Hunting and Fishing News & Blog Articles

At first light I could see deer already. They were in the farm field to the south and in the strip of woods to the right (west) of the house. Straight up, the movement of me walked outside would have been picked up by the deer and they would have moved on. When I could get out unseen I did. Minutes later the 3 deer below browsed by 40 yards to my left.

A few more deer came through the area, some browsing, and some hurrying toward the deer bedding areas downhill from me. In a while something very cool happened. I

had just noticed a doe walking nearby. I touched the On button on my Sony. The doe stopped and looked my way. That target you see laying on the ground is 20 yards from the chair on my front porch that I sit in to watch for deer. I took the doe’s picture.

I stayed still. Basically, I do not want to spook deer, even if its not hunting season. The doe began walking my way. In this picture she is pretty close.

Now the doe was over with watching me and started moving in my direction. Notice that she is licking her lips, right then and there I realized what was on her mind.

Article by William Hovey Smith

Telling people how to shoot fish with a bow is easy. It is the doing of it that is the hard part. The quickest path to success is to begin with good equipment that has been properly set up for the sport. Many tyros want to use their hunting bows, but change their carefully tuned deer slayers as little as possible. A better approach is to use an older bow or buy a new one and rig it exclusively for bowfishing.

There is a necessary learning curve while eye, brain, hand, bow and arrow learn how to bowfish. A hundred or more shots may be taken before that first fish is brought to shore. This will take a lot of shooting, and there is no need to wear oneself out using an overly-strong bow.

Sight in the bow using a single pin set at about seven yards. Learn to use hold-over and hold-under for longer and shorter distances. This will enable the occasional fish that broaches the surface to be taken reliably. The tough part is learning how much to hold under the fish in order to hit underwater targets. An approximate rule is to hold three inches under the fish for each foot of water depth. This works for shots that are at about 45 degrees. More hold-under will be needed for shallower-angle shots and less for steeper angles.

Good shooting techniques like releasing the arrow smoothly and following through tend to be forgotten in the rapid shoot-shoot-shoot pace of bowfishing. Pull the bow, wait until the fish is in an optimum position for a shot, adjust your sight picture for water depth and release the arrow smoothly. Following these fundamental steps will get those first confidence-building fish in the boat faster than flinging lots of arrows into the water without paying much attention to shooting form. As in all other shooting sports, the body and the brain will learn how to do make good, well-released shots faster and faster, but it will take shooting at a lot of fish for this information to be hard-wired into the brain and nerves.

Back in the 90’s I got the opportunity to move next door to my 1,000 acre Bow’s-Only deer lease. It had, as they say, a pivotal effect on my life. For instance, in one fell swoop I cut the time to cross the cattle guard to my deer hunting lease from 2 to 5 hours down to 3 MINUTES! And I still live there.

It’s miles from the closest paved road — and 3/4 of a mile down the rough; “never has been paved and never will” road I live on …  is the end of road. So the potential is good for this area to have some deer. And it does.

By living down here I’ve definitely learned plenty that I didn’t know about deer. Right now (July) is a very unique time in the lives of whitetail deer. I really like sitting on my front, or back, porch, as daylight creeps through the dark  the woods and I get a pic of the first deer I see. Notice how dark her hocks are.

Here is another deer I took a picture of this morning. Notice her bulging stomach. She is very close to participating in one of the miracles of being a female deer, giving birth to her annual fawn or fawns.

The doe is walking through my front yard and is 20 yards from where I am sitting, Sony camera in hand. In the picture below she pauses to nibble on something in the recently mowed grass.

What you need:

2lbs ground venison
1 large onion chopped
2 eggs
3 tsp steak seasoning
2 tsp soul seasoning
1/4 cup milk

Place 2 pounds of ground venison in a large mixing bowl. Add one large chopped onion. Then add two eggs and your spices.  If you don’t have soul seasoning you can add any other seasoning that you like.  (Cumin, garlic powder or a little more steak seasoning will work).

After adding your milk, you will need to mix the ingredients thoroughly to spread all the seasonings throughout the venison.  When your venison is all mixed up start making out your patties.  You can make them any size you would like.  I try to make them according to what one person would like to have for one serving.

Optional: Adding bell pepper to your chuck wagon steaks.  Danny and I love them with bell pepper.

A tip that I have learned that works wonders… In the center of your hamburger steaks or burgers make the center thinner than the edges that way you know when the edges are done the center will be done also.

