alloutdoors

Eight days in NY, although a couple of them were short hunts because I had other things going on, and two and a half days in Maine. Killed two 3+ year old gobblers myself in NY plus a 2 year old I called in for a buddy. Maine was a bust.

Now that this one is in the books it's time for a brief look back at the season. The weather definitely made it a more challenging spring than usual. I ended up hunting eleven days total, eight mornings in New York to get my two birds and one more for a buddy and three days hunting with a friend in Maine. Here's how the season played out: Day 1 (May 1st) My friend drove up from PA the night before the opener and we went to a spot where I felt we had a pretty good chance at a double. We had four or five birds gobbling from the roost and were feeling pretty good about our chances when a coyote showed up and ran right through the field and in under the roost trees five or ten minutes before fly down. The birds went quiet after that and the two hens we could see roosting right at the edge of the field stayed in the trees for another hour. Eventually we see one gobbler but he wasn't acting right and still seemed cautious about the coyote. Eventually we headed for another property where we had about a half mile walk across some fields to get to an island of woods. Once we were into the woods I gave a few yelps on my trumpet and had birds answer on either side of us. We quickly set up and one of the birds was closing ground fast. It became clear pretty quickly that the bird moving in on us was a jake and within a few minutes he walked out strutting into the small clearing in front of us. He got a pass from both of us and after he wandered off we decided to see what was going on with the other bird which we could still hear gobbling from the far side of one of the fields. We snuck up to a farm lane near the corner of the field and could see a gobbler with hens on the far end. By friend stayed put by the corner and I backed off a bit and called to get the hens riled up. Eventually they started to slowly move our way and when the bird got within range my buddy dropped him with a load of TSS 8's from his 20ga M2. He's in the middle of building a new house so he decided to call it a hunt after that and head back to PA so I didn't end up with any photos of his bird but it was a decent two year old with a 9" beard, 7/8" spurs, and probably around 18 or 19lbs. Day 2 (May 2nd) Went to one of my most reliable spots and had three birds gobbling on the roost but they had five or six hens with them and shut up as soon as they hit the ground. The hens took them the other way and that was it for that spot. Tried another farm and got one distant gobble but had someone start running a box call between me and the bird and they ran it non-stop for close to five minutes. Didn't hear anything else after that. Day 3 (May 6th) My five year old son decided he wanted to go out with me for the first time ever. I thought he would probably change his mind in the morning but when I went to wake him up a 3:30 AM he hopped right out of bed and said he was ready to go. I decided to bring a blind since he would be with me and went back to the same spot I hunted on the 2nd. The field was soaked with dew so I walked the half mile to our spot with him on my shoulders to keep him dry while dragging the blind on a kayak cart, all while also carrying three decoys, my gun, and vest. Needless to say I was beat by the time I got out there but I got everything set and we were within 100 yards of the roost. The same three birds were gobbling at first light and flew down at the edge of the field with their hens. The hens ended up skirting us and the closest the gobblers ever got was a ranged 47 yards. My gun can easily handle that distance but I prefer to not knowingly shoot over 40 yards and I certainly wasn't going to take any kind of long shot with my son with me so we just watched them strut and gobble. By the time they wandered off he was starting to lose interest so I drove him home (40 minute drive) and then went to hunt at my parents house which is only a few miles away. I did see one hen and found a turkey nest, but mostly it was just a reminder of why I don't turkey hunt there. Day 4 (May 7th) My son didn't want to go the next day so I went alone and went right back to the same spot. This time I got in close and was within about 40 yards of their roost and between them and the field. It was lightly raining when I got there but had mostly stopped by the time it got light. Once the birds started gobbling I gave them a few soft tree yelps on the trumpet and then went quiet. They hit the ground behind a small rise where I couldn't see them but I could hear the whole flock assembling. Then the hens started to parade past one by one and the three gobblers were bringing up the rear. One of the hens got within a few yards of me and I was afraid she was going to bust me but she eventually made her way past. I picked out the bird that seemed to be doing the most strutting and gave him a face full of HeavyWeight 7's from my M2 at 28 yards. He had a 9 3/4" beard, 1 