wolc123

Some “multitasking” with the Durango this afternoon. On my way back from fertilizing a new turnip plot, and delivering the cutipacker way out back, I noted a “flag down” on one of the box traps in my sweetcorn. The night before, the marshmallows got swiped out of all three box traps, but none of the doors were down. Today, there was a big boar coon in one, an open door and no bait left in another, and the third still had a marshmellow in it, with the door open. Suprisingly, he was still alive in the trap, despite being out in the hot sun all day. I went back for my .22, but the Durango made short work of that. The coons wiped out my earliest corn, over the 4 days that I was out of town fishing. Hopefully, I can whittle their numbers down, before they get the next three batches of sweetcorn. Or worse yet, get into my 2 acre rr field corn plot, that I am depending on for the Holiday ML season. I can’t rely on rabies to kill them, because vaccine pods were recently air-dropped in the area. I will target the bait-snatchers this weekend, with some dog/proof traps baited with cat food. I only like using those on the weekends, because it takes longer to check them. I can spot a sprung box-trap from 200 yards away.

I finished a 1/2 acre turnip plot this afternoon. It’s been a long time since I used “buck on bag” stuff, but the price was right, so I gave it a try. My new (to me) Durango worked well for hauling fertilizer, spreader, seed, and cultipacker back to the far corner. I went a little light on the seed and heavy on the fertilizer, because brassicas always do better for me, when I do that.

We did well on largemouth bass, up on the St Lawrence, the last (4) days. All were good “eating” size. The largest was 17-1/2”. We ended up with about 25 “keepers”, and about an equal number of “shorts”. We also caught about the same number of Northern Pike. We didn’t keep any of those. Maybe (10) were above the legal size of 22”, with the largest 28”. All the fish were caught in a weedy bay, in 3-6 ft depth water. The biggest bass went for the black, weedless 3/8 oz jig, and about equal numbers went for that, a blue wacky worm, and the chartruse willow leaf spinner bait. The biggest pike and a few bass (mostly shorts) went for the silver rattletrap. I tried out in deep (45-65 ft of water) for smallmouth for about 1/2 hour, with no bites. We ran back into a shallow bay (and the largemouth bass) after the wind picked up. I burned less than 6 gallons of gas in the boat over (4) days and only used about 1/2 of the “juice”, in the deep cycle battery, for my 28 lb thrust trolling motor.

We never got around to trying for more bass yesterday afternoon. I stayed up late last night, polishing off the remaining beers, over at my siblings cottage on the other side of the bay, across from where we camped. They set me up in a spare room over there, as my tent wasn’t quite up to another night. My brother in law and I got out fishing for a couple hours this morning, before I had to go help my wife and our girls break camp in the State park. We landed (4) keepers and about (6) short largemouth. He got (3) of them, but I managed to edge out his 17 incher from yesterday, with a 17-1/2 incher this morning. Today’s catch added (2) more quart-sized freezer packs to the tally, which I left there for him. I brought home (8), meaning I need to come up with (4) more packs of smallmouth bass, up at the in-laws Adirondack home, over Labor Day weekend and early ML week. Shouldn’t be a problem. Finally, there is more packs of bass in our freezer than there are venison backstrap. I still need to get out on the upper Niagara and add (9) more packs of smallmouth bass for my wife and girls, in addition to those (4) for me. The boat ran good and all the equipment on it worked well. The only trouble was the live well pump acted up a little and I had to back the boat up to get it primed a couple times. Also, it was weedy and shallow at my siblings dock, so I had to clear the intakes on the Johnson 70 a few times. Running it in reverse caused trouble, but spinning it around with ropes at the dock, and running it out in forward was ok. Some years, they apply herbicide to the bay, to kill all the weeds, but that adversely affects the fishing and turns the bass an ugly fluorescent greenish yellow color. I much prefer dealing with the weeds. The ride home was quick and uneventful, compared to the ride up, when we blew a trailer tire in the construction on rt 90.

