Adm Byrd

Great thread Rob, enjoyed reading it, think it may have been a bit tamer than last years. I had a successful season but seeing my daughter harvest her first bow buck made my year. She is 30 and started hunting 4 years ago. The buck came from behind her and she first saw it standing at the base of her ladder, she was so excited she couldn't draw the bow back on her first attempt - the buck never saw her and moved WAY out to 8 yards where she put the arrow in right beside the spine and out the opposite shoulder. She made a perfect placed shot and he only went 30 yards, just out of her sight which made her pretty nervous. I came to help her look for it and her excitement was contagious. She waited in her stand for an hour for her fiance and I to get there and had a second larger buck walk under her while she waited. to top it off she gutted it herself like it was her 20th deer. I also stalked a standing cornfield and snuck up on a sleeping coyote at 20 yards, as I lowered my gun from giving him a dirt nap a second one jumped into the same row at 10 yards running for his buddy, piled that one on top of the first one. As I always say "I'd rather be lucky than good" Merry Christmas to all

Got to Hughes 6:30 this morning, pretty good size rollers, we set up in 350 FOW and trolled NE into the waves with the big motor, was a slow bite and couldn't keep them hooked, they would even jump and sound and then "let go". Eventually the wind settled down and we just wandered between 350 - 600FOW with a hit here and there. The wires where dead for us but had rigger bite at 65 - 90 feet down, had an old NK 28 that I painted the back black parked all day at 65' and it got us a 28# beast that we thought was going to spool our 47H - 45 minutes later we got it in the net. A short time later the 100' rigger took off through our setup and kept on going eventually jumping 3 - 4 hundred yards out, before we could get him coming in the 65' took off again and we landed an 18# king. As I brought the missile fish back to the boat he felt more like an old boot, then started looking odd how he was coming in, a 10# that somehow got hooked in the meat at the base of his tail - was fun when he took off though!!! The big guy went 27.5 on Hughes scales 3 hours after we caught him.Now I need to the paint back on that spoon.

My fishing partner has arthritis and doesn't have the hand dexterity to comfortably turn standard size reel handles. Our Daiwa 47's are getting old and maybe ready for retirement, I have some oversize handles on those but he can run our SG57LC3B"s and the high speed retrieve Okumas that I have leadcore on. I'm sure others on here have the same concerns - what does everyone use? Thanks, Bob

Last week we fished in 200', this week we went out to 450' and found temp down around 90'. We pointed the auto pilot at 23 degrees, didn't pay any attention to speed and set up colors that worked last week. When we finally got a break we where at 712' and had 8 fish so we turned around and went back, ended somewhere around 16 fish - kings and steelies. The dipsies where on fire first, them the riggers and then the cheaters - lost all my larger orange taped spoons. Liney accidentally got a birds nest in a wire rod and yup it took a hit - who said fishing is cheap! towards the end the 100' rigger took a shot and the fish acted different - stayed deep, didn't scream much.....till it headed for the boat, went over and under 2 dipsies on port side, jumped clear of water 20' off side of boat and sounded then came back up through dipsies 2 more times then went for rigger cables, went around 2 of them, laughed at me from 8' under surface then sounded again cutting wire on the cable - This is why Sk8man says: "THEY CALL THEM KINGS FOR A REASON" and why I keep going. Now to see who has best deals on spoons & cable Our speed was around 2.4 and rarely had to turn to get a hit - the fish gods where smiling on us today :->

Yeah Mike I've been on his boat, he's been on mine, I've been to his house, even in the basement, we've known each other for thirty some odd years and I ain't never been allowed to see that hoard of spoons - probably for the best - I might try to confiscate some. Looks like Mark should be set to fish Suttons for the rest of his life even if Les loses a few more rigs of them in Seneca! And yes they seem to be more effective with SS single hooks. Also much easier to release them to fight again.

I don't know, looks like a typical Breuer laker around derby time

Congratulations everyone, thanks for putting it together Rob. Enjoyed viewing it everyday

Chad enjoy every minute of time you spend with your family - they grow up fast. Merry Christmas to all. I'm looking forward to all the posts coming next year, if I spend much more time on here I will have to start a LOU Anonymous