Frank Addington (FA): Tell us about your backgrounds, where were you born, grew up, and got involved in archery.

Ralph Cianciarulo: I was born August 20th, 1960 in Chicago IL. Mom & Dad always told me the table was lopsided, and that explained a lot to them – Hmmmmmm!

I can recall getting my first dime store bow & arrow set at about 6 or 7 and can remember being fascinated by watching the my arrows fly through the air. Sometimes hitting the target, but most of the time not the right ones. My parents got a small summer home on a little lake less than hour from the city and every summer we would spend it up there fishing and flinging arrows at everything you could imagine. My Mom’s family was really into hunting & fishing and my uncles took me out a lot and I was hooked.

Vicki Cianciarulo (VC): I was born and raised in the western suburbs of Chicago IL. I have 2 sisters and I am the middle child, (don’t believe all of the middle child research!) No one in my family hunts, but I have always been a tom boy. When I was nineteen, I purchased my first Toyota 4×4 pick up truck!

RC: As long as I can remember I was always fascinated with wild life and the outdoors. I told many I would become a veterinarian; little did they know I would really be working on animals but in a very different sense.

Robert Hoague

The next morning was very cold once again and the Duck and I coffeed up waiting for daylight. Then we filled up a thermos and drove out to the hill where he had shot the wild boar yesterday afternoon. We cut through the woods on the well worn deer trail to where the Duck had his ground blind set up in the thick cedar break where he was bowhunting.

He pointed out where he first saw the group of wild hogs coming from downhill through the cedars. He walked to where his shot opportunity had materialized. The Duck had quickly lost sight of the boar in the tight cedars. He told me, “It sounded like the hog went up hill from me and the sound of a guttural moan closed out the afternoon hunt.” (To Yesterday’s Hog Hunt.)

As The Duck checked near where the hog was shot he saw some splatters of blood. I kneeled down and carefully looked the immediate area over. Even in these tight woods I could see where several trails came through this area.

I picked a trail that was parallel to the top of the hill and walked slowly along it , looking carefully for more sign. Fresh hog tracks were visible and they went in both directions showing where hogs came and went.

After 40 yards I was standing in a small opening in the cedars. Hog tracks turned on a cross trail and so did I. The tracks quickly took a left into a rocky area of dense woods. Two steps further I noticed the black butt of a wild hog under the low limbs of a cedar tree.

Young River Newcomb’s drive, dedication and love of the outdoors has made her a real bowhunter. As you’ll learn from this video she has an additional quality, she has courage too. In this video River and her Dad pack bear bait into black bear country for a week. But River’s Mule caused a hurtful accident that put River in the Hospital with a concussion and 7 staples. However, River came to bearhunt with her bow and when she was released she mounted her mule and went bear hunting anyway.

But, as you saw in the above video, the unwelcome incident didn’t stop River from bear hunting. River has taken mature bear’s previously and this time wanted a big trophy black bear … and she made it happen.

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Late during deer season I made a personal trip and when I flew back to Dallas The Duck (Don Beckwith) picked me up at the DFW Airport. He was anxious to race down to the deer lease and hunt that afternoon. But I had other plans.

First, I wanted me some Ojeda’s Mexican Restaurant.

Ojeda’s is all about mexican food done as good as it gets. (Way better than the mexican food you ate, if you ate it that day, and didn’t go to Ojeda’s or down the street at Herrera’s.)

The Duck and I slammed plenty of Ojeda’s home-made salsa and chips and then waded into plates of beef enchiladas and tacos.

And later, because it was too late to get home in time for an afternoon bowhunt we stopped at Braum’s Ice Cream in Hillsboro for chocolate dessert in a waffle cone.

Frank Addington (FA): Where and when were you born?

G. Fred Asbell (GFA): I was born August 14, 1940 in Harrisburg, IL

FA: What was your family life like growing up?

GFA: My father and mother, Dwight & Georgia Asbell, had 4 children. Dwain is the oldest, then Richard, myself, and my sister, Judy. We were all born in Harrisburg, IL, but moved to Petersburg, IN in about 1945. Petersburg was a town of about 4000. Farming was big and the primary employer was probably the railroad and the coal mines. My father worked for the New York Central Railroad and they transferred him to a better job in Petersburg. We all went to Petersburg High School.

