chowder

Must be conditions are different in different areas of NY(which makes sense) but around here every year has seemed roughly the same for the last 20+ years. I have heard guys complain about "where's all the deer" for as long as I can remember. The one thing that is true around me is that there is less ground in active ag every year so this effectively spreads the deer out over more cover. That's one big difference between here and the midwest; when you have lots of active open ag land and relatively small pieces of interspersed cover the deer are much more concentrated and easier to find. When you combine this fact w/ far lower hunting pressure due to fewer urban and suburban areas w/ lots of people and then throw in a land ownership structure wherein relatively few people control very large tracts of hunting land you have a very different hunting environment than we have around me anyway. Just one other thing; Just because a farm gets nuisance permits doesn't mean they get filled! I've been "invited" over to several "deer kills" at various other farms numerous times and the number of deer actually shot has always been very, very small compared to the amount of education the deer got and will use to avoid being killed in the future.

I hope you're joking...

Seaguar Carbon Ice for panfish rigs, this is pretty tough stuff & can handle the odd ball big fish if you don't horse em. Fireline w/ FC leader if you dead stik or jig for lakers, skip the leader when/if you can for pike & picks.

I would suggest at least looking at the copper setups offered by A-Tom-Mik. The Penn reels are rugged and fairly economical. My personnel experience is that the Penn is a more dependable reel than the Okuma. I use Power Pro for backing on lead core and copper rigs. I use the 65lb Power pro on my superbraid slide diver setups (helps w/ flea time).

$3.15

Shades tip on the bead on the main line of a rigger rod is a great point. I've forgotten to do this a bunch of times when retying and always regret it later. The bead helps keep the free slider from getting caught on the snap or snap swivel on the end of the main line and twisting into a mess or cutting into the main line. One thing to remember when you are using free sliders and the rigger rod trips or bounces is that if it's the slider bait that got hit you will need to reel like crazy to get all the slack out of the line b/c the slider will run down to the main bait before you actually have tension on the fish.

You're family has been strong through all this. I'm sure it's been a test of everybody's spirit and it's great to hear that you're dad is coming along. Keep the faith bud! -Andy P.S. I saw a buck just like you're archery buck, only he had his rack busted up the opposite way. If I had any buck tags left I'd a taken him and boiled him down so you would have a matched pair!

Hey Vic, have a great day!

Blue water, there is a couple ways to rig "cheaters" (a 2cd bait off one rigger rod). In the first and simplest method you let out your main rigger presentation, be it spoon or flasher, and before you crank down the slack in the line you clip a 4' stretch of mono or fc onto the main line w/ a snap swivel or snap, on the other end of the stretch is a snap swivel w/ a spoon clipped to it. You toss the spoon in and crank the rigger rod tight. This is called a "free slider". The other way you can do it is to use a Roemer release which enables you to "fix" the cheater spoon at a specific depth. Both techniques have their place. Either way you have two different presentations at different depths w/ one rod.

Nick, does that line work on the female educational associates?

You betcha, I use this basic rub a lot of ways by varying different ingredients (especially the cayenne). I will try to find time to post the whole, butterflied haunch recipe and "Mr Brown", an outstanding pork shoulder number! Hey Greg, I think the smoker that Jim is talking about would sure get you in the game & the price sounds right! Incidentally if you have a couple 2-3# venison roasts- they are a great thing to get started with. I like to tie them up w/ butcher string after I get them loaded w/ rub (net bags work good too), this keeps things together & helps prevent the complete falling apartness before you want to experience it.

I have a Depth Raider, and have the older Fish Hawk 640. I understand the new X4 is an improvement (it better be, I dont like the 640 readout at all!) The Depth Raider is easy to use and w/ few simple precautions is an economical and accurate tool. Don't retrieve (or run for extended periods) the coated cable riggers pivoted out at an angle from the boat. If you do you will get abrasion on the cable as it rubs the pulley at an angle. This might be worse on Cannons than on some riggers w/ more of a swiveling pulley. Keep a roll of electric tape around to touch up problems as the cable gets older (can save the day).

Here's a couple things you can do; 1. Put foil in the water bowl 2. Put foil around the controls & on the bottom (excluding the area of your chips box/burner). My net eating cats pull away any foil on the outside so this doesn't work as well for me Since my smoker is propane fired I feel pretty comfortable just dousing the outside w/ warm soapy water, giving it a brushing and rinsing it off (when I remember to do it ). I keep mine in the garage b/c wind will really raise the devil w/ temps. If it's real cold I kind of box it in w/ some fireboard & foil backed insulation. A real good intro to fish smoking is Scott & Tiffany Haugen's "Smoking Salmon & Steelhead, and anything written by Bill Jamison will steer you the right way on traditional BBQ dishes.

