-C.B.
Every summer it seems the masses head out. Where, while to their local river, lake, stream, creek and/or mud puddle to chase a fish so stout. It is you they chase oh delicious one, your white flesh flaking right off of the bones. Only after being rolled in flour, seasoned with salt and pepper and fried golden brown do you produce yummy moans. You are what steamy summer nights are made for as well as cold winter days. That is when the hardcore find the largest of your brothers and sisters to tame. From bullheads to flat heads and channels or blues, shoot sometimes people catch a behemoth Mekong or two. We load up with chicken livers and hot dogs while the crazy among us use soap. It is never in vane as it doesn't take long for those nibbles to give us hope. Myself, I used a dead shiner on Mountain Island and you took the bait. Matt, well he used a piece of sausage on his newly made jugs that you obviously did not hate. That Channel tipped the scales at 6 lbs and the other 3 weighed less. All in all a great Friday night, especially with no fish cleaning to make a mess. -C.B.
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Like I said on Wednesday, Friday's we would be bringing to you a photo that we've either dug up from our collection or one we found while browsing the net that we just had to share. For the inaugural Photo of the Week I was going to go with a picture that came across my Facebook News Feed today which was a photo of a riverside Wisconsin sunset. Unfortunately I can't seem to find it again, so this go around I'll go with one of, in my opinion, the best pictures I have ever taken. With that said, enjoy the view of a distant Grandfather Mountain basking in the morning sun on an October morning.
-C.B. 04/21/2012 - Avian-X LCD Hen Decoys I finally had the chance to get out and do a morning of Turkey hunting. I've never done much and really want to get some more experience and get my first Gobbler under my belt. The only way to gain experience is to get out and give it a shot. One of my buddies from high school Derrick Sherwood just returned from his tour with the Air Force in Qatar and he was of course ready to get out and do some hunting. I got to Goldsboro Friday night and got everything ready for the next morning. We planned to hunt the land around Derrick's house. I have a bunch of new Turkey hunting gear that I will review in up coming posts which include two new Avian-X LCD Turkey hen decoys. These decoys are the most realistic, packable decoys I have ever had the pleasure of using! I'll go into more details on them in a post to come soon! I woke up around 5am on Saturday morning and got the coffee brewing and had to wake up Derrick who I guess was plotting to sleep the entire morning away..haha....We made it out to our spot in the corner of a field, set up up our small ground blind as there was a drainage ditch that went around the field so there was no easy way to conceal ourselves inside of the hardwoods. With the blind set and the decoys in place we started to do some calling. Derrick was using a slate call and I had a couple of new Quaker Boy diaphragm calls that I had been practicing on. The fog was heavy and low on Saturday and we did not get any responses from our wild counterparts that we were trying to entice! However it was a great morning out in the woods and gave us some much needed time to work on our calling techniques. I've attached a couple of photos from the hunt as well as a short video showing our setup. I hope to get out at least one more time before the end of the season. -Paul Nicolucci I'm a little late getting to this due to house closing items and getting started on a new project at work (thankfully I am finally back home in NC!), but here it is none the less, in all it's changing grammar tense glory. Let me set the stage for you: April 14th, 2012. 3:59 a.m. brings you to my pitch black apartment and a crowded bed consisting of myself, my wife and our 92-lb doberman mix. The silence is broken up at 4:00 a.m. by the alarm I had set on my phone, thus beginning another year of what I consider the most frustrating season there is for me as a hunter: Turkey Season. Luckily this year I've got an Ace-in-the-Hole by the name of Derek, my buddy Seth's neighbor who loves the outdoors as much as we both do, and is a much better turkey hunter than I could even claim to be. So with that in mind, I actually looked forward to that alarm going off and hopefully seeing my dry streak end when it comes to getting my hands around the neck of ol' Tom Turkey. I fought through the morning fog that is waking up, getting all my stuff thrown into the Jeep and making the 20-minute drive over to Seth and Derek's neighborhood without any issues. After a quick breakfast (gotta love New Yorkers like Derek and Paul who love a hot breakfast before hitting the field!), we loaded up Derek's truck and were off to public land in the South Mountains along the Cleveland, Rutherford and Burke county lines. The hour and half long drive was a race against the rising sun and breaking daylight, but we were fortunate to race up the mountain, guns and my video camera in tow, just as the Spring woods were waking up. We settled in along a road bed running along the spine of a ridge dropping off the side of the mountain. Gobblers were sounding off below us left and right as night turned to morning, starting our waiting game along that road bed. While all the action seemed to be below us, around 7:30 (or was it 8?) we heard something walking just below our ambush spot in the creek drainage on the opposite side of the road. We waited, debating whether our ears were playing tricks on us or we actually had some kind of animal moving our way. Suddenly I hear Derek yell in a whisper, "Turkey!" and get ready to make a move to a shooting position. After a few seconds, I see a head pop out from behind a bush, then a neck and finally a whole Butterball turkey body. The hen scratched the leaves, feeding her way along the drainage without a clue that two camo clad hunters were waiting to see if she had a fired up gobbler behind her. It turns out she didn't and as we lost sight, and sound, of her, we decided to stick it out on this particular roadbed another 30 minutes or so, hoping a lonely tom would come in looking for our live decoy. When it became apparent we would have to go find Mr. Lonely ourselves, the all familiar sound of crunching leaves made an appearance again, this time coming from the direction of where the hen had went. Once again, Derek yelled while whispering that it was a turkey and of course that was followed by me seeing a head, then a neck and finally what turned out to be the same Butterball turkey body. We watched and videoed the hen scratching and feeding, hoping this would be the time that a gobbler would silently come in strutting to his demise but it just wasn't in the cards. Once she was gone from sight, we gained the 600-vertical feet as fast