Viewer Photo


Ashley Parker

Catfish
4 lbs.

Oostanala River

Caught on cut bait.

Beagles: A Year Long Affair

The season on small game hunting in the south is around 4 months, give or take a few days. If you plan to hunt behind a pack a beagles, and have in the past, then you probably already know the frustrations that come with getting your dogs in shape while season is in progress. There is an alternative. We have a pack of registered beagles that we try and run about 10 months out of the year. I prefer for our beagles to be in good shape before the season begins. This is no easy task due to the efforts it takes to get them where they need to be.

We like to run early mornings, and if your pack allows, late at night when the temperature cools down. Now I'm sure you are hanging on the "if your pack allows" part. If you have beagles you will follow what is coming. If you are just getting into rabbit hunting, listen carefully. After dark is a great time to train dogs, as far as beagles are concerned. There is little "training" done outside of putting them with a clean pack and turning them loose in a rabbit infested thicket.

There is, however, a downfall. If you are training young puppies, you may want to reconsider the night training in the beginning. Beagles will slow down a bit in the dark which makes it difficult to tell if they are running trash or are actually pushing a rabbit across the cutovers. It all sounds great when you don't know what is the culprit to the race. I have heard some great rabbit races by a pack of mature beagles after dark, but have also heard some great races by a pack of young dogs that are full bore into running a deer. Same sound. Same pace.

We like to stick to the early mornings so that we can tell what is actually going on. This will leave no doubt to whether a young dog is running trash, or simply running around barking at the other dogs. This can be valuble information to a handler, especially if the handler knows this when it happens. When this happens on a consistant basis, you can split your pack up and put the younger pups with a slower lead dog so that the pups will have time to understand what is happening. If its an older dog, you still have time to find a replacement.

At any rate, your pack will be stronger the more they run. I have found that most all beagles, if they are legitimate hounds, can run a rabbit with moisture on the ground and if there is thick cover that they are running through. Where you see the benefits of running year round is the downtime your pack has when they cross a dry track or you have a rabbit that insists on crossing dirt roads and such where the scent is light to say the least. Believe it or not, your lead dogs will pick up on the tendencies that the rabbits have in the area you hunt. If this isn't enough reason, its just plain fun and beats the heck out of working!

I am having trouble uploading pictures again. I will get the Wednesday Viewer Photo up as soon as I can. If you came in looking for it, I appologize. I should have it posted soon.

Viewer Photos

Jarrod and T.J. Bunch

Brown Trout (April)

Nantahala Gorge in North Carolina

Caught on crawfish Power Bait

"Just Beyond the Treeline"

By: Braden Arp

Part 2


“Is this where you had your stand”, one asked?
I turned back and replied in true honesty as bad as it hurt.
“No, I was on the other side of the tree line”.
He stood with a look of confusion as he sized up the area I told him where I was as it related to where we were standing.
“But how could you see this area from the other side of the tree line?”
I just let it go at that and chalked this one up to experience.
A common practice regarding scouting is finding a “highway” trail that looks really good and setting up camp immediately. Most of these types of trails are night trails and will be very unproductive. The area looks really good, but doesn’t produce the numbers of deer that is usually expected. Bucks rarely travel these trails, but nine times out of ten, there will be other smaller trails crossing these night trails. These are the ones to set up on. Just as I found out, a little more searching could uncover several details that are useful in determining the patterns that will produce a mature buck.
Hunters get too hung up on the fact that the deer population will pick up and move daily as if to be nomads looking for their stay. Obviously, setting up under feed trees is seasonal at best, but a very productive way to take an approach at harvesting a deer. I prefer to distance myself from the feed trees and hunt the travel ways. What I have found over the years is that deer very rarely change patterns in travel ways. Granted it is a little thicker in these spots, but it makes for a consistent stand location. It doesn’t matter what the food source if you set up to intersect the deer on their way to it.
In order to find these types of areas, you have to get off the beaten path. Depending on the terrain and geographical location, it can be a little intimidating barreling off into the pine cutovers or dense hardwood forests. There is nothing worse than being lost. I have been lost before, but had an idea of the general vicinity to my whereabouts. I have also been lost before, and after five hours of walking, finally came across civilization and had to ask someone to help me with my whereabouts. Technology has come too far now to be getting too far away without some sort of GPS devise. Like everyone else I suppose, it doesn’t bother me to get a little turned around in the daylight, but is quite the contrary in the dark. On one occasion while hunting in southern Georgia, I made my way into the edge of a swampy bottom. I never saw water on the way in, but was over my boots on the way out. Luckily a train passed by and gave me a sense of where I was. I was walking directly in the wrong direction. GPS units can also be incorporated into scouting as a tool used for marking those hidden sanctuaries that are stumbled across and never found again. Take advantage of the technology, especially when it makes your adventures safer.
Scouting can be a methodical endeavor to say the least. There is one key factor that has helped me more times than not. You have to get away from the hunting pressure. It can be done, but it is going to take some leg work to do it. We hunted an area during a management hunt when I was younger. We stopped in a few weeks prior to the hunt and a ranger gave us a tip on an unhunted tract of land. We inquired about a map and he turned and said, “Well, it’s the track behind the check in station.” That year, the track of land produced a really nice eight pointer and a missed opportunity on a massive twelve pointer, but we had to cross a very deep creek to get to it. Look for the things that might turn other hunters away. Be smart with your scouting. Be aggressive in your scouting. Last but not least, be safe with your scouting.

