Fuck turkey hunting. I have had my ass whooped two weekends in a row by one particular gobbler. 1st weekend, first hunt of the year, and I missed him at 5 yards. Long story short, I tried to circle around behind him to get closer and he apparently had the same idea. We ended up on opposite sides of a brush pile and when I called, to locate him, he came running around the brush pile and spotted me instantly. Took a running shot and missed him. 2nd weekend, this past Saturday morning, I got setup on him just before daylight and couldn't get him to come any closer than 60 yards. I think he was scared of my gobbler decoy. He strutted and gobbled for at least an hour before he finally walked off. I circled around, to cut him off, and found him the next hollow. I got him to within 45 yards but he wouldn't move out from behind some brush. Once again, he walked away. Sunday was probably the worst of all. I setup on him, did a little sweet talking to him and he came running from about 100 yards away... everything was going good until a gobbler, that I had no idea was even nearby, gobbled about 20 yards behind me. It scared that hell out of me. I was so focused on the one coming in that I never saw/heard him and when he gobbled, I jumped & looked around and that spooked both birds. Later Sunday morning I got back on the first gobbler and finally got him to talking again. I raced around and got on the ridge next to him and did some light calling. I thought I had his position pegged but apparently I was wrong. I bent down to stake out my decoy and when I looked up... yup, he was standing right there in front of me... 30 yards away and watching what the big camo blob was doing. 3 "puts", and I swear that I heard a laugh, and he was gone again. If this bastard has 9 lives he is running through them quickly.
New weapon, for the demon bird in my previous post, and I can't wait to try it out. This is my first custom call and it sounds awesome.
I haven't been able to do much fishing since the baby came around. Hopefully that will change soon as he is getting older. Good news is, he's old enough to start going done the river now, which allowed me to go run my first crab traps of the year with my dad and brother. Set 20 of them on a sandbar in the northwest corner of Lake Pontchartrain, using chopped up catfish/gars for bait. Got about 12 dozen this time, with of couple of really nice ones in there. Culled about 2-3 dozen females/small males, and had one hell of a crab boil.
Hey dewercs, did you see this? <a class="postlink" href="http://www.grindtv.com/outdoor/blog/33355/yellowfin+tuna+may+be+largest+ever+caught+but+wont+set+record/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.grindtv.com/outdoor/blog/333 ... et+record/</a> It says the record will be disallowed because What do they mean by "touching the rod"? Did he simply grab the blank while trying to move around the guy or did he take control of the rod for a minute while the guy got situated? Either way, it's a bum deal for the guy who caught the fish. Is there any debate about whether they should have an "assisted" record?
Off to hunt turkeys for a few days at a nice elevation of 10,000 feet, I have an asthmatic chinese dude with forty years of calling experience going with me. My last hunt he called one in the first morning in twenty minutes so I am hoping for a repeat performance.
Well due to the Wallow Fire in eastern Arizona last year my turkey grounds have been destroyed, so will have to wait another 10 years for them, put out your fires. The good news is the fishing was WFO, on 4 pound test it is a lot of fun, we had limits for 7 people everyday with lots of fished being released unharmed. The fish in these pics were harmed however, then cooked and eaten.
My view the past few days: Unfortunately, that's about all the weekend was good for. We had a couple of hits from a large blue marlin, and a few more from some smaller whites, but no hook ups. Basically, it was a "spend thousands of dollars in gas while riding around in pretty water drinking beer" weekend. Only fish brought in were two blackfin tuna and two mahi. We didn't even have a fish to weigh for the tournament. Like I said, it was pretty out there, and was really cool to ride on a boat that nice, but from a fishing standpoint, it was pretty crap.
Caught some fish on border lakes this past week... We got into a couple lakes that people rarely visit and we couldn't keep the northern pike out of the boat. It was phenomenal.
Nice work on the fish, although I only see one that is worth keeping, I am not talking about the big one either I am referrring to the small mouth. Love catching northerns though, stinky fuckers.
I can live with the slime and Y-bones... pike taste just as good as walleye to me. I got five nice smallmouth like that by flicking a Mepps on top of them in holes along rocky dropoffs. Tons of fun. Surprisingly the guy I was canoeing with didn't want to keep the smallies I caught, so we ate only one. He had the stringer so it wasn't my call anyways. Spoiler That particular #4 Mepps was my hot lure for the entire trip. Do any of you ever use Boga grips? This was the first year we tried them (I borrowed my Dad's) and they were super slick to use, but I didn't like how much they could tear up the fish. Saved a ton of time and effort by not fucking around with nets though...
Sorry fish, I am now armed with a new weapon, this will accompany me next week to the Sea of Cortez, if they don't bite I will shoot them.
Can you give tips on purchasing spears and spear guns? Do you have brands or sizes that you prefer? My husband wants to get into that along with the snorkeling that we're doing. The PX has an array of items but I have no idea what I'm looking at and I'm pretty sure he doesn't either. What do you recommend for a beginner?
The gun in that pic is a middle of the road gun, it is a JBL brand 38 special, you can get them for $230.00, you can get a Hawaiian Sling that is like a pole spear for 50-60. If you start with the sling and get good at it you can move up quickly but that sling will kill some shit. Really it depends what you are trying to shoot, the spear gun in the pic has a range of 12-14 feet, freediving I will probably not shoot anything bigger than 22-30 pounds unless I am in shallow water. My tip would be to buy a decent used one and see how you like it, how can you tell what they are worth, check ebay, craigslist etc. if you are by water you can get a better price. Top of the line spear gun is riffe, if you want to spend a lot.
Just got back from a week in the sea of cortez This is my biggest leopard grouper and the biggest one caught all week. It was 22 pounds.