chowder

As the season progresses (normally) the opening at T-Falls can get tight (watch your transom toys) and occasionally the bubbler goes on the blink. Usually there is enough people launching after xmas time that the status of the launch becomes common knowledge. Not too far over to Watkins anyway if T-Falls becomes a problem.BRING SAND W/ YOU WHEN U GO WINTER FISHING

With all due respect I wouldn't recommend the 17/22 mag rim fires past 120 yds . I have a 22mag & used to use it during deer season for dogs but have had mixed results w/ it >120yds. I really like the 22-250 for long range yote work w/ the Hornady Superformance 50 grain V-max but did take 2 yotes w/ my new Savage model 11 .243 using the regular Hornady 100 grain BTSP cartridges this past deer season. Both shots were only 80+- yds and quite frankly I didn't think there was a lot of expansion but I don't pelt em anyway.We will carry the 243 as our 2cd rifle this year instead of the 22mag & I'm looking at ammo possibilities for it now. Let us know what you decide to do & how it works out. -Andy

What Sean said. There will be an increasing amount of chatter about winter fishing very soon. Most of us get going after xmas. You do need to work the water column from planer flat lines to 150 fow much more so than summer fishing. Try and avoid hammering the juvey LLs on the surface along the drop off, they are aggressive & dumber than a box of rocks. -Andy

Welcome aboard!

Too busy chattin up the yote huntin & missed the IMPORTANT STUFF. Happy belated birthday Vic! -Andy

Great story & pics Ray! You & bro have had yerselves another batch of adventures that nobody can ever take away.

Looks like you & bro have a lot of great adventures. Thanks for the post Ray!

If you hunt wisely, long enough, anything and everything will eventually happen to you. Be a wise man, appreciate and see the value in all of what happens and pass it on to the next generation. P.S. it's not about the deer...

We just hang our leftovers from boning out venison out of reach of the cats & dogs and then put them into 5 gal pails w/ water & freeze them as we need them(very heavy). If you locate the bucket near an e-caller you can hunt the yotes off to the side which keeps them from spooking on your scent but it's not too often that multiple dogs will commit to the call simultaneously. -Andy

You just cant beat the fox pro i have the firestorm call and im a taxidermist so i mounted a rabbit decoy and the yotes and foxes come in on a string Thanks for the review of the Firestorm! Hunted for a bunch of years w/ a guy who had a Foxpro Spitfire. He moved out of the area over a year ago, so last year I used a couple mouth calls and a squeaker and results were far poorer than when we used the e-caller. Looking at the Firestorm myself, but need approval from upper management b4 this goes any further

Love the Islander!!

The Okuma high speeds are very nice, if you have the original conventional gear ratio models you can get a conversion kit for the Convectors from Tuna Tom if he isn't sold out.

Spent a nice, brisk morning w/ Coup, 1fish 2 fish & my youngest son Elliot perchin it (tried to get Hank to go w/ us but he had to go work on a submarine ). Bite was tentative but everybody got enough for a fish fry or 2. Nice to be out of the woods & back on the water! Thanks again for taking us out in your nice perch rig Coup.

Gotta get done w/ the long tail rabbits first but I pulled my copy of Andrew Lewands "Eastern Coyote Challenge" down off the shelf for my coffee read this morning and I'm really hoping Santa will put a Fox Pro GX-7 Fury under the tree (I can dream can't I?)

Pete, it sounds like we're gonna have to put together a yote program starting down in Greene and work our way up here. I'll take the short shots out to 400 yds and you & Gray can have all the long range action

Anybody who knows me will attest to the fact that I'm hardly a 'bleeding heart' but I will bet you that some how the buck in the picture was incapacitated and the yotes finished him off. That's life without health insurance guys! -Andy

I went w/ the Maxima. Thanks for the posts!-Andy

Busiest single day of doe management for me was Sun Nov. 27th, 60 degrees w/ a S. wind blowing 10-15. Shot 3 does out of 8 mature/immature combined & saw 3 young bucks all from 1 ground blind from 3-5pm. All deer were foraging. Still seeing fresh scrapes & rubs this past weekend (12/3-12/4) as well as one mating pair. -Andy

We've had this discussion b4 but we can have it again. Here in high altitude 7M we have lots of yotes and lots and lots of deer too, been this way for many,many years.We typically get 1 or 2 dogs/farm using a good electronic caller and managing our scent carefully, then we need to work another piece of ground (yotes are pretty shrewd) -Andy

Well, I can tell you that you can't put the QRBP in the original Accura, only the newer V2. I am pretty sure though that the problem is due to accumulated funk behind the primer seat compounded by what might not be the best seal between hammer frame and primer breech seat. I didn't have this problem w/ my Accura the first 2 years I owned it which, again, leads me to believe that the combination of wear and accumulated deposits have rendered it unreliable. I'm gonna use the #32 bit to remove any hardened deposits in the fire channel then soak the BP in Hoppes and brush & use both the bit & wire on it again. I'll keep you posted.Thanks to all for the suggestions so far! -Andy

Pretty much done w/ the dreaded doe management program on the 3 farms I've some how become responsible for so I've turned my attention to the front stuffers. Once again I'm still having hang fire issues w/ my CVA Accura, while my cheap Traditions Pursuit LT seems to fire perfectly. Last year our friend Ray K. was nice enough to give me some wire to run through the breech plugs which really seemed to straighten out some no fire and hang fire problems I was having at the time, though in fairness I think I only hunted with the Traditions rifle cuz it only has open sights which seems more in keeping w/ the basics of the black powder thing. I went to the range Sunday w/ both rifles and shot each 2 times at the 50yds and 3 times at 100yds. The Traditions fired fine on all but the Accura had a hangfire on shot no. 1 and shot no. 4. After removing the breech plugs from both guns and inspecting the fire hole there appears to be no difference between them. I will say that the Accura's breech plug seems noticeably more difficult to clean and so I'm considering soaking it in some Hoppes solution over night to soften up any deposits that I might not be able to see in the space behind the primer seat and then work the wire thru it. Any thoughts/suggestions?

I've used P-line on my centre pin float rig and on my multispecies Exceler & Bionix spinning combos for years and it's great stuff! I guess I have more to think about...

Been using the Ande Pink 30# on rigger reels. Time to re spool & I'm wondering about Maxima Ultragreen instead of the Ande. I re spooled my planer reels w/ 8lb Maxi 2 years ago & I really like the stuff, so I'm considering putting the 30# version on my rigger reels. Any thoughts? Thanks! -Andy

Heck yes! Got a good one there & looks like he's been working on adding to his gene pool too!