Gator

Great buck! Three of us hunted last night without a decent buck sighting to show for it. Boom or bust time.

Too late. When we bought the property four years ago, I began basal drench treatment with Imacloprid on a couple very large trees where we park near the road. It was immediately obvious that their dying would have been a real pain. So far, so good. However, at the time I didn't know where I'd be placing stands or which stands I'd grow to like. Now that I've become more familiar with the property, I have favorites, but they've started to lose their canopy. So they're dead trees standing. If I'd known then what I know now...and had a nickel for every time I've thought that.

I have three stands in Ash, including my best one. No clue what to do, as there aren’t any options close. Invasives suck!! Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United

You've got an interesting system. Take the wife on vacation at some exotic locale during the last part of October as a way of stashing away enough brownie points to last the rest of the season. Win-win, cause you don't blow up your stands before the rut. I need to learn from you, Sensei! PS. Good morning today with multiple doe and a nice eight point buck nose to the ground not a care in the world.

That's a great deal for somebody!! What are you getting next? Either way, you need to build a Smitty for it. I have an extra pair of skis in the garage if you need them.

That's probably where he lay down to die. Because of the rain, you pushed him. Even though it might seem counter-intuitive, it's more important than normal when it's raining to give the animal time to expire, I've lost one like that, which is why I won't hunt in the rain anymore. Good luck with the recovery. Swamps are tough, rain or no. I really do hope you find him. If you need to mobilize a posse to look, pm me. I'm in.

Great bucks! I'm chomping at the bit with this rain, but it's hard enough to recover an animal under perfect conditions. I took yesterday off and saw bunches of doe at our lease in the morning, as well as bunches of farm equipment when they came in to clean up the soybean fields. The evening had me in Scottsville, and what looked to be a perfect sit in a fresh stand ended up a bust. The past three years have been really disappointing on my buddy's property there. I don't know whether building near the road or nuisance permits or what is making an impact, but man, it's not even close to what it was the first ten years he owned the property.

I hunted an older hang-on last night, and when I lowered my bow back to the ground realized that one of the side cables was broken. I'm sure it wasn't like that when I got into the stand. Potentially a dangerous situation, but I was strapped in and attached to a lifeline from the ground up. Good reminder to be safe. No deer.

Of the three guys that I know hunted tonight, not one saw a buck. I had six doe and two yearlings pass by yesterday morning, but nothing in the evening. All signs point toward it being ready. The next three weeks should be mayhem.

That's great to hear! I hope she sticks with it. The cameras show increased buck movement over the past few days. Numerous scrapes opening up and a few decent eights wandering around. Even a couple of daylight pictures, but they were harvesting the corn, so it doesn't really count. The wind is crap, particularly for my property where it swirls against a creek and there's a good back draft, but it's not wacky-shack by any means.

I bought an ozone generator off Amazon and I hang my stuff in the back of my truck using a shower curtain rod. Then I simply turn the unit on with the cap closed for ten minutes. I do this two or three times over the course of the season. The clothes either stay hung or go back into my scent-proof bag if I need to shove a dead deer into the back or the truck.

Last night was almost a complete bust. I saw one lone mature doe at dusk. I wanted to get out of the stand, so I tried to move her on her way by grunting. Instead, she looked up at me and walked straight to the tree! Then proceeded to calmly move downwind and toward the field. Chalk up another win for ozone, I guess.

A good guide can make a world of difference. We chartered for eight days out of Matlacha several years ago with a guide whose name I won't mention, but he was recommended to me by a friend as having reasonable rates. Unfortunately for us. After three solid days without a decent fish, but lots of cruising past mangroves blowing out pods of snook and saying, "We'll come back to them", my buddy and I visited Bass Pro and were bemoaning our fate. Several of the guys working there commiserated with us, saying that this guy has a reputation and can't keep clients, hence his lower price. We nearly canceled the rest of our booking with him, but being somewhat stand-up guys we didn't want to shaft him on such short notice. So we fished the entire trip with him. It's a beautiful place down there. We ended up catching a few fish. But because of the guide, my buddy and I refer to Pine Island and Matlacha as "the place that shall not be named".

I had hair but no blood on my arrow after taking a shot at a coyote this morning. It wasn't a tough shot except for the brush by the edge of the mowed path that the 'yote was traveling. It stopped just prior to walking into my shooting window and I sensed that I was about to be busted. Since I was already at full draw, I tried to poke one through the brush. Here's a picture walking past my trail camera just prior to the shot.

We have a couple of piebald on our property, but one of the neighbor's wife has threatened us with bodily harm if we shoot them. I know that they're genetically inferior, but I value my parts too much to take a chance.

One quick eight that got a pass five minutes after I got into the stand, then a couple of does meandering through the thicket. That was the evening fare. I like the cooler temperatures though. 42F and rain this morning could make for an interesting perch tournament on Canandaigua...