Two weeks off

To say I have been busy is an understatement. However, it wasn't because I was working long hours and burning the candle at both ends. This was the good kind of busy. Busy because I was actually on vacation. Vacation longer than a day here or a day there.

Dad comes every October to spend a month and a half with me. Between, hunting, fishing, and trapping, I have little time for much else. I checked posts regularly however I just didn't have a good enough signal to really make many comments.

Michigan's weather has been unpredictable the last few weeks. In years past, I would have been angry at the heat keeping the deer at bay. Fortunately, I'm older and wiser. It gives me the day to go out and do some fishing without the need to worry about some giant walking past my tree stand.

I'll try and put my two week adventure into a day by day format so that people can follow.

October 26th-

Spent the weekend trying to get my dad on a deer for the freezer. Trail cameras indicate deer being every place that he is not. Currently Trying to stay as far away as possible from him. The big 9 pt continues to cross paths with multiple cameras every night however it still isn't cool enough for him to venture out during daylight. I know where he is bedded in the morning and night. Only thing I can do is try and intercept him.

Called Lowrance because I had an issue with my Structure scan module. Actually been having the issue since the day I installed it. System will not actually lock on the bottom It will show the bottom but I can be overtop of 30ft of water and it only shows as 1 ft. Makes it too small to view. They are sending a new HDSS module.

Wednesday October 28th. Structure scan module arrived. Temps in the 70's. I'm going to the lake to run a test

Thursday October 29th-

I attempted to head to the Bruin chain of lakes yesterday. I was going to launch on Halfmoon lake as the water levels are usually low this time of year and I did not want to contend with the shallow channel. Road crews were working on a culvert so I could not get to the launch. Back to Bruin. Water levels down almost 5 feet as they release the damn in the fall. Could not launch my boat. Went to the Marina. They said they were too busy to let me launch. Ended up on Portage lake. I hate that lake. Still haven't caught a crappie. Structure scan worked for 5 minutes and then stopped. I think it is the transducer. Would make sense that it is filling with water. Will call Lowrance again.

Left at 3am this morning for Escanaba. I found a new boat for my dad. It is basically the same boat as mine except it has wide gunnals on it. It is an Alumacraft Dominator 175 sport with a 115 Yamaha. Brand new 2015 (last year for this model). I ended up getting it for 10 grand below retail. Arrived in Escanaba a little after 10am. I brought my cover and transom saver and some wiring stuff as the trailer wiring is usually all wrong!

Had the boat on the truck by 11am. Notice the 5 pin flat plug was ground down from being drug down the road. Good thing for my tools. Changed the plug to a 7pin round and was on the road by 11:30. Back to my house at 6:20pm. My barn looks like an Alumacraft dealership (mine, Brian's, and Dad's).

Friday October 30th. Boat came with a stupid flip down casting platform. Drilled out 10 pop rivets to get it off. Then had to grind off three bolts as I could not access them. Now it is the way he wants it! Now I have a casting platform to get rid of. It has jump seats built in too!

Heard the neighbor scream for joy around 5:20 pm (more than half a mile away). Watched him drive his 4 wheeler around the property that I used to lease. I still do all the work for him and his dad. He called at 7pm for me to process his deer. A 9pt. I was disappointed. I've worked hard to keep that deer alive the last 3 years. They own the property for 5 months and get lucky. On the flip side, I was happy that he got it. He worked hard too. Besides, I would rather he get it as apposed to someone that doesn't deserve it. He had his girlfriend with him too so that was cool.

After close inspection, I had to go back to my 100's of trail camera photos. I believe this is NOT the same deer but a twin. Same 9th point in the exact spot but he is much shorter than the deer I have been on. Besides, this deer was NOT where I KNOW he beds and moves. Hopefully I can get confirmation on a camera soon. If not, I'm at least happy knowing it went to someone deserving. He just graduated State Trooper school. Good young man. I have the head and cape in my freezer. This is the largest deer he has harvested. At least I know my management practices are paying off. Plus, he has passed on 10 other small bucks to get to this one. So... I'm happy

Saturday October 30th-
Pulled Camera cards this morning. Confirmed the big 9 is still alive and well. Actually watched him bed up this morning. He rubbed a 15inch diameter Maple tree.

I put a triangle approach on him this evening. My dad on one side of the bedding area, Brian on the other and I was in the tail end. I rattled, grunted, and doe bleated for about 2 hours. Finally got him to come out to my dad. No shot though. Then he moved over to Brain and caught him off guard at 20 yards. Again no shot. Plan worked to perfection, but no one was ready.

Sunday November 1st-

Set Raccoon traps this morning. I have some numbers this year I need to trim down before moving to another farm.

Played chicken with the 9pt tonight. Was able to rattle him in to 67 yards before he turned the wrong way and went into a thicket. He came out the other side at 54 yards. I shoot 9 months out of the year and have no problems shooting at that distance. He however decided that he wanted to chase a doe or two and 54 yards quickly turned into an unmanageable distance. He lives another day.

Monday November 2nd-

Two coons last night and one Grinner. Transducer arrived for the boat.

Tuesday November 3rd-

Three Coons last night.

Played peekaboo with the big 9pt. No shots. Headed fishing tomorrow out to Saginaw bay. Supposed to be in the mid 70's.

Wednesday November 4th.

Left for Linwood at 5am. Arrived a little after 7am. I've never fished out of this port so I want to test just how good I think I am.

Left the harbor and turned on the structure scan. Worked perfectly. Problem solved.... bad Transducer

Set the boat down 1.5 miles due east of the harbor at the 15foot break line. Started marking fish. Didn't get three rods in the water before we were clearing rods. Took over an hour to get six rods out. Found a bunch of white bass but the walleye seemed to be mixed in as there was tons of bait. Just need to fight through them to stay on the walleye.

Attachment 219469

Photo shot of my Off Shore Planer Boards running off the starboard side.

Ended the day with 9 walleyes and 3 master angler white bass. The radio reports told stories of people not catching many fish (or none). They all went way too far out and didn't trust their electronics. They should have fished the marks on the screen!
My first sunburn in the month of November.

Thursday November 5th (my birthday)

Single best day to be in the woods my entire life. That is what I have done since I was old enough to carry a bow. Was not disappointed. Had tons of opportunities of different bucks. I don't shoot the small ones so they get to live another year! 3 more Raccoons today. I should be just about done on this farm and move over to another by Saturday.

Friday November 6th-

Two More Coons last night. I need to head to the fur buying as my freezer is full. I have 8 coons I will sell (keeping 2 plus 2 grinners). I also have a couple deer hides

Disappointment at the Fur Buyer:
Raccoon prices are the lowest I have seen them. Due to the trade issues with Russia, no one is buying furs right now. Buyer is only buying them for the meat to be sold into dog food and other lures. Prices running from $1.00 to $5.00 each. Deer fur is the same way. $5.00 for a nice buck fur. I ended up leaving with 17 dollars in my pocket. Two years ago, it would have been $140.00! It doesn't even pay for fuel. I will not be trapping coons this year on other farms. It isn't worth it to me and the animal will be worth more in a few years. I'm not going to do it just to do it.

More bad news: Muskrats are way down from last year as well. Went from $8 to $2.50. I have a prime area that is overloaded with them. Unfortunately, no sense wasting the time to trap them! What a shame

Saturday November 7th-
Three new bucks showed up on camera. One giant 10 point, another 8pt, and a main frame 8 with two 1.5 inch scorable points running off the base. This deer looks like it was wounded before and appears to be favoring his hind end. I would really like to harvest him if possible. Or at least see him on the hoof.

Night time:
Rattled in that 8 point. He is an up and comer and will make a good buck when he is 4.5 years old (if the neighbors don't shoot him). Sometimes, you have to be willing to let them go. I hear people all the time say "If I don't shoot him, someone else will". My theory is two fold: 1. What if they don't! 2. If that isn't a deer I want to take, then I am not going to take it. That simple. A trophy to me at this point in my life is far different than a trophy to someone else. I have NO PROBLEM with a neighbor harvesting that animal if that is one that he or she wants to legally take. By letting him walk by my stand, at least I know that he lives another day. I provide the cover, bedding, and nutrition for them to live the best life possible. I cannot control what happens on the other side of that no trespassing sign.

Sunday November 8th-

Pulled all my traps!

Dad finally got that main frame 8 with the two additional points in front of him. After further inspection, it looks as though he was the victim of a poacher. He decided the right thing to do was harvest him so he doesn't suffer. After skinning, it was revealed that there was a 22cal bullet hole on each side of his rear end. If your going to poach with a 22, aim for the neck. Oh well. It was pretty fresh and no meat was ruined. I'm glad he is not going to suffer like the one I came across a few years ago that was so emasciated that it couldn't walk. It drug itself to my property. Both his antlers were gone due to lack of nutrition. I ended his misery. It was a great learning tool for my daughter.

Monday November 9th

Back to work. Only a half day though as I have a cancer checkup. What a morning it would have been to be in the woods.

Checkup was negative. I get to live another day.

Evening. A deer we call "Viking helmet" decided to show up around 4:45pm. He ate grass at one of my food plots for about 15 minutes. He was at 16 yards. Although this deer has been earmarked as a shooter due to his age structure and lack of growth, I did not want to be the one to do it. I never picked up my bow. Dad on the other hand was at another stand about 200 yards away. Old Viking helmet didn't stand a chance and went less than 30 yards. Two bucks for him in less than 36 hours! Good for him. Mom and him have meat for another year. He was a big bodied deer. Old with just bad genetics.

Here is the good and bad of the organization known as QDMA: The good is that they are educating people on the need to allow younger age class structure deer to live to reach their full potential. The bad is that they do NOT educate people on how to properly age class a deer and determine that he will never reach the potential to which they hope. Eventually what happens is you have a bunch of deer running around that are over the age of 4.5 that will never reach a massive antler size. I try and educate the need to reduce overall numbers. Part of which is removing older deer from the herd. I've been managing my property and the surrounding area for more than 7 years. When I started, no one else bow hunted. All of them said there were no bucks around. I shot a total of 30 does over the course of a couple years while allowing the immature bucks to age paying very close attention to the button buck structure. Now, in many cases, hunters in my area are now seeing an average of 3 different bucks per night.

It is good to see hard work and effort pay off. I don't have all the right answers. I try something, if it works, I stay with it, if it doesn't, I try something else. You will never shoot that big 9point if you shoot "Viking helmet" 15 minutes before the other buck walks down the same trail.

excellent read Rich! Should be an article for sure.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wicklundrh

Friday November 6th-

Two More Coons last night. I need to head to the fur buying as my freezer is full. I have 8 coons I will sell (keeping 2 plus 2 grinners). I also have a couple deer hides

Disappointment at the Fur Buyer:
Raccoon prices are the lowest I have seen them. Due to the trade issues with Russia, no one is buying furs right now. Buyer is only buying them for the meat to be sold into dog food and other lures. Prices running from $1.00 to $5.00 each. Deer fur is the same way. $5.00 for a nice buck fur. I ended up leaving with 17 dollars in my pocket. Two years ago, it would have been $140.00! It doesn't even pay for fuel. I will not be trapping coons this year on other farms. It isn't worth it to me and the animal will be worth more in a few years. I'm not going to do it just to do it.

More bad news: Muskrats are way down from last year as well. Went from $8 to $2.50. I have a prime area that is overloaded with them. Unfortunately, no sense wasting the time to trap them! What a shame

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I coon hunted for 20 years with dogs. At one time years back a big coon would pay $25. I sold to J.C. Moiles in Owasso. I pulled in his yard one day with a truck box full of coon, he pulled them out into a wheelbarrow at $20. each.That was when fur prices were high. I made almost as much hunting as I did working. Just thought I'd share a memory with you.

Thanks Larry,

You know, Fur prices go up and down (like a lot of things). Some years, you make really darn good money, other years, the time isn't worth it.

Just a few short years ago, a big coon was worth $20 to $25 dollars. Basically, they went 1 dollar a pound. I made really good money. It will bounce back, just as all things do.

Nice thread Rick..well written..making great memories for sure

Great post Rick, I wanted to wait and read it when I had time to really "read" it. Very good story and good shooting Dad. First time I ever heard of a transducer problem like that. Learned something new. Bring some deer sausage to the spring camp. I'll help you eat it. lol. I should be getting a deer soon. My grand daughter harvests a medium size doe for me each year, and she said soon. I don't hunt, but like to have sausage made with pork and do something special with the back straps, like slicing it thin , tenderizing it and pan frying. Or thin cutting it into slices, slather with cream cheese, seasoning, a few jalepeno's, then rolling it up in bacon and grilling it.