Drury Outdoors Video Highlight

How's hunting going for everyone?  NC Central rifle season starts tomorrow!  Even so, I'm still tempted to try with my bow.  Maybe I will.  We shall see.

Anyway, this is the highlight I have for today.  The video is from Drury Outdoors Heartbreaker series. 

It truly is a hunting heartbreak.  To chase a deer so long and to hope for a even better deer the following season only to have the deer die of disease would really disappoint.  But, this is hunting.  Not all stories end in success, and this is a great example of a great story that still had "a silver lining".

Deer Society "Mr.Maybe" Video Highlight

As I sit here on a Friday evening listening to the rain pour down on the North Carolina countryside, and thinking about the buck I saw in the front yard this morning, I got an itch to watch some hunting videos.  Yeah yeah "you might be a hunter if (fill in the blank)".  That may be a good idea to try sometime, let me know in the comments if you have a "You might be a hunter if..."!  But seriously, if you can't hunt during deer season, do the next best thing: watch footba, I mean, hunting videos.  So, here's a thought.  I'm going to be posting some video's of hunts/stories with the tactics they use to get the deer, and provide my thoughts.  With my own story of Prince last year, I may do a little video of my own if that appeals to anyone!  I don't have any hunt footage, but I can share pictures and narrate my story!

Normally the video's will be fairly short, though this one is a little more than 10 minutes, but worth the watch to me.  So here's my video highlight pick, a video by Deer Society of a buck called Mr.Maybe :

The tactic of using buck scent, in addition to the water source, is a fantastic setup.  Given the conditions of drought, in combination with the fact he was a dominate buck, just shows how a little ingenuity can tip the odds in your favor.  Being the dominate buck, he would need a challenger to face him for him to even be interested.  But he knew all the bucks in the area.  So by using unfamiliar scent in his core area, it nagged and annoyed the buck.  Which was the bucks undoing, and the arrow that shot him literally had his name on it.

Hope you like this new spin on things.  I plan on bringing out a couple more video's in the future, in addition to telling you about my trip to Montana back in the summer!  Keep hunting!

Fishing Shallow Rivers

Recently I've started fishing the local Haw River at different spots and the adjoining creeks, such as the Great Alamance Creek.  And when I went looking for tips on shallow water fishing, and even specifically the Haw, I came up with little.  So I've been exploring and fishing and experimenting different spots along the river, trying to learn about this local resource. While fishing in rivers is still new to me and I have plenty of room to perfect my performance, here are some of the things I have noticed that may come in handy for those who fish the Haw.  And it's likely that some of the things here apply to other small/shallow water bodies as well.

Fish the pools, not the main current
While trout may enjoy the main current of a stream or river, many fish simply do not.  Target calmer areas of the water made by rocks or sandbars.  Those calm pools and eddy's will generally house more fish.  This is especially true when the faster moving water, as is the case with the Haw, is particularly shallow and does not allow bigger fish to swim in those areas.

Try smaller lures
When fishing the shallower water, a surface lure can do the trick.  I like to use a Heddon Teeny Torpedo and I catch decent brim.  The smaller fish are especially fun on light tackle.
Another lure I like to use is a minnow with a spinner blade, such as Mepps Comet.  This will especially attract the smaller fish, such as brim or pumpkinseed.
One thing I would tell you?  Give fly fishing a try on smaller rivers, it's a blast.

Different spots for different fish
May sound a little obvious but hear me out.  Depending on what you want to catch, how much you want to catch, or in some cases WHO you bring with you (such as little ones) you need to try different spots to suit your desires or audience.  Smaller pools generally house the brim, which are fun for fishing newcomers and kids especially.  Those fish are fun, don't discount them.  AND, it provides an experience different than a cliche lake or pond to take new fisherman to (not saying in any way lakes or ponds is bad, they're a blast, it's just different than the norm).
If there are islands in the river, try the downstream side where there is generally a much bigger area of calm water.  That is where you will find fish such as bass or catfish.
If there is a slower moving creek (or if the river splits) with features such as big rocks or logs, try in those areas because bass be in the slower moving water and cover.

Caught this Pumpkinseed on a minnow jig

Wildgame Innovations Mirage 14

Last year I decided to buy a new game camera because the ones I have are wearing out.  After shopping around a little at Dicks, and with the help of a sales associate, I decided to buy the WGI Mirage 14.  In brief, I am very pleased with this camera.

Excuse my cell phone being reflected by camera

User Interface

The camera is very simple to operate, you use up, down, and enter keys to make selections.  And you see what you select on the screen.  Normally at the top of the screen the camera will show many pictures have been taken and the time, but with no SD card inserted when the above image was taken, nothing was shown.
You can set it to take pictures day and night, or just day or night.  You can select the quality of the pictures, the higher quality, the fewer pictures that can be stored on the SD card.  The tradeoff is better quality pictures allow you to pick out details of individual animals and just better viewing quality.  However, if you were just planning on leaving your camera out for weeks at a time without checking it, say in the spring and summer at a food plot, then for just scouting and deer census, lower quality/more volume of pictures might be more useful.
On top of that, you can adjust camera light exposure, how sensitive the motion sensor is, and how often it takes a pic, even set it for (soundless) video.  The customization of the camera is one of the big selling points for me.

Performance

The performance is very good in my opinion.  It is a 14 MP camera with less than a 1/2 second trigger speed with an illumination range of 75 feet, and an invisible flash (specs from WGI website).  I've already shown some pictures taken by this camera on the blog, but here's a few more just to show.

The video is bright (and sped up!), yes.  I don't know whether it's the camera's fault or my own.  Facing the camera angling down toward the ground might have caused the light to reflect back towards the camera, making it really bright.  I'll have to experiment more to find out.  However, having the capability of video is always a nice feature.

 

This owl seemed to like this perch

And this fox likes the mineral block

So, theres a little taste of the camera.  I'd highly recommend it to anyone looking for a new game camera.  Right now it's about $70, but you might be able to find it cheaper.  Until next time!