SPORTS
WARM WEATHER DEER HUNTING Luke Clayton
Thus far, this October is on record as being one of the warmest (hottest) in recent years and if the current high-pressure system continues to dominate, we Texas deer hunters might have to endure the warmest October on record.
I’m usually fired up about the opener of bow season but this year with the AC running almost nonstop at home, I couldn’t force myself to endure time on stand swatting mosquitoes and sweating as though I’d single handed dragged a bull elk off the mountain. For the first time in recent memory, I was happy keeping my archery skills tuned up with a few arrows launched at my old 3D deer target early each morning while it was still relatively cool.
Deer season to me is all about cooking a big pot of venison chili in my 4-quart cast iron Dutch Kettle at camp and sitting around the campfire swapping tales of past hunts, not swatting mosquitoes and sweating! It was the second week of bow season before I first spent time in one of my stands close to home and to be honest, I felt more like I was setting high in the bleachers at a Rangers afternoon game in mid-August.
But things are about to change. A look at the ten-day weather forecast indicated a bit of relief we enjoyed a little ‘cool front’ this past weekend. A couple early mornings with predicted highs in the upper fifties and a few days with afternoon temperature in the upper seventies is way better than what we’ve been getting. As an old outdoors writer, I am fortunate to pick and choose the days I hunt and I’m making plans to be in the woods during the cooler periods. Surely by the opener of rifle season it will be campfire and chili time!
But I haven’t been twiddling my thumbs the past few days. This past week I set up a new ground blind with longtime friend Bill Carey (Striper Express Guide Service) in an area I have wanted to hunt many years. Grayson County up on the Red River is well known as a spot to arrow a big white tail. This is a bow only county, no rifles allowed. Most bowhunters know about the annual draw hunts at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge and the giant bucks that have been taken in Grayson County. Whitetail from the Kings Ranch were stocked at Hagerman back in the 1940’s and thanks to the great genetics and an excellent management plan, the refuge and adjacent lands is a big buck hotspot.
Bill has game cameras out on his ranch which is located a scant 3 miles from the closest part of Hagerman Refuge. As of this writing, bucks are still running in bachelor herds. The cameras showed a big 10 point that looked to score around 150 BC coming to one of the feed sites just before dark but also several mature less than trophy class bucks.
I’ve often said any deer hunters that says he or she is not a trophy hunter might not be telling the complete truth. I’m not strictly a trophy hunter but my goal is to always harvest a mature buck, one that has reached his full potential. On many occasions I’ve passed on heavy horned 3-year-old bucks to harvest a mature old, what some might call a ‘cull’ buck.
I hunt deer with not only archery equipment but big bore air rifles, muzzleloaders, and center fire rifles as well. Long ago, I found it to be fun to learn about totally new ways to enjoy shooting and hunting. Each endeavor has its own set of challenges but hunting with a bow is by far the most challenging and rewarding way to hunt. There is something very exciting about being a scant few yards from a big game animal. I’ve often said that everything has to be perfect in order to harvest a mature whitetail buck or… savvy old doe for that matter!
There are many more experienced bow hunters than me but here are a few things I’ve learned through the years that might help you put ‘Ole Mossy Horn’ on the meatpole!
USE A MANAGEABLE DRAW WEIGHT Most grown men can draw a 65 or 70 pound bow while standing. With today’s very fast bows, I’ve found 55 or 60 pounds is more than ample for effectively harvesting game inside 25 yards. Actually a bow set at 50 pounds is more than enough to do the job. The trick is to draw without spooking the deer, a lighter poundage makes this much easier, especially when in a setting position on stand or when hunting in cold conditions.
SIGHT ADJUSTMENT I set my top sight pin, always green to be dead on at 25 yards. When hunting deer, it’s the only pin I use. Whitetail deer have extremely quick reflexes and I simply don’t shoot them at distances greater than 30 years. With my sight pin set at 25 yards, I can hold center of shoulder from point blank out to 30 yards and the arrow will be in the kill zone. To be honest, I did kill a buck up in North Dakota at 33 yards several years ago and held just a bit high. This was with only a couple minutes of legal shooting time left and the opportunity to take one of those heavy northern bucks. The shot was good, by the way!
THIRTY MINUTE RULE Unless I see a deer go down after the shot, I always wait 30 minutes to make the recovery. This is a good policy that has served me well when bowhunting.
AVOID ‘IFFY’ SHOTS I have learned to take only broadside standing shots. Slightly quartering away shots are very effective but I avoid shots at deer quartering to me.
SIGHT IN WITH BRODHEADS YOU HUNT WITH There are many very effective broadheads on the market today, both fixed blade and mechanical. Make sure after you have sighted in with field points that you check your point of impact by shooting with the broadheads you plan to hunt with. If using 100 grain field points for practice, make sure your broad heads are the same weight. Most broadheads today shoot very close to the field points.
HAVE COVER IN FRONT When possible, I like to leave a bit of brush out in front of my blind. This allows the opportunity to draw the bow without detection when the deer steps behind the cover. This technique has helped me arrow deer on many occasions. Email outdoors writer Luke Clayton through his website www.catfishradio.org.
A solid day was had by Montague county high school tracksters at the State Track and Field Meet May 16 in Austin.
Bellevue’s Mattie Broussard had a pair of second place finishes in both the 800-meter run with a time of 2:21.41 and the 3,200-meter run with a time of 11:31.33. Broussard also was 4th in the 1,600-meters with a time of 5:22.18.
Her teammate Brylie Hager was 9th in the 110-meter hurdles in 19.93.
