wolc123

I am up and eating breakfast. Trying to decide what orange hat to wear. The new one, that Runnings gave me when I bought my license, is super bright. I think I am going with my old dull one. I wore that during all of the gun and ML seasons last last year. It didn’t seem to bother the deer, (4) of which made it into my freezer. All (4) of those shots were from inside of 50 yards and (3) of them were closer than 20.

I will be out for the first couple hours and the last couple, tomorrow and Sunday. Sunrise tomorrow is 6:49, so I will be in the blind at 6:00 am. I found all my gear and got everything ready. Hopefully, the butt-out will in action by 7:00 am and the doe in the deer fridge by 8:00 am. It looks like there is a full moon tonight, and I am not sure how that will affect early morning deer activity. Last year, I didn't see any September morning deer action. All that I saw (bucks and does) were in the late afternoon. I will try to take a picture of any bucks that I see.

I am going to tweak my opening day morning plan just a tad tomorrow, to lessen the impact a little and give me a few more minutes of hunt time. I have a good relationship with my new next/door neighbor. I just gave him a bunch of venison leftover from last year, along with a pack of “extra tender” stuff, killed on January 1st of this year. I also agreed to keep his driveways cleared of snow this winter. He is the only one who owns a building within 500 ft of the little “wood splitter shed”, made from a truck cap, that I plan on hunting. I just need to move my splitter to the barn tonight and cut out the screen from the back window and I’ll be good to go in the morning, right from my back yard. The shed is behind the clump of brush on the left that the velvet buck on the right is walking towards.

Two days to go. My first three hunts (Sat morning, Sat evening, and Sun morning) are going to be at home. I will be using my T/C Omega 50 cal ML. I need to play those smart to avoid spooking the deer out of bedding areas. They are calling for clear weather, high of 83 deg, and a light SW wind. With that wind, my first hunt will be from this “Polar-tree”, blind which I put up last season, but have yet to take a shot at a deer from. Hopefully, that will happen Saturday morning. I fixed up a new swivel chair for that blind and got it in place recently. There is a big field of clover within range of that stand, a few rows of late sweetcorn, and acre and half of just sprouted wheat/clover/alfalfa. Saturday evening, if the wind holds, and I don’t have one in the fridge yet, I will try my center “natural” blind. That one will give me a good shot at 4 good looking foodplots, one of which has been getting hit hard by the deer for the last month (2 acres of RR corn). Now that the drought has ended, I don’t expect such heavy deer pressure on that, but the adjacent old but trimmed clover, tall tine tubers, or fresh wheat/clover/alfalfa might pick up a little action. We shall see. I am definitely heading over to my parents place, on the opposite diagonal corner of wmu 9F on Sunday afternoon. If they report any deer activity in the clover plot behind their house, I will hunt my stand in the woods on the edge of that, from which I killed (3) deer last season. If they report no recent deer sightings there, then I will hunt my center-woods two-story blind, from the upper deck (unless it’s raining). I’ll be using my Ithaca 16 gauge slug gun on that hunt. Before that late afternoon hunt, I am going to fire up my chainsaw and cut a truckload of firewood from ash trees that have fallen on trails thru the woods over there. That noise sometimes gets the deer curious and moving around to investigate. I will be very thankful, if I can kill one mature doe on the first weekend. That’s all that will fit in my deer fridge, and our supply of ground venison is getting low. Both morning hunts are going to be short. Last year, the deer action was way better in the afternoons on September hunts. I didn’t even see a deer on a morning hunt.

