Chassahowitzka Archery Hunt: High Waters and Deep Frustrations

My final set-up

"This is just ridiculous!" I thought to myself after letting an arrow fly at a doe at Chassahowitzka WMA. It felt like if I was in a tree with a bow in my hand I could do no wrong this archery season. I started the season with a Georgia hunt and successfully harvested a doe and a buck. Now in Florida it seemed I was off to the same kind of start.

From the beginning the hunt seemed destined for failure. I have hunted Chassahowitzka many times and am well familiar with the amount of hunting pressure and the low success rates. Me and my brother Jonny planned on scouting Citrus for it's November archery season, then do an evening hunt at  Chassahowitzka  just to get in a tree. With the ridiculously high water levels I knew that my old spots would require a boat to get to so my only scouting involved Google maps.

We arrived at the area late afternoon and I climbed a pine tree at the edge of a Cyprus swamp that formed a horseshoe around me. Jonny set up about 100 yards further down the edge. After sitting 20 minutes I just wasn't feeling it. I got down, walked pass Jonny, and after wandering around like an idiot for a half hour without finding a place that interested me, I climbed a Cyprus tree overlooking a main road. A half an hour later I could take the lameness of that set-up no more and I once again set out to move my climber stand.

Finally, I found a Cyprus swamp that surrounded a beautiful oak hammock. It looked like a place I would actually enjoy sitting. Once again I climbed a pine tree with my back to the swamp and peered into the oak hammock. A pair of bald eagles flew by me shrieking like crazy, I don't see that everyday. About 6 p.m. Jonny text me saying that there was a doe feeding right where I had originally set up. That's what I get for moving so much.

About 6:30 p.m. I heard something splashing loudly in the swamp behind me. I stood up and readied my bow as the anticipation grew. Soon I could see the visitors, two does coming toward the edge of the swamp. The first one stopped broadside quartering away at about 35 yards and there was a hole in the foliage giving me a clear shot. I released the arrow and the shot looked and felt good. She ran off about 30 yards along the edge and began splashing around in the water, then she stopped and all was silent. I assumed she was down for the count. The other doe ran deep into the swamp from where they came. After waiting a few minutes I called Jonny and told him I shot a doe. As I was talking she got up and ran off along the edge and out of sight.

After waiting a little longer I got down to look for my arrow and blood. When I got to where I shot her I was wading in water up to the top of my boots. If it was a pass through shot my arrow was somewhere in the mud under the dark brown water. I walked the edge of the swamp looking for blood till after dark with no success. Finally I had to call it quits. I am freshly reminded how frustrating bowhunting can be at times. After playing the whole situation over in my mind a hundred times I have to conclude that the high water levels were to blame. I had a clear shot, I practice shooting a lot and am confident at that range, I just can't blood trail a deer through knee deep water in the dark.

While the high water didn't seem to change the deer's travel patterns, it should be considered when bow hunting this season. Blood trailing a deer can be tough enough, add water and you've got a very frustrating experience.

Opening Week Buck 2012

A warm and muggy opening weekend of archery season in South Georgia gave way to a crisp, cool Monday morning. This was my last morning of the hunt and I was already more than satisfied as I had smoked a nice doe on opening morning. When my alarm went off at 5:30 a.m. I flirted with the idea of staying in bed; but that thought wouldn't last for long. After walking outside and feeling the cool air that had come in during the night I quickly gathered my gear and jumped into the truck.

Jacob and Noah were going to hunt the big club so I headed solo to the small lease we affectionately refer to as "Wayne's Property". The day before I had carved a trail with hedge trimmers to an area we call "the watering hole" and hung a lock-on stand in an oak tree. We used to access this area from the opposite side until Wayne's sister died and the family sold off the west side of our lease. So for the past year and a half we were cut off from this area by a 200 yard thick wall of brambles and underbrush. Carving a trail was not the easiest task and I'm sure I dropped a couple gallons of sweat in the process. I had sat the same stand in a thick creek bottom all weekend and I was ready for a change in scenery; but my expectations of seeing a deer near the watering hole that morning were not very high.

