Well it’s been a long 4 days with Huntography in town filming the FLG crew. We had a small hurricane sitting over Michigan for the first two day that wouldn’t let us get into the woods to film. Rain and 30mph wind aren’t necessarily prime whitetail hunting conditions and definitely not good for the camera gear.
But we’ve been having a blast regardless and have had some up close encounters with some nice deer. As I type this Rudy and I are hidden in a ground blind setup (pictured above) and we are gonna rock a deer.
Prime time is coming up so I gotta get to watching. Be safe out there hunters.
It’s dreary outside, the leaves are falling and we are about to enter the Whitetail pre-rut here in Michigan. There has been a lull in the action around here lately with the warm weather and full moon keeping the deer moving late in the evenings and heading to their beds as dawn cracks in the morning. But all that is about to change in a big way.
This evening @huntography is bringing the 2011 Whitetail Deer Tour into FLG Hunting camp again. From midnight tonight until the end of shooting light Saturday night we will be in full on assault mode. The bucks are starting to scrape and even chase does occasionally and a nice cold snap is arriving tonight that should get the deer on their feet. For the next 100 hours we are going to hunt our butts off, eat some amazing food, tell some great stories and make some memories that will last a lifetime.
Now, FLG Hunting Camp is ALWAYS a good time whether or not anything gets killed but once every year when Huntography Deer Tour comes into town it creates the perfect storm of hunting camps. This year we wont disappoint and we are sure to come up with some shenanigans that will keep you laughing and fingers crossed some dirt naps for some monster Michigan Whitetail bucks.
Well it’s the second week of Whitetail season here in Michigan and Team FLG has been out in the woods chasing deer quite a bit so I wanted to give everyone an update on our season so far.
Opening morning Tex and I teamed up for a hunt at a new property that we have permission to hunt that looks REAL promising. We saw quite a few deer while perched high in our Lone Wolf stands and I let an arrow fly at a nice mature doe. I hit her perfect front to back but knew immediately that my arrow was high but i was hopeful that 2 hours into the season we had our first deer of the year. After climbing down I recovered the arrow which to my amazement had zero blood on it and was instead covered in fatty residue. After searching for 20 minutes we were able to find the first drop of blood…a single drop. We were able to stay on a hardly existent blood trail for 3 hours and 400 yards before the occasional drops of blood disappeared into an overgrown CRP field. In those 400 yards we had only found a dozen or so drops of blood so i’m hoping that she is still running around. Until that morning i had never shot a deer and not recovered it and i have to say that it’s probably the worst feeling i have ever felt.
An Evening in The Stand at The K Ranch
We hunted a few more times on opening weekend but weren’t presented with any great shot opportunities while in the stand. Four days into the season we were ambushed by a warm front that has been sticking around ever since. Luckily the deer are still moving a little even if the bucks are still tucked away eating and moving after dark. I was in the stand last Sunday evening trying not to sweat too much and attempting to surprise a monster buck but he never showed up. Even the 14 does and 2 smaller bucks i saw all moved really late.
Luckily the weather is supposed to get a little cooler in the coming days and we are gearing up for the pre-rut. We have a bunch of exciting things coming up so stay tuned. On the 19th the 2011 Huntography Deer Tour is rolling into town and will be staying at FLG Deer Camp and hunting and filming with us. It’s gonna be an amazing time and there will be some big deer getting dirt naps for sure.
For me this is absolutely my favorite time of the year. No matter what kind of weather mother nature throws at us or how many or few deer i see from my stand it’s just amazing to be out. The fall colors are so gorgeous and the sounds and signs of fall get my blood flowing. It’s all about the chase and the memories we make along the way and this fall sure is shaping up to be epic.
I’ll be posting live blogs from my stand for the rest of the season so stay tuned and hold on. It’s gonna be a wild ride.
Opie
p.s. To all my fellow hunters; please be safe out there in your treestands.