as we could to the saddle above where the hen had went, trying to either cut-off her and any turkey that may be with her if they decided to go up the mountain or try to coax an old Tom from off the top of the mountain. We thought it had worked when we heard a few clucks and purrs coming from the thick undergrowth below us, but again our efforts didn't pay off. The rest of the day was spent listening to the wind howl up top while working our way along the side of the mountain, just below the top. Another setup didn't produce even a peep so back down we went, setting up one more time along one of the many small creeks in the area before having to call it a day. Even if some would consider that kind of day a bust, the fact that we got some good video of a turkey being a turkey, great audio of gobbling off in the distance and important "recon" information about the turkeys in that area (that will make more sense whenever I get around to typing up this past weekend's recap) made it hardly that. We may have been unsuccessful in filling our tags or getting to lay eyes on strutting gobbler, but it was a worthwhile time being able to get out in the woods with a new hunting partner as well as finally being able to share a turkey hunting adventure with someone instead of going after them solo. Until next time, may your shot always be true. -C.B. Work has kept Paul busy and I've been slammed with work and trying to get the building process started on my home, but we haven't forgotten about this place, our outlet to sharing the outdoors with you and everyone else on the internet. To get us back into the swing of things, and since it's the first of the month, it is about time I got around to posting the monthly calendar for what you can see happening in the water and woods of North Carolina. So courtesy of the North Carolina Wildlife Federation check out the following this month:
February 1: Spring waterfowl migrations begin. February 2: Groundhogs are still hibernating, so you probably won't see one out seeking its shadow (though it is possible on a warm day). February 3: Atlantic sturgeon are migrating to their upriver spawning areas. February 4: Youth Waterfowl Day (Take a kid hunting) February 6: The Neuse River waterdog, a large, permanently aquatic salamander found only in the Neuse and Tar river systems, is most readily encountered during this time of year. February 11: Gray squirrel litters are born. February 14: VALENTINES DAY!!!! February 15: Spotted and mole salamanders breed in temporary woodland pools with the first heavy rains. February 16: Wood ducks are seeking out nest sites. February 17: Rainbow trout are spawning. February 21: Four-toed salamanders begin nesting. These uncommon amphibians conceal their eggs in moss hummocks or sedge tussocks around temporary pools, usually remaining with the eggs until they hatch. February 23: Gopher frogs begin breeding in the Coastal Plain and Sandhills. February 26: American toads begin calling in the Piedmont. February 27: Brook trout eggs are hatching. February 28: Pickerel frogs are breeding. February 29: Hunting season ends for Bobcat, Crow, Quail, Rabbit, and both Gray and Red squirrel. -C.B. So with work keeping me busy and away from home, coupled with being a newlywed, my hunting time this Fall has been reduced to say the least. When you couple this with the fact that I have been working in KY and now Indiana, both home to some whooper bucks, well, I have been salivating at the chance to get back out in the field. Luckily I was off this week and I was able to do just that.
Well, not really, but these guys fishing off the NC coast got the surprise of a lifetime (for down here at least) - and video to boot - when this 18-foot Great White came swimming right by their boat. Check out the article from WRAL on this as well as the video below.
-C.B. While most look forward to eating turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce whenever the 4th Thursday in November rolls around, I am sure I am not alone when I say that as a hunter I look forward to getting out in the field that Holiday weekend. This year was no different as I was able to get out to hunt on Wednesday afternoon and Thanksgiving morning, both hunts happening in the small strip of woods behind my grandfathers house in the foothills of North Carolina. Not my typical hunting grounds, I've walked around those woods ever since I was just a little boy who never thought I'd have a beard (now at 26 that has changed, having not shaved since early October!), so I know them like the back of my hand. Sitting in that ladder stand watching the creek bottom, hardwood ridge and thickets, I was able to relax and unwind, letting the past 14 days of work leave my mind. And I am pretty sure I daydreamed about all those Indiana deer (especially the two big bucks!) I saw just a few days earlier, hoping their Southern cousin who made the rubs just a few yards from me would come strolling by. As luck would have it, he didn't, nor did any of his female counterparts, but those two hunts were exciting as always. Especially when one squirrel decided he wanted to come up the tree my stand was in to get a better look at me. It's amazing how curious some can be while others will take off up a tree at the slightest movement. I hope everyone has had and will continue to have a happy Thanksgiving and be safe in all their outdoors adventures!
-C.B. Wow, time flies when you are busy with work and try to squeeze in hunts. Makes me forget that I need to put my hunts into print when they are all said and done so I can share them with you guys and look back on them days, months and even years later. All that being said, let me fill you guys in on how my first muzzleloader hunt of the year went back at the end of October.
I was able to get out for the last weekend of the Central muzzleloader season here in NC on Saturday. I hunted a spot where I had success with the bow last year, waking up to some great cold morning weather with a temperature of about 37 degrees! I arrived to the parking area and found one other guy who was hunting with his bow and had a quick conversation with him to see where he planned to hunt. Quick piece of advice: It's always a good idea to do this so that you don't hunt too closely to someone else and you especially need to know where everyone is, if possible, when on public land.
I got to my stand location at around 7 a.m. and settled into my tree as the sun was rising! The sun came up and the birds started to chirp...but no deer! I heard a few shots in the distance and by noon I had not heard much action for a couple of hours, so I packed it up for the day; but hey, a day in the woods is better than a day in the office! Even though I did not get a shot or even see a deer, it was still a very enjoyable morning. Especially since I find sitting in a tree one of the most relaxing things I do! -Paul Nicolucci |
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