I was glad I brought my jacket as I enjoyed a beautiful sunrise in the stand on this cool morning. About an hour after sunlight I heard something crashing around in a thick hedge row in front of me. Picking up my bow I waited and continued to listen. After nothing showed itself I wrote it off for a bird or something. I did catch a little movement of branches but didn't want to raise my hopes too high.

Then, to my amazement, out popped a deer's head complete with dark chocolate colored antlers! I could see three nice tines coming off both sides and I assumed that with brow tines he was a nice eight pointer. Carefully grabbing my bow and standing up I kept my eyes on him as he emerged from the hedge row. Behind him was a smaller buck that I didn't look at twice. I had tunnel vision on the first buck. He began quickly walking right towards me. I drew my bow and followed him with my top pin. By the time he stopped he was nearly under my stand quartering sharply towards me.

Aiming between the buck's shoulder blades I released the arrow. To my amazement he simply dropped! I had clipped his spine leaving him paralyzed beneath me. After two more carefully placed shots (I don't like watching anything suffer) he was expired. For the second time on opening week I was blessed with a clean bow kill with no blood trailing required. When I climbed down and examined him I found that he was a beautiful six point, being that he lacked brow tines. While no monster, I was proud to take him with a bow.

I still have one buck left in Georgia that must have at least 4 points on one side and I am going to hold out for a true monster buck. I was hoping to catch up with a couple giants we had on camera last year but when I checked my camera I discovered it had a bad SD card. So I'll have to wait for next time to see who else is on the property this year.

I arrived back at camp before Jacob and Noah and I quickly hid my buck behind the cleaning station. When they returned I waited a bit to tell them. Finally I said, "My hunt sucked; look, I ruined another new broad-head." I Showed Jacob an arrow with a busted broad-head covered in flesh and blood. The look on his face was great! Then the showing off began. As I cleaned my buck Jacob and Noah cleaned up camp and before Noon we were on the road and heading home. Hunting season has barely started and it is looking to be an epic season for me. I hope my good fortune continues, but even if it doesn't I can't complain. I'm a blessed man!

Opening Morning Doe

I've been trekking up to South Georgia for the opening weekend of archery season for the past seven years or so, and until this year, I've never even seen a deer from the stand on the opening weekend. My wife would wonder out loud why I keep going just to sit in a tree with my bow and get bit by mosquitoes. My answer was simple, "If I keep at it, sooner or later things will turn my way."

Well, this past weekend it payed off. This year I dropped my membership to the big lease and kept a small 60 acre lease with my brother Jacob. I decided to take a less is more mentality to the property and pretty much just left it alone all off-season. Opening morning I slipped into a stand I hung in a thick creek bottom last Spring. After sitting for an hour and a half, it seemed to be shaping up to be a pretty uneventful morning. To pass time I began studying the topo map on my iPhone when I caught movement to my left. I looked over to see a doe at 20 yards standing broadside. As I slowly reached over to grab my bow, another doe that I hadn't seen caught my movement and ran off into the thicket, this put the first doe on high alert. She began to stomp the ground as I slowly drew my bow. Just when I reached full draw and began to settle my pin behind her shoulder, she busted off. I was bummed!

I was sitting there thinking how I had blown a perfect opportunity. Ten minutes later I again caught movement to my left. This time I was ready. A big fat doe began to walk across the creek at 24 yards. As her head went behind a branch I drew my bow. She took one more step and stopped. I placed my top pin right behind her shoulder and let it fly. "Thwack!" She jumped up, kicked out her back legs and crashed into the thicket from whence she came.

After waiting 40 minutes I decided to get down and look for blood. When I got to where I shot her at all it took was one look into the thicket to see her white belly. She didn't run more than 25 yards! It was a perfect slightly quartering away shot that went in right behind her shoulder and broke her other shoulder on exit. I am very please with my new T3 mechanical broad-heads by G5.

Jacob and his son Noah were hunting the big lease so I had a long drag back to the truck with a fat 130 pound Georgia doe. After a really tough season last year it felt great to open this season with a successful bow hunt and get some good eatin' in the cooler.    

Ready For Archery Season!