Well all of us boys over here at FLG are pretty darn excited about the cooler weather and fall being just around the corner. We’ve been putting in a lot of hard work this summer getting ready for Whitetail season and we couldn’t be more ready for it to be here. Check out the season preview video below and as always. Don’t forget to subscribe to the gear deal alerts. We’ve been sending out some amazing deals on all the gear you need to kill that big buck this fall.
I don’t know about you guys and gals but i sure do have Whitetail Deer on the brain. We’ve been putting in a lot of hard work this summer getting all prepped up for the season this fall. One of the big things we did this year was put in food plots on several of our properties to help concentrate the deer and also provide nutrition.
Here’s a great video update from Tex on putting in food plots the right way. When it comes to growing food plots Tex is the man so if you are thinking about putting one in definitely give the video a watch. A lot of great info on prepping the food plot from spraying until the seed goes in the ground.
We used Frigid Forage to seed our food plots and have had great success with germination rates and growing high quality food sources that have been drawing deer from a long way off.
Well any of ya’ll who have been reading our blog, watching our videos or reading Team FLG tweets know that first and foremost that we like to have a good time.
That being said…today’s post comes from a fellow outdoorsman that enjoys the outdoors and having a good laugh as much as we do. Let me present the always funny Owl Jones from owljones.com and fishnewsdaily.com.
For the Love of the Game
The Always Effective "Blend" Technique
His head was just above water, and I wondered how he was keeping his balance with that much water trying to push him downstream. One arm was held high and toward the far bank as he desperately tried to get enough momentum to swing a double-shot-two-nymph-rig a few feet upstream. The trout were deep, and the only way to get to them from was to wade deep. But up to your neck? I questioned the sanity of such a move, but kept my mouth shut. If he could stand there in that kind of current and still try to cast, I sure didn’t want him coming after me!
People do silly things for fishing, while fishing, and just to get to the fish they want. This guy is just one example of either bravery or stupidity that we’ve all seen over the years. Or, maybe it’s an example of bravery or stupidity that we’ve even done ourselves at some point?
When I was 17 years old, a friend of ours from church took us trout fishing for the very first time. He was our youth Pastor and he knew where to go, when to go, and what to use for bait. We didn’t know how to begin to fish for trout, coming from the flat lands of middle Georgia and we went along with everything he suggested we do. Some of the things he did not suggest were felt-soled boots, a wading staff, waders, sun-glasses, bug-spray and a first aid kit.
On the way to the creek, all we heard were stories of adventure and abundant trout. “They aren’t big, but there are plenty of them” he said. Unfortunately, for us there were only a few that weekend. But we did manage to climb over slippery, moss covered logs 20 feet above the creek, get ourselves lost, sit through two thunderstorms, eat some bad eggs, drink unpurified water and be sick for a week afterwards…..all for a few little trout. Stupidty? Perhaps. It surely wasn’t bravery.
There are times on the river while fly fishing for Trout where there seems to be a breaking of the Time-Space Continuum and we travel to a place where time slows to a crawl. The river slows and almost stops when the trout first sees your fly and slowly rises from his lair to gulp your fly from the surface, there are no thoughts only actions in slow motion. At the moment the trout closes his mouth on your fly a time slingshot launches you into warp speed as you lock into an epic battle with one of natures finest creations. Whether the fish is landed or not there is a brief period of awe and disbelief as the fish swims away to resume his beautiful life and time slowly returns to normal. You take a minute to get your wits about you and relish the moment but then you have to try for just one more. Because after you’ve felt that feeling you have opened pandora’s box and you don’t ever want to let it go. At least that is how i feel while fly fishing.
I just wanted to share with ya’ll a few of my favorite pictures from our 2011 Yellowstone Fly Fishing Adventure before we get into Salmon season and other pursuits like chasing monster Whitetail bucks.
We shared a lot of great times with good friends and caught some amazing trout and for that i consider myself a blessed man.
Enjoy…..
Opie
The Boys Hanging Out Streamside After a Long Day Fishing
Doc's First Cutthroat Trout on a Dry Fly
PT with a Nice Cutty From the Cliffs of Doom
Opie with a Hard Earned Monster Cutthroat
Luat with a Monster Rainbow from Trout Lake
The FLG Crew
p.s. If you want to check out a bunch photos from the trip you can head on over to our flickr page by clicking here.
