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Here is the Story........ |
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The deer scored 158 4/8 and field dressed at about 250lb. It was somewhat of a bittersweet hunt as I had spent a total of 12 days hunting a couple of the best farms I had ever hunted and passed up a couple of bigger deer in hopes of a giant. A couple days before I shot this one there was a 12pt that I had into 70 yds that I could never get a shot at, he was shot last night and scored 183. There were also several on game cameras that were 180 to 200 class that seemed to only move at night along with numerous deer over 200 killed on the surrounding farms while i was there. The sweet part was that I shot the deer the last morning I was there(about an hour before I had to leave for my flight) and it was an old deer that was essentially a large cull buck. He came through chasing a doe at 25 yards and went about 60 yards after the shot. The land manager and neighbor had shed horns to show that he was at least 5 1/2 years old and poor genetics other than the third beam that made him the most unique deer I have shot. The long and short is that I met some great friends, got to hunt the best place I have ever been on, and killed a nice deer that I won't forget. I was hunting in Fulton and Knox counties Illinois on Timbercreek Land Co. farms that they manage and improve for quality deer, turkeys, waterfowl, and of course bass. |
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To start with, Table Rock Lake used to be one of my favorites but now question that due to the cold weather and tough fishing conditions we dealt with. During practice the temperatures rarely got above 50 and the water temps hovered around the 40 degree mark in most of the lake. I was planning to attack the lake with two baits a Megabass Vision 110 and a finesse jig tipped with a zoom critter craw. Each day of practice was about the same for me in that I caught a couple fish each morning pulling and stopping the megabass along bluff ends and points and catching a couple on the jig during the middle of the day along the bluffs. I was never able to find any concentration of fish on either pattern and could not decide what river I wanted to fish and was suffering from a debilitating cold that would not go away. Not a fun week and the tournament continued about the same way. The first and second days of the event I weighed one each day and they both came on the Megabass up in the James river. I should have made a change and went up the White River after the first day was that terrible, but I was too stubborn. The last day I continued up the James to fish the same area that was unproductive the first and second day hoping for different results. Not too smart as I and most of the other competitors up there failed to catch a keeper. The history of the James is what kept me going back and failing and was my worst enemy. Sometimes it is better not to know? I finished somewhere beyond 100 and am afraid to look - my worst finish in several years. The highlight of the trip was getting to see the new Silverado HD and driving it around a bit. Talk about power! I will have one when they become available! |
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Lake Norman is one of those lakes that I have always been comfortable at and fished quite well in the past. I started practice fishing off the bank trying to crank pea gravel points with a Megabass Z crank and caught a good many fish but they were all small. I then spent some time fishing some channel banks with a jig and the results were about the same - not good! Day two of practice I ran up the river and caught some two pounders doin those same kinds of things in a different part of the lake as I had tried on day one. Still not the results I was looking for so on day three I ran down to a creek on the lower end and caught fish the same ways along with some on the docks including a four pounder and a two and a half. I still was not too confident in anything I found and decided to start upriver and work my way back. I ended the day with eleven and a half pounds and in 24 th place. I tried the next day to duplicate what I had done the day before and struggled to catch anything. I caught 3 little fish that weighed about three and a half pounds dropping me to 98th place. the last day I decided to run to new water and try new things. I started the morning throwing a Vision 110 jerkbait in Tennessee Shad in th morning since the cranking bite was disappearing and it paid off with a three pounder early in the morning. The sun got more intense and I picked up a jig and managed to catch a couple more over three which was the kind of start I needed if I was going to get a check. I continued on and the wind began to blow so I picked up a spinnerbait and finished off my limit. I went back to the jig and culled a couple times and ended the day with thirteen and a half pounds. This was enough toget me some money and 45th place. |
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I just finished up our fifth event on Kentucky Lake leaving just the final event at lake Champlain in a couple weeks. The tournament was a dissapointing event but did not have a disasterous ending. I ended up in 13th place after a miracoulous day two recovery and am now only five points off the lead for the angler of the year title.
My practice was lackluster, not in the fish catching department but rather in the consistency department. Everyone knows when you go to Kentucky Lake in June you better be out on the ledges, but you must also find schools of fish and not be fishing for singles because they move entirely too much. During my four practice days I was only able to find 2 schools of big fish but was able to catch some others at random. |
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