Big Louie Passes On

It was 9 DEC, 9 degrees, with about 6 inches of fresh snow, and a light? Breeze. I crawled up in my tree stand and put my blanky over me, wondering with all my bulk if I would be able to adequately see behind me. At about 4:00pm, I looked over the creek about 90 yds away, and down from a ridge I saw a deer coming straight down to the creek and headed in my direction. He was in some small saplings, head down, I recognized him as a small 8 pointer I’d seen 10 OCT, not a shooting deer. Up on the ridge behind him I saw another deer moving, and could see with my eye he had horns and they were larger than the 8. I looked thru my glass- and immediately saw a double pointed drop tine- Big Louie shows his face in daylight.! I have photographs of Big Louie- about 4-5, starting 5 Sep in velvet, and a nice shot about 15 NOV I’ve also attached. Big Louie followed the path of the 8 pointer, and they crossed over the creek to me about 50 yds and stopped, looking around. Big Louie looked straight up at me for about a solid minute- I thought I was busted, tried not to breath for fear he’d see my steam, but chose blowing thru my mouth like a whistle to lessen it, also wondering if my fingers retained the dexterity to draw my bow after the exposure. A squirrel danced across the bottom and diverted his attention; he never looked at me again, or any other human being for that matter. The small 8 went over to him and licked his face a few times over and over, then they gently racked their heads, & Big Louie moved out. He went behind a dead branch at about 30 yds, and I drew, he kept walking but away, so I made my best grunt call with my mouth- he stopped, I released- bingo! My SHOT was back a bit(maybe 6 inches) the arrow sticking out of him as he ran away. It was 4:10. The 8 pointer just looked at me for about 2 minutes before running off. I came back about an hour and a half later, Big Louie only made it about 100yds before collapsing. It was nice to know Big Louie- Christian and I mulled over his photographs and dreamed all fall, now it is a reality.

Orlan's Pheasants Trifecta

Thanksgiving morning could not have been better. The weather was beautiful, cool with the sun shining, one I will not forget in a long time.
For a 61 year old guy with a 9 year old dog, well it is not often that a person gets to shoot a triple, but that is just what this is.
I have hunted this draw for 45 years, went to the back where the cover is the best. Babe was birdie immediately, I saw the grass moving ahead of me when the 1st bird went right, one shot and it dropped, Babe went to retrieve it when the 2nd one went left, one shot and about the time I saw it hit the ground #3 went straight ahead. Well this is the easiest shot and of course I missed the first shot but dropped it with the second. Babe dropped the bird she was retrieving and went for the 3rd bird, I went and got # 2 when Babe brought me #3. I took the bird from her and told her to "find the bird", she went right over to where she had dropped the 1st and brought it to me, I had my tripple in hand.

It was maybe the finest morning hunting I have had in a long time, a guy just does not get to shoot that many triples in his life time and when they go perfect, well that is a bonus and why we hunt those beautiful birds that the Good Lord created. "Thank you Lord"

Bards IA Bow Buck

Wow! What a memorable day this was. I get to hunt on this property one day a year, deer heaven. This is 1 mile to the south west of the recliner Im sitting in now. Its a ravine wash out with steep banks on both sides(deer funnel) that runs east to west and stands are all set up for N.W. winds but winds were from the south. So I had to set up on the North side of the ravine on the ground(I wasn't that far off where I wanted to be). I took my turkey chair and that leafy fake branches you jerks all made fun of me at one of the turkey hunts. I sat in my turkey chair,covered in the fake leafy branches, for the first hour and got busted by a small buck at 10yards. So-I logically decided that I need to abondone the fake leafy branches and stand up against the tree to not get silouetted. So I proceeded to stand up against the tree for the next 3 hours--This is where I started to loose concentration and then all of a sudden the deer shown in this post appeared. I did calculate my yardage if a deer walked by on the path that it did. I shot and hit the deer hard w/ my 40yd pin, the deer ran half way up the steep ravine, stood there a moment like it wasnt feeling good. Started to sway back and forth like it was dizzy and then crashed. On the way down it got its rack caught in some roots and hung there. Right now Im Enjoying a piece of home made deer jerky (had to throw half of it away) and MGD light as I write this-does it get any better???

Duck Opener

What a great way to start our process of collecting our livery meat! Gorgeous day, Hot sausage, egg, and cheese biscuits in the blind, mostly cooperative birds, and a really fine duck blind!

