Worth Their Weight in GOLD!

Muck boots

Nikon Laser Range Finder

Manzella Grizzly

Mr. Heater

Browning A-Bolt .280 w/ Hornady 139 grn GMX ammo

Trophy Deer and pictures from the camp

The picture of Randy's trophy deer from the previous post should have whetted your appetite for more. And there are, indeed, more trophy pictures to come. My plan was to put them together as a slide show, but my efforts to do so have been stymied by my lack of computer / blogger "know-how". So, since I suck at this computer stuff, I will place them - one by one - in this post. That is actually a good thing - many of the deer you'll see below deserve to be seen in a blown up view, and you can do that very simply by clicking on the photo.



Me and Louie. This gigantic dog was a GREAT camp dog!






Not really roughing it TOO much



These sheds and skulls are amazing. The lodge is full of them






I don't know if there is anywhere in the world that you can get pictures like these except at Ron Nemetchek's!





AND FINALLY - The individual deer taken the week of November 6 - 12 in Alberta


















I'll post one final entry about the trip later this week. It will be titled "Things Worth their weight in GOLD" and will detail the stuff that actually works on a trip like this.

The Hunt Continues in Alberta

This is one of the stands that I spent the day in, looking and waiting


Thursday dawned ominously - it had rained throughout the night, and the roads were coated in ice. Those of you in the northern climates are familiar with, and undoubtedly fearful of, black ice. The paved roads were impassable - solid ice. And my hunting area was a good 15 miles down a paved road before turning off onto a dirt road. So, we had to resort to Plan B. It should be noted that most of the hunters were hunting areas that were accessed by dirt roads, and these were passable if somewhat icy. We opted to drive the myriad of roads a long the woods / fields, hoping to glass deer still in the fields in the early AM.

Our plan looked goods on paper, but the total sightings for us on Thursday morning was a group of 4 does, and one gigantic coyote. I could have shot at he coyote, but had decided not to mess with them until after I filled my deer tag. Had it been a wolf, I would have unloaded my gun as he ran across a field about 200 yards away. Finally, around 10 AM, the paved roads either warmed up or the trucks came trough with sand. Either way, the road was passable and we went to our area in the forest.

I wasn't really too hopeful. The deer seemed to be moving the most between 8 - 11 AM, and I would miss that today. Still, in this area, you never knew. The guides and other hunters were all talking about the fact that the bucks seemed to be chasing does yesterday - a GREAT sign!

After our paved road / dirt road / canoe / Quad ride to the blind, I finally got set up around 11. Quiet set in as the quad left with my guide. I didn't really feel good about the afternoon. I always reach this critical point on a fishing or hunting trip. It is usually after the halfway point of the trip. I get a feeling of depression or melancholy - I know the trip's end is imminent, and I feel like nothing good will happen the rest of the trip. This is absolutely the WRONG way to approach a deer hunt from a stand - you have to feel like you can see the buck of a lifetime until the very last minute of daylight on the last day. But, it is what it is, and my late trip gloomy feeling set in.

Finally, at 2 PM, I spied 2 does and 2 fawns, directly in front of the blind, across the cutting. These were the first deer I had seen in front of the blind all week, and they took me by surprise. And, they were acting skittish. Remember - there is NO hunting pressure, so the only things that would make them skittish would be a wolf, or a buck in rut. They kept looking behind them, in the direction they had come from, and I started feeling like "MY" buck was on the way. I had my gun on them, watching the nervous does, and looking back toward the pines they had emerged from. I just KNEW this was my buck! (It's really amazing that you can go from zero (being bored by inactivity) to full throttle (Imagining that there is a buck ready to emerge, and it is YOUR deer)in a matter seconds) Their tails went up, they started on a run, and the buck busted out of the pine trees. Just like I hoped it would. I immediately saw antlers, but this happened quick. I yelled as he raced toward the does and, he stopped about 50 yards in front of the blind. I never really made a conscious decision to shoot - just put the crosshairs behind the shoulder, and squeezed the trigger. He didn't go down but took off toward the treeline. I jacked in another round and shot as he entered the woods, and lost sight of him.

I had complete confidence that the deer was dead. I assumed he was dead right at the treeline. If not there, then he would be down inside of 100 yards inside the treeline. I really had no idea how big the buck was. I knew it had decent antlers (from my perspective) but that was it. Against the instructions from the camp, I decided to go down and see what I could see. The spot where I first shot at the deer was high grass, and I found only a little blood and some light colored hair. Since I knew exactly where I saw him last, I opted to go there and continue my search rather than look for blood in the grass. As I approached the spot, I saw the body in front of me. I got my deer. Now - how big?

