OffShore!

Ok, so living on the coast does have its advantages...like getting a call from your buddy in the middle of the week offering you a seat on a 28 foot Grady White for a day of offshore fishing action this coming weekend...can you go?
Well it just so happened that I could oblige-only 1 small problem-We were leaving the dock at 3:30 am!
All guys know that there are some things worth sacrificing for, and an offshore trip is one of those, so while 3:30am was early(and I mean EARLY), I met the challenge and was actually excited to do so.
We left the the Boathouse on Skull Creek and headed out for our destination, about 70-80 miles off the coast-The water was awesome all day, seas 1-2 but if I saw a 2 all day I don't remember it!
I joined the trip with Capt. Ed Brown, my buddy Evan Jeffords, and his dad who was in town from Florence.
We had a great day of fishing, the seas were good, the company was good, the beer was cold, but the fish were scarce! We all had enough to take home 1 meal each, so while it was an expensive meal, it was a great day and reminded me why living on the SC coast is so awesome!

What a beautiful Morning on the way to the Gulfstream!

Sunrises like this are hard to come by!

Nice "Peanut" Mahi

Turkey Season 2010

Well if anyone is still checking out my blog they either have too much time on their hands or they are just really bored! Either way, I apologize for the lack of posts lately. It's not that nothing interesting in my life has been going on, quite the opposite-however, I just haven't had the time to devote to updating the blog.

So, although delayed, I thought I would post a photo and story of the Wild Turkey I took on Good Friday, April 2 this year. It had been a long time coming, and this hunt was as textbook as you can get.

I hunted this exact spot the week before with my buddy Evan Jeffords and we got right on a bird at sunrise, and he gobbled 20 times or more, but unfortunately he never showed up after he flew off the roost.

So I sneaked back into this area in a hardwood swamp off of a power line, and once I got settled I gave a quick hoot on my owl tube, "who cooks for you, who cooks for you all..." as the woods were waking up and bam-Gobble, not one, not two, but three birds!

I took my time getting set up by a good shooting tree, and lightly let out a few yelps, bam-they all answered. I called about 5 or 6 more times, and shut up. Each time they gobbled back, so I knew I was in business. After about 10 minutes, I saw 2 white hot heads walking through the swamp right in front of me, and at 6:58am, I dropped a nice 18 lb lowcountry gobbler at about 22 yds with my old Benelli!

The entire hunt took less than 30 minutes, and that makes up for the scores of all day hunts with nothing to show for my efforts-But as they say, a bad day in the woods is better than a good day at work!

Lowcountry Gobbler, Richfield Plantation, McPhersonville, SC

SoCon Champs!!!!

Congrats to my Wofford Terriers...2010 SoCon Regular Season and Tournament Champs!

Unbelievable run to the championship, can't wait until the "Big Dance"!

Coach Mike Young cutting down the net

Texas Hogs!

I took a trip this past weekend to Gonzales, TX (about 1 1/2 hrs East of San Antonio) with my good buddy Dr. Brian Weatherby and his in-law family and friends to hunt Wild Texas Hogs. We hunted at a 300 acre Ranch, and had quite an experience.
We had a good time, but the ranch was not as it was described, and there were a number of minor problems that we encountered, such as being told we had the ranch exclusively to ourselves for the weekend only to discover two other groups would show up also! in spite of the problems, we did manage to kill hogs and enjoyed catching up on old times with my friend Brian and meeting new friends. Also, I met the world renowned Whitetail Hunter Larry Weishuhn in the San Antonio Airport, who was a really nice guy!

Check out the video of my First Hog!

Woodies!

My neighbor and friend Kevin McGuire and I decided to try to chase the wood ducks one more time for 2010 this past Saturday. We traveled up to Rick DeLong's place in Gillisonville, SC to hunt some flooded timber. Man, was it flooded! The rain was coming down (as it had been all night) and it was a cool 44 degrees-most would call that good Duck Hunting weather, but I must admit more than a few times I couldn't help but think about that warm bed where I left my wife as I got up at 4:45am and hunt in the cold, wet rain for what...remind me again...a lousy duck? :)

Although the weather wasn't the best for my taste, the ducks didn't seem to mind and began flying a little later than ususal, about 5 minutes after legal shooting time. We had a good hunt and killed a few nice Drakes. Afterwards Rick's wife prepared a really nice breakfast awaiting us after the hunt and we ate while drying off by the fire. A nice way to end the season!