I don’t run trail cameras, but I was fortunate enough to kill the biggest antlered and bodied buck that I saw while hunting, on (4) of the last (5) years. Were it not for my damn smart phone, I’d have had that 5th one. I should have just taken the 15 yard picture with that, rather than thrown it down like I did, and reached for the rifle in my lap. At least I’d have had a picture of it. I never even got off a shot with the gun. One of these days, I am bound to regret a buck kill, because a bigger one will show up after I punched my tag. Fortunately, that has not happened in at least the last 5 years. Third from the bottom was my 2017 crossbow buck. Possibly the largest bodied deer I have ever killed, it sported a 43” chest girth, half way thru the rut, but had busted off a couple points. Next up is my 2018 gun buck. Only deer in last 30 years that I weighed - 182 lbs field dressed on a “legal for trade” butcher’s scale, and had a chest girth just over 42”. I killed it post rut, after a couple points were busted off. I saw it a week prior, when it still had all its points. Next up is my 2019 crossbow buck. I passed a scrawny 1.5 yr old 5 point “scout” 5 minutes prior. Above that is “Joe”, one of three deer that I have named after hunting buddy’s who have passed. Both Joe’s may have passed at exactly the same instant (around 9:30 am on opening day of southern zone gun deer season in 2020). The buck Joe might still be kicking, were it not for my smartphone. Without that, my gun tag would have been punched a month earlier, on opening day of northern zone deer season, in a significantly larger antlered deer (that was my “off-year”). The top one is my 2021 gun buck. I had two deer in the freezer, prior to the southern zone gun opener last year, so I didn’t even consider shooting at the little 4 point that I saw twice that day. Glad I passed “forky”, because that 9-pointer (not counting two busted off points that would have made him an 11-pointer pre-rut), showed up 6 days later, from the same stand, 5 minutes after sunset. Good thing they changed the rules on that last year, or that one would still be kicking. The two on the bottom are from my last 2-antlered buck year (2016).

That is correct, I just googled it to verify. I was mistaken with the 100. I don’t use my bow any more so I was not up to date on the current regs. I think the 150/250 ft difference was some type of compromise/settlement with the anti-crossbow NYB lobbyist group, back in 2014, when crossbows were first legalized for the peak two weeks of the rut in the sz and the last 3 days of archery season in the nz. They must be based up north and have a little more pull up there.

It’s 9 days (sat till following sun), and bow no, but crossbow maybe (for the second one). You don’t need to wear the orange hat with that (or with a bow) and I have one stand too close to other’s buildings to use a gun (401 ft away, from the closest one and a crossbow only needs to be 250 ft away, bow is 100 ft, and gun is 500 ft).

For the September 10 early antlerless gun opener, I will most likely go with my T/C Omega 50 cal ML with 240 XTP bullets and 100 gr T7 powder, with Redfield wide field 2-7X scope for my first doe, and my Ithaca model 37 Featherlight, 16 ga, with 24” long, smoothbore deerslayer barrel, 4/5 oz Remington sluggers, and Weaver 1-1/2X scope, for my second. Unless it’s raining, in which case, I will use my Remington 870 express with 18” smoothbore slug barrel, factory open sights, and Federal classic 1 oz foster slugs. For early northern zone ML season, I will go with the same T/C Omega as above, and also for sz ML seasons. For nz gun opening weekend, and Thanksgiving weekend up there, I will go with my father in law’s Marlin 336 30/30 with Marlin 3-9X scope, and 150 gr Win super X ammo. If it’s raining then, I will use my fiber optic sighted Marlin 336BL with the same loads. For sz gun season, my primary gun will be my Marlin 512 Slugmaster bolt-action 12 ga with Redfield revolution 2-7x scope, and 2-3/4” Hornady SST’s. I will also use the two other shotguns mentioned above (Ithaca at my parent’s place, Rem 870 in the rain). Just 4 days until go time, and all the guns and ammo are sighted in and ready to go. I am hoping for (8) deer this year. The T/C Omega has already taken one, on January 1.

Part of the problem was that I had loosened my drag up a little too much, because I had broke a couple off earlier. I got the lure back the first time, when the bass came up, a minute or two later and spit it up. Glass-calm water and floating lures work good for that.

