Smithsonian Trail Camera Thread

I ran across this photo gallery (http://www.fieldandstream.com/photos/gallery/hunting/2011/03/camera-trap-photos-wild-animals-exotic-smithsonian-collection) on Field and Stream and thought it was way too cool not to link to.
The sheer variety of species on our planet is truly amazing, and it is so incredible to see how trail camera technology has opened the curtain to how they live and interact.
Who knows, maybe ol' Bigfoot will pop up one of these days!

~Swany

Who's the real Turkey?

Well, it was back to the grind this week. After two hard days of hunting and 4:30 AM wake-ups, Ryan and I stand at a 50% success rate for ND spring gobbler season.

More often than not, hunting boils down to being in the right place, at the right time. Opening turkey weekend was a great example of exactly that.



Dead body or is Wayne snoozing...



Between being oblivious to birds coming in from behind me on full strut and being on the wrong side of a wood lot drive, I just could not string  two right moves together. Also mix in that our Sunday of hunting was met with diving temps and cold spring rain and you can see I was rolling some pretty cold dice over the opener. It is a good thing I wasnt in Vegas!

One giant positive from the hunt is that Ryan and I were able to successfully call in our first group of birds to a Tom/Hen decoy set. A group of Jake's came tottering in on a string to our setup and as two of them broke off from the pack, I thought we were looking at a double. But as luck would have it, one of the birds hung up as the other committed. Ryan dumped him with a terrific shot through some brush. I pursued the shocked birds on foot, but let's face it, I am not nearly as fast as I used to be...



66" 5 point shed



Another built in bonus that goes hand in hand with spring hunting turkey is the opportunity to run across shed antlers. The trip was not 100% from the filled tag standpoint, but it was by far my most successful shed hunting excursion. We found about 14 sheds combined, and we truely weren't even looking that hard. The largest shed of the group was a 66" 5 point.

We also came across a tremendous 6 point (3x3 in ND speak) buck that appeared to have fallen to mother nature. With 21 inch main beams, it was the largest six pointer I have ever seen in the flesh. It is just too bad someone did not get a chance to put their tag on this very unique and mature buck.

Big '3'

Eventhough the winter was a hard one, overall, we saw a lot of deer moving around. Combine that with some of the quality sheds we found and there should be some very nice bucks roaming the river bottoms come hunting season.

As I type this, I am pinning my hopes on the slim chance my schedule permits a return trip to the Missouri river bottoms before the season ends. Hopefully I can even the score and not eat Turkey Tag Soup for the 3rd year in a row, but even if I cannot make it work, it was another memorable trip with a good friend!



Trail Cam Giants...

Okay, I just got back from Vegas and wanted to have a new post, but I am a little strapped for time. So, I thought I would link to a current forum thread from Minnesota Outdoorsman that could be fun to follow along with.
It is a Big Buck Trail Camera thread, and everyone likes looking at Big Bucks!
I even threw in 'Beefy' from my most wanted list; just for good measure. Enjoy!
http://mnoutdoorsman.com/forums/index.php?topic=23444.0

~Swany

Fight the Slush

Chuck "Shooster" Hasse

I got in an ice fishing discussion with a Rack Pack buddy of mine, Chuck Hasse, over email the other day. Chuck fishes Leech Lake pretty religiously and definitely knows his head from a hole in the ice. He brought up some awesome points about how extreme snow and poor ice conditions can negatively affect fish activity. I felt the points were great, and also related to other lakes so well, they should be shared with everyone.
Below is Chuck's thoughts and approach to tackling Leech Lake, but as you read through, you will see that this information and tactics will roll-over to other lakes like Lake of the Woods very well. 

"I would say 90% of the fishing we do on leech is done on the sand flats. The key is to find the weed growth adjacent to sand/gravel bottoms. These are typically the routes that fish follow and are using to feed on baitfish, crayfish, bloodworms, etc. Each year, weed growth varies from spot to spot depending on temp change, snow cover, and sunlight. All of which have a direct result in an area being very good for active fish one year, but poor the next."

"The amounts of snow on the ice affect a number of things. Oxygen levels and weed growth are the main two. The less sun that gets through the ice, the faster weeds die off and faster oxygen in a lake becomes depleted. Once you start depleting the oxygen levels, the fish start to become more lethargic. Once they are lethargic, you need to do some massive searching to find some active fish."

"It’s a constant stream of searching for the most part, but once you find them, you can typically stay on a bite for quite a while, sometimes even for a month or two until conditions change. But this year is met with more challenges. Leech is 115k acres, so if that area is restricted by snow, slush, water and poor ice conditions makes it very tough on everything to be able to stay mobile."


"It’s just a chain reaction of all the effects snow and slush have on a lake of that size."


So, if you are struggling to find the fish on your favorite ice fishing haunt, whip out the lake chip, get mobile (if you can) and go on the hunt.