October 31, 2007Congrats to a young bowhunter for his first deer
Tyler shot the deer on Saturday in Herndon and his dad said the kid is "still on cloud nine." He should be. Killing a free-ranging, non-baited deer with a bow is one of hunting's greatest challenges. Not only do you have to get close to the animal -- 25 yards or less for most of us -- but the animal has to be at the right angle (broadside or quartering away) and then you have to make the shot. And preparation starts long before you get up in a treestand, and not just on the practice range. Tyler, who's in his second year of bowhunting, took both his hunter education course and the International Bowhunting Education Foundation training course last year so he could be ready for this. Rod said Tyler can't wait to get back out there to try to get another one. Sounds like we've got another addict among our ranks. October 30, 2007The Ironman strikes again with a nice nine-pointer
I sure haven't found them in the two evenings I've been out since I got back from South Dakota. Saturday evening I got skunked. Yesterday I saw only one doe and she was about 300 yards away. I have faith that things will be better when I get back out there toward the end of the week. The chase is about to get rolling. October 25, 2007A special pheasant hunt in South Dakota
Dad grew up in Aberdeen, a town of about 27,000 in northeast South Dakota -- in the heart of pheasant country. According to state officials, the pheasant population is at historic highs, and the Aberdeen area is Ground Zero. The kill in the surrounding county last year was something like 136,000 birds. Dad and Uncle Jeff spent a lot of days knocking arounds those fields back in the late 50s and early 60s. But while Jeff still lives there and runs the family business (a seed supplier) Dad bolted west to Oregon in the summer of 1966 and hadn't been back to hunt since. The pheasant opener in South Dakota is almost surreal. Not only is it huge with the locals, but it's a huge tourist draw. Last year the state had nearly 100,000 non-resident pheasant hunters, about 10,000 more than residents. Most businesses in Aberdeen displayed "Welcome Hunters" banners. I think there might be some local resentment towards out-of-staters in certain circles. In fact, that might have contributed to my uncle getting bumped from two areas he planned to take us on Saturday and Sunday, respectively. Personally, the hospitality I experienced was incredible all the way around and I think that's normal. A hunter I met on the plane yesterday told me he was asking directions to a public hunting area on opening day when the landowner he was asking invited him to hunt his property. When our weekend plans fell through we had to scramble and the results weren't pretty. Fortunately I was able to hook up with lifelong Aberdonian Casey Weismantel, who works for the Aberdeen Conventions and Visitors Bureau. He invited us to hunt his family's property on Monday and Tuesday and it was quite an experience. We had to work pretty hard for our birds on Monday, but we got them. Tuesday's hunt was even better. At one point we were working a food plot and the pheasants were just pouring out of the thing. I shot some pictures and video and hope to get some of that stuff up here in the next few days. A big part of the fun was meeting new friends. One of the guys in the party was Dino Athanasiadia, a doctor from Greece who hunted the area for the first time last year and loved it so much he came back with his dog for 20 days of hunting this fall. The trip wasn't just about hunting, of course. I hadn't seen my uncle for nearly 20 years and it was great to reconnect with him. My cousin Ashley also came in for a couple of days with her three young ones. As always, it was great to spend time with Dad, too. I hope we can do something like this again, and sooner than later. October 17, 2007First bow kill of the season
The hunt was quick and exciting. The footage? Let's just say I'm not going to be putting the guys at Primos or Realtree out of jobs any time soon. But for shooting this thing myself (and also producing it, the first time I've done that) it could be worse. I hope to get a couple more deer (and some more footage) as the season progresses. Roanoke River stocked with trout, others too low for fishFellow sports department staffer Katrina Waugh just called in to say hordes of anglers were on the Ronaoke River at Wasena Park, a sure sign that the river had been stocked recently with trout. It actually got fish yesterday, which means today will probably be the best day for fishing. Because of the drought, the Roanoke River is among a fairly small number of waters that actually is in good enough shape for fish. Other streams, even those top-level "Class A" waters, are just trickles. They're probably cool enough for trout, but there's just not enough flow for a decent fishing experience. Trout stocking crews have had to focus on the decent waters. The question is, what will they do when they've hit all those streams and ponds once? Gary Martel, head of the Fisheries Division at the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, said his team is working on possible solutions. One option includes veering from the normal stocking protocol and hitting the better waters again. Adding to the dilemma, water levels are also suffering at hatcheries. So it's not like the agency can just put stocking on hold and keep the fish. They have to get rid of some of them. An easy option would be to dump the excess fish in a big reservoir. That wouldn't do anything toward the program's mission of spreading fish around to provide fair and equitable recreation. With rain in the forecast, we can only hope low water becomes less of a concern in coming weeks.
