That moment when... even though it's been raining like gang-busters, you've decided to man-up and you've decided you're going out there... because now we're already into February so there's only soo many weekends left to get for this Bobcat Tag.
So you get prepared, make sure a day or two before you've picked-out the gear you'll need... so you're not rushing and forget something... and you drive out there... get all suited-up, get into your pack and proceed up the trail.
Then... you get to the creek. Only... it's not just a "creek" anymore, it's a freaking RIVER. You think, NO worries... just go over to the alternate crossing point. Only it's all under water!
Kept having to go further and further upstream trying to look for someplace where there was enough rocks, or enough ANYTHING to cross. Got over onto some island of rocks and trees... and there was a downed tree that somebody had tied a rope hand-hold to one on the island part and over to a branch off the fallen tree... but there was still another like 7 to 10 feet of water past that!
And it's butt-thirty in the morning, so this is all under headlamp.
So it reaches a point where you're like "Ugh, what am I doing? Bump this!" We'll come back there after all that water has had a chance to run-off.
So plan B. The ultra-thick flatlands. I saw the tail-end of something on my first set. Whatever it was, wouldn't commit.
Did a ton more sets... a ton! Some withe eCaller and motion decoy. Some with just eCaller. Some with Mouth-calls and motion decoy, and some just with mouth-calls ... just so I could change it up and try a bunch of different tactics and try to figure out what works out there.
I know there's Grey Fox out there (hence the mouth calls), and I chased-down a Coyote on the road with my truck and ran him up to see how fast he could run and for how long.... on the glorious night I got my first deer out there.
Sigh... but not today Jack. Not today. About 2pm I called it. Figured that'd get me back home in time to attend our yearly invite to a friends home for SuperBowl. And by then nice warm food was soundin' pretty good.
Pssh... and dig this... once I'm out of the NF lands... wouldn't you know it... I come around a corner... BOOM...two big beautiful Coyotes... non-chalantly crossing the road. And they were more interested with looking up into this big Maple tree than they were with this big ol F150 truck coming at them on the other side of the road!
They looked a lil dirty too I thought. Probably from all this rain makin' mud everywhere.
And this is likely to be my last trip out for February, as after next weekend the house is getting painted and I'm having new windows installed (finally getting around to replacing the leaky 1959 windows), so gotta move some storage units away from the house, and inside do a bit of cleaning and move stuff away from window openings since I figure they'll need to be able to get at'em.
So you get prepared, make sure a day or two before you've picked-out the gear you'll need... so you're not rushing and forget something... and you drive out there... get all suited-up, get into your pack and proceed up the trail.
Then... you get to the creek. Only... it's not just a "creek" anymore, it's a freaking RIVER. You think, NO worries... just go over to the alternate crossing point. Only it's all under water!
Kept having to go further and further upstream trying to look for someplace where there was enough rocks, or enough ANYTHING to cross. Got over onto some island of rocks and trees... and there was a downed tree that somebody had tied a rope hand-hold to one on the island part and over to a branch off the fallen tree... but there was still another like 7 to 10 feet of water past that!
And it's butt-thirty in the morning, so this is all under headlamp.
So it reaches a point where you're like "Ugh, what am I doing? Bump this!" We'll come back there after all that water has had a chance to run-off.
So plan B. The ultra-thick flatlands. I saw the tail-end of something on my first set. Whatever it was, wouldn't commit.
Did a ton more sets... a ton! Some withe eCaller and motion decoy. Some with just eCaller. Some with Mouth-calls and motion decoy, and some just with mouth-calls ... just so I could change it up and try a bunch of different tactics and try to figure out what works out there.
I know there's Grey Fox out there (hence the mouth calls), and I chased-down a Coyote on the road with my truck and ran him up to see how fast he could run and for how long.... on the glorious night I got my first deer out there.
Sigh... but not today Jack. Not today. About 2pm I called it. Figured that'd get me back home in time to attend our yearly invite to a friends home for SuperBowl. And by then nice warm food was soundin' pretty good.
Pssh... and dig this... once I'm out of the NF lands... wouldn't you know it... I come around a corner... BOOM...two big beautiful Coyotes... non-chalantly crossing the road. And they were more interested with looking up into this big Maple tree than they were with this big ol F150 truck coming at them on the other side of the road!
They looked a lil dirty too I thought. Probably from all this rain makin' mud everywhere.
And this is likely to be my last trip out for February, as after next weekend the house is getting painted and I'm having new windows installed (finally getting around to replacing the leaky 1959 windows), so gotta move some storage units away from the house, and inside do a bit of cleaning and move stuff away from window openings since I figure they'll need to be able to get at'em.
