Fly fishing VT

 

Fly fishing in the CT river, Bloomfield, VT

 A Year in the Life of an Outdoorsman in New England

 

When I was 14 years old, I had a basketball coach who told me that I wasn’t great at any one skill, but I was pretty good at a lot of skills. I wasn’t sure whether or not to take that as a compliment or a criticism, but it explains a lot about my personality. I have a hard time focusing on just one passion.

Like most hunters, I was introduced at an early age by my Father. My Dad took me deer hunting a few times, but quickly changed tactics when he realized I was doing more sleeping than I was looking for deer. So he started introducing things like hunting for turkeys, waterfowl, and upland birds, along with getting the occasional bobber wet. It was a great way to get a kid into being outdoors, without having to be totally quiet and sitting still. I have thought about taking a similar approach now that I have kids of my own, but I also blame this tactic for the addiction for all things outdoors. I can’t decide on one thing.

When I met my wife, I had a serious, sit down conversation with her, early on in our relationship. I built this up by saying, “We have to talk.” This of course got her attention, but that brief moment of concern quickly turned to laughter when I followed up with, “I’m a hunter, and hunting season is coming up.” I proceeded to explain how I would not be around much in the upcoming months, which she brushed off and said, “Ok, sure.” This attitude quickly changed, however, a few days into opening week, when she started to notice my absence. Even today, I bring up this conversation, “Well, you knew what you were getting into.”

I have been hunting for over 20 years, but I find myself in a cycle that is ever expanding. I enjoy everything there is to do outdoors, and I don’t have to travel far to do it. If I had the budget, sure, I’d like to check off some bucket list items in exotic locations, but I find just as much pleasure being able to pursue a passion right out my back door. New England offers an abundance of opportunities.

In March, as the weather starts to warm, and the days are getting longer, the winter ice gives way to many ponds and lakes where stocked trout can be found. Soon after in late April, Turkey season begins up here in the Northeast. Out season is later than the rest of the country, but this allows for most of the breeding to take place within a turkey’s complex social structure. Along with the suburban landscape, this has made the turkey population explode. It seems like every year they are increasing the bag limits. Nothing beats hearing a tom ripping in the spring, just watch out for ticks! I had a Canadian spring bear hunt scheduled this year, but it looks like COVID-19 is going to put a stop to that.

I live on Cape Cod so most of June through August is spent chasing stripers. I have been on the occasional blue fin tuna trip, but just don’t have the necessary funds to fuel that avocation. When a single leader costs upwards of $90, I don’t even have to look into the other essentials to know it’s out of my price range. I have owned a few boats from a Nucanoe kayak, a 16’ skiff, and now a 23’ center console, so I like to spend as much time as possible on the water. In early May I stock the freezer with delicious sea bass, and I’ll keep the occasional blue fish for my Portuguese in-laws, but I mostly enjoy fishing for the thrill of the chase. When September comes I switch gears to chasing albies (false albacore) on the south side, between Craigsville Beach and the Vineyard.

As the fishing season is winding down I start the transition to hunting. In past years, the end of September marks the beginning of the hunting season with a trip to the Northeast Kingdom, VT for my annual upland trip. This year, however, in early September, I plan on doing a first ever bear hunting trip with hounds men in the NEK, (just one more endeavor to hijack my time). I have two bird dogs, German shorthair pointers, and my Dad has a springer that we like to get on wild birds as soon as possible. The warm weather and changing foliage makes for a great time to be in northern VT. The grouse, (or partridge, depending on where you’re from,) are still brooded up, so it makes for a better chance of shooting one.

Soon after the VT trip, the archery deer season in eastern Massachusetts kicks off. The past few years I have spent the opening week hunting Martha’s Vineyard. Although a challenge to find areas to hunt, the overall deer density keeps me coming back. After the opening week, I start to divide my time between bow hunting and bird hunting. Massachusetts Division of Wildlife does a great job with stocking pheasant in local WMA’s. I will also travel back to western, MA or southern VT for the woodcock flight. Periodically, if the weather is poor, and if the season is open, I’ll throw on my waders and get in a duck blind.

When the rut starts to heat up, it’s hard to get me out of a tree. Then, just like that it’s Thanksgiving, and I need to hurry up and make sure my shotgun is sighted in. Shotgun season opens on the Monday after Thanksgiving for two weeks in Massachusetts. The orange army hits the woods. As a bow hunter, I like making fun of the cigarette smoking, Elmer Fudd hat wearing, group of stump sitters. On the other hand, after a few months and many hours sitting in a tree stand, I enjoy getting on my feet and doing a big effort drive, (or push, depending on your region of origin).

