I got in my second turkey hunt of the season this morning. Just before the season ends on Thursday! Me and a friend decided to sneak in a hunt this morning before work. We left Birmingham around 4:30 a.m. for the 50 minute drive to Clanton. Early rise…long drive…and at the end of the day, we heard NOTHING. Not one gobble. That’s the problem with turkey hunting – often the turkeys don’t cooperate. This isn’t an issue for someone that can go every day of the season (some days are good, some days are bad), but for someone that can only go twice, one bad day can ruin the entire “season”. Oh well, it’s always great to get outside! I should never complain about opportunities to get in the woods.
Archive for April, 2009
Turkey Hunt
Posted in Turkey Hunting on April 28, 2009| 2 Comments »
Duck Hunting Described…
Posted in Duck Hunting on April 23, 2009| Leave a Comment »
“What makes duck hunting the sport of dreams, tales, paintings – what sustains the duck hunter’s efforts to cope with the sport’s considerable logistics of guns, gear, boats, and dogs – is the fact that the duck hunter is part of a magnificent tapestry of land, water, and skies alive with the stirrings of elemental nature.” — Lamar Underwood, The Duck Hunter’s Book, Classic Waterfowl Stories
His First Deer Hunt
Posted in Deer Hunting on April 21, 2009| 1 Comment »
The 2008-2009 deer hunting season (although I didn’t do too much – see earlier duck hunting post) brought the opportunity to finally take Andrew deer hunting. I took him twice. While we had no success, these outings were truely special.
I had decided to take him out for an afternoon hunt and the plan was to arrive at the shooting house (overlooking a green field) an hour and a half or so before dark. We parked the truck and headed out for the short walk to the shooting house. With my backpack in tow – loaded with snacks, Capri-suns, and his Leap Frog game, we were off. I was able to point out several deer tracks on the dirt road. You would have thought that he had acutally SEEN a deer. He was so excited over those deer tracks. We sat in the shooting house until dark without seeing the first deer (oh well). On the way out, he found a stick that was apparently very intresting to him. So interesting, in fact, that this stick is still in my garage today.
A few deer tracks and a stick….having fun in the outdoors and success in the hunting field really can be this simple. Sometimes it takes a four year old to remind me of these things.
The Billfish
Posted in Outdoor Art on April 21, 2009| Leave a Comment »
BlogCatalog
Posted in Uncategorized on April 19, 2009| Leave a Comment »
A Different Hunting Season – A New Duck Hunter
Posted in Duck Hunting on April 17, 2009| Leave a Comment »
This past hunting season was very different. Jamie (my longtime hunting buddy) and I ventured off into the world of duck hunting. Wow, what an awesome type of hunting! We had both been wanting to duck hunt for a long time but the opportunity had never presented itself. Without knowing any duck hunters, we decided to throw down the gauntlet and venture off into it on our own. We decided that we’d hunt the Army Corp. of Engineers land on the Tennessee-Tombigbee in West Alabama. I spent a good bit of time scouting the waterway on the web via the Army Corp. maps and ariel maps (by the way, yellowpages.com has the best ariel maps). Jamie owns a small aluminum bass boat so we decided to use that. After one trip to Vienna in Pickens, County, AL to scout, and a trip to Academy Sports to purchase decoys and waders, we were set.
The first morning out was quite eventful. We arrived at the Vienna boat ramp around 4:00 a.m. While backing the boat into the water, a HUGE barge passed the boat ramp. We let the barge pass and backed the boat into the water. Just as we made it to the middle of the river, the boat COMPLETELY died. Electrical and all… No lights…no nothing. Although Jamie was concerned with “monkeying” with the motor, I was ONLY concerned with paddling our way to the bank (all I could think about was another barge coming along while we sat in the middle of the river with no lights). I’m sure we would have died of hypothermia had we bailed into the water to swim to the bank. Miracliously, Jamie got the motor running (it still didn’t sound too good). Against my better judgment, he convinced me to go along with him up river to our planned hunting spot. We arrived just in time to set out the dekes before daylight. Just as daylight came upon us, the ducks starting flying! We had two groups of mallards come in and circle our dekes. We weren’t able to get a shot on any…..but, wow, having them come into our dekes was awesome! We barely made it back with the motor struggling the entire way. Needless to say, that was the last trip for Jamie’s boat. It was time to develop a plan B.
I found a walk-in spot on the Army Corp. map. So next trip, the plan was to walk in and hunt flooded timber. On the first morning, we trudged through the woods and made it to the flooded timber, only to find it almost completely frozen over. After busting through the ice we finally managed to get our dekes out and were ready to go (we didn’t realize until later that wood ducks rarely come in to dekes). They did on that morning! As the sun came up, the woodies began to swarm around in the trees like bees. It was awesome! We had two fly right into our spread. Just as the ducks flew up from the water, we both shot. It was my first duck – a wood duck!
We didn’t kill a lot of ducks, but, at the end of the season I can definitely say that we learned a lot. Most importantly, it was a ton of fun! I think I’m hooked now and I know it will be real hard to spend a lot of time in the deer woods next year.
A Day in the Sipsey Wilderness
Posted in Hiking/Backpacking on April 14, 2009| Leave a Comment »
Me and Andrew had the chance to visit the Sipsey Wilderness with our neighbors. Wow…what an awesome place! It was an awesome chance to get out in the woods, even though spring turkey season had just started in Alabama. It’s a bit tough to take Andrew (4) turkey hunting just yet.
The Sipsey Wilderness is located in the Bankhead National Forest in Northeast Alabama. It is truely a gem… Since Andrew was along, we decided to do a short mile and a half out and back (total around 3 miles).
We hiked part of the Borden Creek trail (Trail 200). I can’t believe how clear the water is there in the wilderness! The hike started out pretty uneventful with several initial stops to enjoy the scenery and take pictures. Then….we ran into a baby copperhead lying in the middle of the trail (yikes!). He scurried off into the leaves pretty quickly. No harm no foul (I hate snakes though!).
I can’t wait to get back up there. Hopefully next time for an overnighter….
The Everyday Outdoorsman 