October 14, 2007A trophy smallmouth for Hank Lindahl
October 12, 2007A great buck for a great friend
There were files attached so I figured something good was coming. It was -- several pictures of Freddy with this awesome seven-pointer he killed with a bow Wednesday on his property in Franklin County. This couldn't have happened to a better or more deserving guy. Freddy is one of the most generous, good-hearted guys I know. He likes big bucks and big gobblers, just like the rest of us. But he also realizes that hunting is about so much more than inches of antler or lengths of beards and spurs. When he says "Call me if you need help tracking one," he's not just saying that. He means it. I know because a bunch of us have taken him up on his offer. And, while he's smiling in this picture, I guarantee he would have been smiling just as big -- bigger, probably -- had one of his buddies killed this monster. If his wife, Amy, had killed this buck, Freddy wouldn't stop smiling until next March. From a purely practical standpoint, he earned this buck, too. Freddy has made a huge investment -- most of it in the form of sweat -- in improving the wildlife habitat on his relatively small property. He's not taking it so far as to make things unfair, of course. He's just done some logging and put in some wildlife plots. His observations and trail cam pictures indicated that his work was paying off as there had been some good deer were around. He had several great pictures of this buck. But we all know that getting trail cam pictures of deer and actually killing those deer are two entirely different things. Freddy, who puts in his time in the stand, already had a couple of close calls this season with good bucks before this monster walked into a shooting lane 18 yards away. The buck didn't go far after the shot. The antler spread is 21 inches outside; 19 inches inside and the buck weigheed 215 pounds on the hoof. (That's not a guess: Freddy has a picture of the scale to prove it.) This buck will be tough to top, but I wouldn't be surprised if Freddy gets another big one this year. He's got it coming. October 10, 2007Roanoke River delayed harvest waters got trout todayThe DGIF stocked the Roanoke River's two delayed harvest sections with trout today. One section runs adjacent to Green Hill Park just outside Salem. The other section is in Salem between the Colorado Street Bridge and the Apperson Road Bridge near the Apperson/Electric Road intersection. HERE's a basic map of the sections. If you don't know exactly where they are, you'll need a city map or need to use an Internet mapping service to locate the stretches. Delayed harvest waters are catch and release only (until the end of May), and anglers must use artificial lures. And, no, Power Bait, as artificial as it may be, does not count. Too hot to hunt? Not for Wayne Huffman
That changed earlier this year when Huffman sold his inventory to High Country Outfitters in Lexington. Huffman still works there and, as he says, "gets to play with all the goodies." But he doesn't have the stress of ownership. And he gets to hunt. While most of use were enjoying our air-conditioned homes on Monday evening, Huffman was in his stand. It was hot, but deer were moving. He had a number of whitetails around him but held out in the hopes a big boy would show up. One did, and Huffman shot the buck at a range of just 5 yards. It's a mainframe 8-pointer with three kickers. A gorgeous buck, for sure. Send me your stories and pictures and I'll do my best to post as many as possible in the coming weeks, when hunting should really heat up as the weather cools down. October 9, 2007Cooler weather should make hunting more bearable
I haven't been out since opening day, when I hunted both in the morning and afternoon. The morning hunt wasn't too bad. I was actually shocked when I walked out of my house and it was raining. I don't like to bowhunt in the rain but had a feeling that was just an isolated shower. Sure enough the roads were dry within a mile of my house. About 7:30 a.m. I had two yearling bucks come by. They were focused on the white oak near my stand. A spike got to within 5 yards and I could have shot him. The four-pointer didn't get as close. He eventually winded me and they both got out of there. That was it for the morning. I am not a trophy snob and I hate to think I might sound like one when I say I'm not shooting yearling bucks. We get three buck tags and I've never used more than one in a season. Actually, I've killed only two bucks in Virginia heading into my 10th season of serious hunting. So it's not like using a tag on a yearling is going to force me to lose a later opportunity at a monster. But, where I hunt the deer populations tend to be pretty strong. The way you manage those herds is to shoot does. But, hey, I admit I'd rather shoot a mature buck than