The answer - not as big as I had hoped. But still the biggest I had ever shot. I thought it was a 10 point when I was processing "buck" "stop him" "shoot" but, as I said, I never really got a good look.




Now, the conflicting feelings started. I was elated that I had just shot my biggest buck, but a little disappointed that I hadn't held out for a really nice, mature deer. This buck, even with a big body and decent set of antlers, was only a 2-1/2 year old deer. I had no preconceived notion about antler score - don't care at all - but I wanted to take a mature buck. It has never been about competing with other hunters for me, just as it isn't about competing with other fishermen. The buck in front of me was a great reminder of a great trip with friends so, by definition, it was a legitimate trophy. Not because of the size of the antlers, but by what it represents to me. A smile crossed my face, and didn't leave until well after I left the lodge.

Thursday ended up being the day that everything broke loose. Deer came into the lodge pretty constantly all day. And some of them were monsters by any standard. Including one of the guys in our party. He ended up shooting his buck first thing in the AM. As soon as he got in his blind - a little late due to the ice - he spotted a doe and a small buck chasing her around. While watching the two of them through his scope, he suddenly caught a glimpse of the deer he shot. One well placed shot from about 200 yards and the deer was his. Randy has shot a lot of game in his life, but this whitetail was special. It green scored 187 and will probably go a little higher due to a few 1" plus stickers near the base of the antlers. the G2 is split and perfectly symmetrical, and the buck has double brow tines on one side. The deer has a huge body - over 300 lbs dressed - and great mass. A trophy anywhere, anytime. These deer are why you come to Alberta.




Randy's buck in the foreground, with my buck in the background


By the end of the day, 10 out of the 16 hunters in camp had tagged bucks.

Next installment - the TROPHY Bucks from the trip. LOTS of photos!!

A Hunt in the Northwoods - Alberta Deer

Those few remaining stragglers who care at all about this sadly neglected blog will undoubtedly be amazed and awed at the fact that A) I am actually writing something, and B) it pertains to hunting, not my usual aquatic forays, or my cat. A bit of background info is probably in order.

Way back in the day, as a youth growing up in PA, my first outdoor passion was actually hunting. I'm sure that is because my Dad was an avid hunter, primarily of small game. I have vivid memories of waiting for Dad to come home on those few November Saturdays when PA's small game season was open and running to the car to see what he got. Rabbits were always part of the day's bag, and a pheasant or 2 often found its way home with him as well. Once, and only once, he shot a ruffed grouse. We were a family of houndsmen. My grandfather lived on a farm and always had a few beagles. His hunting partner always had a few, too. Between the two of them, we would alternate dogs throughout the season and chase cottontails.

In PA, you had to be 12 years old to go hunting, and you had to pass the Hunters Safety course. I took the course at Boy Scout Summer Camp in the summer of 1972, and still remember that I got one answer wrong on the test. The question was: how far from an occupied building does the Safety Zone extend? The answer is 150 yards; I answered 250. I guess its better to be safe than sorry!! (I still find it amazing that I remember that question, and my answer, after nearly 40 years, but can't remember what I had for dinner last night) Anyway, I began hunting that Fall and hunted every available Saturday in the open season until I started college. I hunted deer on that "unofficial holiday" in PA - the Monday after Thanksgiving - with my Dad and brother until I was in my late 20's, and moved to another state. I continued to hunt deer periodically in NY, but it just wasn't the same, and I didn't have the same enthusiasm about hunting in NY. Without the family aspect of the hunting experience, I simply lost interest in hunting, and gravitated toward fishing. The last deer I shot was a small buck in NY in 1994.

My recent job change, coupled with a few personnel moves here put me in a position to fill in for a former employee on a hunt with customers to Alberta for whitetails. Well, I guess if you're going to start hunting deer again you might as well jump in with both feet! Northern Alberta is home to some of the largest whitetails in the world, both rack scores and body sizes. The hunt is a completely open land / no fences / no baiting hunt, and was scheduled for the second week of the rut hunt. Absolutely perfect timing - at least on paper. But you don't hunt deer on paper.