When I was young I was dedicated to playing cowboys and Indians morning noon and night. Sports intervened with puberty. Every field was a football field, every driveway and barn had a basketball goal, and we all played spring, winter, fall and summer. Nothing was more important. By my senior year I was 6’4” tall and weighed 200 lbs…which was quite large in those days. I was good enough to be offered college scholarships in football and basketball upon graduation. I played with that a little bit but was too immature and there was little money for such unnecessary luxuries so I went off to the Navy.

I settled into my, just getting to be, rickety rocking chair;  on my front porch and set down my camera, iphone, binoculars and a cup of black coffee. It was gonna be one heck of a deer-seeing morning — does and fawns were on the move in my area. An hour and a half later I had watched and counted 67 deer. And as you can see above, a larger group than usual let me take their picture.

 

BEN PEARSON Jr.

FA: Ben, you have a true heritage being the son of the great archer and bowhunter influencer Ben Pearson. Some of today’s bowhunters may or not be aware of just what your Dad did for archery but hopefully this interview will shine some light on one of our sport’s legends. Your father was inducted with the initial class for the Archery Hall of Fame alongside other archery greats like Howard Hill, Fred Bear and others. Tell us where your father was born and what you know of his early life as a child.

BPJ: Many new bowhunters may be unaware of Ben Pearson’s influence on the sport of archery and bowhunting and know the name “Pearson” as a brand name of a bow and archery equipment manufacturing company. It is one heck of a heritage. It reaches back to the very beginning of the modern archery movement and is one in which a young Ben Pearson developed his hobby to become the World’s Largest Manufacturer of archery equipment, remaining in that position for better part of three decades. His life’s journey into the world of archery brought him into contact with what he would term the “greatest group of folks on Earth.” Dad had many friends, many of whom were also his competitors.

Ben Pearson Sr.,Born: November 16, 1898 Died: March 2, 1971

The Pearson name does exist in today’s market. I do not represent the present Ben Pearson Archery Co., and this interview should not be viewed as anything other than an historical narrative primarily dealing with Ben Pearson and Ben Pearson Co. events prior to 1969.

Regarding your reference to Dad’s induction into the Archery Hall of Fame, I remember that in June of 1972, we arrived in Grayling, Michigan, where my mother represented Dad (as a founding “Charter” inductee) in being accepted into The National Archery Hall of Fame. The inductees are all revered names in the sport and were accepted into the Hall of Fame in alphabetical order: Fred Bear, Howard Hill, Russ Hoogerhyde, Ann Weber Hoyt, Karl Palmatier, Ben Pearson and Maurice Thompson. Mother, my sister Mary, and I, all had a very enjoyable time in Grayling. Fred Bear, in a kind but risky gesture, loaned me his Ford cougar to drive. I was just 18 years old at the time.

The normal Fawn procedure is once they are born then lay low and are rarely seen. A month after birth fawns are stronger, a little bigger, and they are learning from the Does about the the landscape and what’s around the woods where they are hanging out. Minutes after daylight today I spotted a fawn’s head bobbing around in some nearby tall grass and weeds. I eased my Sony up and got its picture.

The fawn kept watch all around but kept looking to my left. I could tell it was watching something.

I wasn’t that surprised when a Doe walked past me and went to the Fawn.

They walked into the woods to the north and disappeared. It wasn’t long until a different Fawn and Doe came from the south and browsed around eating leaves and forage.

This Fawn clearly had a handle on his foraging skills.

Bowfishing has had a large increase in popularity due to its excitement and the wide range of opportunities. The main bowfishing species are common carp as they are found in large numbers throughout the USA. Carp live in rivers, streams, flowages and lakes. And, with bowfishing, along with anything else in life, if you’re looking for something new, try bowfishing … for big sharks!

Not long ago Mathew and Jeff decided took their bowfishing skills to the Pacific Ocean after the fast swimming, open water Mako Shark. They contacted Matt Potter of Break-A-Way Charters in Hunting Beach, California and booked a two day off-shore shark trip for July.

Jeff has taken shark in the past but those were in-shore journeys with the use of float systems and were only a 30 minute boat ride to the location. On this journey they had to travel six hours off-shore in water depths reaching up to 2 miles — so the use of floats was out of the question. The gear they took on this adventure included the popular AMS Fire Eagle bows and AMS Tigershark arrows tipped with a tough 3 barb grapple. They used a 1000 lb wire leader tied to a ring system that attached to the arrow. The leader and line was then attached to a big game fishing pole.

