The Fishing and Hunting Thread

Yup, the deer is all butchered up and in my fridge now. My brother came over last night to help with my dog supervising and making sure the bones were good. I recently got a vacuum sealer and can't wait to put it to use tonight, done with plastic wrap and butcher paper.

I saved the heart and some caul fat while dressing it in the field but my neighbor threw it out when he didn't recognize what the bag in his garage was (we hung the deer up in his garage), but I did cut out the tongue and will make venison tacos de lengua to try something different.

Here's a good look at the antlers... on the other side you can almost see seams where they get knobby like they were snapped at some point. I dunno, but hey it'll make for a cool coat and hat hanger in my shop.

 

Looks like it was damaged during velvet.

Congrats

 

Sight it in at 20 yards on a windless day. You want it dead on with no wind that way you can compensate in the field although if your shooting a newer compound factoring wind at 20-30 yards should be a non issue.

What's your draw weight and FPS?

 

Going on a cruise in a few days, flying into ft. lauderdale which should be fun right after that dude turned the baggage claim into target practice.

Got a fishing charter lined up for Key West. Trolling for tuna, mackerel, barracuda and anything else that wants to bite. Should be a fun bucket list type thing.

 

Sunset shot on my first snow hunt last weekend in MD. 6" on the ground. Didn't see anything, but don't care.

 

It's kinda funny, despite all the fishing I do and the whole Minnesotan thing I can count on a hand the number of times I've fished on ice. It's a different ball game still can be fun, also helps when you're in good company and have a solid buzz too.

All of these hit one after the other, they just turned on and off within the span of 10 minutes a little after dusk.



At one point my rod bent in half and I was expecting an eating size pike or nice bass, but I pulled up this bastard bullhead instead. At least it was entertaining, way better than nothing.

 

Got a boat over the weekend. Okay its just a 17' canoe, but I'm still going to thrash the local lakes with this thing.

 

Can anyone recommend a good fishing kayak or canoe for around the $350 max range? At that price, I don't expect it to do everything. I have plenty of kayak experience (and all the equipment for it) with sea kayaks, would be looking at mainly creek fishing and some occasional near shore/surf ocean fishing.

I have a little trolling motor that gets my aluminum Jon boat around just fine, but it simply isn't manueverable enough for the creek. Prefer the feel of being closer to the water but my 17 ft wooden sea kayak is meant for straight lines not turning.

 

From my experience a kayak is more fun for just paddling around on the water but a canoe is better for fishing- more stable and you're sitting higher so you can cast easier- that's just my opinion. Around here on Craigslist you can get canoes in that price range, I paid $375 for the 17' Alumacraft above and it came with two paddles. I would consider a 15' canoe with some rocker- something with a dead flat underside won't be as maneuverable in a creek, plus a synthetic material boat may be preferable to aluminum so it has a smooth underside rather than having a little keel like aluminum canoes do.

My turkey season is in less than a month now and I'm trying something new, a jake decoy with some real feathers thanks to my bird from last year. I stuck the wings to the cheap foam decoy with big ass deck screws and poked holes to stick the "tail" feathers in with hot glue to keep them in place. He's ugly but I'm hoping the sight of real feathers will be irresistible to a tom that I may have to bring in across a field.

 

Got my bird on Saturday morning. 19 pounds with an 8" beard and stubby black spurs, I'm guessing he was just 2 or so. One of three young toms that came in together across a field I was sitting along- they were not really fans of my decoys (odd) but were still turned on by soft mouth calls and I ended up taking a 50 yard shot at this one. Longer range than I'd prefer but it felt like they were about to scatter and I had to do something or just watch them disappear. I planned on the birds coming from my left but instead these came from my right, so I got to quickly pivot in that direction and shoot just as they started to turn and run after seeing me move. Lesson learned, face where you hear them coming from.



I also hunted Friday and got busted by an old hen after calling 6 or 7 birds in across a gully. I was sitting with my decoys and heard a gobble off in the distance, so I decided to get aggressive and go find it. Ended up moving to the top of a ridge along a gully and they birds were on the other side. It ended up taking them 10 minutes to cover the 200 or so yards between us. I could watch them coming up until the final 40 or so yards, which were obscured by thick brush. One big tom was strutting the whole time, it was fun to watch and hear him gobble followed by the other males. Finally out of nowhere this old hen pops her head up to my left and gave a couple of warning clucks to the flock for them to run, so rather than shoot I got to watch them go right back from where they came. You know that scene in Jurassic Park where Muldoon is hunting down the velociraptors in the jungle with a SPAS-12, and the clever one catches him by surprise right at his side? It went down exactly like that minus getting chewed up by dinosaurs. Was my first time calling in a whole flock and not just a single bird too. I felt sick for the rest of the day and didn't see another bird but at least I knew there were some in the area and I could get their attention.

Another first for this weekend was seeing a wolf in the wild. It was headed into the property at the same time I was early on Saturday morning before sunup and ran off once I started going after it. I've seen plenty of sign in the area, seen them on trail cam pics, listened to them howl, just never seen one with my own eyes before. Going to try and call in another bird again this weekend, now for a buddy of mine.

