Isaac and I hit the water after the eclipse yesterday. First time out this season…..and it did not disappoint. We lost count. Bakers custom painted thinfins were the hot sticks and a chicken wing stinger was hot on the #2 chinook. No rigger hits, but boards and drivers took fish the whole time. We even landed 2 nice kings! Worked 12-15 fow
Well, never how you want to recover a deer. But grateful to at least put my hands on him and know I did put a lethal shot on him. Not a giant buck, but the biggest I have taken. I shot him with my bow the first week of December. He ran onto the neighbors land, who was nice enough to let me track him. Unfortunately, the snow from first thing in the morning had melted which made following the blood trail impossible to follow. We trailed the deer 350 yards, so I figured he was going to be just fine.
Fast forward to this week. The neighbors texted me saying he found the buck I shot. It ended up being 500 yards from the initial shot which appeared to be a single lung. The buck was dead in the middle of the creek submerged under the water. The neighbor was nice enough to let me come get the rack. Cool to have some closure on the deer at least.
First trip down to the keys. We had a great family vacation, and I was even able to get alittle fishing in with my son. I ended up ordering a nice travel rod to bring down with me and also brought two old ugly sticks. We caught a variety of fish. It’s truly amazing how many fish there are in the ocean. It was float downs every fast. Had a couple crazy encounters as well. I was able to connect with a nice barracuda, and was also able to battle 2 tarpon…..one being all of 100 pounds. I stood 0% chance at landing it lol. I had 20lb braid and a 50lb fluro leader. The thing jumped 3 times and then in seconds ran me out about 250 yards before breaking the 50lb leader. The strength of that fish was unlike anything I have ever encountered. I have caught numerous kings on this setup, and the power and speed of the tarpon was unlike anything I have ever seen. All in all it was a great vacation, and I can’t wait to go back next year. I’ll be properly equips next time.