Established January 2009

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Halloween Brookie Walk






Since I have the free time to fish now that I am not hunting, I decided to check on some Brook Trout in the southern part of Preston County. When I woke up at 7:30am it was a chilly 30degrees and I elected to wait for a little more sunshine. I made it to the stream at around 11am. After gathering all my garb, I decided I would walk for atleast a half hour before begining to fish. I wound up walking a little farther before stringing up the bamboo and starting to fish. I started the day with a #14 Rubber Legged Royal Stimulator and I fished that fly all day. It wasn't long before I picked up a nice brookie in his fall colors near the tailout of a nice pool. After a quick photo I launched the stimulator towards the head of the pool. I noticed a bigger sized fish heading towards the fly and thought, "If this is a brookie, it would be the Brook Trout of my life". I quickly learned it was a hold over Rainbow Trout from the spring stockings. Again, I quickly took a picture and released the Rainbow. This suprising turnout of Rainbows continued on for the rest of the day, in fact, I ended the day with 5 Rainbows and only 3 Brook Trout. I did see a few more Brook Trout, but not as many as I had hoped. Around 3pm, I decided I had finshed what I had started, and called it a day.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Tagged Out - October 2010










Bow season this year started off for me having accuracy issues and needless to say after a few shirtails cut off, I learned a whole lot this year. After 2 blow chances the first day, persistence paid off on Tuesday the 20th with a button buck that I mistook for a yearling doe. This past Sunday was a day of scouting and preparation for an extended vacation that I was going to spend hunting. Monday evening, I headed for a spot that had shown evident signs of deer travel and also some signs of buck usage as well. About 6 pm that evening, I heard some Turkeys fly up to roost and had already made the decision that regardless of the outcome of the evening deer hunt, I would be back at dawn to try and meet up with the Turkeys. While listening to the turkeys roosting, I noticed a mature doe and 2 fawns headed for my stand. After the doe stepped in front of me at 16 yards, I couldn't take it. I let the arrow fly and the shot was a little farther back than I had hoped. As she calmly exited the woods, I quickly and quietly climbed down the tree to find my arrow and indeed confirmed the shot. I had followed the doe for about a hundred yards when she bedded down, no doubt to die, but with the warm weather, I need to make a ethical finishing shot. That's exactly what I did. At this point, I was tagged out on bowhuntin deer due to me only buying 1 additional archery tag. I should've bought them both. The next morning, I had come back to those same stand of Oaks where the doe expired and I was quietly waiting for the Turkeys I had mentiond earlier to fly from their perch. About 7:20am, I made a series of soft tree yelps on my glass friction call and the treetops lit up with yelping, cutting, turkeys. As the turkeys flew down one by one, the began to separate, and I just happend to be in the middle. The turkeys were being very vocal trying to regroup before starting their day, and I noticed a hen coming from behind my right shoulder. I needed to turn to make the shot, so everytime she went behind a tree, I moved to get my gun into shooting position. When she finally crossed my sight plain, I put the bead on her neck, and squeezed the trigger. In just a matter of a week, God blessed me with 2 deer with my bow, and a coveted fall turkey. So now, I am tagged out until firearms seasons.