 

I went back out turkey hunting with a buddy on Saturday and we didn't see or hear anything. Then I went back on Sunday to retrieve our blind and stuff and he didn't want to come with. He should have because there was a flock of six or so birds less than 100 yards from where our blind was when I came back to the spot. Was fun to sit and watch them peck around.

Earlier on Sunday morning we went fishing on a small lake in northern Minnesota that the DNR has stocked with rainbow trout since the 1960s. It was a very windy day and we were in a 16' canoe with his wife so half the time I was just paddling to keep us stable and not tip like we almost did several times. Either way there are definitely fish in that lake and I had a really nice looking one follow the Mepps I was throwing at one point but only ended up catching a little guy near the end.



I'm not complaining, it was still fun and one fish is way better than none. I intended to release it but we'll just say things went awry once I went to unhook it so it'll go on my grill tonight with some lemons and herbs tucked inside. I'm spending a few days after my wedding in a cabin maybe 10 minutes from this lake so I'll definitely be back with ms. kato too.

 

Going to the gulf coast in about two weeks for some shore fishing. Finally got the fishing kayak all rigged up. The idea is to take it out beyond the breakers with some sabiki rigs to catch bait, then use them either live or cut on the surf rods. Three sandbars where I'm going, I'll have one rod between the second and the third bar, then I'll paddle out the bait on the other one going beyond the third bar. Got one rod with 30 lbs braid going to a 50 lbs mono leader, the other rod with 50 lbs braid going to a 50 lbs mono leader (using them as a shock leader but also abrasion resistance). If that doesn't work, I'm taking my lighter rods -- one is 15 lbs braid naked, other is 15 lbs braid to 30 lbs mono leader -- to go out fishing from the yak.

My question is about bait, since I'm a lot more familiar with freshwater than salt:

For the surf fishing, I'm gonna try using sand fleas and cut (or whole) bait, and any crabs if I can find them. Croakers, hard heads, and whiting are plentiful. Figure I'll try one on a high/low rig and the other on a fishfinder setup, then switch both to the one that works best. If neither of those work, as far as lures, I have a variety of softbait, gulp! (it's just been what's worked best for me) shad, shrimp, and crab with different weight jig heads. Hard baits include a variety of different colors and weights of crankbait, rattlers, gold and silver spoons in different weights, then the basic iron jigs of different colors.

Am I missing something? Besides the kitchen sink?

 

I've never fished the gulf coast, I imagine most people here haven't.

Try to find some local fishing reports online, ask the nearby bait shops, as well.

While I'm typing, I have a tip for catfish. Ham steak, cut up in about 1.5" cubes. Try it, and if it don't work at least you can snack on it. Seriously, I've caught a ton of fish since October of last year and it's all I use anymore. It has a very meaty smell that they like, you can cast a mile because of the weight and it stays on your hook.

Good luck!

 

Now THIS is my wheelhouse. For catfish you need to know about two things: miracle thread, and hair rigs.

 

I was just up in the Boundary Waters on a lake just a couple miles from the Canadian border. Smallmouth bass were on their beds and my goal was a big one, and I got mine on the first night of the trip after portaging in and setting up our campsite. Bounced the buzzbait off a big log sticking out of the water in a shallow bay and she was waiting right under it. 21" long and full of eggs, I didn't have a scale to weigh it but she was healthy and went right back in the water after the pic.

We caught a shit-ton of pike and bass plus a few nice walleyes, and saw some great wildlife pairs of trumpeter swans and loons that were VERY vocal at night, but that bass was my biggest yet and a nice highlight for the trip.





As a joke between a gunmaker and myself I drilled and deburred a Winchester M70 magazine follower and stuck a bucktail on an end. Gunmaker joked the OEM follower was only good as a fishing lure and I took it a step further after he offered me one to use. Know what? It works too.

 

Bass city here. No boat ramp to this little lake so it never gets much pressure and we had it to ourselves, unless you count loons and eagles. She was on fire and put a bunch in the boat. It was a good day.

 

We've historically taken basic closed cell foam pads along on camping trips, double up on them and you can be (relatively) comfortable. Pros are low cost and durability, cons are bulkiness and lower comfort compared to air mattresses and self-inflating pads. A good self-inflating pad will be more comfortable and less bulky but they can be significantly more expensive and less durable.

Last year Mill's Fleet Farm here had some lightweight military surplus self-inflating pads from Therm-a-rest for $20 each and I bought a few for myself and my brother and dad. It was a great deal, they're on the thin side so again I'll double up on them but you can pack two in the space that one closed cell foam pad takes. Put one of those Therm-a-rests on a cot and you will be sleeping very well.

Speaking of which... unless you're going to be camping in cold weather, cots could be another option. Nice advantage to those is keeping yourself dry even if it is pounding rain outside and/or something goes awry with your tent setup.

My bachelor party is this weekend and my brother got a houseboat on Birch Lake, which is a 7000 acre body of water in the Superior National Forest not far from where we go in the Boundary Waters. I'm planning on spending a lot of time dragging big ass swimbaits and putting suckers on harnesses and bobbers when we're anchored/docked. Let's see if there's any big pike in there.