I can almost feel the cool breeze against my face and smell the clean crisp air as I think about sitting in a tree stand overlooking an overgrown clear-cut, crisscrossed with deer trails on my Georgia hunting lease. But before I experience cool breezes over big clear-cuts I will first have to earn the right of passage with sweaty-butt sits in the mosquito infested creek bottoms. Yeah, I'm talking about archery season.

It's almost here and I couldn't be more ready! True it's hot, the mosquitoes are terrible and the deer don't really move during daylight hours; but it's hunting season! It's the start of something great! Sure, I usually come home empty handed but I will never succeed if I don't keep trying. This time next week, Lord willing, I'll be sitting in a lock-on with my Therma-cell purring, hoping a deer comes wandering through a thick creek bottom on my little 60 acre lease in South Georgia.

Since the deer don't move much at all during daylight hours in September where I hunt, I'm planning on sticking to a really thick area along a creek bottom. I've never hunted this area of the lease, actually never even explored it in the six years I've had the property. It wasn't till turkey season that I hacked a path into the creek bottom and hung a lock on. As I was screwing in steps, a big bodied buck came walking right to my tree at 1 p.m. in the afternoon. It's one of those spots that is so hard to get to that people just haven't set foot there in years. I'm hoping to catch a deer unawares and have an opportunity to try out my new T3 broad-heads.

Last year's trail cam pics on small lease

I did get a chance to visit the property last week by way of a detour on my family vacation to North Georgia. While my wife and kids waited in the mini-van, I quickly filled my two feeders located in areas I will be gun hunting later in the season and set up a couple trail cams. I'm very interested to see what shows up. Last year we had about five bucks frequenting the feeders and two of them were monsters. The biggest was a heavy ten point that broke off his right main beam in front of his G2 early in the season. The second was a tall main frame eight with split G2's. I know the big ten survived the season because one of the farm workers found his shed antler in the Spring. Besides the two big boys, there were two young seven pointers, one of which was very wide and also a fork buck. I'm hoping to catch these guys on camera and see how they have progressed.

I have been shooting my Matthews Switchback XT a lot the past few days and I think I've scraped off all the rust! I picked up some new arrows and broad-heads at the archery shop and a jumbo size Therma-cell refill pack and cleared out the light tags in my local Wal-Mart. Just one more week of work before I meet up with my brother Jacob and head up to Georgia to start the season off! Stay tuned as I have a feeling it's going to be a killer year!

Spearfishing Vlog July 30th, 2012

I did a couple dives this morning in about 45 feet of water in the Gulf of Mexico. I took my GoPro HD camera down for the first dive and here are the results. Enjoy!

Judah and Ellie love to show off the catch

The Mid-Day Hog Hunt

Dennis and Willy from Cracker Heritage Hunting Preserve

My brother Jacob booked a hog hunt at Cracker Heritage Hunting Preserve for July 9. The plan was to do a little spot and stalk archery hog hunting early in the morning. As the date neared I tried to back out due to a money shortage; but Jacob, being the generous big brother he is, offered to pay for me and convinced me to stick with the plan.

July 9th came and my alarm went off at 3:30 a.m. It took me a minute to figure out why the heck I was supposed to get up. When I realized I was supposed to be at Jacob's house by 4 a.m. I quickly got dressed and prepared to bring my gear to my truck. As I grabbed my phone off the charger I noticed I had missed a text from Jacob. He had a cut on his finger that got infected and had been at the E.R. for most of the night. The hunt was canceled, or so I thought.

I went back to bed and enjoyed sleeping in. Late in the morning Jacob called saying that his finger was doing better and that he was going to do a mid-day hunt. My first thought, "Are you crazy? A mid-day hog hunt? In July? With bows? Let me see if it's alright with my wife."

Soon we were on the road heading to the ranch with his daughter Shea and his son Noah. We arrived about 11:30 a.m. and met the ranch owner, Dennis, at a piece of the property he calls the heifer pasture. The property is a 600 acre working cattle ranch owned by a real cowboy named Dennis who is a sixth generation Florida Cracker. On the side he runs hunts with the help of his two sons and their crew of friends.