1/4" spurs, and weighed 21lbs. Day 5 (May 13th) I only had a couple hours to hunt and we were supposed to be getting rain anyway by mid morning. I decided to try for one of the other gobblers where I had shot my bird the previous weekend since it's a pretty easy in and out hunt and you usually either get them early or not at all. I got back in to the same spot but before sunrise I heard an ATV just across the property line on the other side of the field. It came to a stop and the idiot riding it started repeatedly revving the engine for about 20 seconds, then he shut it off. I don't think he knew I was there, but I think he wanted to scare the birds away from the field and back up into the woods where the property he was on wrapped around. As it turned out the birds weren't even there and I eventually heard them gobbling on the other side of the road. I would have really liked to have gone and let the air out of his tires but decided to hurry after the birds instead, unfortunately by the time I got there they had gone silent and I didn't hear them again. I made a quick effort at another farm but didn't hear anything there either. The rain started about 20 minutes before I had to head home so I called it a morning and headed back to my vehicle. Day 6 (May 14th) Went back to my opening day spot and got set up near the usual roost area well before dawn. As it turned out there had been a brief shower the night before and the birds elected to use their "wet weather" roost which is about 200 yards farther away. I was still in a good spot if they came through the woods to where they usually go into the field, but they swung out into the fields early and skirted around me. I discovered that there had been some new logging done during the past year and used a newly cleared logging road to move on them. I eventually was able to see five gobblers and three or four hens out in the field but they were just standing there not doing much. Eventually they started to slowly drift back toward where they had started earlier in the morning so I used the road to get back around in front of them. I got set up on the logging road near where it went out to the field and eventually had a hen and one of the gobblers work around into the field near the road. They were both answering my calls and I thought for sure they would come right up the road but instead the hen decided to walk through the thickest patch of brush she could find and took the gobbler with her. They disappeared into the woods and I never heard either of them again. Day 7-9, Maine (May 18th-20th) I spent a few days with a friend who lives in southern Maine and the first day started great with four or five gobblers responding to our calls early in the morning but we were hunting big woods and logging areas and even though one bird worked inside of 40 yards we couldn't get a look at him. The weather was crazy and temperatures went over 90 the first two days, which is hotter than it usually is when I hunt GA. The closest we came was an evening hunt in a field where we had seen a bird following a hen earlier in the day. He came back out but was joined almost immediately by four hens who led him away. We went in there the next (last) morning and never heard a peep from him. We covered a lot of mile but the birds just shut down in that heat. It was still fun and I'm looking forward to going back now that I know the lay of the land on a few spots there. Day 10 (May 21st) Back in NY and went back to where I had been on my previous hunt before going to Maine. Even though I knew better I set up on that logging road down near where it went into the field thinking that maybe with the new road they would be following it out into the field regardless of weather. Nope. It had been dry the night before so they were up in their traditional roost spot and went straight for the field after fly down. I spent the rest of the morning trying to convince one to come looking for me in the woods but they wouldn't bite. Day 11 (May 22nd) It rained over night and was supposed to continue throughout the morning. I had an appointment in the afternoon and was going to miss half the day at work anyway so I decided to take the morning off too since I knew exactly where those birds would be roosted. I set up right where the logging road entered the field again and waited. I didn't hear anything until close to thirty minutes after sunrise when one gobbled one time right where I expected them. I clucked twice on the trumpet and shut up. I didn't hear another sound for close to an hour when two birds suddenly gobbled to my left. They were on the logging road and working toward the field. They both gobbled one more time and I punched my 2nd tag as they walked past at twenty yards. 9" beard, sharp spurs a hair over 1", and 19 lbs. I definitely look a little sleep deprived in this photo. As I walked out and got close to the road where I was parked I bumped into the boss gobbler with his harem of seven hens. He was strutting in the horse pasture about 60 yards from my vehicle and had never made a sound. He's going to be my primary target next year for sure.