Well we put together a short video with some of our Yellowstone National Park fly fishing highlights. We had a phenomenal trip and shared some great time on the stream together. I can’t wait to head out there again next year with all of our friends to chase more monster Cutthroat Trout with tiny flies once again.
Without our family and friends to share them with our experience are lessened in their magnitude.
Relaxing on the Front Porch of Roosevelt Lodge After Fishing
Every fishing trip out west is a new adventure. There are always thoughts about the uncertainty of the river conditions, hatches, campsite availability and lastly but definitely not least the bears. However, once you have crossed into Wyoming and see the signs for Yellowstone all those uncertainties seem to drift away like the current and the real importance of the trip becomes exposed…Friendship. Luckily, on this trip we were able to experience great fishing and great friends, new and old. Well to say we caught fish would be a huge understatement. We caught some great fish and experienced some world class fishing under some tough conditions which I will explain.
Horse Trail to the First Meadow
So it turns out Opie heard that the horse “trail” following the river up to the first meadow of the Slough was clear and open this year. Well, the “trail” if you can call it that, to the first meadow of the Slough, that was “supposed to be” clear this year was exactly the same as last year; non existent. PT and I were fine, a little tired but not too tired to make sure Opie knew and could hear our opinions on this great “trail”. (Doc on the other hand was too tired and to busy blowing his bear whistle to really voice his opinions).
When we finally made it to the first meadow, the boys cleaned up on the fish. I on the other hand, with borrowed flies because I didn’t have my fly box (long story) couldn’t buy a fish. Even though I had struck out that afternoon, the hike (climb) in and Doc hooking up and landing his first ever Cutthroat trout on a fly rod was a great time. Just for the record, I did manage to catch a couple trout at camp to get rid of that skunk smell.
I have decided to upgrade the FLG duck hunting boat for filming our hunts this year. We do not have a full time huntographer on the FLG Waterfowl Team as of right now so we are prepping the boat and our equipment to film our everyday hunts POV “Point of View” style. I want to mention that we do have scheduled in this season where we will be filming with a huntographer like Opie and PT and whoever else may join us for some great duck and goose hunting in various states including OK, IL, and MI. The FLG Team purchased our filming equipment from B&H PhotoVideo. They have great prices and an awesome insurance program that is hands down the best in the industry. They can provide a wide range of equipment including camcorders, still cameras, tripods, mounts, cables, memory cards and mics.
I am setting up with two GoPro Hero HD wearable underwater cameras. Here are some of the great features of this camera: Up to 1920 x 1080p HD quality video, SD/SDHC memory card slot, 180′ waterproof housing and 5MP still images. With all the various mounts available for these cameras, I will be using them on my retriever while he makes retrieves, on my gun for POV action shots and any other position I might find effective. I am also going to use two DXG 5B1V Sportster HD Camcorders. Here are some of the features of this camera: Up to 1920 x 1080p HD quality video, 128MB Internal Flash Memory, SD/SDHC Expansion Slot, 1/3.2″ 5MP CMOS Sensor, 3″ LCD Display, 4x Digital Zoom, Waterproof up to 10′, LED Video Light, and an HDMI Output to HDTV. One of these cameras will be mounted inside the boat for shooting our conversations and calling techniques. The other will be placed on a tripod behind the boat or blinds for the wide angle shot. I also have one Kodak Playsport Zx5 waterproof/dustproof/shockproof HD video camera that is very compact and portable. It is about the size of most smartphones and I will carry that in my pocket for any random filming I need to do outside the blind where I need something readily accessible.
Again, B&H PhotoVideo is the place to go whether you are a professional photographer/videographer looking for a high camcorder or if you are a Do-It-Yourself outdoorsperson wanting to capture the things you love to do on video to share with your friends and family. Please visit B&H PhotoVideo to see all the equipment they have available to you. Also, do not forget to sign up to get our weekly gear deal alert coming exclusively for you from First Light Gear.
