hawkeye625

Nice buck, nice encore too!

Nice job. Too many of them running around these days!

Awesome buck! Always give them time unless you see or hear them go down, best advice any archer can share. The pics with the kids are priceless. Congrats.

Thanks guys. We didn't weigh him, but let me tell you it took all the 2 of us had to get him out of the creek bottom to my quad (might just be aging hunters). Thank the lord for the quad! His neck was pretty much chest width the whole way out to his head, never shot one with that thick of a neck before.

I arrowed this guy on October 28th in the evening. He came to my rattling out of a clear cut. I was full draw on him for over 2 minutes as he walked behind a tree and stopped with his chest protected by the tree. Had to let down and wait him out. Finally gave me a broad side shot at 19 yards. I thought the shot was dead on but something just didn't seem right, he ran off with his tail tucked tight and I never heard him crash. Looked where I shot and didn't find the arrow and only found a little blood so backed out and called a buddy. We waited 2 hours and went back to pick up the trail. Very little blood and some stomach content so we went slow and agreed if we went 100 yards and didn't find him we would back off til morning. Luckily we only went 50 yards and he was laying there where I last saw him. Not sure if the arrow hit a branch or he lunged when I shot but the arrow entered just in front of the hind leg and came out by the 2nd rib cutting the liver and caught a little lung but the arrow hung up by the fletches and didn't come out, leaving little blood on the ground. 1st deer I've shot with a rage that didn't pass through 100%. Thank god we found him that night, the coyotes in my area wouldn't have left me much to eat.

What a year you've had. Great buck.

Great shot on him too.

Rattled the buck on my profile in October 28th. One of the biggest keys is dense cover. If they hear something they want to see something or will lose interest. They have to look harder in dense cover so they stay longer trying to locate the source of the noise. I rattle in 6 to 12 bucks a year, generally during late October to 2nd week of November. Have little success in early season or once they get locked down with does. Don't be afraid to stay on the ground and make a lot of noise raking trees, stomping the ground and rustling leaves while cracking the antlers together. A real buck fight doesn't just sound like banging antlers. There's a ton of thrashing and limbs breaking. Try it once or twice, you may be surprised at the outcome. If hunting out of a stand, I like to pick a tree that has cover under it that deer cant see or walk through, maybe a blow down or brush pile, that way they aren't looking directly at the base of my tree, but more to the sides of me. Less chance of getting busted that way. It also funnels them to your sides rather than directly under you making for better shot opportunities. .

sweet

Nice buck.

Very clean boat, what's going on Brian, are you going bigger or smaller?

stinger nbk for me

Any bow kill buck is a trophy. Rage's are pricey, but they do make one heck of a hole! Nice job, congrats.

I ran a piece of old garden hose over the all thread just to keep it from wearing / rubbing on any cables, haven't had any issues in 5 years. Works better than the ez steer IMO.

http://www.cabelas.com/product/Auxiliary-Motor-Connector-Rods/700014.uts?Ntk=AllProducts&searchPath=%2Fcatalog%2Fsearch.cmd%3Fform_state%3DsearchForm%26N%3D0%26fsch%3Dtrue%26Ntk%3DAllProducts%26Ntt%3Dsteering%2Bconnector%26WTz_l%3DHeader%253BSearch-All%2BProducts%26x%3D0%26y%3D0&Ntt=steering+connector&WTz_l=Header%3BSearch-All+Products seem to work well for me. hook up in the front of the outboards for easy access.

A couple of us had this conversation at the hotel in the Fall of last year and again this spring. Out of 5 or 6 boats most of us caught very few teen age fish last year. Sure seemed to carry over into matures this year. Hate to say it but I'm starting to believe we did loose a year class.

Nice job. Glad to see they're turning back on.

So getting back on track.... if there were no Kings...I would be all over the local hatches and tying a dozen or so mayfiles, midges, sulfer's or what ever the fish were gorging on at the given time. Or I'd be fishing the local rivers for large catfish, stripers, or what ever pulled the hardest at any given time....some days its dough ball for carp! Some days it might be a local farm pond for huge gill's or large mouth on a 3 weight or ultra light with jigs.. In early fall....well contrary to one posters belief..I'd be on a trib much closer to home chasing steelies on hand tied flies....which I have done for decades. Try a dry fly for September steelies on an Erie trib....ranks high on difficulty list IMO. How about stripping a clouser for stripers? Pretty fun too. Then there's scouting for deer or maybe trying to thin the local coyote population...many options. No clubs here...just a die hard outdoorsman waiting to get into some active fish somewhere that will fight back the hardest.

So the short version is that I misunderstood you. The thread is about kings, yes. One would ASSUME you were talking about kings not trout. I've been called many things over the years but have to say you're the 1st to call me a "mental giant". Wow that's classic.

"The other part that i have a problem with is the fact that if I am going to release the fish I have a much better shot at being able to do that in a trib than on a boat dragging these fish for a few miles from depths that are not conclusive to allowing for a release." So if I understand this right...you have a better chance of releasing a fish that's sole purpose once in the stream is to breed...then DIE? So not only are you impeding the life cycle of the ecosystem by "stressing" a spawning fish, you are releasing fish sure to die.....interesting bit of self censoring...