Sucker

My brother called and wanted me to post this picture of his trophy sucker he caught. He caught it with a left over piece of corn from lunch. "Corn Call"

Bling Bling - Champ 2009

Attached is the reason why I have defended my Championship. Selkirk was tough fishing conditions this year and safe to say it takes a real solid angler to stay focussed enough to catch a big fish like this one (28.5 inches, 9-10pds). I caught this sow on the Storm version of a mimmic minnow. By the end of the second day I think everyone was fishing with mimmic minnows. My brother was using a bait that was bigger than some of the sauger we were catching and he actually caught a few nice walleye on it. BIG bait=BIG fish.

Early Season Goose

This a the result of our early goose season hunt on Adam VZ's patch. He did a great job of building this "natural" looking blind.

It was effective, however. The only thing that kept us from limiting out was poor shooting, of course. I know for me, once I dropped the first one I was shooting at, I just flock shot at the rest. A bad habit that is typical for me on the first hunt of the year. Oh well! It was a great time. Love that first hunt of the year and the fun has just begun!

Shetek Walleyes

I put Brad on these walleyes at Shetek last weekend. We were trolling with shallow diver #5 shad raps in about 5-7 feet of water. We varied trolling speeds and Brad had out at least 150' of line.

We went out the next morning too, but the only action was Brian snagging a carp in the dorsal fin. A nice fight, but not exactly what we were looking for. I am heading back this week. Hopefully things improve and bigger/more walleyes are yet to be caught. But, still and nice job by Bard!

Colorado Trout

Was out in Colorado Springs for a work meeting and found an extra day to stay and do some fly fishing for the illusive rainbow trout. A friend of mine from there chouffered me around to different spots. I learned a ton from him about presentation and what flies to use when. Average fish was about 14 inches but fites like a 23 inch walleye. Great weather, awesome scenory, and catching fish, doesnt get much better than that. Its the same thing with trout, fish early and late and not so hard in between.

Dove hunt 2009

The morning dove hunt for 2009 was the best 53 minutes of dove hunting I’ve ever experienced. You either shot your limit or ran out of shells or both. We hunted over some prepared sunflower seed field’s and I was limited by 7:18. I ten became bird boy and gun reloader for Christian, who finished his limit55 minutes later, and 7 boxes of shells later! My thumb was blistered from reloading the 870. Theres 45 doves in the pic, it included Troys birds, he finished early too. We had 7 other guys, and as I said they either shot their limit or ran out of shells!

Katherines Africa Hunt

We chased Blue wildebeest around for days, Christian and I could never get close enough, and when they ran- man, what a noisethey made! Easy to track if you felt you could get another chance. Katherine, the guid and I went to the range to see if she could still shoot well enough after not hunintg for 3 years. After one shot- the guide said, “I feel sorry for the wildebeest.”
We walked about 1 hour- and as we crossed over a huge rock, we spotted them from about 1000m away. Katherine made a good stalk while I filmed from the rocks. She got close- about 50m and Katherine dropped him with one perfect shot with the CZ 500 .308 Win. After the shot, the remaining animals ran right over the rock by me, made for some good filming. I didn’t feel sorry for the wildebeest- he tasted good. This animal seemed so ugly on TV and in books, but was really quite beautiful and will make a fine mount-………. in Katherine’s home!

Went out last Sunday night to Brant Lake near Chester,SD and caught these two nice crappies, but with closer look I think they might be bluegills, what do you think? I haven't caught alot of panfish to really know..... 9 and 10 inches respectively!

Weekend Walleyes

Okay, no great size here. But we did catch a few walleyes from the dock last weekend. The crappies have mostly left our little area (I think we caught them all), but we did catch a few fish. Big O had an impressive weekend. Since there wasn't much for size, he set out trying to catch as many species as possible. I think he ended up with a crappie, a catfish, a bullhead, a bluegill, a walleye, a perch and a carp. Impressive, huh?!? If I got one wrong, I'm sure he'll correct it.

Chellie and I have a little fishing tournament on the lake this Saturday, so it should be interesting. We actually haven't done much fishing from the boat yet this year. Oh well, no BIG prize money at stake. I'll post our finish when I can get around to it.

Crappies Still Biting

The crappie fishing was still hot at the cabin. My mom and dad came up on Saturday and we had a nice time. It was pretty hot, so Dad and I caught most of these fish while sitting under the boat canopy. Lazy, I know. But we had nice shade, a little breeze, and padded seats. Not a bad way to go.

We were fishing with just a hook and minnow and having some success. Then my dad suggested putting on a light jig and twister tail combo. I always listen to my dad, so I did it and ending up catching most of my crappies with that setup.

Later that night Chellie, Eric and I went out on the pontoon and cruised. We stopped at a couple of new places we hadn't fished before. Not much doing, but I did manage to catch a crappie and a walleye that was about 14".

