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.
For the second straight year, Prairie Valley School seventh grader Kai Kutie won the Hotter ‘N Hell 100 youth division bike race in Wichita Falls Aug. 29.
Kutie is involved in all sorts of activities at the school. Look for a feature story on the repeat win in the Sept. 10 Bowie News.
By Luke Clayton
I remember well the first time I fished with guide Tony Parker. It was a cold winter’s day back in the early nineties at Lake Tawakoni. Tony was just getting established as a fishing guide and back then he did a good bit of largemouth bass fishing. On the phone the evening before our trip, we discussed the game plan for fishing the next morning. As I remember our conversation when something like this: “Luke we will fish a blue bird day tomorrow and conditions are definitely not ideal. We’ll fish water about 6 feet deep with Texas rigged worms and I think we’ll do pretty well. These bass have been on a steady shallow water pattern and I think it will hold”. I joined Tony around nine the next morning, after the sun warmed things up a bit. It was still cold with a chilling north breeze. We fished the breakwater that protected a marina and caught a respectable number of chunky pre spawn bass.
Since that first time to fish together years ago, I’ve continued to fish with Tony and follow his career. I have a feeling he could still hold his own as a bass catcher but his bread-and-butter species are hybrid stripers and white bass. He began guiding for these open water schooling species at Tawakoni but then when Lake Jim Chapman (called Lake Cooper by many) opened, Tony was one of the first-probably the first- fishing guide to move his operation to these fertile waters fed by the Sulphur River. Tony was very instrumental in putting Cooper on the map as a destination for anglers to come and enjoy some fast pace catching for hybrids and white bass.
For many years, Tony invited just about every outdoors writer in the state to come fish with him and enjoy some red-hot catching of white bass and later hybrid stripers. For reasons unknown to Tony or anyone else for that matter, the best bite for hybrids and white bass on Cooper has always been mid-day. Right now, mid-day fishing often equates to getting parched by a relentless sun and fishing in 100 degree plus temperatures. Until the weather cools a bit, Tony will be running very early morning trips on Tawakoni where the bite has been very dependable.
FAST FORWARD TO LAST WEEK- My good friend Jeff Rice and I pulled into the parking lot constructed by the Sabine River Authority situated near the south end of the dam just as the sun was beginning to peek over the horizon. Tony was sitting in his new guide boat, rigging rods with 1.5 ounce white and chartreuse lead slabs. For many years the old Holiday Marina occupied this spot and my mind backtracked, thinking of all the great
fishing trips that I’ve enjoyed that began at the old marina. The marina site is now covered with several acres of concrete parking, a nice bathroom facility and one of the best boat launching ramps I’ve seen anywhere.
Tony was sitting in his new guide boat, rigging rods with 1.5 ounce white and chartreuse lead slabs. We reminisced a bit about the old marina, but our conversation soon turned to the task at hand, catching some hard fighting and good eating hybrid stripers and jumbo size white bass!
A little pre-fishing instructions was in order. “I’ve been fishing some big schools this week that are on a dependable early morning bite, says Tony. The fish are moving out of deep water onto a big flat that averages about 13 feet deep. Some mornings they are chasing shad to the surface and we can spot the school by the topwater splashes but watching the side imaging sonar is the ticket to staying in the action”. Trolling with a big deep diving plug with small trailer spoons is a good way to catch a quick limit but we’re going to actually fish for them. It’s a lot more fun and I know you old veteran slab chunkers are up to the challenge!” Jeff and I definitely were!
Trolling can be a sure-fire method of putting fish in the boat but casting artificial baits and ‘tricking’ the fish into biting is much more fun. The technique we were using was definitely nothing new to any of us. Make a long cast, hold the rod tip high, contact bottom and crank fast five or six cranks and then let the slab fall to bottom and repeat the process. A big school of fish plotted on the right side of the boat and we quickly boated a couple of chunky hybrid stripers using the tried and proven cast, reel and drop technique. And then Tony pointed to the north and at the same time, cranked the big motor up. “There is a big school breaking the surface a couple hundred yards out to the north, lets motor that direction and then approach with the trolling motor so we won’t spook them.”
At first, I couldn’t spot the surface action and then I caught the rising sun lighting up some of the splashes. This appeared to be a big school and some of the splashes looked as though someone had dropped a bowling ball from an airplane into the water-some big fish were herding shad to the surface and there was no place for the baitfish to go but up in their frantic effort to escape.
The bite was red hot for about fifteen minutes and then the school sounded and move on in pursuit of the baitfish. So went the next couple hours when, we would mark big schools of hybrids and white bass on sonar, enjoy a few minutes of fast catching and then move on to the next concentration of fish. The
Tony plans to continue these early morning trips to Tawakoni for a bit longer, until the heat wave subsides and mid-day fishing is once again comfortable on Lake Cooper. He’s looking
forward to fall and the great fishing it will provide but until then, he’ll continue to chase schooling fish at good old Tawakoni during the cool part of the day. Jeff and I were on our way home with a big cooler of good eating fillets by mid-morning. Who says it’s too hot to fish this time of year!
Guide Tony Parker can be reached at 903-348-1619 week on out outdoor show, “A Sportsmans Life” hosted on Carbon TV www.carbontv.com and YouTube. Catch Luke’s weekly podcast “Catfish Radio with Luke Clayton and Friends” just about wherever podcasts are hosted. Email Luke through his website www.catfishradio.org
County cross country teams had strong showings at the Nocona Invitational Aug. 26.
Saint Jo’s girl’s team won the event, led by Tatum Morman’s 3rd place finish with a time of 13:10. Savannah Hill was 11th in 14:02 with Kaylin Cook 14th in 14:11 and Andrea Sanchez 15th in 14:17. Abby Carter was 22nd with a time of 15:10. Also competing for the Lady Panthers were Kenzie DeWeese with a time of 16:41.
Bellevue’s Mattie Broussard won the race, covering the two miles in 12:09, nearly a minute faster than the 2nd place finisher. Also competing for Bellevue was Riley Kopp, with a time of 15:21, Tessa Gage who ran a 21:11 and Ella Broussard who finished in 22:26.
Nocona runners included Jalena Rodriguez who finished in 16:07, Raemi Sprott in 16:19, Kinlee Hughes in 17:34, Rylee Skinner in 18:00. Prairie Valley was represented by Stephenie Stout who finished strong by passing two runners in the final stretch for a time of 19:16. Gold-Burg was represented by Addison Sheppard with a time of 19:26.
For further details, pick up a copy of Thursday’s Bowie News.
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