Hunting 2017

Hunting Fall 2017

 My 2017 hunting season started off with a trip to the Northeast Kingdom in Vermont. I had a brand new puppy named Luna, (another GSP) that I got in June and was anxious to see how she would do with wild birds. Luna was not even "whoa" broken yet. I just wanted her to get a feel for finding wild birds. She had seen a few pigeons and a few quail and I had gone through a few drills to get her used to gunfire but this was all new to her. She did more than impress me at only 6 months old.

My Dad also had a new puppy named Ruby, an English Springer Spaniel. We were hunting both puppies in a woodcock habitat area in the Silvio Conte Forest. Ruby put up a woodcock, my Dad shot it, and Luna found it.

The next day we were hunting in a cover that looked good for woodcock, thick alders and wetland, but it ended up holding a bunch of grouse. My older dog Piper had injured her elbow early on, so while she was down and out, Luna got the call from the bullpen. We must of had a dozen or so grouse flushes until I finally had an opportunity to shoot.  I wasn't sure if I had hit it as I watched it glide over a hill. Luna was right on it and I was very pleasantly surprised to find her on top of it when I got over the hill. Luna had her first grouse at 6 months old.

 Deer hunting was frustrating to say the least. I did not see any deer in the woods during the early season. I focused on hunting on Cape Cod mainly. Things did not happen until the first week of November. I was not able to get in the woods until Friday that week because I had training for work. Friday afternoon I bumped a nice 6 pointer with a couple does while walking into my stand. I used a new attractant, "Cooks Fatal Attraction" doe in heat. I put it out 20 yards from my stand with a scent wick and it sure did its job.  A really nice 8 point came in and stood right underneath that scent wick with a large tree right in front of his vitals. While he was standing there he locked onto me. He stood there for another few minutes, as I stood as still as I could, trying not to let my adrenaline get the best of me. Finally, he did an about face and started walking away. I made the mistake of thinking I should take a shot at a deer facing completely away from me. Luckily I had a clean miss. I never found my arrow but I'm pretty sure I buried it. I was heartbroken to say the least. Later that night I found him on my trail cam, along with the other six point I had seen earlier.

Here is the deer I missed, on a licking branch, earlier that morning.

 Later on in the year, I did a drive during muzzleloader. It was bitter cold, with the wind howling that day. We were wrapping up our push when I heard a loud bang and watched a small doe run in a circle. Everyone was taking a shot at it and it came within 10 yards of me. I pulled the trigger and heard, "click". Later I discovered my breach plug was full of debris and frozen over. Its not like I blew the opportunity of a lifetime, but it was a symbolic way to cap the season off. A year of disappointment and frustration.

Video of a Fisher Cat

 I did some upland bird and waterfowl hunting, but with Piper out with her injury I really didn't get out as much as I usually do. Luna had a great day at the Myles Standish quail field, where we limited out in less than an hour.  On Thanksgiving morning, I stopped off in Norton at a pheasant stocked WMA. Piper, (feeling better at this time) and Luna, hunted together for the first time. They bumped a female pheasant and I dropped it.

I did not get out to duck hunt until the late season, and only went a few times without any luck.

Luna with her 3 bobwhites

Pheasant from Thanksgiving morning

Luna had another good outing, across the street from my parents house. She pointed and retrieved two woodcock. 

Louie and Tom stuck in the mud

Striper Fishing Cape Cod Bay 2017

Striper Fishing Trip June 2017

Click Link for Video^

Turkey 2017

Turkey Hunt 2017

This was my biggest bird to date...and I didn't even have to get up early to shoot it.  24 lbs and a 11.5 inch beard taken on Cape Cod.

2016 Hunting

2016 Hunting Season

The 2016 hunting season began with a trip to Maine. It has been a few years coming, and finally I was able to make the trip. I went up with a group of guys, my dad, Louie and his father as well as Louie's buddy Matt and his father. We stayed in a log cabin on a great property in Caribou, ME. We spent two days hunting some old logging trails a few miles from our cabin. The other day we took the journey to the North Maine Woods Inc roads. We got up early and drove to Ashland ME. We checked in at the logging road gate and then drove into the big Maine woods on dirt logging roads to mile marker 44. We checked a few roads but only flushed one grouse that I ended up finding and shooting on the other side of the road. All in all it was a great trip. We ended up shooting 1 grouse per day, which sounds slow, but it was my first successful grouse hunt. After talking with a few other people hunting that weekend, we weren't the only ones seeing a lack of birds. The first day was the most productive, starting off with Louie's father shooting a grouse, my father shooting a woodcock and a snow shoe hare (pictured below). Piper did well, finding many grouse, or PAHTRIDGE, (as the Mainers say), especially on our last day. She is still out running her nose and not holding a long enough point, something we will be working on this off season.