Just like any big game hunt it can involve long hours, practice with the bow and fish arrow and a little luck. Imagine a heavy fishing arrow being shot with a 1000 lb wire attached to it. It drops dramatically.

Day One of our shark bowhunt began at 3am when everyone meeting at the marina. We watched as the Hollywood shoreline disappeared and turned into blue water and sky.

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Bowfishing is super fun. Everybody that gives it a try and gets a shot or two, or 24, and maybe even a Gar or a Carp knws Bowfishing is double extra FUN!  And Tim Wells has been into it for years, he is nuts about it, and so is his family. Glance over the Pictures below and be sure to Click On the video, You’ll be having fun too.

Due to the water refraction you shoot lower than the fish appears. Just like this.

And this…

And this…

.Clay Newcome of Bear Hunting Magazine and Ryan Greb travel to Saskatchewan, Canada to bowhunt with Kolby Morrison of Bear Pro Safaris. Ryan witnesses a very close Bear Fight when a big Sow is attacked by a bigger Boar. Meanwhile, Clay stalks a bear and winds up getting stalked.

To see the video of this bowhunt click on the image below.

Here is a picture of Ryan Greb and the big boar that attacked the sow Ryan was watching.

I knew what I was in for when I left deer camp a day early. Before going home I went directly to the Doctor. The receptionist looked at me and said, “I’ll get you in ASAP.”

“Thanks,” I replied, and I meant it.

A nurse took me to a room and then the Doctor came in. I had already removed my shirt. The Doctor looked at me and shook his head. “That’s bad,” he said, but you should’ve seen the guy that was here last year. It was the worst Poison Ivy I’ve ever seen.”

The nurse pointed at my folder, “Doctor, this is him.” And she was right.

Three years before I had found a new deer hunting place. The first two years I got into poison ivy and sumac and used some creams that claimed they would eliminate the rash. But that did not happen. Soon, I was fire red from my neck to my knees. The rash had spread fast, bringing with it a fierce, raging itch … both years. Only the Doctor visit and a shot and some prescriptions cured me.

By: Paul Murray

Sitting in my treestand for the first hunt of the season, my mind drifted back through my 30 years of hunting to the time when we got our first deer. I could not help but smile as I glanced up the ridge to the South West of my stand position.  Sitting there remembering the excitement, the happiness and the feeling of true accomplishment of the day that unfolded on that comfortable fall afternoon about 200 yards from where my treestand is located.

When I was 12 years old and my brother Scott was 10 we went on our first deer hunt with our father. We did not hunt on opening day, because the weather was forecasted to be miserable and dad didn’t want us to miss a full day of school. So we would have to wait until the first weekend of the season, as our shotgun season opened on Monday’s back then. That week was one of the longest I can ever remember. Finally it was Friday, we got out of school early that day and we headed to our families property in the South West Corner of New York State.

As soon as we got there, we got dressed and headed to the woods. We had spent so much time growing up in these woods, yet they seemed so different on this day, almost as if there was an actual purpose to being there. We only had about two and a half hours of daylight to hunt.

After we marched single file through the meadow in knee deep snow to the woods edge, dad stopped and looked at us and told us two things. First off, where we were headed, and secondly “When I stop, you stop!” That went in one ear and out the other for both of us.

We only had to walk another couple hundred yards to where we were hunting for the evening. We sat there for an hour when Dad looked at the two of us shivering with our noses running and said “Let’s move down the trail about one hundred yards, I know a good place to sit.” As soon as I jumped to my feet, about 100 yards down through the woods on the deer run we were hunting, I saw something move and did a double take.

 

By: Sue ‘SusieQ’ Burch

Venison Sausage Meatballs

1 lb premium sausage
1 lb ground venison
1 egg
2 or more cups shredded cheese (I used 3 cups)

Mix all ingredients together.  I put mine in my mixer and let my dough hook mix it up for me.  When it was mixed up really good, I took out my cookie scoop and put my balls on my cookie sheet covered with non-stick parchment paper. I didn’t put the parchment down for the first batch and I can tell you, that was not a good idea. The clean up was a major mess.  I won’t make that mistake again. Bake at 350° for 15 to 20 minutes depending on how large your Venison Sausage Meatballs are.

All ingredients in my mixing bowl waiting to be mixed up.Dough hook in mixing bowl churning away getting all ingredients mixed up.