I agree, they are definitely my favorite fish, by a wide margin. No fish that swims in freshwater is stronger, pound for pound, and September is the month when they fight the best. The one in that last picture was the fight of the year for me, and one of my top 5 all-time. It must have been around 10:00 am. I was a little ways out from shore, and my cast landed about 6” from the edge of a weedbed, which formed a thick mat over the south end of the lake. As soon as the lure splashed down, the 17” bass scooped it down. Right after I set the hook, it jumped completely out of the water. After that, it started screaming out the drag, towards deep water, like a fresh king salmon. I managed to turn it, after it stripped about half of the 8 lb test line off the reel. I pulled it back towards the boat, but it made another long run. By that time, it had pulled my 14 ft rowboat out over deeper water. The next time I dragged it to the boat, it continued past peeling off more drag towards the weeds. It dove down into them and got what I thought was hopelessly tangled near the bottom. I grabbed the line with my hands and I could feel it twitching down in the thick weeds. I pulled on that line as hard as I dared. Fortunately, I had just re-tied the lure and the 8 lb flourocarbon leader. One of the trebles was imbedded on the edge of it’s eye socket. The bass was not able to shake that hook, and the knots held, as I uprooted those weeds and brought it to the surface. Topwaters are definitely fun, but they are only effective in narrow margins. Today was one of those days. The surface of the lake was flat as glass, the water temperature was perfect, the sky was overcast, and there was not another boat on the lake. What dreams are made of for sure.

I drove back to set coon box traps, and to check the plots in the front field behind creek this afternoon, after we got home from the Dacks. I found two small ears of ripe early sweetcorn, from my last planting, that the coons missed. There was a little of that stuck in one hopper of the planter (the coons got all the rest of it) when I did my last planting. I added those to the traps, in addition to a peanut butter coated marshmallow. Those have been getting swiped from the traps on most of the nights that I didn’t catch coons. My last two varieties of sweetcorn (kandy corn and silver queen), from the last planting, still look to be at least a week from ripe. It looks like the old wheat and clover/alfalfa seed mix, that I planted 9 days ago, has germinated very well. I don’t think that will have much draw for the early antlerless season opener in (5) days, but it cant hurt. We got a good rain today, so that should add a little more height to it by the weekend.

I think I hit the annual frog migration this morning on a small NW Adirondack lake. The smallmouth bass were in very shallow. I landed close to 50 in a couple hours (between rain breaks) and 90 % of them hit the Heddon Zara Puppy top-water bait just after splashdown. Most were just inches from shore.

Too late to edit the typos above, but I meant to say “fresh king salmon”, not “long”salmon up above. That last 17” smallmouth had the reel smoking on its first run. Also, as far the line goes, I think the main trouble was the abrasiveness of the weeds. I put new line on both of those reels at the beginning of the season this year. That was the issue on the first couple breaks anyhow. The last one, which cost me a properly-painted Zara puppy, was my own fault for not re-tying the fluorocarbon leader after close to 50 smallmouth bass pulled on it with all they had. That one broke right at the improved surgeons knot, which I used to attach the 24”, 8 lb test fluorocarbon leader to the 8 lb test mono backing. The water on this lake is gin-clear, so that leader adds a lot more strikes, than I would get if I run mono to the lure. I run all 8 lb fluorocarbon on my jigging rod/reel, and only use the mono on my casting & trolling rod/reel. I had another LDR this morning on a 1/8 oz bucktail jig, on what might have been a 20 plus incher. That one lightly ticked the Zara puppy. I grabbed the jig rod and cast to that spot and it picked it up immediately. As I tried to get it to the boat, it dove to the weeds and pulled free. I used that jig trick on a 20 incher last year on Labor Day weekend. This one felt very heavy, and there was no stopping it from diving to the weeds. At least it didn’t take my 3 cent bucktail jig. All I lost this weekend for tackle was a $9 hotntot and a $9 Zara puppy. I still have one of each of those left for my October trip. I am thinking of setting up the in/laws to make some wooden Zara puppy copies for me over the winter. My father in law loves woodcarving and and my mother in law loves painting. I will look for some hooks and hardware, and bring that, along with some seasoned poplar lumber (I have lots of that in barn) when we go up for Thanksgiving. Maybe the wooden ones will work better than the hollow plastic ones.