My first task would be to recover my rifle from my Dad. Since I had stopped deer hunting, my rifle had become the "extra" for anyone who needed it. The rifle in question is the first one rifle I ever bought - a Browning A-bolt in .280 I bought new in (I believe) 1986 and mounted a Leopold Vari - X II 2 - 7x scope on it. It has been a tack driving machine since the day I bought it. I am a fairly good rifle shooter, but this is the only gun I've ever owned that I could consistently shoot groups at 100 yards with bullet holes touching each other. Of course, I hadn't shot it over 15 years, and I was using new ammo (Hornady 129 grn. GMX), so I needed to get it sighted in.

As you can see, it still shoots great. These were my last 2 shots at 100 yds




Luckily, I am a huge advocate of layering high-tech undergarments to ward off extreme cold, so I was stocked up on UnderArmour Coldgear and Medalist. The rut hunts in northern Alberta are notoriously cold, and the colder the better for the hunting. It is not uncommon to be hunting with highs that never break 0, and can be as low as -20F. We would be hunting out of elevated blinds with Mr. Heaters, but those temperatures are cold no matter what you do.

The excitement building up to the hunt was two-fold for me: first, I have always admired the huge body size and potentially gnarly, beat up, thick mass of the antler configurations of these northern bucks. It's all personal preference, but I've always liked them more than the white, thinner, more symmetrical antlers of the typical Texas deer. Second, this would be the first time I would actually be hunting deer that were unpressured. My upbringing of PA and, to a lesser extent, NY deer hunting meant the only times I was hunting deer was when there were virtual hordes of hunters out in the woods, and the deer were pressured. They were always on the move, being pushed from hunter to hunter. The accepted way to "get your buck" was to sit and outlast the other hunters. If you still hunted (my preferred way) you were basically just moving deer into other hunters. This was especially true on the opening day and the few weekends, and these were the only times I could hunt. The Alberta hunt would be in vast areas of mixed farmland, edges, or boreal forest. And the deer are virtually unpressured, so you are hunting them in their natural state, doing whatever it is they do naturally. In the rut, that means big bucks chasing does. At least I hoped it would.

We arrived at Edmonton airport on Sunday Nov. 6. a 2 hour drive should have put us into camp in late afternoon, but ... One of our party was missing his duffel bag, and it contained all his warm clothes. (They would show up Monday night at the Lodge) So a stop at Canadian Tire (as well as one of the seemingly million or so liquor stores) and we were off. We finally got to Ron Nemetchek's North River Lodge. after dark.

THE HUNT

Hunting here is done primarily in elevated blinds. The blinds are covered, and each one has a propane bottle hanging from an edge, which is attached to a Mr. Heater unit inside the blind. You are generally in the stand from before daylight until after dark. If yo absolutely can not sit in on place for that amount of time, your guide will move you or take you out on the seemingly endless dirt roads glassing for deer n the fields. While you will see many deer from the truck this way, everyone agrees that the biggest deer come from the stands. And BIG is an understatement. The body size of these deer is huge. It is a genetic trait that allows them to survive, and prosper, in this harsh, insanely cold climate from December until April. The only problem is thatteh deer have such huge body sizes that sometimes a massive trophy rack doesn't look so big because the body size is so immense.

Many people come here looking for specific B&C scores and won't shoot anything under a certain number - 170, for example. I had no such criteria on this hunt. I simply wanted to enjoy the hunt, enjoy the camaraderie, and, if the opportunity presented itself, shoot a mature buck. I don't even know, or care , what a 150 is. In addition to a deer, your tag allows you to take unlimited wolves and coyotes.

Finally, it is worth noting that there is more diversity of wildlife in this area than I ever thought imaginable. In addition to the whitetails, there are : mule deer, moose, elk, black bear (in hibernation now), wolves, coyotes, martin, fisher, lynx, snowshoe rabbits.

My guide had me hunting in the boreal forest, which is where I wanted to be. The fields in this area are absolutely huge - many over a mile (or multiple miles) long and wide. I felt more comfortable in an area with a more limited range. That being said, I could still have shooting opportunities out to 300 yards on the cuttings I was hunting.






The 3 views from the blind on Monday. Across the cutting was 80-100 yards.

The gas line I hunted had 6 blinds on the cutting that stretched over a mile and a half long. I was the only person hunting this area all week. On Monday, I saw 2 deer all day - both small bucks (a 4 point and a 6 point) The deer came out on the cutting at 9 and 1. But, the area just felt like it was ready to break loose. You always felt that, at any moment, a magnificent buck might wander out, or chase some does through the cutting.



