An actual fishing post, and another state falls from my list

Imagine, an actual fishing post on Flowing Waters. Not a shark tooth post, not a cat post. Real, honest to God fishing!

I recently spent a week in Texas and Louisiana working with a few of our reps in the field. During the course of the week in LA, we got a chance to sample some of the fishing the bayou is famous for. And I got to cross off another state from my list.


Dawn on the bayou




Those of you who actually read this mess may be familiar with a list I keep on the right hand side of the Blog. It is my quest to catch a fish in all 50 states. I have been stalled at 39 for a few years. This was my first opportunity to fish in LA, and I took advantage of it.

We spent the night in a fish camp near Cocodrie, south of Houma. We actually weren't too far from the home of Bayou Woman, a blog I still follow - see my list on right. (Great blog, btw) the morning had us launching the boat at daybreak and looking for trout..


Sometimes the birds were diving, other times they were just sitting. But there were fish below them


We caught plenty of these little guys. But catching any fish is good!




I love to fish new ways, and I had never fished with that standard of the trout / redfish world, the popping cork. We fished plastics under popping corks most of the day. The secret, like any tidal area, was catching the tide right, and looking for birds. Some things are universal. We spent the morning going from bird pod to bird pod. Some had a lot of fish, others a few. The trout were generally small - the 12" minimum was reached by maybe one out of 4 or 5 fish. As I found out, it is early for trout. They are moving from their wintering areas to the spawning areas. EVERYONE says come back in May / June / July and limits of big trout are the rule . Today was a good numbers day by my standards, although the locals thought it was pretty slow. I had a great time, we caught fish, and that's all the really mattered.


The grocery / gas / bait store on the canal


All i could think of was "Forrest Gump"


At the end of the morning, we ran across Lake (???) and fished some barrier islands on the outside of the lake with live bait. Here we got a few bigger trout, and one big redfish ate the guides bait. At least I thought it was big. We ended the day with 22 trout and 1 red.


A little better trout


Nice red


A wheelbarrow of fish, destined to become fillets shortly



Beautiful day on the water, took some delicious fillets home, and knocked off another state on my quest. Doesn't get much better than that! And I think I've got another state or 2 up my sleeves this year!

More teeth, and sometimes it's good to be pathetic

We continued on our quest to find more fossilized shark teeth. It's really just a good excuse to get outside and walk along the beaches, but I am really intrigued by this whole fossil thing. We're finding more and more of them, but all the ones we find are very small. My wife and I both keep thinking we'll find some bigger teeth sooner or later, but so far - just little stuff.

The interesting factor with this new "sport" has to do with the tides. The generally accepted principal is to go out on a falling tide, about halfway between high and low tide. We've been finding more, though, on high tides. Go figure. This past time out was a high tide so we had only a small section of beach to explore (the water goes tight against the cliffs at high tide and, unless you wear waders or the water is warm, you are stuck with a small piece of beach)


sand tiger shark (l), snaggletooth shark (r)



Fossilized porpoise tooth



Crushing plates (skutes) from Eagle Ray

All fossils are 13 - 15 million years old


Still, we were finding s lot of fossilized Sand Tiger Shark teeth and Gray Shark teeth on the short stretch of beach. We did, however, find our first fossilized porpoise tooth - pretty cool, actually. A local fossil guy came by and asked how we were doing - we replied with the usual "finding a few small ones". He reached in his pocket and gave my wife a "small" megalodon tooth he had just found about 50' away! "Small" was his verbage - not ours. I would have been doing backflips down the beach if I had this. He showed us pictures of one twice as big he found the week before.


Megalodon tooth. This one is not a "great" find (to the hard core fossil folks) because it is small, the point of the tooth isn't perfect, and a section of the serations on one side are missing. I think it's pretty darn cool, though.



Our best finds of the day


I guess that's what keeps you coming back. And why being a pathetic fossil hunter sometimes pays off.

Spring is Coming, First Fish, and more Teeth

My quest to find all the fossilized shark teeth in the world continues, albeit unsuccessfully.

But - Spring is coming fast. The spring peepers call loudly each night, and the flowering trees are at their peak. When I took the picture of the just-budding magnolia, signs of spring were just emerging. Now, a week and a half later, that same magnolia is losing some of its magnificent flowers. I'll try to get some pics for another post.




I decided that, with the temps this nice, the bass must be moving in our little development pond. Went down there on Sunday and got my butt kicked. One strike (missed it) on a buzzbait. A ton of strikes on my little Cubby jig, but not one hookup, except for this little largemouth. Oh well - first fish of the year.