Haha, the shades were a $7 Amazon buy. Forgot to add before, this is the site with the plane and kits: http://www.pedalplanekits.com Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk

It's a bit of both. You can buy just the blueprints, buy a complete kit, or anything in between. Depending on the model of plane they break it up into as many as eight kits. For example, if you are set up with a decent set of woodworking tools you could fabricate all the plywood parts yourself from the blueprints and order the metal parts in the kits if you aren't equipped to cut sheet metal or weld. That's pretty much the route I went.

My son took part in our towns Memorial Day parade yesterday evening, pedaling his P-51 Mustang that I built for him. This was a project I started quite a while ago but he wasn't really big enough to pedal it at the time so it got shelved for a while. I probably should have finished it last year but that didn't end up happening after his baby sister was born. This year I set the parade as a target date to have all the trim work and painting done. I was putting the last decals on the night before the parade, but I got it finished. Thankfully the weather cleared just in time for the parade. Here's a couple photos from where we lined up at the start.

Ha, I remember the Banjo Minnow, probably have some in my garage somewhere. I had a grandmother who spent too much time watching QVC, so as a kid I wound up with kits of the Banjo Minnow, the Flying Lure, and Roland Martin's Helicopter Lure as Christmas presents. I did catch a nice bass on the Flying Lure once, jigging it and making it look like a crawfish.

The Hudd's aren't all that bad, at least as far as these big baits go. If they were Deps 250's that would be a small fortune. They are all pricey compared to typical bass tackle, but not that far out of line when you look at similarly sized musky lures.

Surprisingly guys still catch 2-3lbers on these, especially the surface lures where it's sometimes more of a reactionary strike. But they will definitely draw out the big ones. These are only 8" baits, small in comparison to the 12" live trout that I watched get eaten last year. My best guess is that bass was around 7-8lbs.

By big swimbaits I mean 8" and up, things like Huddleston's, Savage Gear Real Trout, Spro BBZ-1 80's, etc. When I was younger I used to go fishing every chance I had. After getting married and having kids it seems like I get down to the creek and fish for smallies a couple times a year and I do some trout fishing when we are on vacation, but that's about it. Last year I was fishing for some trout for dinner at a state park and was catching quite a few that were just under the 12" legal length. I caught one in particular that was about 1/8" shy of being legal, and when I released it I realized it wasn't doing particularly well, despite my best efforts to get it going again. It was swimming circles and kept listing to one side. While I was debating whether to grab my net and just add it to my bag I noticed a shadow moving underneath the trout. I stood there and watched as an enormous largemouth slowly swam up and just inhaled the trout. My personal best bass is over 6lbs, and this fish was easily larger than that, and this was in a lake that I have fished pretty much all my life and never saw a bass over about 3 pounds. Anyway, having seen this play out right in front of me it sort of rekindled some of the passion I used to have for bass fishing when I was younger and led me to do a bunch of reading over the winter on throwing big swimbaits for bass. I picked up several big trout imitators and had to get a new rod and reel since these baits run 3.5 to 5+ ounces and I didn't have any setups close to that heavy. These definitely aren't baits to fish for numbers, but when you want to go after the biggest bass in the lake they seem like a great choice. I'm looking forward to getting out this weekend on another trout stocked lake and putting everything to its first field test. Now I just need to find a bass like the one I saw last year. Has anyone else had success running any of these big baits? 8" Huddleston's in a couple different rates of fall, and one weedless. 8" BBZ-1 floater and slow sink models, and a River2Sea S-Waver 200 glide bait. Close up of one of the Hudds. And a BBZ.

