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877.314.1237 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // NOVEMBER 2020 3
HUNTING & FISHING IN ALABAMA & THE FLORIDA PANHANDLE
CONTENTS
8
10 Deer Hunting Tips and Strategies for the Southern Pre Rut. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 by Josh Honeycutt Fall Fishing Patterns for Redfish & Speckled Trout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 by Bobby Abruscato Learn When Deer Tend to Move the Most. . . 18 by John E. Phillips Change in How STA Morning Waterfowl No-show Opportunities are Distributed . . . . 24 by Tony Young What to Stock in Your Pond and Why. . . . . . 28 by William Kendy Late Season Smallmouth Bass Tactics. . . . . . 26 by Captain Brad Whitehead
14
Understanding Land Lot Loans for Rural Residences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 by Joe Baya
18
In Every Issue Best Bets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 by William Kendy Camphouse Kitchen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 by Hank Shaw New Gear for Outdoorsmen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 by William Kendy From the Commissioner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 by Chris Blakenship From the Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 by Charles Sykes The Gun Rack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 by Craig Haney Paddle Fishing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 by Ed Mashburn Coastal Outlook. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 by Chris Vecsey Pier & Shore. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 by David Thornton Regional Freshwater. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 by Ed Mashburn Prime Feeding Times, Moon, Sun, and Tide Charts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Pensacola Motorsports Trophy Room. . . . . . 72 Great Days Kids Corner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 Classifieds & Fishin‘ Guides . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Fishing Tips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 by Patrick Meek A Great Day Outdoors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 by Jim Mize
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PROPERTY PHOTO HERE
PROPERTY PHOTO HERE
Alabama River Uriah
Livingston Residential, Hunting, and Recreational Tract Sumter County, Alabama, 530+/-Acres
This hunting, recreational, and timber investment with lakefront lodge is an outdoorsman’s dream. Located in the heart of the Black Belt, the property is ideally suited for personal PROPERTY residential, corporate, or commercial use.TEXT The 6,000HERE sf 2.5-story home overlooks a professional 16-acre lake and boasts a great room with 23’ ceilings, underground utilities, a large main-level master bed/bath with fireplace, spacious kitchen with stainless appliances, 2-story patio (one screened/ one covered), large closets, a 2 bed/2 bath apartment in the basement with its own kitchen, bath, and laundry, storm cellar, four-car garage, all new 4 zone HVAC, commercial-grade generator, ground level entrance on 2 levels, automatic gate, and more! The lakes have been managed and the 16+/-acre lake features a boat slip. There is also a work shop with power and pole barn, food plots/ pasture, & exceptional hunting! It is ideal for a corporate retreat or luxurious family recreation property.
Monroe County, Alabama, 144+/-Acres
This diverse waterfront hunting and timber investment is a rare find, with 400+/- feet of frontage on the Alabama River and a huge sandbar. Located between Chrysler and Perdue TEXT Hill, an area well knownPROPERTY for quality fishing, deer, turkey, HERE dove, and duck hunting, just over an hour from both Mobile and Spanish Fort, enjoy easy access using the Bailey’s Creek Road frontage, utilities available nearby, and timber types including mature, unthinned hardwood and pine plantations that are ready for their first thinning. Land of this quality is rarely available in this area, much less with both road and river frontage. ADDITIONAL ACREAGE IS AVAILABLE, UP TO 279+/- ACRES TOTAL.
