my scent some protection from any sniffing deer. I climbed the steps in to the shooting house and buckled down. In Zach terms, that means I read a book.

It was obvious that I had under-dressed. Most of my stuff is packed away in the attic still. I thought I could get away with a single Under Armour layer, jeans, and coveralls. My gloves and hat were still in my fishing stuff, left over from the travesty that was Fishing on 11/15/14.

As I read "The Martian", I was afraid that my fears were confirmed: the high wind was keeping all the deer at bay. The temperature was beginning to fall and the weathermen had suggested it would hit the high 20s. I definitely could feel it starting to bite. I like to hear the woods, so I keep the windows open, which means....you guessed it....I get cold.

But I am a big boy and I dealt with it, especially as I watched two of the biggest squirrels play on the tree next to me, wishing I had my 10/22 so I could wear them out as I had last week in my Squirrel Hunts. Instead, I just watched their interesting lives and how they go about them, wondering how their little minds worked. And as I followed one as it ran across a woods road, I saw a deer slip from one side to the other.

It was amazing that I ever saw the deer. I would be a liar if I said that I sometimes wonder just how many deer I have not seen in the woods, and just what percentage I see on dumb luck. This was just another situation where luck led my eyes. But as soon as I saw the deer, it slipped into a pine tree thicket, which we had planted after the F5 tornado in the late 90s. But, I kinda knew where it was going. The shooting house sits on the crossroads of two woods roads, one leading down the mountain and one leading north/south. But, only 50 yards from the crossroads is a food plot. I figured that was where the deer was heading, though I would catch glimpses of it rooting around. I was surprised that it seemed to be alone. I already knew it was a smaller deer, but with it being alone, it might be a button buck. Chances were, that's exactly what it was.

But almost as soon as I had dismissed the deer on these assumptions, another deer came walking down the road at the edge of the food plot. This one was obviously a mature doe.

We enjoy eating our deer and the freezer was almost empty. I was really hoping to fill it before devoting time to a buck. After all, it's been a few years since I killed a buck.

I setup the GoPro and hefted the muzzle loader, picking a spot between trees. I admit that I didn't really consider the range. I am so used to hunting with a rifle that the range isn't an issue. This was every bit of a 50 yard shot. Not terribly difficult for a muzzle loader, but certainly on the outside of the envelope with iron sites. But again, we had sited it in, so I wasn't too worried.

I picked a spot between two trees and the deer trucked right on towards them. When the deer came full broadside in between the trees, I let one rip.

Then something smacked me in the face. Hard. And I thought: "OMG THE GUN JUST BLEW UP IN MY FACE!"

Eventually I figured out that my head was still intact and on top of my neck. The deer had taken off and it was obvious that I hadn't hit it. After all, you hit something with a 50 cal, it's going down. Now, it may get back up eventually, but it might need a Peter Griffin moment.

After looking around, I found what had been knocked off. It was my read dovetail site. Apparently it had been knocked loose at some point during the last year. Who knows where I shot!

Well, it's back to last years post about Understanding Your Firearms Performance. Ugh. Right back to where we were in 2013.

Anyway, enjoy the vid!

Squirrel Hunting 11/11/14

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As much as I like deer and turkey hunting, there is something special about squirrel hunting. I guess that I associate the good things of squirrel hunting to fishing. See, in deer hunting, your absolute best day involves shooting 1 deer. You best day fishing? Well, who knows? It could be catching 100 fish. Or maybe a massive sack and winning a tournament. Like fishing, there is usually plenty of action. 

I took off a little early this past Friday to meet up with my friend Neil and do some hunting. I got started a little before he did and managed to do some scouting. I was amazed at how active the squirrels were. I managed to get around 30 shots, bagging 2 before he got there. Like fishing, just because you get a hook in a fish doesn't mean you get it in the boat. One thing I have learned about squirrels is, if you don't get a head shot, you may not bag them....even if you punch several holes in them. You would think I would have learned my lesson, since I grew up hunting them. 

But then I got to thinking, due to my hunting habits as a kid, I didn't get a lot of action. See, growing up, we would go sit stationary and wait for the squirrels. And, when we did get a shot, we used a good Marlin with a terrible Tasco scope. The best I EVER did was 2 squirrels in one day. 

Last year, I put together a Ruger 10/22. Nothing special, other than I spent a good amount of money on it. You can read about the gun in my Ruger 10/22 Build. 

Because I had a better firearm, I was able to see the squirrels so much better with the 9 power, 40mm scope. I could find them at greater ranges and resolve them, which I couldn't do. 

I also tweaked my approach to hunting them by covering more ground. Basically, I would walk around until I found active ones. 

I was amazed how my production sky rocketed. I don't think I have been out for a long hunt without bagging 3-4 of them in an hour. 