Forestburg’s Brenna Briles was 4th in the triple jump with a 35’9 1’2” leap. Her teammate Jocelyn Rich was 4th in the pole vault with a 9’ leap.
For further details, pick up a copy of Thursday’s Bowie News.
Bowie had a pair of top four finishes at the State Track and Field Meet May 14.
Sophomore Brayden Willett made it onto the medal stand, finishing 3rd in the 1,600-meter run with a time of 4:17.89. Bowie junior Tyler Richey finished 4th in the pole vault after a 14’6” effort.
The top two finishers from Holliday, also in Bowie’s district, celebrated with him after he crossed the finish line.
“It was kind of surprising,” Willett said about Ryder and Noah Stroman embracing him in a celebratory hug. “They’re good guys, so it was kind of cool.”
For further details, pick up a copy of Thursday’s Bowie News.
This past week found your outdoor scribe doing some rather mundane things such as yard work, vegetable gardening and repairs around the old cabin. Oh, I also wrapped up a couple of magazine articles. I always enjoy sharing my adventures with all of you in this column but to be perfectly honest, not nearly as much as my ‘field work’ hunting and fishing which is an iatrical part of any good outdoor column. If you’re like me, you much prefer reading about an adventure that you can also partake.
I am far more comfortable telling you about an outdoor experience I had firsthand knowledge of rather than the reporting part of my job as an outdoor communicator. So, this week, I’d do a bit of ‘reporting’ and share some planned adventures I have scheduled for the next couple weeks. By the time you’re reading this, I will have already been in the woods in quest of a fat ‘eater’ hog and probably have some freshly caught blue catfish fillets in the freezer, details will follow in the next couple of weeks.
I’ll kick things off early in the week heading down to my friend Jeff Rice’s Buck and Bass Ranch located on the upper end of Lake Fork. Jeff produces our weekly TV show “A Sportsman’s Life” which airs on Carbon TV and YouTube. Our plan is to film a segment of our show on stalking wild hogs. It will be a challenge to capture the shot with all the thick grown spring vegetation. It could happen fast and require a fast shot. We will be breaking in my CVA Cascade scout rifle in 308 caliber. This short barrel little rifle is light and easy to handle in thick cover, ideal for this type of hunting. Our plan is to hit the woods during the last couple hours of daylight and ease along the trails, watching and especially listening for hogs. Wild porkers are vocal critters and it’s common to hear them before seeing them. We will play the wind and attempt to get downwind and then close the distance for a shot but you can never guess how a hog hunt will unfold. Wild pork or not, Jeff and I always have a great time together and I plan to bring a side of wild pork ribs already slow smoked and covered in brown sugar and BBQ sauce with a side of camp baked beans!
After a tasty dinner we plan to get a good night’s sleep and head out the next morning for a planned fishing trip with guide David Hanson at Lake Tawakoni. Both channel and blue catfish are on a very good bite right but it’s hard to pass up those snow white blue catfish fillets when the bite is good. David is, to my knowledge, the most veteran catfish guide on the lake and became friends close to a quarter-century ago when we first began fishing
together. The plan is to use freshy cut shad in shallow water and target eater size blues weighing between 2 and about 10 pounds but as every catfish angler knows, it’s always possible to connect with a big trophy size blue when fishing Tawakoni.
Next week, I plan to join my long-time friend J.C. McCollough on the Red River below the Texoma dam. I’ve been fishing and hunting with J.C. for many years and look forward to getting with him again. I would describe this to catching big catfish in a barrel but in this case the deep holes in the river are comprised of several acres. The water level in the river below Texoma are dictated by the water release at the dam by the Corp of Engineers. When there is a current in the river, fish move upstream to feed on baitfish coming through the dam. When the water recedes, they fish move into the deeper holes where baitfish also seek refuge from the falling water. Catching will be fast paced with the chance to connect with some big fish as well as limits of “eater” size fish. We’ll be rigging with big live gizzard shad fished weightless on a free line, using medium spinning gear. The bigger fish will often nail the frisky live shad and the fresh cut bait is a sure way to connect with lots of smaller fish. There is something very exciting about fishing big live baits on a slack line. One minute your bait will be darting around and you will occasionally feel it taking up slack and the next when a big blue catfish grabs the bait, the rod will bow and the fight will be on. There is usually no ‘setting the hook’, by the time you feel the fish, it will already be hooked and making a strong run to the nearest submerged brush. Your job will be to keep the drag set just enough to keep pressure on the fish but not so much as to cause the line to break.
J.C. uses his airboat to access these deeper holes because of the very shallow water. While it’s not impossible to portage a kayak or small boat in the river, it often requires a few miles travel to get to these deep holes, this is best accomplished by experienced kayakers with plenty of endurance. There was a time when I was game for this type fishing but I much prefer to do my river fishing these days from a boat designed to negotiate the shallow waters.
Squirrel season is underway in many of the east Texas counties and there’s some pretty good fox squirrel hunting here close to home in Kaufman county and I’ve been thinking about how tasty a big skillet of smothered squirrel with rice, gravy and biscuits would be. Bream are on the beds now and my friend Edgar Cotton invited me to come do some ‘perch jerking’ with him and his son David-it’s in the plans! Well, hopefully next week I will have a ‘sure nuff’ adventure of two to relate you you-I’m ready to get some relief from all this work around the homeplace! LC
You can contact Tawakoni/Fork catfish guide David Hanson at 902-268-7391. Contact J.C. McCollough at 580-372-0320.
Listen to Luke’s podcast, “Catfish Radio” just about everywhere podcast are found.
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