A couple more pictures

I've hunted my entire life, started with wild pheasants in NYS to date myself and have hunted deer all my life as well, normally we get together as a gang and drive the deer to the watchers, we had the run of lot of acres and got along with the neighbors but like everything in life things change. Farming methods and land ownership changed clearing hedgerows and allowing many people access to the land - our deer numbers have dropped and their escape routes are no longer predictable. At the same time we all got older and don't enjoy plodding through the swamps all day as we used to. I guess we politely call this patience. So sitting has become more of my deer hunting time. I never got into scent lock clothing or scents to draw deer in, try grunting & bleating from time to time but count more on good positioning of my stands. I also don't care one way or the other about managing deer herd for rack size, I feel people should be able to get out and enjoy the woods, harvest a deer and teach the tradition to our youth. Now on with the story: I bow hunted this year but didn't take time enough to practice to be comfortable beyond a gimme shot so I bought a crossbow this year and on the 4th day of the season shot a beautiful 8 point at the edge of my little farm. I was pumped and my wife even said to get it mounted. I've also been enjoying my late (hunter) blooming daughter's stories & excitement of her bow & gun hunting this year, shes 28 and started hunting 3 years ago. She owns a little land with great hunting opportunities 40 miles west of me. Thanksgiving day she and her boyfriend came to hunt with me so I put them on reasonable stands for the wind and took another stand for myself. About an hour and a half later they are texting me that she got cold and was back at the house making breakfast. 10 steps off my ladder and I here a shot a couple hundred yards south of me in the woods - I walk out a little ticked that I should have stayed longer in my spot.After a very nice breakfast we went back out and her boyfriend and I where going to try and push some woods to her. She got in a stand and I said we should push this little corn field out on our way to start her drive. The field is terrible, the tallest corn is 5", most only 3'. He and I walked 200' and up jumps a buck 15 yards from me bigger than my crossbow buck. When I threw the gun up my illuminated crosshairs where REALLY dim, I quickly turned the knob and as I brought gun up again the buck was stopped and I had NO visible crosshair, I cranked it around a couple more clicks and the deer had gone to where we entered the field and stopped - I had a nice bright site and took a shot - then the deer was gone. Boyfriend and I raced back to where I shot and blood everywhere. Deer was headed for my daughter and I yelled to warn her, got boyfriend to circle other side of the brush lot. I slowly worked my way into brush from an angle of bucks path and cut his trail still bleeding, I made it across the creek when I heard boyfriend start shooting so I plowed my way out and caught up with him. He was lit up from the size of the rack and my daughter was running up to me as well because she saw him out in the field from her stand. So I got her to circle north in the swamp and boyfriend south to the end of an abandoned pasture where he jumped another buck but didn't shoot at it as he was already low on shells. Too quickly I started for where he went into the pasture when I heard crashing in the brush so I backed up to where I could see across to the field on the other side just in time to see a doe go north, I knew the buck would follow her and 3 seconds later I got another 2 shots at him. When I made it to that field he was stumbling and laying down, wobble a couple steps and fall again. I caught him and reluctantly shot him again. Boyfriend was good shot and got a couple in him and I broke a hinf leg with one of my last 2 shots. When we got looking at him he had been rifle shot through both sides of a rear hoof about an inch up - I'm sure thats why he was laying in the open and moving slower than normal. I always say I'd rather be lucky than good. As a side note I included a picture of first deers front hoof, he was limping when I shot him. He jumped slightly when I shot him, walked 6 more steps and flipped over dead - I love my crossbow.

So I took last week off to hunt, passed on a young buck last Saturday morning - then the rain came so I went to work on Monday. Tuesday morning I went behind the house and got in a stand at the edge of the swamp in a big willow tree. Stand is a little crooked making it uncomfortable to sit or stand in for long. The wind was light and temp was comfortable so I would sit for a bit then stand which allowed me to see behind me. About 8:00 when I turned around I got the side view of a deers rump with flag up very slowly walking into the trees and brush behind me. I stood a while watching to see if the deer might pop back out. After 15 - 20 minutes I caught movement from the swamp and a doe came in close enough for a shot but I passed. She went into the same brush about 150' closer to me than the first deer. More waiting, kind of zoned out and when I looked up again she was back out and walking straight away from me, as I watch her this guy comes out and I'm sure he's going to follow her leaving me no shot. But he decided to back track the does route and walks by me at 25 yards, when I let fly he jumped once took 10 steps, stopped, kicked at the entrance wound with his front foot once then did a back flip and was dead right there - all right in front of me.Of course I didn't bring knife or anything with me so I took a couple quick pics and walked home got my stuff and managed to get the tractor within a 150' of him without getting muddy - nice. 20" inside spread and most symmetrical racked deer I've ever got - yup he's at Clingermans and I got to find a spot on the wall by February.

Nice going Brian. Liney and I went out of Hughes today, on the water at 6AM, cruised out to 370', checked the temp and started trolling with 3 riggers and 2 dipsy's and cheaters. We didn't mark much but had action all day, mostly small kings and a nice mix of steelies. We spent most of our time between 350 and 650 feet. we eventually worked our way in this afternoon to 130 - 250' and marked more bait and fish but only hooked little guys and had many releases with nobody home. We got our best king (17#) on the dipsy along with one other but most of the action was spoon bite. We had our best luck on purple with green. Beautiful day with cloud cover and a little mist but the stable flies where out in force. Bob We missed you Les