After shotgun season, I always look forward to black powder. This time of year is our best chance at getting some tracking snow to hunt in down here in southeastern New England. It’s a last ditch effort and a great time to do some scouting.

When deer season ends on New Year ’s Eve, I am fortunate enough to live in a coastal waterfowl zone that keeps the season open for almost the entire month of January. When coastal duck ends, late season goose season is open, and coyote season is stays open until early March. This year I did a trip tp Markover Hunting Preserve in CT that stocks pheasant through March. Therefore, the excuse to my wife, “It’s only a couple months,” doesn’t quite hold true.

There is a vast array of things I have never tried. Fur trapping, squirrel hunting, mushroom collecting, raccoon hunting, ice fishing, and fly fishing, just to name a few. Not that I wouldn’t enjoy doing those things, I just don’t have enough of life’s most valuable commodity, time. I have a full time job, with regular overtime, along with a wife and kids at home. There is nothing more valuable than my time.

They use the term, Renaissance man, as a person who has an overall understanding in multiple different areas. I suppose I am somewhat of a Renaissance outdoorsman. I like to use the analogy of a doctor. You have general practice physicians, but most medical professionals find a specialty. Well, as an outdoorsman, I guess I never really found my specialty. I love it all. I am not an expert on any one thing, but just as my childhood coach stated, I’m pretty good at many things overall.

I think that everyone should find something they are passionate about. I think it’s important to our overall wellbeing as humans. The complexities lie in balancing act we all play with when it comes to our time. I’ll let you know when I figure that one out.

 Waterfowl 2020-2021

    I really didn't spend anytime hunting waterfowl until 2021, when deer season is done and I have a month of coastal ducks on top of another two months of late season geese. My first outing was an afternoon by the Scorton's Creek inlet in Sandwich. The wind and current pushed me into a nice little area, but I had to call it early because I had a struggle getting my kayak back to the launch, but the next morning I brought my friend Louie out to that spot and was able to bag a mallard.

    I didn't hit up most of my usual spots this year. I focused on finding new areas. One of those areas was Barnstable harbor. My buddy Tom brought out his bass boat, dressed up it to a duck boat and we made our way into the marshes on the back side of Sandy Neck. We saw A LOT of ducks. Huge groups of eiders and other sea ducks. We found a little hiding spot and were able to bang at a lot of birds. We only ended up getting one, but the action was constant.

    

    This year was the first time I got into the late season goose season. It runs late through February so its another activity to stretch out the year. The action was great, and by the late season with some snow on the ground we were able to hide next to a pile of packaged hay bails. Hunting the front side of snow storms made for a productive day.

 Upland Hunting 2020

    I had a really great upland season. The grouse broods in the north were on the upswing in their populations and conditions were just right. My dad and I did a trip to Quimby's Country in the Northeast Kingdom of VT. Using our past experience in the area, along with the Scout-N-Hunt app that shows all of the timber cutting, we were able to find a few really great areas that held a lot of birds. We didn't find many woodcock, but there were so many grouse around it didn't matter.  Quimby's is an old sportman's camp that they are trying to turn into a destination for weddings and tourists. The camps are old and run down, but they have character. Our small cabin had a wood stove, but not enough outlets to run the microwave and the small refrigerator at the same time. The camp is located in a pristine grouse hunting areas, surrounded by paper company land. They do not allow hunting on their property however.

    

Sometime around late October, I did a small day trip with my dad and buddy Steve. We hit up some favorite woodcock spots in southern VT. It was a beautiful day and we got into quite a bit of birds. We hit the migration just right.

I let both dogs run together around Francis Crane for pheasant. The culmination of the season on the last day when Luna had a solid point, with Piper going on point with an honor. I found the rooster on the ground and kicked him up, dropping him with the first shot. Piper retrieved it to hand, making for a happy handler. 

 Deer Hunting 2020

MV Trip #1

    I spent the early opening week of bow on a solo camping trip to the Vineyard. I went to the usual campground on the island and spent a few nights sleeping on an air mattress in the back of my truck. The very first night I was walking around with my climber on my back, looking for a decent spot to sit. Hunting these "public areas" its not uncommon to find what looks like a great area, only to find a stand right above your head. I was getting way too sweaty looking around in the 70 degree weather and decided on a spot on a knob full of oaks. The acorns were still falling while I settled in my climber and soon enough I saw a doe sneaking through some thick bedding area. I watched her for a while until she came back up the hill I was sitting on. She stood broad side at what I thought was 40 yards and put the 40 yard pin on her shoulder. I shot and immediately thought I shot over her back. I ranged out where she stood again and realized she was closer 30 yards. I later checked my arrow and realized I had just glanced her back. Not a great feeling.