Jacob and his kids started stalking through a swamp at the front of the heifer pasture while I worked a creek on the back side. Dennis and his sons are the go-to guys to remove hogs with dogs and traps from nearby properties; they release them on the ranch, so there always seems to be plenty of hogs, if you can find them.

Me and Big Red

I had hunted this particular part of the ranch a lot and I knew some spots where I had found hogs bedding before. My plan was to walk very slowly and look for bedded hogs under brush piles and downed logs. It took a while to find one but eventually I came upon a brush pile where I saw a big red hog lying underneath. It took a minute to figure out which end was the front and decide the best way to take a bow shot at a bedded hog. I don't think there is a best way personally as the only shot at the vitals is a high shot to the lungs which are protected by a boars thick shield. I moved a little to the left to get a better angle and as I began to draw my bow his ears shot up and he busted out of there.

After spooking a few more bedded hogs without a chance at a bow shot I went to the van and traded my Mathews Switchback for my 12 gauge pump with a slug barrel. I went back to the spot where I first saw the big red boar and sure enough he was back with a couple of buddies. As he ran away I took a quick shot and rolled him into a ditch. As he rolled around I fired my last two slugs, missing once and grazing his skull a second time. As I approached him I saw that my first shot had gone through his ear and into his upper neck. I whipped out my iPhone and began taking pictures of the downed hog as I waited for it to expire.

Big Red's cutters

After about 5 minutes it got up and began slowly walking off. I walked alongside expecting it to fall back down. Its walk turned into a trot and I began jogging. Finally it broke out in a full blown run and I starting yelling for my brother to bring something with ammo in it. I watched it run across a pasture and into another swamp. After giving it a bit I walked into the spot I saw it go and nearly stepped on it before it took off deep in the woods. It was time to call Dennis to bring the dogs.

Dennis arrived with his son Sid who brought along his friend Willy to help work the dogs. They were training three puppies who found the big red boar in no time. When we heard the barking and the grunting we ran through the spiderweb infested swamp to catch up to the fight. Those puppies were doing their masters proud with this big red boar who had revived from being shot through the neck with a 12 gauge slug. Sid grabbed it by the tail and started playing ring around the rosy with it until Willy jumped in and grabbed the back legs, flipping and pinning it. Once we got the dogs off I used Jacob's 9mm handgun to put the hog down for good. My first shot was just behind the brain and just above the spine, enough to knock it out for five minutes but that's about it. Thanks to the dogs, that hog was down for good.

Noah with his feisty sow 

After giving the dogs a good rest Sid and Willy released them to find another one for Noah who wanted to get his first bow kill. The dogs found a few more hogs but the puppy in them came out as they kept getting distracted from the chase. Finally they bayed a fierce skinny sow that had given them a run for their money. As Sid called the dogs off, Noah had time for a quick broadside shot and flung his arrow right over its back. The chase was back on! The dogs caught up to it again in a creek bottom and Sid and I were the first ones on the scene. Once again he grabbed its tail and this time I jumped in, grabbed the back legs, flipped and pinned it. When the rest of the crew arrived Jacob carefully handed the pistol to Noah. A close shot behind the ear sent mud splattering across Noah's face and instantly expired the feisty sow.

The mid-day heat and Florida humidity had worn us out and from the look on the dogs face, they were thinking the same thing, time to call it a day. We brought the hogs to the barn and being that Jacob's finger was infected, butchering responsibilities were on my shoulders. It was the least I could do for such a generous big brother. Willy was surprised that we did all of the butchering ourselves, but for me it's a vital part of the hunting experience. What started out sounding like a crazy notion actually worked out pretty good, thanks in a big part to the dogs.

While I doubt  I'll ever again go on a mid-day hog hunt, here's a little advice for anyone who finds themself in a similar situation:

1. Stalk bedding areas. It's amazing how a bedded hog will lie still under a bush just yards away from an unsuspecting hunter. Go slow and look carefully under downed trees, palmetto heads, brush piles and tall marsh grasses. I've come upon a lot of hogs in this way. Just be ready for action and bring some extra toilet paper because they will scare the crap out of you when they bust off!

2. Get a hog dog.

While success on a mid-day hog hunt is possible, I wouldn't recommend it.