So by the time Neil showed up, I had two in the bag and had missed (well, they got away but I know I hit them) several. I gave him my old Marlin and I used the Ruger. We found out pretty quick how useless that Marlin was compared to the Ruger, so I swapped off with him. We stumbled into an area with 5 or 6 active ones and he was able to bag one. 

Took them home and cleaned them up. 

Saturday, we went to a cookout/ball game party. After Auburn lost to TAMU, I was pretty down. I had these squirrel legs defrosting, so I decided to cook them up for my friends. 

I let them set in a marinade for 30 minutes as I heated up an iron skillet. A double egg bath/flour dusting and in the pan they went. They didn't last long. 

I will admit, it made me feel better.

Well, the  next day Griffin (5) said he wanted to go hunting. That was a surprise. He hasn't shown any real interest in sports or hunting/fishing. So, if he wanted to go...we were going. While I loved hunting as a kid, I was terrified of guns. I was amazed that he showed little to no fear as I fired several times at one  squirrel In fact, after I supplied a head-shot, the squirrel fell out of the tree and landed with a plop about 20 yards away, and Griffin thought it was the funniest thing he had ever seen.

We went to retrieve the squirrel. I told him to kneel down and take a pic of it, which he did. I snapped this pic. right afterwards, he looked down and started screaming.

"It isn't dead! It isn't dead! It isn't dead!"

Of course, I stared laughing and yelling that it was. 

"NO! It's looking RIGHT AT ME!" 

Turkey Hunting 4/25/14

Last year I had said that I wanted to get a lot more turkey hunting done in 2014. Unfortunately, that hasn't happened. Up until this last trip, I had only gotten to hunt one other time, and I came back empty handed.  But, we did see turkeys and I did get some pretty good footage of them. You can read that post and check out the video by going HERE.

So, dad and I decided to make a Friday trip to Tennessee to see if we could scratch up some turkeys. But, unlike the last trip, we decided that we would bust the first jake or gobbler that came in range, rather than pass up turkeys.

We setup in the exact same place as the last trip, but we didn't see any turkeys on the roost, as we had done in the past. In fact, as the sun crept into the sky, we didn't see anything other than our own decoys. At about 6:30, a set of hens came over the hill and began feeding next to the decoys. They hung around for awhile before deciding to head off.

We were fairly certain that the hunt was over until the hens came back to our spot. Across the field, we spied a group of turkeys. With the hens in position, we knew it had to be the group of jakes we had seen the last trip.

As the hens clucked and called, the jakes made a bee-line across the field towards us. I setup my shot, making way to much movement and noise, but the blind isn't really made for two people to hunt. At most, it's made for a caller and a hunter. Though the hens knew something was going on, the jakes made no notice of us.

I turned the GoPro on and filmed the jakes getting into the kill zone. Unfortunately, as you can see, the GoPro was tilted up at the time of the shot.

But, I did get the shot off and I leveled the bird. He didn't move. But the other jakes did. 2 flew away, but a 3rd made a short hop and landed. Dad saw an opportunity to get a shot off, so he had me hit the deck. He was able to get a long shot off, but he connected on it!

We flipped the blind over and retrieved our kills! Getting a double is hard to do, but we pulled it off!

I tell ya, my Browning with the 3" 5 shot Hornaday round is deadly on these birds!

That evening, I sliced up the turkey breast, marinated it in my own custom EOTWAWKI marinade, and we chowed down on some grilled-to-perfection turkey!

Turkey Hunting 4/10/14

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Turkey hunting has been a recent hobby that I have picked up. I think I went turkey hunting one time as a child. Not that I don't enjoy it, just that we didn't have turkeys around to hunt. But, there has been a recent resurgence in the population.

The real reason I like it is because the hunts (at least ours) are relatively short. So, I can hunt in the morning and still get to work by 9. And, I can do it day after day.

I also like the active hunter element of turkey hunting, though I admit that my dad does all the work. I just sit in the blind. But I do video....

Anyway, we decided to make the run to our family land in Tennessee instead of hunting locally. But, I had comp time to burn....

So, up at 3:30AM and uphill we went. We arrived a little later than we wanted, but we were able to get setup before dawn.

We setup in a large field on top of the foothills of Fly, Tn. The few times I have hunted this spot, we have literally set up right underneath the turkey's roosts. Today wasn't any difference. Shortly before dawn, we were able to look up in the trees and count the number of turkeys we could see. Of course, that would be "big dark shapes" in the tree. Though we did notice one was bigger than the rest.

One by one the turkeys fluffed themselves out and glided down from their roosts. All but one, which I kept trying to get on video. That bird flew the other way.

Almost immediately we had turkeys in range. As the sun peaked over the trees, we counted several Jakes among the few hens. They preened themselves and grazed in the cow pasture, just outside of the blind. IT made for good video, or at least as good as the old Flip camera was capable of taking.