Moonrise from the stand - late afternoon



Aaahh - the Mr. Heater!


Monday evening found no deer brought to camp. A few were passed on, but no shots fired.

Tuesday brought more promise. I was back in a different stand - same area, though - before dawn. As the sun finally came up, I saw a lone deer feeding in the grass about 150 yards below me. I ended up watching that deer for about a half hour - he was a small 6 point. Not even close to being a shooter.





In the picture below you see the fields in the distance. They are actually across a river and over 800 yards away. The week prior some hunters had seen a "record book class buck" in that field!



After the small morning buck, things were quiet for a while until about 11. A pair of does came in the cutting near the area the buck had been in. They kept looking behind them, and I did the same, expecting to see a buck on the ir trail. Nothing. about 5 minutes after they got through the grass, a lynx walked along the same trail they were on. Cool - my first wild lynx sighting! Finally, around 2 pm, I spied another lone deer in the same area. I put the glasses up and saw that he was a buck, but was really unsure of the size of the rack. He kept his head down as he walked further away from me. Finally, at the edge of the woods in the picture above, he held his head up against the dark green background. The rack was wider than the ears, and higher than I first thought. Still, it wasn't one of the "you'll know it when you see it " bucks. I let him walk. Would I regret it?? (2 deer were brought into camp on Tuesday)



A little afternoon snow

Wednesday found me back in the stand above the area I hunted on Tuesday. Nothing showed at daybreak this time. At 10, 2 does came in close to the stand, but no bucks followed. From 11 - 2, I either caught glimpses of deer or was glassing deer fairly regularly - maybe a half dozen deer total. Then, while glassing a doe, a big buck walked in my sight picture. Dark , heavy rack. "you'll know it when you see it" - I knew it. But - he moved quickly into the woods and I lost sight of him. I caught a glimpse of antlers one more time, but no possibility of a shot. 2 more deer were brought in on Wednesday, making the take for the camp 4 for 16 so far in the week. One point to note : my party had to leave on Friday night to catch early Saturday flights. The usual hunt goes through Sat. So, at this point, we were down to 2 days left to hunt.



Frosty Morning!




The area I saw the big buck on Wed. He was as far out as you can see down the left side of the picture along the tree line - a solid 200 yards.

[PART 2 to follow]

A Real, honest-to-God post. Soon.

OK, it's been a while (a LONG while, actually). But, I have the makings of a post. A real one, too. And - it's not my usual fishing-type post.

What could it be???

An actual hunting post. A real story. And, it includes my first buck taken in 17 years. (Please note that I haven't hunted deer for 17 years, so the drought was understandable)

Part 1 coming this weekend.

So. MD Festivals

It's bee n too long since my last post, but sometimes that's just the way things fall. We've been trying our best to enjoy all the aspects of our new home. That means I haven't done much (any) fishing, but I have not been sitting still. We have been very busy exploring the area, whether it be finding new restaurants, visiting historical sites, or attending one of the many community oriented festivals that seem to abound in So. MD.

These festivals range from large scale concerts to regionally important annual events - Patuxent River Appreciation Days, for example. There are various war re-enactments, and loads of smaller church centered dinners - crab and beef, or stuffed ham and oyster dinners. We will DEFINITELY be taking in some of these over the cooler months ahead.

But, today was The St. Mary's County Oyster Festival, which features the National Oyster Cook-off and the World Oyster Shucking Championships. With beautiful weather, I just had to attend, and drag my wife along. Literally drag, because, if she was starving to death, she would NOT eat a raw oyster. Or a cooked one, for what it's worth. I, on the other hand, love them in all their delectable forms - raw, grilled, steamed, or fried. Bring em on!

The festival was chocl full of food vendors (my kind of festival!) and also featured a juried craft show with some outstanding local artisans. Entertainment was featured as well. But the food, specifically the oysters, were the real stars today. (Although the pit cooked beef looked outstanding) My samplings today included oyster stew, oyster shooters (2 chilled oysters in a cup, some cocktail sauce, a splash of hot sauce, and a bit of cold beer. Outstanding!), and a local favorite, a stuffed ham sandwich. Not really sure what this consists of, but it WAS good. My wife got french fries and ice cream. Here are some of the goodies.