    Luckily I sat in my stand until dark and just as last light settled upon me, another deer came down the hill and stood 20 yards completely broadside. The deer's head was down and was behind a tree, so I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it was a small buck when I found him in his final resting place. The antlers are a dark chocolate color, making it even harder to tell from a tree stand at last light. Perfect arrow placement led to a really easy track. In fact the blood was pouring so heavy that it pumped out towards another deer run that led me down the wrong track. I had to back track and then I realized what had happened, that the deer had run on the other side of a tree and within seconds of realizing this, I found my deer. Gutting, dragging, getting back to camp, hanging my deer, cleaning out the bed of my truck, showering, and blowing up my air mattress lead to a late night. But those are good problems to have on a bow hunting trip. I only had a few more deer encounters this trip, spooking a doe while getting out of a tree in the morning, and having deer stand underneath my stand until it was too dark to see anything. On a solo trip for meat in the freezer I was happy to be going home with one tag filled.  

MV Trip #2

    I went back to the Vineyard on a second trip on Nov 1 with a group of guys. My buddies, Louie, Tom, Mike, and my Dad. We rented an Air BNB that was kind enough to let a group of hunters use their property for the week.  I always envisioned that the deer density on the island would make for an amazing rut week. Not sure if the rut was later than I expected, but we did not see the deer movement I was hoping for. Sure, we saw A LOT of deer at night, in fields and crossing the roads, the island just has an insane amount of deer. BUT, while in our stands, we just didn't connect like we should have. My dad on the other hand, had himself a great week, shooting 2 does and a spike. All and all it was a fun week, just not sure I would do it again. Public access is tough, and if that isn't hard enough, this year with COVID-19, made everything more difficult. More human pressure, from other hunters, or just an increase in hikers, definitely had an effect on deer movement.

The Cape, Bow and Shotgun

    I had few encounters during the rest of bow season on the Cape. I didn't bow hunt Rehoboth at all this year because I was getting reports that the deer behavior was unusual because of all the acorns, they were not patterning to the same spots.

    I had many opportunities to capitalize during shotgun season. On opening day I got into a new spot I had set up with an old ladder stand. I wasn't expecting to see anything and was very lackadaisical in my mindset. I brought a coffee with me, (which I never do bowhunting) and sat with my shotgun propped up next to me. Sure enough, first thing I heard was the sound of a deer approaching over my left shoulder, and I did what everyone knows not to do and turned quickly to look. Sure enough a buck stood at 40 yards staring right at me, stomping his hoof. I knew I either had to wait for him to saunter off or I needed to get my gun and raise it quickly. I did the latter, which was the wrong move and the deer took off. Sitting there disappointed with myself another group of bucks came back towards me. I would later learn that there was a group of hunters pushing the area and the bucks had been jumped towards me. I watched them circle my stand at about 100-120 yards, and when I thought I had my best opportunity I took a poke at about 80 yards. Clean miss. My shot jumped these deer into the group pushing the area, they shot several time, (missing as well, thankfully.)

    A few days later I was doing a small group drive. My friend, Rob, dropped his cell phone and we spent the better part of the afternoon looking for it. The group of guys just wanted to walk back to the truck. I wasn't done yet, and as the sun set I walked off trail, towards the general direction of the truck. I ended up on another trail that ran along side a main road, and I figured I would follow it silently back to the parking area. As I crested a hill I saw movement. I saw antlers and a white tail. I shot. The deer stopped, put his head down. I had my red dot on his head, but I didn't want to ruin his antlers, so I never pulled the trigger on a second shot. I looked hard for blood that night but found nothing. I went back the next morning and scoured the area. I found my wadding, and a small amount of deer hair. This gave me a good and bad feeling. I knew I had hit it, but not well. I spent the entire day zig zagging back and forth. Towards the end of the day I was zig zagging through an area I thought looked like great bedding. Sure enough a doe popped up and I dropped her. I through a second shot in her just to be sure and then realized I was about 10 yards from the main trail and about 50 yards from the road. With so many hiker and bikers out on those trails, I had many eyes on my while tagging and gutting that doe, some supportive, some not so supportive. I never found the buck from the night before but at least I had a consolation prize for the freezer.

    

    Later in the year, during black powder season, I was hunting in a new spot in Plymouth with a friend when a coyote walked up on me. It was a large coyote with a beautiful blonde winter coat. I had help from my friend Chris, who is an experienced trapper, to skin it out and package it. I later sent it out to USA Fox and Furs to flesh and tan it.

Some Notable Trail Cam Pics from this Year