Most of the stocked trout I've fished for are in a lake where we go for our summer vacation. I haven't used corn but do use a marshmallow rig with Powerbait. I use 10lb line with a 1/2 to 1 ounce slip sinker above a barrel swivel, with about 4 feet of either 2 or 4lb test for a leader running to the hook. Bait the hook with a mini-marshmallow and Powerbait. The marshmallow floats it off the bottom, and the Powerbait draws in the fish. I like the Powerbait paste better then the pre-formed pellets. The pellets don't hold up for long once they have been dunked, squishing a ball of the paste onto the hook seems to last a lot longer. I've heard of people running the same rig with corn, I just prefer the Powerbait.

Based on my experience yesterday I think the kayak paddle will work well enough. Once I get to an area where I want to photograph I shouldn't be moving around all that much. I may see how it tows behind my kayak, in case I ever want to reach something farther across open water.

If I take it into a creek, or a lake with a rocky bottom, then maybe. I can't imagine the nightmare it would be in a marsh like where I was yesterday between the muck and bumping into sunken logs and stumps every two steps. I didn't really design the opening to have my feet trailing behind me either.

Forgot to mention, just as i was getting ready to launch a family showed up to do some fishing. They were looking at me but didn't say a word. I'm sure they thought I was straight up crazy. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk

Thankfully I didn't have to lay in any goose poop. I did have a few leeches crawling around on my waders though. The first beaver that tries to climb onboard I'll probably scream like a little girl.

I spent some time paddling it yesterday with a canoe paddle, but that didn't work as well as I'd hoped. Because the blind is perfectly flat it just wants to move directly away from wherever you are paddling, so it kind of travels on a diagonal and also wants to spin. Next time out I'm going to try a kayak paddle, which should let me keep it more or less moving in the direction I want. A trolling motor would be more trouble than it's worth. It really works best using the Flintstone method.

I got the blind out on the water yesterday evening and managed to get a few shots. It's a fairly promising start.

Not sure if you are replying to me, but that's what I said. It's the junk from places like Wal-Mart that you can't trust to hold a zero. The FastFire is what I run on my M2. If you've done that much reading on OG you've probably seen some of my posts recommending it to people there too.

Reflex sights are the way to go, especially for young or new shooters. With a reflex sight as long as you can see the dot, that is where the shot is going, even when shooting from awkward positions where you can't get a good cheek weld. If you have the money, the Burris FastFire is a great combination of quality, size and cost. Yes, it's more expensive than some Wal-Mart special that will probably fall apart after a box of turkey loads, but it's a bargain compared to something like EOTech. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk

About 100 pics between two different camera locations, but that's from firing bursts when he blinked his eyes, trying to get them as open as possible. They add up quick with a camera that shoots at 14 frames/second. I was also taking a lot of test shots, moving the tripod an inch or two, more test shots, move again, while trying to get the best angle through the branches. This was my first saw-whet as well. The photographer who told me where to look says he only sees him maybe one in ten trips, so I'm very glad we saw him.

Canon 600mm f4 IS II. First shot is cropped a bit with the bare lens, second was taken using the 1.4x III teleconverter.

Almost time to get this thing in the water. A lot of the ponds and marshes around here were starting to open up but they have refrozen after the big storm, won't be long now though. My mother in-law finished up the cover a few weeks ago and we were out there this weekend so I was able to pick it up and bring the blind home. Can't wait to get out and chase some ducks this spring! The flap over the middle section secures into place with four strong magnets (1/2" rare-earth disc magnets). If I want to get to the far side of a pond and need to cross water too deep to wade through I can open the flap, pop out the forward support rib of the rear section, and hop up on the deck and paddle it like a canoe.