Probably so, I’ll bring up some fresh 8lb fluorocarbon on my next trip. I ended up getting several more bass down on the south end, where they were really stacked up. One, that looked about 15” broke off my Zara puppy again. Once again it jumped to try and spit it but couldn’t, so I lost that one. I ended up taking the center hook off the “no paint” one, and used that to replace the missing center hook on another one that I had in my box. I tied on a fresh 8 lb fluorocarbon leader. A few casts later, I caught another 17 incher that was the “fight of the year” for me to this point, besting a couple of 20 inchers that I caught in cooler water this year. Had it not jumped soon after hookup, I would have sworn it was well over 20”. I had backed off my drag pretty good, fearing another break off. It made a few big runs, thinking it was a long salmon, then dove down a wrapped into the weeds like a toad bigmouth. That’s when it got tricky. I grabbed the line in my hands and pulled as hard as I dared to break it free of the weeds. Fortunately, the center hook, that I had just replaced, was firmly stuck in the edge of its eye socket and there was no throwing that. My freshly tied knots were also still up to par. I ended up with a total of approximately 20 that were over 12” and about 15 that were under. My wife wanted do head home at 11:00, so I made my last cast at 10:56. Now we are at Target in Rochester, shopping with our youngest college girl.

Another rain break. It stopped briefly and I covered about a hundred yards of shoreline, getting two “long distance releases” of bass that looked to be about 15” long. That’s what you call it when they get away on their own before you get them to the boat without breaking the line. That is a very common occurrence, with smallmouth bass on Labor Day weekend, when they are usually at their peak fighting ability. I tried using the rod holder for the unbrella but it didn’t pan out because the stem on the ubbrella isn’t quite long enough. There is a slight north wind now, but not quite enough surface chop for trolling to be effective. I am almost to the south end now, so if it picks up a little more, I will troll back with my last small silver hotntot (the one I prayed for return on Saturday). I can hold the unbrella while trolling, with the rod in the holder, but first I got to make it all the way to the south end trying to hold the unbrella with my knees while casting the Zara puppy.

As expected, the top water action is real good this morning. The smallmouth bass are all over my frog/perch finish Heddon Zara puppy, my favorite top water bait. There was not a bit of wind at sunrise, and the water was dead calm, with an air temp of 58 degrees. There was a “brief passing shower” in the forecast which is on now, giving me time to update the journal, here under my golf umbrella. Just like Hank Jr, I am against fishing in the rain. I have lost count, but landed maybe 7 or 8 over 12”, rowing and casting the shoreline, half way around the lake, and at least that many shorty’s. The longest was this fiesty 16 incher. I broke a much bigger one off up on the north end, near a man-made inlet where brook trout have been stocked. That trout fattened bass looked like it might be the elusive 22 incher I am trying for. I got two good looks at it, the first time when it engulfed my bait, right after splashdown. It then dove into the thick weeds and broke me off. 2 minutes later, it jumped over deeper water and spat up my Zara puppy. Good thing it did because they don’t like this other one, with wore off paint. It did that before I even had a chance to pray for that lure’s return, like I did for that Hotntot two days ago. Starting the day with a little Bible reading is pretty effective, for getting what you want and need from God, without even asking for it. The rain is letting up now, and I have half a shoreline yet to cover, so time to get back at it.

Thanks for the reminder. I need to drill holes thru the edge, on center, of a couple of cheap plastic hard cases, so that I can attach pad locks, and I should be good to go. I picked up a bunch of those, for $1 each, at a garage sale a few years ago, so at least this nonsense won’t cost me much additional time or money. I always follow the rules no matter how stupid they are. The larger case will fit two unscoped guns, so I will put my 16 gauge side by side and my fiber optic sighted Marlin 336BL 30/30 in that, and my scoped T/C Omega ML in the other, when I make my next trip up to the Adirondacks for early ML thru opening weekend of gun. I was going to also bring up my old sidekick carbine ML for backup and in case it rains. It has fiber optic sights, which I prefer over a scope in the rain. I guess I will need to leave that home, unless a ML does not fall under the “must be locked in case” category, like other firearms. If it does, then I will bring up my smaller crossbow for backup. That certainly can’t be classified as a firearm, even though NY sort of classifies it as a ML, as far as deer hunting goes.

After they quit hitting on the Zara puppy surface bait this morning, I trolled along the shoreline and hooked one, that looked to be about 16”, on a small silver hotntot. It dove deep and broke my line right next to the boat. Now I am down to my last small silver hotntot again. The temperature was about 68 this morning, it was overcast, and the wind was from the north at about 5 mph. I went back out after lunch and it was up to about 10 mph, still overcast, and the temp was down to 62, where it stayed the rest of the day. The colder air temperature finally brought some bigger bass in to the shoreline. I landed (4) that were between 14 and 17” on a 1/8 oz jig, and lost another that looked to be about 16”, right next to the boat. That one jumped 2 or 3 times. The early morning surface action ought to be real good tomorrow. This 17 incher was the biggest of the trip so far, but a 16 incher that I landed, and the two that I lost next to the boat, fought harder. You can always count on the best fight of the year from smallmouth bass around Labor Day weekend, and no freshwater fish fights harder, pound for pound.

