Port A Update

Sitting by the pool, got bested in salt water fishing by Anders again. We both caught our limit of snapper, I even caught my first shark! However it was a Night Shark, a protected species and it was tossed back. The boat had a great overall catch. 



Heading to Port "A"

Tomorrow I will be heading to Port Aransas, Texas for some R&R, beach with the family  and of course, fishing with my "Bro."  My friend Anders always kicks my ass in salt water so I wonder if this streak will hold true another year?  I will post back with pictures of our catch when I return.

Show Some Respect

I have been meaning to write about this subject for some time now, when I ran across this photo on a message board about Axis Deer, I felt it was about time to get it off my chest.  (I am not dissing the hunter, I wasn't there; he may have been alone when he took this photo, but he could have taken a few moments to “clean up” the shot (photo) that would have yielded a much more respectable photo. 

Not too long ago I read an article in some publication about the best methods for a great after photo of your whitetail.  What the article didn’t address in any depth was posing the animal in a respectful manner; after all, this animal just gave its life so the hunter could experience the thrill of the sport and put meat in the freezer. 

Last season one of my hunting buddies took his first Texas Whitetail buck and was getting ready to dress him when I said, “Hey, did you get any pictures?”  “NO” they replied.  They got ready to snap a few photos and I interrupted.  “Hey, don’t take a picture with him lying on his side with his head all down on the ground.”  I proceeded to “pose” his victory in a manner that displayed a bit more R*E*S*P*E*C*T for God’s animal he had just harvested.

Now that I look back on it I feel bad that I intervened in the matter; that was his business.  I couldn’t help myself though.  It’s now one of those things that I am really passionate about; even more so now that I am solo filming my own hunts.  Why, because I am guilty of doing just that on the first deer I hunted, and the photos make me feel somewhat ashamed.  I got overly excited and forgot to think about the animal. I was more concerned about taking a "proof of kill" photo thinking that I needed to document a point in time, I was just trying to help my buddy from ever feeling the same way and also have some great photos that would remind him of the thrill of the hunt and the magnificent animal he had harvested.

Gurra Yotes

The other morning I did some research on Axis Deer since I now have quite an abundance of photos of them on the land that I am privileged to hunt.  I followed a few links on scoring and aging Axis and I landed on the Buck Manager site and from there I saw some very disturbing photos.  Two coyotes had taken down a nice buck in all of about 21 minutes and my stomach turned;  we all know it happens in the wild, but to see it on film - is horrifying.  We tend to know they are pretty much everywhere there is compatible habitat for them, namely a food source.  On Gurra Ranch, in the 5 years I have hunted there, I have never seen any evidence that coyotes were present until I found 3 photos out of over 8,000 that I was cataloging.  I now have a renewed sense of determination to keep that population from decreasing the deer herds.

I now have a renewed sense of determination to keep that population from decreasing the deer herds.

Please visit the Buck Manager site for some good info on deer hunting

Judge Julie

I had the pleasure of running into the Hon. Julie Mogenis of Huntin' With The Judge while she was in town for a Veteran’s Benefit in Port Aransas, Texas.  She was very nice to take a photo with my ugly mug and sign an autographed photo of herself from her New Zealand hunt!  A very classy lady.  A Big Thank You from this veteran.

Lauren Scores a 50

Lauren had her 4th private lesson last night at Austin Archery Country, her instructor had made some adjustments to speed the bow up a bit last week during the lesson, but she complained all the way home that it was too "hard."  Well, last night Roland decided to score her for a baseline and she did amazingly well.  To score, they shoot 5 arrows in 6 different rounds (30 arrows total)  best possible score is a 300.  On her first scoring she had a 265/300, on her second round she scored a 280/300 with 8 Xs!  She will keep practicing, become more consistent and will begin competing in the Basic category shortly; in 2013 she will be 12 then she can compete Intermediate.  Here she is scoring 50 on one of her rounds.



Lake Travis 4/22/2012

Finally got to get out on the boat after 6 months; the low water from the draught kept my marina from launching the boat.  Consequently, I missed the Fall and Winter fishing seasons.  The water temps have come up from the high 50s of the winter to the low 70s; this means fish are beginning their spawn and some of them are hungry.

Anders and I both got out there early Sunday morning and fished until 2:30.  We caught 5 fish in total, but the surprise of the day was to catch 2 nice sized stripers on the umbrella rig at the same time.  I may have had 3 on originally because one jig and leader were completely missing from the rig.  Hopefully the bite will continue long enough to catch a few more.