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.
It all started with a late afternoon hunt on Tuesday with my buddy from college. Cody and I got a little later start than we anticipated due to his lunch plans running long, but we headed out to a little spot on Alcoa gamelands I cyber-scouted via Google Maps and the interactive gameland maps on the NCWRC website. It was a raw day as we walked in, with the sky spitting a cold rain as temperatures were in the 40's at best. After walking around a bit, we finally got setup: Cody hunting an area where thinned pines tapered downhill towards a creek and me climbing a tree situated in a finger of pines that jutted out between two thick clear-cuts. Cody saw squirrels and I had a gorgeous gray fox slip through all around me right at dark thirty, but that was it for Tuesday. Still, it was nice to be able to enjoy a few hours sitting in a tree freezing my soaked butt off while coyotes yelped a few hundred yards away. And yes I am dead serious when I say that was nice!
We went back after it yesterday, this time meeting up at 9 a.m. for an hour drive and a midday hunt at yet another piece of the Alcoa gamelands that we checked out online. Immediatedly after leaving the roadbed and cutting through the tall pines we found a fresh rub and I just knew we would be in the deer. Cody setup in a creek bottom where the pines dropped off the side of a hill and I continued on down the bottom. Unfortunately I didn't realize we were on a peninsula and had to turn around 100 yards after leaving Cody since I couldn't get across either side of the creek due to the water being too deep. Eventually after working my way to the other side of the creek and skirting along the property line around a hillside I was able to drop back down into another creek bottom. A few hundred more yards of walking put me in a place where I could see across the creek and along the edge of a thick clear-cut as well as up and down the bottom I had been walking along, all while being hidden in an oak with a nice rub below me. Oh, and a major state highway could be heard and seen too. Fortunately that doesn't really bother me, so there I sat for the next 3 hours. And for the next 3 hours all I saw was squirrels. Sometimes I wish I would carry my .22 with me. All in all, it was another good day in the woods even though no deer where seen, though Cody was able to spy a bobcat sneaking along.
That brings us to today. Determined to get in a tree before 10 a.m. I set out by myself for another section of the area we hunted yesterday. This section was on the opposite side of that peninsula I mentioned above and while I didn't mean to end up hunting right there at that same peninsula, I did. On the sneaky walk in I wasn't able to cross a small creek since it was too wide and 1) I was afraid I'd sink intp the mud, 2) I didn't have on my rubber boots and 3) trying to work upstream would have required a machete and making too much noise to suit me on a frosty, still November morning. I was greeted with about 50-some Canada geese in the creek though, which was perfect since that is the spot I intend to waterfowl hunt in about 8 hours! After they all got up off the water, I headed along the edge of, you guessed it, another thick clear-cut and setup next to the creek after trying to make my way through the underbrush and out into the tall pines didn't work out how I planned (aka without sounding like a tank going through there). Warm sun, a chilly breeze and 5 hours in the stand resulted in another day of nothing but squirrels - and two hunters walking along the shore across the creek on yet a different piece of the gamelands.
All in all, it was a great time getting back in touch with Mother Nature and relaxing before 2 more weeks of work take me away from home. The good news is I'll have two weeks off once I get back. The bad news is I'll have just two weeks to, and I am crossing my fingers, see a deer (the first since September!) and put some meat in the freezer (15 years straight and counting of being able to do so). Here's to making it happen around Christmas time and hopefully knocking down a few ducks and geese in the morning!
-C.B.
We went back after it yesterday, this time meeting up at 9 a.m. for an hour drive and a midday hunt at yet another piece of the Alcoa gamelands that we checked out online. Immediatedly after leaving the roadbed and cutting through the tall pines we found a fresh rub and I just knew we would be in the deer. Cody setup in a creek bottom where the pines dropped off the side of a hill and I continued on down the bottom. Unfortunately I didn't realize we were on a peninsula and had to turn around 100 yards after leaving Cody since I couldn't get across either side of the creek due to the water being too deep. Eventually after working my way to the other side of the creek and skirting along the property line around a hillside I was able to drop back down into another creek bottom. A few hundred more yards of walking put me in a place where I could see across the creek and along the edge of a thick clear-cut as well as up and down the bottom I had been walking along, all while being hidden in an oak with a nice rub below me. Oh, and a major state highway could be heard and seen too. Fortunately that doesn't really bother me, so there I sat for the next 3 hours. And for the next 3 hours all I saw was squirrels. Sometimes I wish I would carry my .22 with me. All in all, it was another good day in the woods even though no deer where seen, though Cody was able to spy a bobcat sneaking along.
That brings us to today. Determined to get in a tree before 10 a.m. I set out by myself for another section of the area we hunted yesterday. This section was on the opposite side of that peninsula I mentioned above and while I didn't mean to end up hunting right there at that same peninsula, I did. On the sneaky walk in I wasn't able to cross a small creek since it was too wide and 1) I was afraid I'd sink intp the mud, 2) I didn't have on my rubber boots and 3) trying to work upstream would have required a machete and making too much noise to suit me on a frosty, still November morning. I was greeted with about 50-some Canada geese in the creek though, which was perfect since that is the spot I intend to waterfowl hunt in about 8 hours! After they all got up off the water, I headed along the edge of, you guessed it, another thick clear-cut and setup next to the creek after trying to make my way through the underbrush and out into the tall pines didn't work out how I planned (aka without sounding like a tank going through there). Warm sun, a chilly breeze and 5 hours in the stand resulted in another day of nothing but squirrels - and two hunters walking along the shore across the creek on yet a different piece of the gamelands.
All in all, it was a great time getting back in touch with Mother Nature and relaxing before 2 more weeks of work take me away from home. The good news is I'll have two weeks off once I get back. The bad news is I'll have just two weeks to, and I am crossing my fingers, see a deer (the first since September!) and put some meat in the freezer (15 years straight and counting of being able to do so). Here's to making it happen around Christmas time and hopefully knocking down a few ducks and geese in the morning!
-C.B.
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