FL Panhandle Listings
Alabama Listings COUNTY Autauga Autauga Autauga Autauga Autauga Baldwin Baldwin Baldwin Baldwin Baldwin Barbour Barbour Barbour Barbour Barbour Bibb Bibb Bibb Bibb Bibb Blount Blount Blount Bullock Bullock Bullock Butler
ACRES 545 535 375 371 230 1995 1334 900 735 555 884 342 215 92.7 5 416 188 168 152 87.55 60 50 9.3 4000 167 92 85.16
COUNTY Chilton Chilton Chilton Chilton Chilton Choctaw Choctaw Clarke Clarke Clarke Clarke Clarke Cleburne Cleburne Coffee Coffee Colbert Colbert Colbert Colbert Colbert Conecuh Conecuh Conecuh Conecuh Conecuh Coosa
238 164 146 73 21.65 388 54 620 176 54 41 40 856 128.16 200 33 294 161 133 92.4 80 142 40 40 35 22 640
Coosa Coosa Coosa Coosa Covington Covington Covington Covington Covington Crenshaw Cullman Dale Dale Dale Dale Dale Elmore Elmore Elmore Elmore Elmore Escambia Escambia Fayette Fayette Fayette Fayette
ACRES 430 161 151 128.5 360 72 22 3 0.86 163 876.25 96 63 63 30 20 282 264 111 97 83 671.6 58.5 672 473 321 232
COUNTY Fayette Greene Greene Greene Greene Greene Hale Hale Hale Hale Hale Henry Henry Henry Henry Henry Houston Houston Houston Houston Houston Lamar Lamar Lamar Lamar Lamar Lauderdale
135 490 165 153 105 38 329 223 80 70 55 1200 200 100 60 20 325 66.8 31 17.5 11 373 202 192 140 92 159
Lauderdale Lauderdale Lauderdale Lawrence Lee Limestone Lowndes Lowndes Lowndes Lowndes Lowndes Macon Macon Macon Macon Macon Marengo Marengo Marengo Marengo Marengo Marion Marion Marion Marion Marion Marshall
ACRES 108 1.17 0.78 80 4505 111 1013 656 500 1.6 0.75 2370 930 486 483 163 6214 3000 1164 558 551 286 88 80 77 50 535
COUNTY Mobile Mobile Mobile Mobile Mobile Monroe Monroe Monroe Monroe Monroe Montgomery Montgomery Montgomery Montgomery Montgomery Perry Perry Perry Perry Perry Pickens Pickens Pickens Pickens Pickens Pike Pike
1800 439 308 299.1 260 790 279 269 150 129 3314 926 858 788 768 240.75 120 116 40 36 837 513 450 430 240.36 521.95 112
Russell Saint Clair Saint Clair Shelby Shelby Shelby Shelby Shelby Sumter Sumter Sumter Sumter Talladega Talladega Talladega Tuscaloosa Tuscaloosa Tuscaloosa Tuscaloosa Tuscaloosa Walker Walker Walker Walker Washington Washington Washington
ACRES 50 656.08 66 159 135.84 92 90 80 740 550 530 45.7 537 320 115 500 280 280 203 160 203 100 85 61 1320 455 240
COUNTY Washington Washington Wilcox Wilcox Wilcox Wilcox Wilcox Winston Winston Winston Winston
213 160 2365 522 436 310 196 160 140 2.3 1.3
Escambia Gulf Santa Rosa Walton Walton Walton Walton Walton Washington
ACRES 257 55 95 454 60 60 45 35 22.5
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877.314.1237 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // NOVEMBER 2020 5
BEST BETS
BEST BETS FOR NOVEMBER These are our top targets for hunters and fishermen this month! BY WILLIAM KENDY
NOVEMBER WORLD CLASS SPECKLED TROUT FISHING
When it comes to inshore fishing for speckled trout in November on the Alabama Gulf Coast, one of, if not the biggest, games in town is the Mobile/Tensaw River Delta. In his “Fall Fishing Patterns for Redfish and Speckled Trout” article in this issue, Captain Bobby Abruscato shares his expertise as to how to capitalize on this world class fishery. Abruscato says that one of the best ways to experience “triple digit catches” of quality speckled trout is to focus on the shallow bays on the edges of the five main rivers that make up the Delta. Drift fishing while throwing popping corks with shrimp imitations like GULP Mantis Shrimp or VuDu Shrimp are top offerings for these moving trout. Tip: Diving gulls are dead giveaways for feeding fish.
HUNT EARLY FOR BIG BUCKS
VOLUME 24, ISSUE 11 NOVEMBER 2020
PUBLISHED BY: Great Days Outdoors Media, L.L.C. PUBLISHER/EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Joe Baya GENERAL MANAGER: Samatha Hester MANAGING EDITOR: William Kendy CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Wendy Johannesmann
The opening week of Alabama’s November firearm whitetail deer hunting season is far and away the best time for you to harvest a mature whitetail buck. Since Alabama is such a long state (from north to south), especially in its north to south stretch, the timing of the rut is all over the calendar. According to the Alabama Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries, whitetails in the Bankhead National Forest, the Black Warrior WMA and adjoining areas will start breeding in mid-November and the rut normally peaks around November 25th. For more insight and specific information on the varying times of whitetail rut in Alabama check out the “The Latest Research on Alabama’s Mixed-Up Rut” article by John Phillips in the December 2018 issue of Great Days Outdoors.