Nice Pair of Lowcountry SC Wood Duck Drakes!

First Duck Hunt of 2010

I know that it's been forever since I blogged about anything, but I have been so distracted at work with a new boss and the holidays, not to mention Anderson is growing like a weed and I am enjoying more and more time with him...which means less time for blogging!

Anyway, I had a great time this morning hunting right off the Savannah River with my Neighbor, Kevin McGuire. He is quite a duck hunter. I will be the first to say that I am not! Now don't get me wrong, I consider myself an outdoorsman first and foremost, but duck hunting has never been a passion of mine-I guess one can pick their own, and mine happens to be deer and turkey hunting. However, I enjoy the outdoors in general and with the end of deer season complete, it was a chance to get out of the house and try something different for a change. The short of it is I had a great time, and can't wait to go again(maybe next Sat)! Here's a quick story about the hunt:

My alarm clock awoke me bright and early at 4:15am this morning. I was actually excited and ready to go, so it didn't take me long to get out of bed, into my warm undergarments, and make my way downstairs to my hunting room to finish getting ready. The outside temp was about 34 degrees, so I had to bundle up. While I was slipping on my waders and getting my gun and shot together I put the coffee on. You know, nothing beats a good cup of coffee early in the morning before heading out for a hunt of any kind, whether it be duck, deer, turkey, or something else. Sometimes things just taste better in different situations, but I guarantee you the coffee this morning tasted better out of my hunting thermos than it does out of those styrofoam cups back in the office at work any day of the week!

Anyway, I headed over to Kevin's with my waders on and gear in tow. I was greeted by Kevin and his black lab duck dog "Remi." You could tell that Remi was ready to go, he was as excited as we were to be heading out to the duck hole.

We loaded up and headed out to the Savannah River Marsh, off Hwy 17. It toook us about 30 minutes or so to park the truck, and almost 45 minutes to an hour to walk to our hole in the middle of the marsh! It's funny, but on our way down Hwy 17 there are a number of gentlemen's clubs that we passed, and would you believe at 5:20am their parking lots were still packed!

Once we parked the truck we made our way into the marsh. This is no easy jaunt...there was a nice natural pond right by the road that we could have hunted, but Kevin wanted to go where no one else goes, and this was an adventure, especially in the dark,with full gear and heavy waders on! The marsh is a beautiful environment, but at times I believe one that is just not made for man's entrance, at least not the two times I stepped into sinkholes almost up to my waist, getting myself, gun, and gear wet and muddy in the process!

As I said, it took us almost 45 minutes to get to our hole, after trudging through the saltmarsh pluff mud and jumping not one but two creeks. I guarantee you we are the only humans to ever hunt this spot of land, at least since the clovis people anyway! Once we arrived, we positioned ourselves in a patch of reeds for great concealment on the edge of an open water hole, and waited patiently for 6:57am to arrive, which is legal shooting time. in the mean time, I got a few pictures of Kevin and his dog Remi.

A few minutes before the ducks began flying, the horizon began to turn beautiful shades of Blues, Oranges, Yellows, and Reds.

Once shooting time begain, this was the beautiful scenery we were presented with:

After shooting time we began to hear shots off in the distance, probably from a few wood duck holes way off to the other side of Hwy 17,but it was quiet at first for us. A few minutes passed, and we saw several twosomes and threesomes fly by, way to far off for a shot, and we could not turn them either. About that time, a ringneck flew from behind me to my left and flew over the water hole in front, I attempted a shot, but the bird kept flying, although he teterred to the left after my shot, almost if I had hit him. A few minutes later, another ringneck flew towards us and Kevin put a few #4 steel shot in him, dropping him out of the sky like a firecraker! As Remi went to retrieve the duck, 4 birds flew towards us and we both fired, my shot exploding on the side of a duck and dropping her like a sack of potatoes. Remi retrieved my first(and only) duck of the 2009-2010 hunting season, a nice Hooded Merganser hen!

We had a number of other sets of ducks fly over, albeit well out of gun range, so our action this morning was rather limited. But the thrill of the hunt and the experience within the outdoors is much more important and as enjoyable than the success of taking a limit. It's amazing, however, that a good cup of coffee and a common Hooded Merganser hen made my morning, but that they did!