My favorite spot was not to far from there, at a friend’s camp in Centerville. It’s been about 25 years, since I hunted for grouse in the old overgrown apple orchard down there. That’s where I had the 2/2 hunt with my dad’s sweet 16, and where I killed the most grouse overall. That 2/2 hunt, back in 1989, got dad and I thrown out of that camp for opening day of deer season. That was back when the season opened on Monday. A couple of my buddies (the camp owner’s sons) and myself had went back Sunday afternoon to check on our stands. I carried my dad’s sweet 16 , just in case a grouse showed up and the two did, because my Ithaca had a scope on it. Nobody saw any deer the following morning, for the first time on opening day, since they had the camp. One of the old “regulars” said it was because of “those kids shooting those grouse back there” the day before, driving away all the deer. Ironically, that was the same year that I killed my PB whitetail buck (as far as antlers go) on Thanksgiving morning, on our farm in Clarence Ctr. The camp owner and the crotchety, complaining old regular were about a mile down the road, standing in front of his barn, that day. I made a point of stopping in with that big 3.5 year old 9-point in the bed of my truck. I have deer hunted from home, or at my folks place in Akron, every gun season opening day since then. I have not killed one, or even shot at a grouse yet, here at the in-laws place, right on the NW corner of Adirondack park. Before they built here, they rented a place, about 20 miles off the corner, farther to the NW. I killed my last 5 or 6 there, including the two with rifles. I have seen two, and killed one in Clarence Center, about 35 years ago. I was rabbit hunting with my side by side 16 gauge, and one exploded out of some thick cover, almost at my feet. I shot quickly, from the hip, and it caught the full pattern, wad and all, from less than 10 yards. When I walked over to get it, dejavou, “it” exploded out again, which turned out to be a second bird. I never got a shot off at that one. About half the breast was blown off of the first one, but what was left was lead tenderized and still very tasty. I have not seen another one around home after that. That’s my fault for taking out half of the only mating pair in town, before they established a featherhold.

Yes, and that’s what I am leaning towards, unless it’s raining. I just scored 7 boxes of 12 gauge foster slugs, so if there is so much as a drizzle, any of those 9 days, then that’s what’s I am using. It has been a while, since I killed one with my open sighted 870, but it has never failed me on a deer. Now that I got plenty of ammo for it, I am itching to try it again.

I started 0/14, on my very first hunt for them, when I was 14 years old. I was using the 16 ga Ithaca model 37, that my grandad left me when he passed, with a modified choke barrel. I have yet to kill anything with that combination. I mounted a scope on the receiver, a few years later, so it will never see any more grouse action. It has not failed me once on a deer, using the smooth bore , no/choke deerslayer barrel, since I put the 1.5x Weaver on the receiver. My other grouse hunts been with 16 gauges also, most with a Stevens Springfield side by side choked I/C and mod. I have killed about 25 with that and missed about 5. I took my dads Browning sweet 16 with mod choke on just one hunt, where I shot twice and killed two. I also may have taken a couple with rifles, one with a .22, while I was squirrel hunting, and another with a 150 gr Federal Classic 30/06, while I was deer hunting. There wasn’t much left to eat from that one, so I won’t be trying that again.

I got out before sunrise this morning but only the little ones are in shallow. I landed 3 so far on the Zara pooch, but only this one was over 12”, and by just 1/8”.

We are having a campfire up at the in-laws now and I can see Jake up on the wall in the house. That’s what I named my first Adirondack buck, after the young real estate agent who sold them the land up here, and who became a good friend. He showed me the hot spots to hunt and fish. Unfortunately, he passed away, shortly after I killed that buck, and never got to see the mount.

One thing nice about all the scarty cats moving out state is that it cuts down on the traffic.

This ones pretty good. No bitter hoppy flavor whatsoever .