I had been intending to donate to that program for several years. I always ended up forgetting about it, the day I picked up the tags, or the person selling them wasn’t able to figure out how to get it done. Last year, I tried it when I picked up my first two. Somehow, I managed to get it done. It was a piece of cake to do it, when I went back for the next two. I had at least 25 % less time to hunt last year, yet ended up filling more than one of those dmp tags, for the first time in quite a while. Coincidence ? Including that extra $20 in donations, my cost per pound approached the target value of $ 1 per pound last year, after subtracting all input costs. To be fair, having a good stockpile of 20 cent 16 gauge Remington sluggers, and some new rule changes NY made last year, also helped with that.

I am guessing that buck has tapeworms.

Lots of folks will soon be picking up doe tags (I heard that they come out on Aug 1). Some get them for free for lifetime, but for most, there is a $10 charge. After November 1, you can go back for the “second draw”, for (2) more tags in many DMU’s where the dec had struggled to get deer numbers under control. There is no additional charge for those tags. Consider donating to the venison donation program, when you pick up your DMP tags. This can be done at the license/tag issuing facility (I usually use Walmart). That money is used to pay for the processing of deer that hunters donate to the program, and that food goes towards feeding people in need. Rather than just going back for (2) more free tags on November 1, why not donate to a good cause ? You might find yourself able to fill those tags a little easier, if you do that. Ps, they will also accept donations on the first round, or when you buy your license. Just ask the agent to click on ”support venison donation”

They were biting better this morning, with a light west wind. We tried for smallmouth, in 45 - 66 ft, on a shoal out in the River, for 1/2 hour with no bites. The wind picked up a little, so we went back in the bay for largemouth. We landed (7) keepers (12-1/8” - 17”) there, over the next (2) hours, along with 4 or 5 short bass and 5 or 6 pike. We might try for our last (3) bass this evening. This morning’s catch added (3) more packs to the freezer.

I only have one hang on out now, and reading this has convinced me to lower it a little this year. It is currently up about 8 ft. It uses a chain around the tree and has been in place (4) seasons, (3) of which I killed deer from it, on opening day of gun season. It is a cheap one, that I got from Walmart about 25 years ago, and have replaced the seat with a couple straps made of car seatbelt material. I usually put a small cushion on that when hunting on it. It is about time to move it anyhow, before the chain gets grown into the tree. Lowering it, to about 5 ft, might cut back on my view a bit but will make it safer, especially without a safety strap, which I have never used. I might just throw up a wood safety rail around it however, which I do have on about a dozen other stands, most of which are the ladder type. I sort of hate to make changes on this stand, since it had been very effective “as is”. Improved safety does justify those changes, especially since the rule changes NY made last season, which have greatly simplified the task of venison acquisition. Lower is always safer, and deer are not that difficult to kill from ground level.

I try to keep my venison as “organic” as possible, which means minimizing herbicide usage. One of my favorite tools for that is a 2-section, 3-point drag. Most of my fall food plots are planted on prior year’s corn plots. I bush-hog those old corn stalks, as soon as the ground gets dry enough in the spring. Then I go over it with the drag. I continue to do that, several more times over the summer, usually a day or two after a soaking rain has softened the ground up a bit. By September 1, when I start my fall wheat/white clover plots, that ground is relatively weed free (with no herbicides) and ready for planting. As far as cost of equipment, a used 3-point drag might cost $ 300 - $ 600 depending on condition. A used n-series Ford tractor, in serviceable condition, can be found for $ 1500. For $ $2500, you can find one that has been restored. You can go even cheaper, with an old non-3-point drag (used cost $ 100 - $ 200), and a non-3-point old tractor by various manufacturers ($ 600- $ 1000) and still be farther ahead than those atv deals. Atv’s are really not designed for ground engaging implement usage.

The small ones are better eating. My buddy killed a big one up in Canada a few years ago and the outfitters recommended that he leave the carcass in the woods and just take the hide and skull, which made the record books. 200 lbs dressed weight is about the cutoff, above which they are not so hot on the table. That is also somewhat dependent on their diet. Also, there is very little edible meat on a bear, compared to a deer. Maybe 15% of their body weight. They are mostly bone, fat, guts, and hide. If they were a fish, they’d be a sheephead.