I spent a lot of time duck hunting this year. In the early season I saw mostly mallards and a few black ducks. Towards the colder end of the season I saw teal and mainly buffleheads. Louie and Tom came down several times this year and were only skunked once. My usual blind on the Parker's River is becoming heavily used and I believe the heavy pressure is affecting the bird population and travel patterns negatively. I sought out a few other areas, Bells Neck and Plashes Pond, but have yet to find the honey hole that produces like Parker's River has. Piper did a fantastic job, especially with cold weather and blind retrieves. We need to work on keeping her in her blind until I send her, she runs towards flying birds after the shot.  I tied her off to a tree and made her sit until I sent her, but I also wanted her to mark the downed birds. The current and tide is strong on the Parker's River. I want Piper to see the bird go down, so she can have a head start on them, even more so when she has to dodge heavy ice flows like she was this year on a day of hunting in 4 degree weather.

This year I shot my first deer on Cape Cod. I scouted an area near my house in Barnstable. On an early Saturday morning, I packed in my climber tree stand to an area I had found some sign in a natural funnel between two ponds. I became a little disoriented getting set up in the dark but not moments after getting set in my tree stand I heard something headed my way. It was a few minutes after shooting light but I was having a hard time seeing what was headed my way. I finally saw that it was a deer and waited for the perfect broadside shot. When I went to shoot, I could barely see the pins through my peep sight. I made a lucky shot and double lunged with a pass through. The deer ran about 100 yards and died. When I found my deer, I was pleased to see it was a buck, about a year and a half old 5 pointer.

 Coincidentally that day, my dad, who had spent quite a few hours in a stand across the street from his house, finally put a good shot on a buck that walked within 25 yards. He hadn't shot a deer with a bow since the 1980's, so needless to say, he was excited.

2016 fishing

2016 striper fishing took off with my first boat purchase. I bought a 16 foot center console and mainly set out from Barnstable Harbor. I also purchased a bow mounted minn kota trolling motor, the riptide ulterra with IPilot. This was a costly item, but worth every penny, especially doing the type of inshore fishing I did inside Barnstable harbor. I mainly used lead core line to jig in the spring, as well as throwing top water. In the summer I switched to tube and worm and then once the fall run started I dropped live eels as well as tube and worm. I spent a lot more time on the water this year and caught a lot more fish. I went a few times with a co-workers Brian and Eccleston on Brian's boat. I followed my dad, and his friends Rob and Fordo in the spring off Race Point. In the fall I took Tracy's cousin out and landed a couple slobs.

2016 Turkey Season

2016 - I was able harvest my first Cape Cod gobbler. I walked into a group of birds. I took a few steps back and set up a jake and a hen decoy. After making a few calls the birds walked in from the other side of a large sand pit. The first tom that walked in, I took. It successfully dropped while the two other birds with it looked on.

I saved my second tag for fall, but never came across any birds while bow hunting.

2015 season

2015 season

The turkey season started off with a trip to Rehoboth to hunt with Louie. We had no luck at our first spot so we headed to another spot for a late morning hunt. We successfully ambushed a few birds making there way through the field/ sand pit. The terrain is a gravel pit that makes it look like you're hunting in the desert. We set up next to a big rock and put the decoys about around 50 yards. The birds were hesitant to come in, one long beard followed by a bunch of jakes. I took a poke at the long bird at approximately 60 yards. The bird dropped. Louie attempted the long shot on the jakes, but it proved to be too far. The long beard lay on the ground, wounded and dazed but not yet dead. I took a second shot, but too our surprise the bird got up and ran off down the road. We checked the area but could find the long beard. That was the extent of my turkey hunting season.

With this being my first year on the cape, I focused a lot of my time on fishing from my Nucanoe. I launched out of grey's beach for the most part, but also tried Bone Hill Road. I fished Barnstable Harbor with my Minnkota trolling motor. I caught a few schoolies, but only one keeper.  I used a tube and worm mostly, but caught some smaller fish further up the creeks in shallow water with small top water plugs.

I was completely skunked during deer season. I stayed with Louie for a few days opening week of bow, and then my father came down for the first few days of shotgun. Opening day I took a long shot at a group of does crossing in front of me. I watched it for about an hour while they grazed in the field in front of me. I thought it was about an 80 yard shot, but it proved to be much long, probably around 100-110 yards. The one thing that did work was that the shot sent the deer running towards my dad's stand. My father shot a small doe. We checked the area and found a lot of hair and blood at the initial site, but could not find the actual deer. The blood trail ran dry, so we just gridded it off and checked the area without any luck. Later that day we did a push with a group of guys. My dad shot at another doe. I watched it limp away. The deer ran into a cemetery and then back into the woods. We tracked it down and another guy in the group dropped it. After we started to gut it we realized that the deer had been badly wounded previously. It was gangrene and infected. It looked as if the deer had been hit by a car awhile ago and had not died yet. We were able to put it out of its misery. I was able to take a small coyote during shotgun season.

No luck with deer hunting, it was a good thing bird hunting was a different story. I did a lot more duck hunting on the cape. I was able to invite my buddies, Jake, Louie, Tom and his son Josh down a few times to experience what Cape Cod had to offer. I shot a number of buffelheads and a few Mergansers.

As for upland hunting Piper is still out running her nose but as I already have shown in a previous post, she has really honed in on woodcock. Woodcock don't run as much as a pheasant and she finds it easier to point them for that reason. We did an early season VT trip with no grouse but a few woodcock each day.  I was also able to get out the day before my sister's wedding for a few more. I brought Piper to Crane WMA in Falmouth for the first time and we were able to shoot both a running rooster and a hen.