Our cat (yes, the cat returns) is adapting to the warmer weather by shedding mountains of her "winter coat" on a daily basis.





Finally, I made it over to an undeveloped State Park on the Potomac in Charles Co. It is supposed to have some sharks teeth there (it did). But, a better find occurred - I found out it is home to arguably some of the best shore fishing for largemouth in the Potomac. A bass boat was out a long cast from shore, so I engaged the fishermen in a little chat. Seems the big bay is matted with weeds all summer, but they are just emerging now. The guys were catching 1-2 pound LM pretty frequently on swim jigs and chatterbaits, and said the big fish were just moving in. I figure that, in 2 weeks, the weeds ought to be halfway to the surface, and I'm going to be there. Buzzbaits, Zara Spooks, swim jigs, and spinnerbaits ought to produce. I'm pretty psyched to give it a try - looks really nice.

Oh yeah - found a few teeth, too. Apparently these are from a different formation than the Calvert ones I usually find.

My New Favorite Hobby

What is this?? 3 posts IN THE SAME YEAR?? Yep, I've returned - better than ever! (Well, probably not, but at least I feel like writing again)

As you know, I moved last summer. The fishing opportunities in So. Maryland have been infrequent and, well, uneventful. At least so far. But, while fishing has always been my passion, I really like to do about anything outside around the water. And now I've found my new hobby.

I'm a fossil hunter.

A really bad one. One who doesn't know exactly what it is that I'm looking at on the rare occasion that I find something. But a fossil hunter nonetheless.

So. Maryland is home to a relatively unique feature along much of the Calvert Co shoreline on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay. There are cliffs rising up from the bay. These cliffs are home to a LOT of fossils, which continually wash into the Bay via natural erosion. And once in the Bay, they wash upon the shoreline, or at least in the shell / stone / junk that accumulates in the waves and on the beaches. There are only a few public or quasi-public beach stretches here, but they all have the potential to yield a handful of fossilized sharks teeth on any given afternoon. I had read about the teeth found here, and researched it (we joined the Calvert Marine Museum, which is well worth any one's time if you ever find yourself in Calvert Co)so I decided I would go and try to find my very own shark's teeth. My wife likes to meander around beaches too, so this is a perfect escape for the two of us when we get some time.

Saturday we found we had some time and headed off to Flag Ponds Park. Only a few cars were in the lot. We walked the 1/2 mile trail toward the beach. Along the way we were greeted with lots of evidence of last summer's hurricane.





We checked out the salt pond where we saw the cooter last week. Another one was spotted but this one was very spooky and across the pond. I think we'll see lots of cool stuff in this pond when the water warms a little. Hopefully some diamondback terrapins.



A Northern Red Bellied Cooter across the pond





We made it out to beach and started looking. Neither of us were really sure what we were looking for. The teeth are usually tiny and there are a lot of shell fragments and junk in the wave wash. The experienced fossil hunters use a clam rake with 1/8 - 1/4" mesh screening. We just brought a couple of white plastic colanders. I'd scoop a bunch of junk from the water, swirl it around to get rid of the sand, and check for treasures. Nothing. At least at first. Then, I found my first one. Of course, I only found one more, and my wife found 5, but at least we had broken the ice. We also found some coral and assorted other "stuff"




The real fossil hounds can tell you the species of shark by looking at the tooth. I can't - at least not yet. But I can definitely see myself getting immersed in this hobby, and soon enough I'll know what it is that I'm looking at. I do know that they are from the Miocene Epoch, and are about 17 million years old.





There's something about finding 17 million year old teeth that I find fascinating.

While this is a departure from my usual fishing rambling, I hope you find some degree of interest in it. It still revolves around my love of the Flowing Waters - tides, this time, instead of streams. I still plan to fish as much as I can, and have some trips planned for this summer (Including fishing at least 3 of the states I need to fill my 50 state quest) but I'm sure I'll spend plenty of time looking for teeth this year. Follow along - might be fun!

cooter

Last weekend we were walking through Flag Ponds Nature Park near our home in Maryland. We walked out on a small pier to a brackish water pond and saw a big turtle right next to the pier. I didn't expect to see any turtle, let alone a big one, since it is still February and the water is still cold. But, it has been a very mild winter, so I guess spring was getting a head start for this guy. It was close enough to get a great picture, except for the fact that I didn't have my camera along. I watched it for a while and hit the online turtle ID sites when I got home.

What I saw was a Northern Red Bellied Cooter.

Cool turtle, and the name just cracks me up! Juvenile - yes. Immature - guilty as charged.