Gag Grouper: Back in Season

After many months of throwing big Gag Grouper back in the water and watching them swim past my spear gun without being able to pull the trigger, they have finally come back in season! Danny, Jonny, Dustin and myself left the dock early this morning in hopes of filling the cooler with grouper slabs. I went to take the pinfish out of a bait hotel I had filled up and left at the Marina on Friday only to find that someone else got a lot of nice baits without much effort yesterday. So for about the next hour and a half we worked on trying to fill the bait well, you can never have too much bait.

Dustin showing off our catch

It was a flat calm morning and the water is finally starting to clean up after Tropical Storm Debbie made a mess of things in the Gulf. We tried a few ledges in 50 - 60 feet of water only to catch the typical 18" Red Grouper. But after going to a ledge in 85 feet of water we quickly dug seven big Gags off the bottom and into the cooler. It feels a lot better throwing a fat Gag into the cooler than it does throwing one back into the water! Just when we were about to leave, a school of small Mahi Mahi showed up and mixed the action up. We ended up catching eight of them on jigs and small pieces of sardines. We would leave one in the water until someone else hooked up, in this way we were able to keep the school at the boat. After the last few took off we moved on to a mitigation area near the pipeline for our last stop.

My Cobia and cool sunglasses

On the way I chunked up a bonita and a bunch of threadfins for chum. When we arrived we were happy to see that we had the spot to ourselves. That's the benefit of having Mondays off. We began chumming in hopes of rising the snapper. I don't know if it was the full moon or what, but we could not get the snapper bite going. Our chumming efforts weren't in vain though. Dustin yelled, "Look, two sharks!" and I quickly corrected him, "Cobia!" I scambled to put a threadfin on my free-line set-up. One of them was huge, at least 6 feet long and man was he thick! The smaller one grabbed my threadfin, spit it out and then swallowed it again, the fight was on. I was expecting the big one to stick with him but unfortunately it took off, not to be seen again. After a nice fight that broke in a new heavy spinning rod set-up I put together over the weekend we gaffed a beautiful 40" cobia and put it in the cooler to join the other fish.

Huge American Red Snapper

After a few more fish we decided it was time for the last effort of the day. I brought a dive tank along for insurance. I suited up and because I knew that the big Cobia was still lurking somewhere out there, I elected to use a line shaft with my spear gun; I'm glad I did. When I reached the bottom that was littered with rock piles at 95 feet, I was greeted by a big Gag Grouper. He watched me swim down above him and as I neared shooting range he began to retreat. I took a long shot and missed. As I was retrieving my spear a huge American Red Snapper came swimming up beside me to see what the action was about. In a panic I put the shaft back in the gun and tried to load my band. In my haste I didn't lock the shaft in right and it came back out. I tried to calm my nerves as I carefully locked the shaft, loaded the band and without rewinding my line, shot the snapper as he quartered away. The shot went through it's stomach and it took off, taking me for a ride. I thought for sure it was going to rip off as snapper do so often when shot through the soft belly. I managed the get to it and grabbing the end of the shaft, I pinned it to the sand as I wrestled to put my kill ring through it's eyes. When it was secured I let out a Turtle Man holler under the water. I think I was the most excited I have ever been spearfishing. I continued on to shoot a Gag, a red grouper and two mangrove snapper. It was amazing how many huge fish were down there but at 95 feet a tank burns up quick and soon it was time to make my ascent.

Jonny with some small Mahi Mahi

When I got to the boat I was congratulated and we snapped a couple pictures of the 30" Red Snapper that was the icing on the cake for our day. Red snapper go out of season next week and due to the unusually windy June we've had it will most likely be the only one we have the privilege of eating this year. Red Snapper are my favorite eating fish in the Gulf and I am going to savoir every bite of it. But Gag Grouper are going to remain in season for a couple months to give us something to look forward to. At the end of the day we had a limit of 8 Gags, 2 Red Grouper, a Flounder, a Cobia, 8 Mahi Mahi, and a giant American Red Snapper. Not too shabby; now the hardest decision for us is what's for dinner: blackened Mahi Mahi, grilled Cobia? Grouper sandwiches? There's a lot of possibilities.