The Stuffed Ham Sandwich




Oyster Stew



The wonderful Oyster Shooter








The Oysterfest King!!

Not much of a "Guard Cat"

I'm pretty sure she doesn't even know the hummingbirds are buzzing around, right behind her.

I guess it's a good thing that we didn't get her from the Pet Rescue with the intention of being a Guard Cat - we'd have been sorely disappointed. But she's very good at shedding hair. And eating.

Quick Caterpillar post

We've been staying busy here in So. Maryland, doing everything but fishing. The rockfish fishing should get nothing but better as the months go on, so plan on reading SOMETHING that has to do with fishing in the near future.

We spent Saturday afternoon at our company picnic. My wife and I fancy ourselves as keen observers of the subtle and minutiae in the ecosystems. In actuality, she's probably better than I am. Anyway, she spotted this very cool caterpillar on a stone path, so I had to take it's picture. It measured probably 3" long and was as fat as my thumb. Then the fun began - I know nothing about caterpillar ID.




I went online with my picture and, after working my way through several pages of the seemingly endless varieties of caterpillars, I found the identity of our mystery fellow. A White-Lined Sphinx moth. Which, in layman's terms, is one of my favorite critters at the butterfly bush - a hummingbird moth!!


Photo by Raymond Christensen

The caterpillar / butterfly / moth group could take a person years to figure out. I'm not ready to dedicate that kind of time, but I DO think they're pretty cool.

Finally, a little bit of fishing in MD

I knew I would get around to fishing sooner or later (hopefully sooner) but the loose ends of this moving thing are never ending. About 1/4 mile from our house is a pond in our development. Looks to be about an acre and a half. Shallow looking - a typical bass / 'gill / maybe catfish spot. I've seen people fishing there with some frequency, so I assume there is SOMETHING in these waters. Recently I got to try it out and see for myself.


The pond at the new house. The debris in the water in the foreground is hurricane junk clogging teh outflow pipe; the fallen tree in the back of the pond is from the hurricane as well



My first thought when fishing small waters is: catch SOMETHING. Anything. Nothing fits the bill for this better than the Cubby Mini-mites I used in IL. Suspended under a weighted bobber, they simply catch fish. Any fish.



the first MD fish!

The first evening out, a week after the hurricane, I managed to get a few small sunfish. Not much action, but something. I also talked to a guy who said there are bass in the pond to 5#. Even if they're 3 pounders, that's OK with me. Last nite, I hit it for 20 minutes and used only a 1/8 oz. buzzbait. Got 2 hits and landed 2 small (12") largemouth.


Pond bass. Bigger ones to follow (I hope)

Nothing to plan a trip around, but at least its a beginning. Next up will be my initial forays into the striper fishing of Fall. Since it will be from shore, I have no predisposed ideas of any success, but I am very anxious to give it a try.

Earthquake, Hurricane, and some yard critters

Today I experienced my third earthquake. The other 2 - one in PA, and one in IL - were very minor. Both felt like a train was passing by the house. Today's VA quake was a real one. I work about 45-50 miles from the epicenter of the 6.0 earthquake that hit VA today. The walls shook in the building for about 15 seconds (seemed like forever), stuff fell off of the top shelves, and I dove under the desk. People who were outside at the time said the building was swaying, and the cars in the lot were jumping. Not being a seasoned earthquake veteran, it was a little scary. But, now that it's over, it was actually pretty cool. (Since no one got hurt)

Now I see that Hurricane Irene is strengthening and is likely to hit NC on Sat. That will put it over my new house by late Sunday. YEAHH - 2 natural disasters in 6 days. Awesome.

So, after they closed our building for the day, I got home and sat outside with my wife to see a plethora of birds hitting the feeders. It was insane - hummingbirds, finches, cardinals, a titmouse, a nuthatch, and we saw a bald eagle and 2 ospreys overhead. I tried to get a hummingbird picture that was a actually identifiable as such - no easy task for me! So, here are a few pics from this afternoon.

What a beautiful day it turned out to be. Please click on teh pictures for larger images.


A juvenile 5 lined skink - apparently pretty well fed.

More Yard Critters

Short and sweet post - just a few of the critters I keep stumbling across in the yard. Btw - the spiders here are freaking HUGE!

I'll keep posting as I keep getting pictures. Cool weather is right around the corner and that means a few months of striper fishing!

Click on any of th ephotos for a larger image.