At last, the final Alberta hunting post

This has been a record for me. Of course, it's a record in futility, but a record nonetheless. The longest stretch of non-posting in this miserable blog. It's almost enough to make me want to close it up and forget about it altogether.

Except I DON'T forget about it.

It constantly bothers me that I've let the blog lag. So, I'm taking that s a sign that I really should keep doing this, and maybe figure out a plan to devote just a tiny bit of time to it. I don't need much time - it doesn't really have a goal or an end point. Just enough to let the few people who care that I still go out in the outdoors occasionally, and I still enjoy it in my own little way. With that - the end of my hunting story.

There was one thing missing from the end of the story. A simple post about the things that made the trip successful and enjoyable. When I looked back on it, there were 4 components that made this a great trip. (Well, 6 really, but we'll get to that). And here they are, in no particular order;




GOOD GLOVES I took 2 pair on this trip and used them both daily. The lighter pair is from Glacier Glove; the heavier from Manzella. Both performed the job for which they were designed. Since it was never too cold, I used the lighter ones more often than the heavy ones. But, first thing in the morning, the heavier gloves were a godsend. Since the hunting was from a blind, there was plenty of time to remove the gloves if you saw a deer. I know this luxury might not be afforded in all situations, but it was here, and these 2 pair of gloves were terrific.




GREAT BOOTS I have always been a big fan of Muck Boots. I own 4 pair of assorted shoes / ankle highs / lightly insulated, and these Woody Elite (rated for 60 to -40 degrees!). These boots kept my feet comfortably warm - but not too hot the entire trip. I still don't understand how they keep you so comfortable when they don't have a big, heavy, cumbersome pac insert, but they do. All the Muck Boots I own are great, and these might be the best of all. I recent ly read an article about a guy hunting Arctic Wolves in Nunavut and his choice of footwear was Muck Boot's Woody Ex Pro(rated to -60). He loved them, and I couldn't agree more. These boots ROCK!





GREAT AMMO No matter now good everything else is, if your ammo isn't the correct choice for the game you are after, the trip may not have a happy ending. And nothing could be worse than wounding and losing a trophy animal due to inferior ammo. I was shooting my old reliable .280 and the ammo was Hornady's new 139 grain GMX. I've always favored Hornady over all others - although there are many excellent ammo choices available - and once again it did not let me down. I was using a lighter load than most of the people at the camp - a lot of 300 Mag and 7mm Mag guys there. But I promise you - this 139 GMX will perform perfectly on any whitetail or mule deer in the world. My first shot was low in the chest behind the shoulder, and it took out the lower lung and creased the heart and liver. it also exited the deer behind the other shoulder. While mine was a smallish deer for Alberta, it still dressed at 215 pounds. the second sot hit the deer in the spine and did what any bullet will do in that situation - drop the animal in its tracks. Once again, Hornady Ammo proved to be outstanding.




RANGEFINDER This is something that was new to my hunting experience but is something I will not hunt without in the future. As soon as we got good light each morning, I would focus the Nikon Rangefinder in on various trees / bushes in my shooting lanes to know the exact yardage for a shot at those distances. I was completely comfortable with shots out to 250 yards and the rangefinder let me know exactly where that comfort zone ended. It functioned flawlessly in the cold and its compact size made carrying it a breeze.


So - what are the other 2 things that made this a great trip? Simple. First is the Lodge. Ron Nemetchek's lodge is not fancy, but it is imminently comfortable and allows you to recharge after your days hunt. The food was excellent, beds were good, and everything was comfortable. I know a few other s who have hunted this area of northern Alberta and hunted out of wall tents. the accommodations were miserable and cold, and they never felt like they were recharged when they woke up. To a man, the guys who were in the tent wished they had spent a few extra bucks and hunted with Ron or a similar operation. On our hunt, the temps weren't severe but, when they are up there, I can't imagine not being able to get inside a warm camp and comfortable bed after the days hunt.

The last, and most important element of any hunt is the people you hunt with. I would have had a great time on ANY hunt with the guys I hunted with , regardless of the success or failure. Great friends make for great hunts, and miserable people can ruin any hunt.


Now - A quick note about this blog. I actually went out to a local beach today looking for fossils - sharks teeth, bones, ... Found a few uninteresting pieces, but talked to others who found some great sharks teeth and another who found a Mesozoic Pd. whale vertebrae. So, I am pretty sure I will be spending more time outside doing what I love to do, and exploring my new home state of Maryland. I WILL post more frequently (really!) and will revive this floundering blog.

At least I hope I will.

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!!