Last Sunday I was photographing the largest owl we get here in the north east (great grays), and today I was after the smallest. I was at my in-laws for the weekend and there is a nature center about 45 minutes from their house that is a known location for saw-whet owls. I took my son with me and went looking this morning. Another photographer had keyed me in on the best place to look along the trail but as it turned out we didn't need to look very hard because when we got there several people were already observing it. Getting a clear shot wasn't easy but I managed to find a few angles that worked ok. Not long after we got there a barred owl started calling nearby which prompted the saw-whet to open its eyes a little bit, but before long it dozed off again. Then the sun came out in full force and moved to where it was creating harsh light and shadows across the owl but we had a good time hiking some of the trails and looking through the visitor center. This was our first trip to this nature center but I'm looking forward to going back, it was a beautiful property. My son grabbing a few shots.

Thanks everyone, always happy to share. I was letting him use my backup camera, he was pretty happy. He got some nice shots, on one sequence of flight shots where I had the owl going right to left he just happened to be in position where it flew straight at him. He got a couple great head on shots.

A friend and I made the trip to New Hampshire on Sunday to see a great gray that has been reported there for the past couple of weeks. We got there around 9:30 and observed the owl perched about two feet off the ground against a hedgerow which it was using as a wind break. Temperatures throughout the morning were in the single digits, with a 20+ MPH wind out of the NW. We took a break for lunch and came back to the owl around 1:30 in the afternoon. The shooting conditions were terrible during the midday hours so we mostly just hung around and watched the rest of the people watching the owl. A couple of families with young children came by at different times so I placed my tripod and camera down low where the kids could look through the viewfinder and watch the owl on live view since at that point the owl was in the shade and was rather cryptic against the brush. I think it was around 3:30 or 4:00 when the owl finally left it's perch and began to move around the field hunting. Over the next 3 hours or so it gave us a number of different looks on a variety of perches as well as some pretty good flight opportunities, and I got to see it take at least two voles during that time. The forecast had been for clouds to move in during the afternoon but we were blessed with clear bluebird skies all day as well as a beautiful sunset and gorgeous light in the evening. [ In addition to fence posts, the owl took advantage of the odd unattended tripod for a makeshift perch a couple of times. The day before we were there it also decided to land on a woman's head (she was wearing a jacket with the hood up). Amazingly she kept her cool and remained still, and the owl spent two minutes surveying the field from atop her head. You can see what that looked like here (not my photo, obviously): https://flic.kr/p/Shjuxu

Wooly there were probably 15-20 people there that morning. I had been down searching the east end of the island and was coming back along the main road when I found the group observing the owl in a spot that I had already passed through several times. It had probably stayed on its roost until about 10 that morning before flying out near the road. I hopped out and grabbed the one shot above that doesn't have any snow falling in it. Then I walked back to my vehicle to put on my heavy jacket, gloves, etc. Of course, as soon as I did that the owl flew down on something and then took off across a field. A lot of people left at that point, and even more started to leave when the snow started falling. By the time the owl flew back near the road 10-15 minutes later there were probably only 8-10 people left. As the snow picked up more people left until it was just one other photographer and myself. We had the owl to ourselves for about 2 hours before I decided the smart play was to get on the road. I've been thinking about going back up one more time, but the warm weather, lack of snow, and realizing I'll have to deal with a huge crowd has been dampening my enthusiasm. You are pretty much spot on regarding the facial disk as well. Great grays have the largest facial disk of any raptor species, it's like a big radar dish that they use to funnel sounds to their ears, and they can control the feathers to manipulate the shape of the disk for maximum effect. They can reportedly hear a vole moving under two feet of snow from roughly 100 yards away. They wait, listen, and then fly silently toward whatever prey they have detected. They may hover briefly as they hone in on their target and will then plunge through the snow on whatever unsuspecting small mammal they are after. Like other owls they also have asymmetrical ear placement, as seen here, which helps them pinpoint where sounds are coming from (due to the slight difference in timing that it takes a sound to reach each ear). If peregrine falcons are the fighter jets of the bird world, these guys are the stealth bomber, but in addition to being the bomber they are the laser-guided smart bomb as well.