It is in the evening on a cold February night and I have a few minutes to catch up with my blog writing. On Christmas Eve we went out to Keuka Lake looking for perch. Hannah caught the only fish but it was very fun to be fishing on a 60 degree day. The perch fishing has been very tough this fall and winter on Canandaigua, Keuka, and Seneca lakes. Lots of speculation about this being due to invasive species having a negative impact on the perch population. Severne has produced NOTHING in a year. The south end of Canandaigua produced a brown trout for ma and a laker for Jessica. Both were caught on large jigs.
Highlights of hunting season 2015. Hannah got her first and the biggest buck of deer camp!!!
We were supposed to go out this weekend to nail some perch on Seneca, but while the temperature was perfect, the 20-30 mph winds defintely made it impossible. Next weekend!!!!
So I was just looking at an album of photos from the fall that I took with a trail cam. I put this camera up for 7 days over looking a scrape at my friend's property in Bloomfield. There some 3 really big bucks and a ucnh of little ones. I ilke the photo of the doe actually laying on top of the scrape....talk about flirting?!?!?! I also like the turkey photo.
It is amazing how many deer there were at this scrape over the week.
Day three of the season was a good one. The wind was out of the NNE which dictated my hunt yesterday AM. I decided to hunt the area where my trail cam had picked up all those pictures of nice bucks the previous week. I purposely came at dawn break as I knew it would be quiet walking. I had observed the rut in full swing the last two days so I thought I might catch one nosing a doe or hear one grunting. Sure enough 100 yards into the woods this buck ran up to me with his nose on the ground. As I raised my gun he took off, and hunting with a black powder Omega 50 cal I was not going to pop off a quick shot. The buck stopped about 50 yards from me and presented his front shoulder between two trees. I shot, he ran about 100 yards and died literally on the main tractor path.
I got him home and tried to call in the tag # to the DEC, but their system does not allow you to use Blackberrys to key in the report. This is an unfortunate flaw with their system as I had to find a land line to call it in.
That evening Jessica and I headed out to the Krause property and sat in the large platform. We counted 11 turkeys. At dusk two does walked up to us and Jessica did not have a quality shot. I took a shot, hit her, but after an hour of looking we decided to come back this AM to find it. Day 3 and our hunting party has 5 bucks hanging.....not too bad.
Opening day of bow season witnessed 20 mph winds. Jake had to go to football practice in the morning and off with friends in the afternoon. I headed back to the southern stand on the Suor property that Jessica had helped me sew a blind cover around just three days earlier. This stand is exactly 3/4 mile due south of my house. As I approached the stand I kicked up a doe that had bed down under the stand.....a good sign I thought. From 4-6:30 I saw at least 12 does that moved from north to south, into the wind, all pausing below my stand eating acorns. At dusk an 8 point walked out of the brush with his nose to the ground moving at a pretty good clip into the wind 30 yards west of my stand. I drew my bow and barked at him to stop. He did and as he took off my arrow flew. It hit the front shoulder and made a loud crack. He jumped and really took off. Thinking I hit him good I decided to sneak out of the woods and come back in the morning. I let the woods in a direction I believed to be far away from where he ran.....I found out the next AM that in fact I had actually walked in the exact direction the buck ran and I am sure this resulted in me pushing him.
That night Dave cooked JP and I an awesome steak with wild mushrooms in celebration of the successful hunt.
Well the next morning JP joined Jessica, Jake, and I to find this buck. As we drove down the Suor field a large 50-60 pound coyote jumped out in front of us. My heart sank as I knew if coyotes were in the area chances were pretty good that my buck had been their dinner.
Jake and JP on the trail
Jessica in field where the trail went cold
Arrow bit off by the buck
We immediately found the blood trail and followed it for 1/2 mile into the Krause property where it went cold. We spent the entire day looking for that deer, but to no avail.
My lesson learned is, even though it was dark, I should have waited an hour in my stand before heading home so as not to push the deer.
It is in the evening on a cold February night and I have a few minutes to catch up with my blog writing. On Christmas Eve we went out to Keuka Lake looking for perch. Hannah caught the only fish but it was very fun to be fishing on a 60 degree day. The perch fishing has been very tough this fall and winter on Canandaigua, Keuka, and Seneca lakes. Lots of speculation about this being due to invasive species having a negative impact on the perch population. Severne has produced NOTHING in a year. The south end of Canandaigua produced a brown trout for ma and a laker for Jessica. Both were caught on large jigs.