a yearling. Every time I pass up a yearling, that deer has a chance of reaching 2 or 3 years old, or older. But I have no problem with someone shooting a young buck, especially if that hunter has limited opportunities. My buddy shot a four-pointer Saturday morning and it was great. For a guy like him who doesn't get to hunt much, any deer with a bow is something to be proud of. Anyway, that evening I hunted another stand. I had a co-worker with me, videoing the hunt. It was a bust. It was brutally hot and we had mosquitos buzzing all around us. Plus we were covered up with cattle. Still, we were in a stand of three big white oaks and they were raining nuts so I figured we had a chance. We didn't. I hope to get out Thursday evening, when we're finally supposed to get a break on this weather. October 5, 2007Like to crunch deer numbers? Check out this database.Last year, hunters in Bedford County reported killing 8,215 whitetails. Amazingly, in 1961 -- just 46 years ago -- the recorded kill in the county was 0. Zip. Zilch. Nada. The next year hunters in Bedford killed only 30 whitetails. I've had single hunts in nearby Botetourt County where I've seen twice as many deer. I'm fascinated by that kind of data, which the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries has posted on its Internet site. We recently obtained the database and have posted it in searchable form HERE on our Web site. No matter how you crunch the numbers, it's clear that the glory days of deer hunting in Virginia are now. On bow opener, a mix of excitement and frustrationVirginia's early archery season for deer opens tomorrow. It's a day I've been looking forward to for about nine months. As eager as I am to get back out there, I'm not as excited as I should be, my enthusiasm tempered by temperatures. Forecasters are calling for a high tomorrow of 84 -- another nice August day, as I told my buddy Freddy McGuire during a scouting trip yesterday afternoon. The problem is it's October. Actually, that afternoon high isn't such a bad thing. Worse is the projected low, which isn't supposed to get below 60. Plus, it's humid. Yuck. Deer move better when it's cold, but they'll be moving tomorrow morning and evening even if it's feeling tropical. We saw a number of deer late yesterday evening. I'm confident I'll see something tomorrow, although getting a shot will be another story. It's just uncomfortable to hunt in the heat. There's also the issue of dealing with a downed deer. A quick recovery is pretty much mandatory. And, unless you have a cooler, you're not going to want to hang a deer outside when it's not dropping below 60 degrees at night, even for a day. So, that means a kill will lead to at least two hours of skinning and quartering the thing so it fits in my spare fridge. Last year I got really lucky and shot a nice buck on opening day. My chances of duplicating that feat are slim, and that's fine. My bowhunting philosophy is to shoot any mature deer that presents a good shot, and I'll be happy as heck if that's a doe. Of course I could just blow off tomorrow and wait for cooler weather, which appears headed to the region by late next week. But I'll get out there for a couple of hours around dawn and dusk and see what happens. For everyone else whose season starts tomorrow, good luck and be safe. October 1, 2007Franklin County JAKES event a huge smashA co-worker took his 8-year-old buddy to this past weekend's National Wild Turkey Federation JAKES event at Franklin County's Waid Recreation Area. The kid, my friend said, "had a blast." Put on by the Franklin County Longbeards chapter of the NWTF, this youth event keeps getting bigger and better. Last year it earned the NWTF's national award for best JAKES event of its size. Organizers estimated that this year's event drew more than 400 youngsters. That puts it up there with the popular JAKES event put on each fall by the Rockbridge County chapter of the NWTF. The Rockbridge event, which was also this weekend (I haven't heard how it went), has been a regular national winner of its category and it will be interesting to see who comes out on top now that they're going head-to-head.
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About this blog
While growing up in rural Southern Oregon, Mark Taylor developed a passion for the outdoors while he and his younger brother tagged along with their father on fishing, hunting and camping adventures. Graduating from Northwestern University in 1988, Taylor spent four years as an officer in the U.S. Navy based in Norfolk before moving into journalism. After five years writing about the military for a Norfolk-based publishing company, he became the outdoors editor at The Roanoke Times in 1998. He lives in Roanoke with his wife and twin daughters. .....Advertisement.....
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