"Just Beyond the Treeline"

By: Braden Arp

Part 1


Our stands have been stowed and the stories have all been told. The what weres and the what should have beens lay fresh on our minds in the midst of the reflections of another season that has come and gone. For some, the season brought success. For others, I suppose some regrets. No matter what the case, our daily countdown has begun to the coming fall where we can get back to square one, just mano y mano with that trophy that eluded us for some three months this season. Some of us spend nine months of the year preparing, scouting, and getting ready for the upcoming season.
Some of my greatest finds have come shortly after season had ended during stints of small game hunting with my children. Some of my finds have been helpful, while others were a painful reminder of how I hard headedly stuck with a bad stand location. After a month or so, the what could have been woes are gone and preparation begins for next season.
At least in my case, the single most factor that keeps me from the woods in summer is the fact that we have forty seven different types of poisonous snakes crawling around. There is nothing that spoils my day more than having to dodge a snake. I have a friend that was struck by a copperhead while scouting in mid July. Luckily for him, he was wearing chaps and snake boots. Of course, I know another fellow patron, while coon hunting, was struck in the forehead while walking along a trail at the base of a rock embankment. I haven’t found a snake proof hat yet, but if someone makes it I am sure to have one. Needless to say, I am a huge fan of clean trails going in and out of the areas I hunt, which in turn, allows me to visit several areas without leaving the ATV. I am far better at dodging snakes with 350cc under me. This is just another reason that I prefer to do my scouting in the colder weather.
Small game hunting is an excellent time to explore new terrain. Deer season in north Georgia ends on the first day of the year, which means the second day of the year, we can be found trailing behind packs of hounds chasing rabbits in and out of the briar thickets. Small game hunters are rarely denied a right of passage from anything that grows from the ground, which with a few Band-Aids can provide useful information for later.
This January 2nd was no different. We planned a hunt over on the lease where I had been deer hunting for most of the fall. We started in at the head of the swamp and moved in to my proverbial “honey hole” that I had been hunting. I told the crew that we would have to turn in shortly due to the fact that the scrubby trees were just too dense to pass through. Without giving too much information to which tree I had perched from, a friend of mine walked over to the scrubby trees and attempted to plow his way through.
I had been answering the questions about the deer I had seen from this area, and I had to say that the numbers were rather modest from what I was expecting. Shortly through the conversation, our buddy had disappeared in the mangled madness and began to call back to us.
“Are you coming?” he asked.
“No, I think we will go around and meet you on the other side. I really don’t want to tromp into the middle of a brush pile.”
“What brush pile are you talking about? Once you step through those few trees, it opens back up into a meadow of green grass in the corner of this swamp bed for a couple of hundred yards,” he replied.
My heart sank. As I moved over and through the trees, I noticed it was just as he said. Tender green grass grew as lush as any food plot on the lease. The saw grass was about waist high with trails coming from every direction. Trails were on top of trails and tracks were inside of tracks. The edges opened up into a mature pine meadow with grasses growing like a pine wood pasture.