Just (2) more keeper largemouth bass this evening (13” & 14-1/2”), which made another small vacuum pack for the freezer. We also got 4 or 5 short ones, 2 short pike and three “legal sized” pike (over 22”). The two largest pike were 26” & 28”. I don’t keep them because they are a pia to clean. We use double 8 lb flourocarbon leaders to keep them from breaking off. They still end up tearing the skirts off spinnerbaits once in a while. The biggest one went for a silver rattletrap cast over the weeds in 6 ft of water.

21 Month old brown Swiss steer, aged 12 days, porterhouse steak, grilled medium-rare:

Not as good of a wind today (straight from the north 15-25 mph), and not as many keeper sized bass this morning. We kept two 14” and a 12-1/2” largemouth and released (6) that were 10-1/2 to 11-3/4”. We also caught about. (6) pike this morning, one 24” legal keeper and the others just under the 22” limit. Both of the 14” bass had plastic tags on them (one orange and one green) so they had been caught previously. They are now filleted, vacuum sealed and in the freezer. My brother in law and I are going to try for our last (7) after supper. He got up here late yesterday afternoon and caught (2) keepers after supper.

Looks like I am going to be needing a new tent. The $ 20 garage sale special, that I have been using for the last 5 years, has just about had it. A little duct tape on it should get me thru a couple more nights, but this will be the last year for it. High winds yesterday afternoon flattened it, while I was eating dinner over at my siblings cottage, on the other side of the bay. It had a few minor rips prior, but now it is well beyond repair. I have another, small dome tent, but I can’t stand up in it and I don’t think my cot will fit in it. At least my old boat trailer rim kept this one from blowing across the River into Canada. This campsite is way too rocky for tent stakes.

Had I not been in a shoulderless construction zone when it happpend, I wouldn’t have lost the rim. I felt it happen right away. I had those tires inflated properly before I left, so my guess is that the tire got cut on something. The old rim came in handy at the campsite however. It is pretty much solid rock , so there is no way to stake down my tent. It would have blown away in the 30 mph west wind we got right now were it not tied to that rim.

The bad: I had some trouble on the drive up, blowing a trailer tire on the construction zone on 90. No stopping there, with no shoulders, so I had to yank it a few miles on the rim to the next exit. I put my old 1989 spare on as soon as I got off, and nursed it a few more miles to the Walmart in Brewerton, where they had mounted tires on rims for about $ 150 with tax. Right after I changed out the old spare in their parking lot, a real gully washer of a thunderstorm hit. I pulled the plug out of the boat, so that it didn’t fill up on the drive North on rt 81. That extra weight probably would have popped another tire. The good: There was a nice west wind blowing this morning and it took less than 2 hours to get a limit of 12-1/64” to 16” largemouth bass. At least I will be eating good now, thanks to the “free” meat. They are all filleted and vacuum sealed now. Largemouth bass are my favorite fish to eat and second favorite to catch. Right after smallmouth bass, which are my favorite fish to catch and my second favorite to eat, only because largemouth are just a little easier to fillet. Usually, they only pull about half as hard as the smallmouth do. The two biggest ones put up a pretty good tussle this morning however. The water temperature must be near their “optimum fight” level. I actually used the net on the 16 incher, but I hoisted the others into the boat, with my heavy-action rod, baitcaster “winch” reel, and 10 lb mono. The best thing about this mornings outing was the bass:pike ratio on spinnerbaits. I caught one short bass, in addition to the 5 keepers, and lost just 1 pike right next to the boat. It only made off with the chartreuse skirt from my spinnerbait. There have been times when that ratio has been reversed with more than 6 pike per bass. That can get pretty costly, when they start tearing off spinnerbaits.