Stan, I'm ready.My boat or yours? -Andy

I took the State land Buck w/ a 50 cal Traditions muzzle loader w/ open sights. My doe management tool is a Winchester 70 XTR in 7mm mag w/ a factory bedded barrel & Leupold scope. I bought this gun used from a local fellow who was very short on cash when I was less so.I've gotten comfortable w/ it to 300 yds though I don't think I've shot a buck w/ it in over 3 years. Like I said above, the only time I can be 100% sure on passing buttons is during bow season, or if I'm in a stand(w/ a downward view) at close range. I'm trying to manage does on over 700 acres so I make some mistakes from time to time but it's better than letting these does get any further out of control.I really only have afternoons available to hunt (2:30-5) so I take quite a few early w/ the bow- it's getting tougher at this point in the season for sure b/c there is a lot of pressure around (but not many deer killed )

Picture showing overall condition + one of the lower neck from the back.

Greg, I have been using a Cabelas propane smoker for over 7 years, before that I had a charcoal smoker. I like the propane smoker much better, far easier to use and regulate. Mine is stainless, which I think is a good idea too, since you will get a lot of funky stuff all over it, if you do much "mopping' while smoking. I know very little about the electric smokers- do they enable you to use a water bath? If not I would encourage you to consider a gas type, though they are probably more expensive. Speaking of smokers I better post my whole, butterflied, smoked venison haunch recipe!

Thanks for sharing what must have been a really great hunt! Congrats to the young man and the buck master too! -Andy

Checks in the mail, but I got a question on Ray's rug. Is it Ray's bare rug or a bear rug?

A truly outstanding buck, congrats! Just curious how you know it's the same deer?

Went out w/ a couple guys w/ empty freezers yesterday. I put a bunch of does in front of them @ 40 yds. 2 shots . zero deer. We try another piece and before we can start we got 5 does at about 270 yds, I look at the guys and they gesture to me "yea get us one!". I hold 4" high on the biggest doe, touch it off- done! High 5s all around! Get over there and it's a large fat button buck Must have been a group of skippys, boy do I feel like an ass...

At some point in the distant past I hunted one of the farms we rent for growing crops on with a guy who had some kind of QDM qualifications. The farm we hunted was roughly 200 acres w/ 55 acres in woods, the balance was productive hay land and he figured 5 to 6 does should be taken off that per year.

Probably too late to start in on this but I hope people haven't left taking a doe till the end of the deal once again! Good article in this months "Deer & Deer Hunting"on Doe management. Remember if you hunt in a farm land MU, where the taking of does is encouraged you will greatly improve the growth rate of all deer(bucks included) because the carrying capacity of the unit is limited by the winter browse. It's not considered "macho" by many but most experts argue that archers should take the first yearling doe that presents itself b/c this has the greatest impact on the total breeding capacity of a doe group for years to come + w/ a bow you are much more likely to be able leave a button buck alone. Now that the deer herd is pressured it's much more difficult to take a doe. Up untill just this week around here the 2 1/2 yr old bucks were considerably easier to kill than the 2 1/2 yr old does. Now that the rut is over(in my high elevation part of 7M) and even most of the yearlings bred, movement will decrease and the presence of even a single doe is much less likely to lead to a buck sighting and you should take that doe if you have not all ready. I have taken solitary does many times w/ both bow and firearm and then taken a good buck shortly after, and the other way around as well. After the shot don't expose yourself- sit tight, it's amazing what can happen next! Taking a doe does not deter a determined buck, especially in archery season. At least twice I've arrowed bucks sniffing a doe that I killed moments before! If you are a truly experienced hunter- leave the young bucks alone and kill a doe, after all it's "hunting season" not "any buck season". My comments are directed at those hunting farmland MUs w/ high probablities for DMPs.

I'll just add that using Mag size dipsies, set on 1.5 help, minimize tangles w/ the copper down the chute and off inlines b/c the Mags dive steep and stay closer to the boat out of the way of the copper which does not dive steeply. Although most people (myself included) seem to start out experimenting w/ copper down the chute, it actually causes a lot less problems out to the side off planer boards.

I've targeted lakers at 200+ w/ fairly poor results so far. Although I mark good numbers of fish down there, especially post spawn and coming out of winter they do not seem to be actively feeding.