Diaphram Calls.....Before the Hunt

I have heard countless hunters explain the reasoning for not being able to use a diaphram call. I have heard everything from the calls choke them to the calls sound like a dying chicken. We're going to lay some of those hindrances to rest once and for all so that you can learn to be effective with a mouth call.

First, straight out of the gate, the call has to fit your mouth. There are different calls for different pallet shapes, however, most all of them can be bent to fit the roof of your mouth. Also, the key to making a call fit your mouth is to cut the tape so that it doesn't choke you when you seat it in your pallet. A common mistake is to cut the tape too short causing the call to be pushed around and come unseated. The diaphram needs to be as long as your reflex will tolerate.

After you have customized your mouth call to fit your mouth, you will then need to concentrate on the sound that is coming from the call. This is the part that you will have to get the hang of yourself. There are several different methods for achieving the right sound out of a diaphram.

The main problem that turkey hunters have is using a diaphram with the reeds stuck together. This alone will cause any call to have a high pitch sound and eliminate the ability to rip off sharp clucks and cuts. This also has a big part in the "squeaky" sound that comes out of a diaphram. The bottom picture shows you what a used diaphram will look like after being in your vest for a while. The top picture shows what the reeds are supposed to look like. They should be a latex white color.

To achieve this is simple. Let your diaphrams soak for about 30 minutes prior to the hunt to loosen the reeds up. When you put the calls back in their case, leave the water dripping from the call. Avoid stretching the reeds to loosen them up, especially if its warm and they have been stored in a vest that is hidden behind the seat of your vehicle. With just a small amount of preparation, you will get the intended sound from the call. The rest is up to you.

For All the Football Fans

Spring practice is here for most of the middle and high schools in the south. Some of those same sounds and feelings are being heard and felt all across the country. I heard a man at the little league baseball game Tuesday night say, "It's only 117 days until kick-off." Football in the south is as traditional as fried chicken for Sunday dinner. Last year, the booster club held an informational class for all the parents who wanted to learn a little more about the rules and tendencies of the game. Practice goes for months with conditioning and running through offenses and defense schemes just waiting for the day to strap up and buckle in for the full scale collision course of middle school sports.

I noticed as I watched the warm ups yesterday, that there was a brief pause in the stretching routine and all the players took a knee on the whistle for a moment and then popped right back up. I was amazed that a set of coaches were not only interested in teaching my son the intriqusies of the game, but was also concerned about their well being as a person as well. Now I know they took prayer out of school and there are groups that would fight against even this act of outward aknowledgement, but I have said it and I will continue to say it. They can take everything they want to take away from our children that is pure and honest, and given the chance, even our children will rise up above the circumstances and be thankful for the opportunities that they have been given. OK, so it's not really about football at all. It's about raising your children to have a voice and a conviction about who they are and striving to be better for the good of society. That doesn't start on the football field. It starts at home. I look at this picture, and by statistics alone, this is the only aknowledgement that most of these kids will ever know. BUT, if given the chance......

Viewer Photo

Ken Hagler

Eastern Wild Turkey

Acworth, Georgia

"Runnin' and gunnin' technique"

"We came back up to the road and started walking back to the truck. Jim stepped over to a small road to the right and called. A tom echoed back from the ravine. We went down the road about 30 yards and called again. Our tom called back. We then crawled to a high spot in the road to set up and where we had some a slight lip in front of us. Jim slid me his gun and called again. The tom indicated he was still coming. "

"I saw the tom come into view to our left. He was about 50 yards out but there was too much underbrush to take the shot. The tom crossed over behind a large pine. Jim could see the tom coming forward behind the tree. At about 25-30 yards, the tom came back out on my side of the tree. It seemed like everything was in perfect focus for that one second. The tom looked at me and indicated he was ready to run, I looked at him, the target lined up right at his neck and I pulled the trigger. Score."

Great bird Ken! This was Ken's first turkey hunt as well as his first hunt for any species of animal. Welcome to the hunting society my friend. My advice to you is every time you step in the woods, pay attention......to everything. Try not to start out focusing on hundreds of dollars of equipment, though it will take it. Focus on woodsmanship. That will keep those big toms coming in for you. Thanks for the picture and the story.

"Scent, or the Lack Thereof"

By: Braden Arp

Part 2

Now I had two problems. The wind was carrying me straight to a nice shooter buck and he knew something was there from the sound, but I had no choice but to go after him. I grunted again. He dropped his head and walked another twenty yards this time getting considerably closer to a bad situation. The buck was sixty yards and closing, adamantly trying to pick up a scent. By now he is within range, long range but in range. I knew I had to shoot quickly or I would lose my chance, but I wasn’t quick enough. He took one step in the cane break and walked another ten or so yards leaving me with nothing. It would take one step to get an opening that I felt comfortable with, so I drew my bow. I held my draw for what seemed like minutes. I can still remember my muscles tingling from exhaustion as well as being tapped into a livewire of excitement. All of a sudden, I saw a nose protrude from behind the tree and I saw the buck start to move. He made three more steps and stopped, leaving me with a perfect broadside shot. I took it, and it was a good one. The buck ran maybe forty yards before giving up, a nice middle Georgia nine point.
Stories and memories like these always savor a little sweeter when you know that you have defied the odds for success. It’s a great feeling to know that you have done all you can do and your equipment is doing what it is supposed to. I’ve hunted on countless occasions leaving straight from work, only to have an hour or so in the woods. I can put my Scentblocker® suit straight over my work clothes and not have to worry about it. When I’m done, it goes straight back into a scent proof bag and is ready to go for the next trip. It is just that simple! I remember the days of trying to harness a satellite feed for the latest in wind directions, but it has been so much more enjoyable to forget the wind and just hunt.
There is always excessive hype over new products and designs that are not really tested in the field. I’m always leery to jump in with both feet without seeing some results for myself. On this particular hunt, I got the results. However, the name of the game is to add equipment and accessories that will enhance how you already do things. It would be foolish of me to ignore all the personal field tests that I have already conducted on things that work for me and things that don’t. I still take a downwind approach and I still use a lot of Scent Shield®, just as you all do I’m sure. In all my experiences, scent control has always been my top priority. A lot of us don’t need to know how to pattern deer and how to find where they are feeding. When you have a lock on your buck, Scentblocker® can help you get the advantage.

"Scent, or the Lack Thereof"

By: Braden Arp

Part 1

One of my favorite commercials to date was a Scentblocker® commercial whose slogan was, “Forget the wind, just hunt”. I was so intrigued by this slogan that I simply knew I must have one. I think everyone has had a crisp morning’s hunt spoiled by the sounds of stomps and snorts of winding deer, only to see a glimpse of a monstrous backside that leaves you wondering with every spare minute of what could have been. I definitely had my share of those mornings and also had come to the realization that I had had my fill of missed chances due to scent. I was tired of being smelled and I was tired of worrying about the wind. I was ready to forget the wind and just hunt, just as the manufacturer suggested so I made my Scentblocker® purchase and was ready to get back in the game.

On the first morning, I reached my stand after a short walk and brief scuffle with the gnat clouds, which I think were victorious, to find my stand on the edge of a swampy mucky mess. Being a fan of what other hunters skip over, I headed up the tree. As I reached my post, I unpacked my jacket and put it on along with my pants. The sweat instantly came rushing from every pore of my body but soon calmed back to a steady stream. I mean it was downright hot. I pulled my bow from the ground and put my head net loosely around my head trying to avoid the reflecting warm breath that I was now channeling down my neck. I settled in and got ready. Daylight was fast approaching.

I remember thinking several times that if anything came within miles of me that I was sure to be busted. I was thinking of how to orchestrate the morning sounds of sniffs and snorts that would surely come. However, I did have an advantage which was the wind was carrying my scent, or lack thereof, directly away from where the deer would filter in from. It was hot, but I was set up right. I still wasn’t feeling too warm and fuzzy inside, but hey, forget the wind and just hunt right? It was around 8:00 AM when I took a long look down the creek as I heard some squirrels barking. To my surprise, I caught movement just on the edge of a cane break by the creek. It was a deer, and a large bodied deer at that. I zoned in and the deer weaved back out of the cane break and also to my surprise, it was a buck and a nice buck as well. The buck was a hundred or so yards away and coming straight at me, slowly but surely. Just when I thought I had defied the odds, you guessed it, the wind shifted. I had a nice buck to my left and a hard breeze from my right. It was horrific. The wind carried me straight to my trophy as if to serve my scent up on a silver platter saying “run, run for your life”. At that moment, the deer raised his head directly into the wind and gathered every particle of scent into his nostrils that he could.
“I’m had”, I said to myself and myself was agreeing with me. To my surprise, the buck never spooked. He made about three more steps and repeated the process of winding and smelling.

Every time that I thought he was surely pinning me down, the buck just kept coming. By now he was within eighty yards and not feeling it. One turn into the cane break and the buck was gone. I let out a few soft social grunts and hoped for the best. He popped right back out and stood for what seemed like an eternity.

Happy Mother's Day

To all my viewers who are mothers, I extend to you a Happy Mother's Day. You deserve it.

My wife is also the mother of my 12 and 10 year old sons. It is no easy task doing the daily 9 to 5 and then coming home to a house full of boys. So honey, if you stumble in on my blog, I hope you had a great day. I hope we were able to make it special for you.

Rain Rain Rain

The weekend is finally here, and for those of us who hunt only a mile from the house, and can afford the gas to get there, we're getting geared up to get out and talk turkey for a few days. I was greeted this morning to rain and thunderstorms. Don't get me wrong, I love to deer hunt in the rain, but something about turkey hunting in the rain just doesn't do it for me. To start with it's HOT, especially in the south. To add rain drenched clothes to the equation of heat and bugs is no fun at all. Reminds me of a line from a favorite movie, "Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and sometimes......it rains!"

I don't think it's the animals that have the issue with the rain, I'm pretty sure it's just me. There is nothing better than throwing a buzz bait on some choppy water with a light drizzle. Also, it's a great day to be sitting in a duck swamp with the cold northerly wind hammering and spitting rain and snow. There is a time and place to hunt in the rain, but turkey hunting isn't it for me. If you have had some success in the rain turkey hunting, let me know and sooth my toubled mind over the situation.

We only have a couple of weeks left of turkey season, so we all feel obligated to give it that one last try. Lord knows, I need all the chances I can get this season with the birds acting how they have been acting. We just haven't been able to make friends quite yet. I suppose everyone is different, but it simply is no fun to me to call for hours and have a bird slip in silent. I like to hear the thunder roll with a good hard gobble cutting me off in mid call.

If the rain lets up, I will be back out gunning in the morning for that last chance tom. If not, I will be back here complaining probably yet again that I am in a severe slump with the turkeys. You know a slump always hits when you feel like you sound the best, set ups are perfect, and the weather is perfect. That's why they call it hunting. Gotta love it!

Viewer Photo

Ronald Dunn

Largemouth Bass

8.6lb.

Antioch Lake

Rocky Mountain Project

Rome, Georgia

Caught on a Bomber crankbait.

Viewer Photos

I haven't received any photos for the week. Send in your trophy picture and it will be posted for the current week. Email them to me directly at braden_arp@yahoo.com

"A Series of Unfortunate Events"

Part 2

The following day brought the same numbers and the same opportunities. With only one hunt left, our family guide decided to make a few phone calls and got us hooked up with another guide which had several flooded rice fields and no one to hunt them. We were in. We met at the edge of the fields where we would meet up with the president of the club that leased the rice fields. He unloaded his four-wheeler and began taking us in one by one. I decided to go first and help set up some of the decoys when we got there. I will never forget how my heart sank when I was told that I had to ride on the front rack. He was in an extremely big hurry. I found this out right away. I held on as tight as I could with the same grip used by a professional bull rider and with about the same expectations of falling off. That four-wheeler bucked and twisted, but I managed to stay on for my eight seconds.

It didn’t take us long to get the decoys placed, and then he was off to retrieve another poor soul that thought riding would be better than walking. In the mean time, I walked over to the blind, and on one end, was a small opening roughly two feet by two feet. Without hesitation, I crawled in and set up on the end as to be out of the way of the other hunters. As the next hunter arrived to the blind, I gave my instructions for entrance to the blind. He did just as I did. Now when the third hunter showed up, we took a turn for the worst. He told us of how he really didn’t think he could hold on to the front rack any longer and how the driver had to steady him so he wouldn’t fall off. As he approached the blind, we told him to crawl in just as we did. He let out a sigh of disgust, but bellied up to the opening and started in. Upon getting halfway in to the blind, his waders got stuck on one side. As he tried to free himself, the other side of his waders caught. Now he was stuck and I mean stuck. We unsnapped his waders and pulled him in while his waders slid off, but nevertheless, he was in.

The rest of the group showed up with the dog, and I noticed the dog making a direct path to the opening where we had entered the blind.

“No way,” I thought to myself. “I know we didn’t just…..”

I looked at the other two, and we silently agreed that there had to be more to this than we were aware of. Just then, the dog shot in through the opening, or dog entrance and the rest of the hunters walked over to the end of the blind and lifted a small piece of rope. The gate to the end of the blind opened and the hunters walked in. All three of us simply stared at the gate and then at one another.

“How did you get in,” the guide asked. “This gate looks like it hasn’t been opened.”

“Just like that,” we said, not wanting to reveal our secret ignorance.

The rest of the afternoon, I spent answering the silent looks of disgust and embarrassment from my fellow hunters. We never told anyone any different so don’t you go telling anyone either. That turned out to be the highlight of our hunt. The ducks were circling extremely high and there hadn’t been many of the “new” ducks, as the locals called them, coming in to the swamps. Just as it is called hunting, the experience was all we thought it would be, even though we didn’t take limits of ducks that we thought we would. It was true southern hospitality at its best and I am forever grateful for the stories that came from it. I don’t remember taking the shots that I took over the weekend, but I will never forget the look on their faces as we watched the end gate fling open. It was priceless to say the least.

"A Series of Unfortunate Events"

Part 1


After my first couple of seasons of getting my feet wet, literally, I set out go where the ducks are. I have a friend who has some family in Stuttgart and told us that we could come over to his place and hunt with him for free. I was all about some free so we planned to go the following winter. He had some great swamps to hunt and had access to even more flooded timber if we didn’t have any luck on his spots. We loaded up, four of us in all, and headed for Arkansas.
We arrived after about an eight hour drive on Friday evening. We walked in and introduced ourselves, the ones that wasn’t family, and were immediately invited in to the table where his wife had prepared gumbo. I was impressed already. I had gotten myself into a strange place and was at the table eating in less than twenty minutes. If that isn’t hospitality then I don’t know what is. After dinner, we unloaded our gear and headed up to our rooms to turn in. Now take into consideration that we don’t have a dime in this hunt yet. We had hit the gold mine of hunting.
Morning came and we drove down to meet our guide for the morning, which turned out to be a friend of the family. I was ready to be adopted at this point. We walked in to his camp where there was a hot fire and breakfast waiting. We waited around there for a half or so, and then we loaded up into a wagon type trailer that was pulled by a small tractor. As we were loading our gear, the teenager with our group made it known that he had to use the bathroom so he began untucking and unbuckling all that had been pulled up and stuffed in. He was gone for twenty minutes or so, but then was ready to leave. I noticed walking out of his camp building that the temperature was a balmy five degrees with a stiff wind to boot. In case you are from Arizona, that’s cold.
We made it to the flooded timber and had a short walk in after getting the details of the morning’s hunt from our guide. As we slowly made our way in, the youngster went down and went down hard. I had his jacket in my hand and was doing all I could do to keep him out of the water. It was of no use. One arm broke free of the jacket and then the other arm slipped out, and then the splash. One thing we all found out was when it is that cold outside the water will actually warm you up, provided you’re not submerged in it. We also found out that if you are submerged in the water, you get significantly colder very quickly. His father took him back to the camp to get dried off and get his clothes as dry as he could. I learned when we got back that day that if you place wet socks on a wood burning heater, they will still burn.
The morning’s hunt was really a disappointment as far as a numbers standpoint, but no one really cared because we were standing in a swamp in the duck capitol of the world. How bad could it be? About mid morning, a single ring neck flew in and cupped just in front of the blind. We never figured out who killed the duck but we did figure out who shot, all of us. That poor bird didn’t have a sporting chance. That would be the only duck in hand for the morning hunt.

When joining a new hunting club, I'm all for wanting to know that there have been some trophy bucks taken in the previous season......but not ALL of them! I understand the disloyalty that this group felt after loosing the rights to this piece of property due to a higher bidder, but sometimes the results are more detrimental than the disgust at the time.

From the way I see this one, there are roughly 25 breeder bucks that have been taken from this piece of property which would mean that it will take at a minimum of 5 years to make it back to a manageable state with mature deer, and that's without any hunting on the property. Odds are this property will never make it back to what it once was. These folks had the lease for a sum odd 20 years.If one buck breeds 10 does, that's a potential of 500 yearlings being spawned from a trophy bloodline. If half of those were yearling bucks, there would be 250 potential trophy class animals added each year. I would say that roughly 100 of those could reach maximum potential with a management program.

I realize the way it appears. If there are 250 bucks born each year, there should be no problem. BUT, how many people do you know that sets a lease standard of a 150 class deer when there are only a handful of them scattered abroad. Suddenly, your trophy standard has been compromised to a 120 class 8 point, which is good, but not full potential.

I don't know if this was a staged picture or not. It would seem to be, however, it still brings a good point to the table. If we are only trying to manage our hunting land for OUR benefit and these things keep happening, then what will our children do? They will have to start all over. It's just a shame to me! Sometimes the overall cause is greater than the personal vendetta resolve.

Pictures

I am still looking for some pictures of your trophies. The format is basically going to be as it was this past Wednesday, minus the trouble, hopefully. I will post a reader trophy picture on Wednesdays for as long as they come in. Don't wait, send them in! It's ok to brag.....a little bit!
braden_arp@yahoo.com

How NOT to Release a Bear

Hopefully, you will never find yourself faced with this dilema. However, if you are, you will now

know what NOT to do!

There is really nothing more to be said!

Last Chance for Sheds

I was reminded over this past weekend as I watched the snakes swim to and fro on Guntersville that the time for finding sheds is about over. We will have a cool snap or two that will allow us a few hours in the woods in the early morning hours, but those days are about over. Get ready because the dog days will be here before you know it. I know it gets cold up north, but I've never felt a cold that I couldn't dress up for. I may be immobile, but warm enough to maintain. However, if you have never experienced the dog days in the south, you just don't know what your missing. It gets so hot here that it makes you feel like you've passed on and it didn't work out so well for you at the Gates. Like it or not, those days are coming.

There are few things that will excite and depress a hunter at the same time. A nice shed will do just that. It's a reminder of what could have been laced into what might be for the upcoming season. One thing that has bothered me this season was finding several sheds with skulls attatched to them. It is the usual find..... a nice 6 point in the middle of a trophy lease. That is one that's hard to swallow after paying the price we do to hunt a lease which is trophy managed or so we thought. I did manage to find a few sheds along the way. With a little luck, I will take what they fell from next season.

It is already Thursday and I am sure some of you are tieing on lures and digging out camo from the laundry getting ready for the weekend. As with the weekends before, I'm torn as to what to do. As you can see from the pictures, this is how we spend most of our time. The turkeys on my lease never really got too excited this season and that just doesn't get me too excited either. It's been one of those years to say the least, but it has allowed me the chance to do some well needed scouting. I do take every opportunity to scout before the snakes come out. When the snakes start crawling, I go into hibernation from the thickets. You can't beat an ATV in the south.
We have some huge rattlesnakes down here but
there no match for 600cc.

I have a couple of tower stands to build on the edge of a swamp for the upcoming season. My oldest son is 12 and he will be able to hunt by his self this year so I am trying to make it as safe as possible for him. My 10 year old will be able to go with me more this year also. If any of you have 2 kids that are close in age that hunt, you can feel my pain. It is hard to take 2 at a time and have any chance at them seeing anything. Or at least it is with my 2 boys.

I thought this entry would help me decide what I would do this weekend, when actually, it just reminded me of another task that needs to be done before next season. You know how it goes. An outdoorsman's preperation is never finished.

That last line works! I've used it several times to the Mrs.