I do similar to what grampy does, paying primary attention to the wind, plus scent free soap, etc.. One trick with the wind, is to use an enclosed vehicle to get downwind of where the deer are prior to my walk in, rather than walking around or using an open atv.. Also, especially on mature buck’s and does, I have had very good success with one particular cover scent - Evercalm deer herd scent. The only problem with that is the waxy yellow marks it leaves around your spots. I have always wiped some on the heels of my boots, prior to walking in, then wiped some on branches or on the walls of my blinds. To eliminate that ugly yellow streaking, this year I am going to keep using it on my boots, but just pop the top off the dispenser, and lay it down on top of or near my blinds when I get there. That will eliminate the steaks and stretch the supply a little farther. Last season was probably the best example that I have seen of the power of that stuff. A 3.5 year old 9-point approached my stand, 5 minutes after sunset (good thing they changed the rules on that last year). When he crossed the trail that I took on my walk in (with my boot heels wiped Evercalm), he stopped broadside at 4O yards, plenty long enough for me to put a slug thru his rib cage. it was snowing that day, and it took me a while to clear the snow from my scope, so that I could see him thru it. Without that Evercalm, I probably would not have had a decent shot at him. The only year in the last (5), that I didn’t take a 3.5 year old buck, was the year I skipped the Evercalm. The only way that’s going to happen again is if they stop making it. I tossed half of a stick in the freezer, at the the end of last season, so I should be good thru early ML season anyhow. It don’t keep from year to year if you don’t freeze it.

Loaded for bass:

I have been hunting the border of wmu 6C and 6F for the last 20 years and have yet to positively see one while hunting. I might have gotten a glimpse of one about 10 years ago. My in-laws built their retirement home up there and my father in law really wants a bear rug for a wall decoration. Reported bear sightings in their area have increased sharply this year, so I’ll keep trying. The little 8-point buck, that I killed up there a few years ago and got mounted for them, looks lonely all by itself up on that wall. I have plans for about 15 days of hunting up there this year, during crossbow, early ML, rifle, and late ML season. Deer will be my primary objective, but bear will be a very close second. A nice thing about getting one up there, is that carcass recovery should be easy, because most of the spots that I hunt are accessible with my father in laws atv or loader tractor. I would not care to shoot one in a spot if that was not the case. I surely wouldn’t shoot one on the back side of the swamp where I dropped that buck, because the drag out almost killed me. From what I hear, dragging out a bear is many times tougher.

A similar thing happened to me, but the buck’s rack wasn’t very big (looked like a 1-1/2 year old 6-point with an antler width of about 10”), and he was on the other end of the range. I was downrange, changing targets. The buck walked out of the adjacent cover and had his nose up near the muzzle of my gun. That was pointed in my direction, in a shooting vise, up on a bench. I was fairly certain that it was unloaded. Still, I was not too comfortable being downrange. I worried that if it wasn’t, and that buck nocked or off that vise, it might accidentally discharge in my direction. Fortunately, no harm was done, but the picture of that little buck, with his nose up by my shotgun, will surely remain imprinted in my memory for the rest of my days. This is where it occurred. The gun was on the far (100 yard) bench). Oddly enough, I nearly met my Maker in almost the same spot where that buck stood, about 35 years prior. The hedgerow on the left is our western property line. A doe was standing about where that bench is, munching away in what was then a big clover field. It was deer season, I had a doe permit, and she was well out of range of the stand I was in, several fields to the east. I climbed down and attempted to close the range. She walked thru that hedgerow, onto the neighbor’s hay field. I saw her standing in the middle of that field, about 50 yards away. I also saw blaze orange behind her, in the far corner. I felt the pressure wave of the first shot, against the side of my face, a fraction of a second before I heard the boom. I hit the dirt. Dirt started hitting me, as the next (4) shots landed close by. I have not been comfortable, hunting from the ground on flat land, ever since that incident occurred. Feeling a bullet next to your face, prior to hearing the shot, is one of those things that is very hard to forget. I was wearing a blaze orange vest and hat when it happened, but all that other guy saw was brown.

Glad to hear your ok. It seems that moving stands is the most dangerous part of their use. I lost a neighbor to such an accident last year.

Early seeetcorn looks like it will be ready in about a week. Today, I found one stalk nocked over but no definite coon damage yet: Traps will go out as soon as I see a nibbled ear or two.

Good as new (almost):

By by old camper. My friend, who traded me his wife’s old Durango for it, just pulled out with it: