The High Cost of Fox Squirrel Hunting

I have been real busy with a new promotion and trying to fill the freezer with Deer meat. The freezer is full  with 2 deer taken this year so now  I can get to what I really like and that is small game huntin.
Todd, Colby, my son and myself  headed to the Squirrel woods in search of some big ole fox squirrels. Last time we did this all four of us managed to limit out which imo is pretty hard to do with Fox squirrels. This time was nearly not as good but it is not always about killing. It is about  spending time in the woods with people u love. We met up at a gun shop around 11am and Then I proceeded to spend over 200 bucks on ammo. OUCH! Then we went To Smithfield Chicken and BBQ and I spent 19 bucks. Then  to a nice tackle shop and I laid out over 100bucks for some lures. throw in gas and Wendy's that night and my lay out was nearly 400 buckaroos. Ouch again.




But, Time spent with son.......PRICELESS



Ok,  back to squirrel hunting. We made it to our squirrel woods by 1 pm. Colby and My son saw 2 Black ones as soon as they entered their Hotspot. My son(Mack also) got 1 gray squirrel and Colby managed a head shot on a nice Saddleback color phase one after a long wait under the trees they were hiding in. Todd and myself struck out but we saw 3 other fox squirrels but with it being windy and the woods crunchy there was no sneaking up on these squirrels. I could of managed a few grays but was holding out for a fox. We saw lots of Fox Sq sign, Deer sign and some Hog sign. Hopefully I can make it there in a few days. A nice afternoon in the woods. Oh, Todd brought along a Winchester Leveraction 9410 shotgun. If you have never seen one of these it looks just like a Win 30-30 but it is a 410. That is one nice shootin gun. I may have to find one of those. Anyway here are a few pics. first is just a pic of a little hotspot I have .

Thanks for looking, Mack

Winter River Bassin

I rarely fish in the winter as I am usually too busy Chasin Fox Skirls:) ,Deer, and other little fury critters. Early spring through fall i can usually be found on a river but not in the winter unless I am chasin ducks. My good friend Jeff called me and asked was I up for a float on one of our favorite rivers. I reluctantly;) said yes as I was tired from taking a new Job(promotion) last week and chasin deer. Glad I said yes. Now, this river in the spring and summer will produce on a good day 40 plus bass 2-6 lbs but I was unsure about this time of year. She didn't produce those numbers but It was a great day on the water with plenty of nice chunks caught.

Date Sunday December 9, 2012
Time-1-5
Water Temp- 53
Lure used- Mainly a Boohya Spinnerbait  and the same for Jeff
Boat used - Old Town 158
Reel used by me- Abu 4600 C-3 loaded with 12 lb Ande on an All Star 7 ' rod
Wildlife seen- 1 eagle, several Herons and Kingfishers.
Probably 30 bass caught between the 2 of us.

Here is a pig that Jeff caught

Here are a few that I caught.

Almost all Bass caught right up on the bank with wood.
Here is another fish Jeff caught. Note the Little one- she has guts hanging out of her side and still smashed his spinnerbait. Tough fish! Evidently this fish had a run in with an Otter or a Heron,

A good day on the river. Thanks Jeff!

The " Well house Buck "

I haven't had much to post about this winter as the Hunting has been only ok at best. I have passed up a lot of does and a few decent bucks but I have been waiting on the big one. I also just received a promotion so my hunting time between now and the end of deer season may be limited so I have planned to shoot the next deer that was either a big doe, a cull buck, or a monster buck. No small young bucks would be shot.

Last Thursday(Nov 29, 2012) I headed to a special spot to deer  hunt. This is a spot where my friend Eddie and myself actually would get off the school bus when we were 13 or 14,  go grab our single shot shotguns and rush to this hardwood ridge to shoot squirrels. His was a Topper 58 12 Gauge and mine was a Winchester 37A 20 Gauge.  Man did we kill a bunch of   tree rats on this place!

              This is the Ridge with a pine thicket to the left.

This creek is at the bottom of the Ridge.

Behind this Ridge is an old Pecan Orchard that is grown up.  It has A well house that was Eddies Grand Dad's sitting at the top of the orchard. I shot this buck right at sunset making his way through the orchard.  He is probably one of the smallest racked bucks I have shot but he was a good cull to take out of the herd and it was special day to shoot a buck on this old stomping ground. He was  Shot at Aprox 60 yds with an Ithaca 37 Deluxe with a 24 inch Deerslayer barrel. I was shooting Remington Sluggers. This Ithaca with a 28 inch modified barrel has also killed a lot of squirrels and a few rabbits in this area as well. He was a very big bodied deer.   Thanks for reading , Mack

#deerhunting

#deer

Small river float w/Jeff

Several weeks ago(9/1/12) Jeff and I made a trip to one of our favorite rivers in the Piedmont of North Carolina.  Today our main quarry would be crappie . Here is Jeff with an average Crappie from this river.

This was my first fish of the day. All of my Crappie came on a Jig head with a Kalin grub . The color was "Acid Rain" . Most were caught by casting to one particular hole but we also caught a few trolling. 

A nice eater.

                                                                 Jeff with a decent bass.

                                    Me with a decent bass. If my memory is correct I caught 4 bass and Jeff maybe caught 6 bass.  Most of my bass fell victim to a Black Buzzer.

This guy below was the only other fisherman we saw that day. This has to be the smallest Jon Boat I have ever seen. 8' perhaps?

We brought back some of the biggest crappie and a couple of nice Green Sunfish. All Bass and the smaller pan fish were released. The fish below were released into Crisco!

A big Thanks to Jeff....oh, and  I need my nice cooler back!

Fishing with Gerald

Gerald and I have been trying to work out a fishing trip for aprox 2 years now. Last week we finally made it happen. Gerald suggested an old North Carolina Millpond that I actually fished a few times in the 90's. An old man whom lived on the millpond used to let me fish there. This millpond gave me my second biggest redbreast weighing 1lb even (my biggest Redbreast came out of Contentnea Creek and weighed 1.2 lbs).
The man who I knew has now passed away and you have to know someone to get into this pond. Gerald knows someone who lets him have access and I immediately jumped at the chance to Fish with Gerald at  this old millpond. We got and early start at 7am after  getting crickets but we would bass fish first and then go after the Bream and Shellcrackers this millpond is noted for. Gerald is an excellent fisherman and he wore me out on the bass using plastic worms and a senko. Here are a few of our bass,

The '"Swamp" areas of this Millpond had quite a few of these, a sign of the ducking hunting that once took place here.

We had decided that at around 9am or so we would switch from bass to panfish and we  proceeded to catch  some of the nice Bream and Shellcracker this place has.

Wow!   I had missed this place.It was like visiting an old friend who you hadn't seen in a long time. There were many highlights on this trip one of them being a Red colored Fox Squirrel that Gerald spotted walking down the bank. Gerald said "look at the long tail on that squirrel" I said that's a Fox Squirrel. Awesome!! I had known for years that Fox Squirrels were in this county but I had never personally laid my own 2 eyes on one in this county.  A big thanks to Gerald for taking me fishing. Mack

#holtspond

Maiden Voyage of My Sears 12 ' Jon Boat

I moved in my house in 1993. Bernie,  my next door neighbor had a jon boat in his back yard that after a few years you could tell he was never gonna use it. So, one day I ask him if he will sell it. No!.....I wait a few more years.....No! I am not gonna sell it he says. This went on for years.  It got to be amusing  that I would ask him to sell it just to irritate him. His wife(Doris) also told me that the day he dies that the first thing she is gonna do is to call me and have me drag it out of her yard. 
Well,  one day this year he asks me if I want it? 

I say "is this a trick question".

He said no,  I want it out of my yard. I think what he meant to say is Doris wants it out of her yard. Anyway, I ask him how much? and he says free.  I paid him a little bit as I didn't want it free but here are a few pictures of my new to me jon before and after. Rotted wood on both sides.

She wasn't in too bad of shape but all the wood in the transom was bad and she needed new paint.
I replaced the transom wood on the inside with poplar that I epoxy sealed and painted, and the wood on the out side of the transom I replaced with plastic and and outer piece of 3/16 aluminum. The plastic was a cutting board that I cut to fit. The outside of the boat I painted Huntergreen and the inside was a matte green.
This is a view of the cutting board and aluminum I used for the transom.

Per NC regulations this boat has to have a serial number which it didn't. They assigned it one and I had to attach it to the transom. I kept thinking how was I  gonna do that and one day it hit me.! Go to PetSmart and have the serial number engraved on a dog tag and put that on the back. Brilliant!  If you look closely above the right handle you can see the black tag.

I also needed a way to move this boat from my backyard to frontyard easily so I came up with this contraption. It is a piece of wood. 2- L brackets. 2 sheets of rubber. 2 eyebolts, 1 wheel,  1 nut and bolt, and 1 strap. I can strap this down in about 30 seconds and grab the 2 back handles and move the boat around like a wheelbarrow.

No leaks except for a small one where the drain plug is. Hopefully a new drain plug will fix that.

Very soon I will test it out with my old Sears Gamefisher 7 HP motor. update to follow.  Thanks Mack

ADDED: JULY 2013

Finally took the Jon out with my 2.5 mercury motor. The Sears 7 hp is in the shop. Here is a video of the 2.5 crusin Jordan Lake. 

http://www.youtube.com/edit?ns=1&video_id=OfpIYl9dBug

 

 

                                                              ADDED NOVEMBER 2013

 

Finally took the Jon out in September with the Sears 7 HP motor,  Watch her FLY!!!!!!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXzNgGnDD94

 

 

 

 

ADDED: AUGUST 2013

 

Added 4 "Santee" Rodholders to my little Jon. These are just like Driftmasters.

 

 

 

 

 

Added February 2014-

 

I added a back seat to my little jon.  This seat I purchased at walmart and it attaches to the Jon by a strip of aluminum J-channel on the Jon and a J channel plate on the bottom of the seat (with added swivel).   This allows the seat to be removed or added easily by "dropping it into the channel. The seat can be adjusted either left , right, or center depending on conditions.   Here are a few pics

 

This is how you "drop" the seat in.

 

 

A good look at the channel.

 

A few more of the seat

Done for now............

 

 

Jug Fishing Jordan Lake

I finally made it out to Jordan Lake yesterday 08122012 for some jug fishing. I left worked at 6:05 and was on the water settin jugs at 6:45. This evening I would use 2 types of jugs. 1- pvc pool noodle jugs and the other 2- plastic bottles 1/2 painted white. Most droppers would be 5 ft.   If I were to fish Kerr Lake I would have some jugs set for 15 and 20 ' but 5' does good at Jordan. I used to use orange colored orange juice bottles but switched to these after seeing videos on you tube and  how well they worked and more importantly they take up less space. I made them right at 1 year ago when I was recovering from a surgery and could not get on the water. See this post for more info on these jugs.
 http://mackinncblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/catfish-jugs.html

My boat used today would be my Old Town 158 canoe solo sitting on the front seat but looking towards the stern. That way the canoe is more level and performs better....I baited the jugs with cut pieces of frozen bream soaked in garlic juice. Then I waited. At aprox 745 I was thinking I could of had  a nice relaxing night at home since I hadn't had so much as a nibble. But, a little while later it was as if someone had flipped a switch to "on"....I had to chase jugs and that means paddling.

Here are some of the jugs

Finally!...............Fish on!!!!!!!!!!

A nice channel cat......

I caught a lot of very small channel cats and then this nice White Catfish....

I left at 10 pm while the cats were still biting --got to wk (tommorow) but had an excellent time jug fishing Jordan Lake for a few hours........ Mack

#catfish

#jugfishing

Simple / Easy Drag Chain for Canoes

                              Simple / Easy Drag Chain for Canoes

I have been reluctant to drill holes in my canoe for a drag chain. Still,  I wanted my chain to work correctly and not be on the side so as I wouldn't tip over in fast water. One of the quickest ways to flip a canoe is to throw out an anchor or drag chain connected to the side(vs the bow or stern) . Well,  after my trip to the flint river I copied BlackwaterBills drag chain design as to how it is attached at the Bow or stern.....They copied my use of the Old Town 119 so hey I will copy their drag chain. lol.... This is one of the best modifications I have done to my Old Town 119 . This Design is simple and easy. Blackwaterbill and SeminoleSteve both use this design and have nothing but praise for it. First you need a Chain...18 inches or so of the heaviest stuff u can find, some rope, a cleat, 2 caribeaners, and some electrical ties......Most of the guys using this design also wrap the chain in duct tape and then put an old inner tube over the chain but I have chosen to leave it bare.  Note: They use a dog leash to spool the line and hold it but i chose to use the cam cleat.
Here are some pics.

I purchased this cleat at West Marine. You pull the rope up and to the inside and it unlocks the rope. You then pull it up and to the right and release the rope and the cleat bites down on the rope. Simple.  This cleat is mounted to the right and just ahead of my seat. I attached it to the gunnel with 2 stainless steel sheet metal screws.

Buy the above products here 

HARKEN Cam Cleat  https://amzn.to/3rRtBA1

Harken Flair lead https://amzn.to/3sKQowF

You also have to install a Black electrical tie around the handle in the stern and/or bow.

One caribeaner is attached to the electrical tie and the other is attached to the rope. You just run the rope through the other caribeaner. With this system you can have an electrical tie on the bow and stern handle . If you paddle up from the put in attach the rope and chain to the bow so when you come up to a hole you wish to fish you let the chain down. Then when you turn around and head back downstream, just stop and switch the rope and chain to the stern.  It is a very nice system, and you dont have to drill holes in your bow and stern.....Mack

**********you can see how well  this works is this video here on my YouTube Channel  

#oldtowncanoe

#dragchain

#canoe

#riverfishing