We talked quietly about what we planned to do. We figured that the big bird that had gone the other way was the local gobbler. We hoped that he didn't see us setting up, though we admitted that it was a very real possibility. I could shoot the jakes easily at this range, even take my pick of them.

I had this one crazy bird picked out, who constantly was humping the ground or beating a rhythm with either his foot or wings, constantly. (I got that on video as well). About that time, we heard the gobbler calling from the distance. With several hens and jakes already around us, we decided to wait and see if he came within range.

We waited as the local turkeys played. They seemed intent on staying local to us, circling the blind.

From across the field we spotted another turkey coming towards us. As it approached, we identified it as a hen. We could hear her cluck and carry on, but as luck would have it, it wasn't a greeting. It was a call to get moving. She was the bellcow of this group of turkeys. Slowly, the turkeys made their way towards her. When they joined together, they made an about face and headed back towards where she had come from.

Occasionally we would hear the gobbler, but he remained in the distance, obviously aware that we were there. Dad things he has probably become a wise old bird from being shot at.

Oh well, we got some video, watched the hens chase each other, and even managed to catch a few fish at Humphrey Lake before we left!

Turkey Hunt/Fishing This Weekend

Lately, my dad has really gotten into turkey hunting. I can see the appeal, for sure. I just haven't been able to make the time to do it. But, with the "turkey bomb" that our family land in Tennessee has seen, it has gotten to where it would be silly NOT to go up there.

So, I went to Wal-Mart to pick up some camo, since I have no warm weather camo. Turns out, Wal-Mart (as usual) is THE place for cheap stuff. While the selection was terrible, I was able to score a pair of camo jeans and shirt for 6 dollars! Their Ammo was HALF PRICE from Dick's.

So, we got up to Humphrey lake and started doing some fishing. I was determined to catch my first frog fish for the year. I wanted to try out my new BPS Extreme 7:1 reel

I was throwing my Spro Dean Rojas frog.

They were deff hitting it, but I could not get a hook up! I mean, 20 or so hits in the first 30 minutes. Almost EVERY cast! So, I stuck to my game plan and started throwing the old shakey head. As you may recall, I am throwing the Spot Remover Pro series hooks with a zoom trick work,

That paid off in spades and I quickly (first 2 casts) caught two fish. we fished a little more and something became very evident: The size of the fish have dropped again. I probably caught 20 or so fish that afternoon and none of them were over 12 inches. The lake has had a leak for some time, but you would think that would have more of an affect on the spawn. So, if you manage a lake/pond, I would love some help. I have a suspicion that all the sizeable fish are being kept/killed.

So, dad and I went to Papa Boudreaux's for dinner. Folks, I am sure you are all aware that some of the best food comes from holes in the wall. This place is the definition. It's a 30x10 concrete block building. It has the finest cajun food. you can go read about them on their site:

http://www.papaboudreaux.com/menu.html


Incredible food. I had a bowl of gumbo, the seafood etoufee with the redfish, and rounded it out with a bread pudding. Dad had their new special, fried green tomatoes with etoufee. I think he got the better end. It was crazy good!

So, fast forward to the turkey hunt! Dad and I got up before daylight, headed to one of our cousin's land and set up our blind. Dad had hunted it enough to know that they roost very close to a set of hay bails on top of the hill. almost immediately we started hearing them cluck and carry on from the trees. Dad started calling to them and we heard them fly out of the trees. Let me tell you, there is not debating what they are doing...if a butterfly can start a monsoon another continent away, I'd hate to know what a flock of turkeys can do! The turkey hens walked out in front of us, followed by 5 jakes. We had already decided that I would not be picky and take the first male I could. However, another group of turkeys started calling and the newly landed group started walking away from us!

Luckily, dad started calling to them and the jakes, despite being over 75 yards away, started back! He knew that they liked to walk along the edge of the knoll, so they would drop out of site and likely reappear right in front of us. True to his word, the 5 jakes popped up less than 15 yards from us. But, I was facing the wrong way! I ducked down and turned to face them. I targeted the rear bird, as he was much closer. As I stuck the shotgun out the window, you could see him take notice. His neck stretched to maximum length about the time that I fired! Man, those 3 inch shells have a punch and I didn't even see the bird go down since I was knocked on my butt! But dad did. He laughed like a little boy...knocking the blind over! Sure enough, the bird was bagged. Not big...but he would be good eating!

What a great trip!

To round the weekend out, Josh and I fished the Publix pond yesterday, despite the 20mpg sustained winds. Didn't catch anything big, but we did catch some. Ole shakey head did it again for me while Josh caught them on a T-rigged brush hog. We also fished the back pond and found some real interesting under water structure that seems to hold lots of fish.

All in all, great weekend...thanks to good ole Dad!