My dad cleaned the fish since I struggle with the little ones (probably because I'm so used to catching the biggies!). He also sharpened both my fillet knives and my son's pocket knife. Nice...thanks Dad!

Cabin Crappies

Bard and family came up to the cabin last weekend and I put him on the crappies! Okay, we didn't have to go searching too far. All these were caught off our dock. Well, actually, from under our dock and pontoon lift.

We fished the old fashioned way, with just a hook and minnow (of course Bard had some crazy mini-spinner blade on his hook and swore that was the "secret" to his success). But we did have to jig the minnow a bit to trigger the aggressive bite.

It was kinda goofy because we literally caught these in about 20" of water. The kids caught several of these fish, so everybody got in on the fun. We ended up cleaning 14 of them and let many go. By the way, they were delicious!

Went to Pickstown SD last weekend and did pretty well. Went with 7 guys and came up 2 fish shy of our limit. It was hot so we had to keep ourselves well hydrated. Slow and steady all day long. Lindy rigs and nightcrawlers were the key. Big thanks to my dad who lends me his boat to fish with.

Brian-Brad Turkey Double

Hey Guys,
I thought I would post a pic of me and Brians turkeys since most of you didn't get a chance to see them. It would at least be a moral victory for me since I didn't get to register a turkey for this years championship run. Turkey Hunting in IA hasn't been nearly as fun.

Early season walley

I thought that I would forward on this pic of me and Dave. I know its tough but this is part of my job description. Fishing was slower and bite was soft with a cold front moving through but expert walleye angling skill allowed us to take a limit of eyes. We fished deep wintering holes with jig and minnow.

Christians Oryx March 2009

For months we prepared. Christian spent several months on the range tyring to perfect his shooting, all he wanted to do was shoot an Oryx. We spent most of our time shooting from sticks- its not real easy. When the day finally came- we set out- walked about 4 hours, and got surprised by an Oryx at about 30m walking, the PH grunted and the Oryx stopped- "Click"- the set trigger made the noise, the Dad left the safety on when I put the rifle on the sticks for him. Naturally- the Oryx bounded off- unharmed.

Later that day around 5:00 PM, we came upon another, after about 12 miles of hiking,-hot-sweaty-bugs...ah....Namibia in March. This time the Oryx also stood broadside but at 80m, the Dad put the rifle on the sticks- safety off this time. The bush was too thick, Christian had to move, and move the sticks & rifle. The PH set everything up- "click"- again! This time Christian set the safe during the move....the Oryx turned and faced them- "pow" went the CZ 550 .308 WIN with 180gr bullet--The Oryx ran off. Christian was a bit nervous, but the Oryx was found about 100M away dead!- a perfect shot right thru the chest! The Dad nearly cried! Christian went on to shoot 3 more animals- all great shots on their own- but with the safety off!

The horns measure over 3 feet long! A gold medal Oryx!

A good day at Waubay is definitely better than working.

First Pheasant

This was a decent morning of hunting near Lebanon. We killed two birds up until noon where we got five out of a thick grove right near Lebanon. I was told 50 - 75 birds got out. I didn't know since I was the one walking through the grove. It was worth the effort b/c the youngster in this photo got his first rooster.

Late Season Ducks

Awesome late season duck hunt. These birds actually decoyed and responded quite well to call which I thought was unusual for this time of year. 12 ducks total. 11 mallards and a goldeneye. The weather was perfect but I swear that walk to and from the truck gets longer every season!!!

Jordan shot this big texas pig day after we shot the ducks. 250lbs on foot and a lot of meat. We were worried about the meat tasting bad but the guy that took us hunting said soak it in ice water for three days and it will taste fine. We did, we ate, and it is very tasty. Jordan Shot this thing with a 22-250 and it went down hard so he started walking up to it(mistake) it was not dead it charged him so he shot it from the hip and hit it in the butt, still not dead took out a 9mm pistol and shot it 7 yes 7 times in the head before he died. These are tough animals but fun to hunt. I missed my shot enough said.

Texas Ducks

Jordan and I shot these ducks down in Aransas Pass Texas over Christmas break. Can`t see it real good but there is a nice wigion in there that is going on my wall. 2 pintails, 2 wigions, 4 reds, and a spoone(oops).

Last evening, last 30 minutes, cold and snow….just like last years deer I shot, even from the same spot, and the similarities in rack is amazing, cept this one is a little larger and didn’t have a broken point.
Ryan was hunting with me in my 2 man Tree stand, that made it that much more fun. For what its worth I offered twice for him to shoot it, but, he ethically chose to let me! Fell dead at the shot. It was great.