stubborn1VT

New PB salmon.

Got invited to go out on Champlain to troll for salmon and lakers. Went out 7:30-2:30. Really nice day. The wind died down, we caught fish and grilled bacon wrapped scallops and venison kabobs. Also had homemade cookies and a couple beverages. 15 lakers. Biggest one was about 8lbs. Caught a bunch of nice sized eaters, but didn't keep any. I need to get a smoker set up. 7 salmon. Mostly shakers, but I reeled in fish of the day. 24+" female. She stayed down and never jumped. Released her. Also a couple white perch. The guy who owns the boat took all the pictures. He hasn't sent them to me yet. Good day all in all. His boat is set up with great electronics and a full canvas. It's a true trolling boat with a huge back deck. Hoping to get invited to go again! Heck of a nice day on Champlain!

Don't know much about Bellicheck I guess.

I feel like I got my money's worth. I have some good cams, but I have places I don't want to leave them. These seem to fit the bill and I like them a bit more than the Wildgame cameras I tried years ago. Best camera for the money IMO is the old Bushnell Trophy cams. I bought 3 of them on sale at different times and they have been awesome for under $100. Since the Covid/microchip issues started they jumped from about $80 to $130. Still probably worth the higher price. I guess Tasco has a newer 12MP model, but I don't know anyone who has tried one. Also, I'm not very serious when it comes to trailcam data. I do look for patterns and it's nice to know what's around, but I'm not scouting new properties or hunting giant bucks. It's mostly for fun.

So I had similar experiences to this Cabin Fever. I did some online research and some say this is caused by swapping the card between different brands of camera. Has something to do with the way the different brands read the info I guess. The upside is that it's as easy as formatting the disks, or just using certain cards with certain cams. I formatted some SDs and put some batteries in one of my Tascos today and it seemed to be working ok. I know I shouldn't expect much from a $28 camera, but I like have something I can put in "riskier" areas like you said. If I can get them to work I will be psyched. My other issue seems to be that I use Amazon batteries during the warmer months and forgot to swap them to better batteries when it got cold. The Tascos have no battery indicator. This is an issue when you can power the camera up and the display works, but it doesn't have enough power to take pictures. Just some things I ran into. Thought they might possibly help somebody else. As of now I'm glad I didn't throw my two remaining Tascos out. We'll see if that's true in a month or two.

Thanks. I'll be fishing that part of the lake, but launching on the Vermont side. Will try to remember to put a report on here in the Live from the Water thread.

I found his humor to be spot on... unlike your shot requiring a new scope Don't pay too much attention to Lawd. He's just GRUMPY sounding sometimes. I'd be willing to bet that he and I actually agree on most hunting related stuff. I just think it's funny how we all pick certain points to defend and look down on. Of course it would be fine for me to shoot a button buck with a .243 topped with a 3-9 x 50 during a deer drive while wearing blaze orange mask and Evercalm on the soles of my boots. As a side note: I have hunted 30ish years with a Browning A bolt synthetic stalker in 7mm Rem Mag. It has always had a bigg azz scope on it. I have started calling it my "crossgun". It shoots cross the field, cross the powerline, cross the hardwoods, cross the mountain... One of these days I'll either reach the comedic genius of Lawdwaz - or I'll be just as grumpy. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Larry!!!

Glad you have some ice. Be safe. I'm headed out for salmon in a boat tomorrow!

Happy Birthday Wooly! What Grampy said X2.

A big azz scope keeps you from taking game? Good to know. So much knowledge shared from the "experienced" guys on this site.

I heard that alot in the late spring/summer. I thought it had more to do with territory, such as the area around a den.

Glad you went with snap traps, or any trap for that matter. Decon and rat poison can be a bad deal for pets and wildlife. I hate rats too. I would bait them with corn or sunflower seeds and use a pellet gun on them. But I have time on my hands during the winter months.

Live from the living room. 3 little bucks in my food plot. Two spikes and a half rack with 3 or 4 points. Very small bodies. Nice to see anyhow. No holiday hunt here. Hopefully they have a decent winter and remember how to get here next season.

Longish stride for a cat?

Happy Holidays to you Cynthia and Hunting NY.

I'm surprised that that deer died - or it wasn't blown into smithereens. One of the other. Kidding. That's a sharp looking stock.

Those birds are drinking beers?

I'm a fan. Brewery is 7 miles from my house!

1 buck means less hunting opportunity. I looked at the numbers for VT (we have better reporting that NY) and only 1400ish hunters reported two bucks in 2019. So the new law saved the lives of 1400 bucks. Seems pointless to me. I believe one buck works in many places, but VT doesn't have the herd for it. We will never be a top 10 deer hunting state. Taking guns out of the rut goes against too many years of tradition and history for me. I can see it could be useful from a management standpoint. Hunter opportunity is way more important to me than managing for trophy bucks.

I think a well balanced herd is a pie in the sky concept. There's no way implement the necessary changes. I think NY is a huge state and managing the herd between Long Island, the Adirondacks and WNY is a huge task. In general, I think people love to complain. I'm not against shorter seasons, but don't think it makes a difference. In many areas there are just too many deer and shorter seasons won't help that. Taking guns out of the rut also takes hunters out of the rut and that doesn't make sense for the future of hunting. Mandatory check stations help. You need data to make decisions. As you said, NY doesn't have a clue about numbers. I truly believe that "managing" natural resources is laughable. Too many variables. There isn't a way to micro manage every different area, so some general guidelines are the best that can be done. You can't manage for winter temperatures, snowfall, rainfall, growing seasons, EHD, changing land use etc. I think the states pretend to manage deer herds and hunters pretend that they could do it better. I'm guilty of this too. I'm mad as hell at VT for going to one buck. In the end I'm not sure any of it matters that much.

I'm sure you'd rather be tracking, but that sounds like a fun evening hunt to me.

I don't follow you, especially about the trail cameras. I posted about 3 trail cameras that I bought for about $28 from Walmart. I like to see what's out there: deer, bear, bobcats, turkey etc. I'm not against a well managed herd, just not at the expense of the people who are just happy to kill any deer. I am against managing the herd for a small percentage who covet "trophy bucks". That's the reason I'm totally against ARs. Everyone has different ideas, amounts of time, budgets, energy and interest when it comes to deer hunting. I don't like the idea of putting anyone down that wants to hunt ethically and legally. I don't think we as hunters can afford to. I will badmouth poachers, road hunters and the spray and pray crowd. I just don't get the true trophy hunting mindset, the bragging and the scoffing at other people. As I mentioned above, I think it does the antis job for them.

Maybe for a very small percentage of hunters. Everyone is different. I fill my freezer every year on my family's farm and I'm happy to do it. Has nothing to do with age class or racks. I like to be out there. I love venison. I wouldn't pass up a giant buck, that isn't what drives me at all.

Boo hoo NY doesn't manage deer to help me reach my goals. Other people are happy shooting 1.5 yo. Attitudes like yours are worse than the antis. Most of them are against hunting because they don't know better. What's your excuse for shitting on thousands of other hunters? Like you have it all figured out. Please. Just another blowhard who tries to make himself feel good by looking down on others.

Speaking of ignorant, how about letting other hunters decide what they want to shoot. Speaking of narrow minded, how about realizing that there everyone has different goals and ideas of success. What a way to think. Don't let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya. Take your pissing and moaning to a Midwestern state.