NOVEMBER IS TIME FOR WOOD DUCKS
The Alabama duck season officially opens on November 27th, continues the next day, is suspended and then picks up on December 5th until January 31st. In November, a lot of the migratory ducks and geese haven’t made it down the flyway yet but since the duck hunting season is open, it is time to pursue “resident” birds, …like wood ducks. Woodies hang around streams, creeks, rivers, floodplains, lakes, swamps, and beaver ponds, flooded hardwood timber and even drainage ditches. The central habitat theme for the dabbling and diving wood ducks is food rich shallow water with access to plant matter, small acorns and seeds. According to the experts, hen welcome calls and a chuckling call will call wood ducks in and the calling process is similar to calling a turkey. 6 NOVEMBER 2020 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // 877.314.1237
Great Days Outdoors (USPS 17228; ISSN 1556-0147) is published monthly at P.O. Box 1253 Santa Rosa Beach, FL 32459 Subscription rate is $30 for one-year, $54 for two-years, and $72 for three-years. Periodicals Postage Paid at Mobile, Ala. and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Great Days Outdoors Media, LLC PO Box 460248 Escondido, CA 92046 SUBSCRIBERS: All subscriptions begin the first issue for the month following receipt of payment, if payment is received by the 15th. Great Days Outdoors assumes no responsibility for delivery after magazines are mailed. All delivery complaints should be addressed to your local postmaster. CONTACT US: EDITORIAL | JoeBaya@greatdaysoutdoors.com ADVERTISING | SamHester@greatdaysoutdoors.com SUBSCRIPTIONS | greatdaysoutdoors@pcspublink.com Great Days Outdoors Media LLC PO Box 460248 Escondido, CA 92046 877. 314. 1237 info@greatdaysoutdoors.com www.greatdaysoutdoors.com All rights reserved. Reproduction of contents is strictly prohibited without permission from Great Days Outdoors Media, LLC.
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BLUEGILL STOCKING
10 Deer Hunting Tips and Strategies for the Southern Pre Rut How to kill a Dixie buck before the big show ever begins BY JOSH HONEYCUTT Photos by Josh Honeycutt
Neck muscles ripple with each lick of the branch. Dirt flies with every stroke of the hoof. Then, the inevitable. The stud pees right in your mock scrape and there isn’t a dadgum thing you can do about it … except shoot that buck square in the vitals.
Deer are usually on a pattern during this phase, and for the prepared hunter, this is great. For the lazy or unprepared hunter, it can be their undoing.
Deer hunting in the South is no easy task, but it gets just a smidge easier when you understand the dynamics that are in play. Follow this 10-step program for locating, patterning and tagging a big, mature Dixie buck this season.
2. Know the Area
1. Recognize the Benefits
After all, you have to know when peak breeding occurs to know when the prerut is. It isn’t acceptable to rely on what’s happening 30 miles down the road, or even 3 miles. Things can be different from property to property.
The rut is my least favorite time to target mature bucks. Sure, anyone can get lucky when deer are running around with their heads in the gutter. But it takes true dedication, effort and skill when a deer has its brain screwed on straight. Still, despite having their wits, deer are vulnerable during the early season, and especially the pre-rut. In short, the pre-rut is the early season on steroids, with slightly jitterier deer. Whitetails have been pressured, but not as much as they will have by the rut or late season. It’s critical to understand just how beneficial this is, and what it means for your chances of filling that coveted buck tag. The best part about the pre-rut? Predictability.
That said, for those who put in the time to learn specific target bucks and their weaknesses, there’s no better time than now. Much of this hard-to-obtain, yet incredibly useful knowledge goes out the window once the rut arrives. The South is notorious for weird rut dates. Depending on location, it spans from July and August (parts of Florida) to February and March (select portions of several states). This great degree of variability demands precise knowledge of when deer breed in your neck of the woods.
Fortunately, it’s easy to obtain this information. Deer breed at roughly the same time each year. Peak estrus and breeding are driven by photoperiod (daylight length) which doesn’t vary from year to year. Days shorten the same way every fall. That said, the rut is a slightly different animal in the South. While photoperiod is still the trigger, there’s a wider breeding window than in the North. The reason is simple, milder winters. So, while it isn’t as defined as in northern states, it’s still a predictable event. To recap, historical rut dates are vital bits of information and you can obtain these from biologists and wildlife agency officials. They should have data specific to your area. Use this to time the pre-rut, which are the days leading up to the peak-breeding window.
8 NOVEMBER 2020 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // 877.314.1237
HUNTING
The author poses with a big pre-rut buck.
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10 Deer Hunting Tips and Strategies for the Southern Pre Rut
Running cameras is important for locating, profiling and patterning target bucks, but be smart about it. Improper camera usage can pressure deer and do harm, too.
3. Get on the Grub
Food is king in the whitetail world, regardless of the time of year. Deer are “concentrate selectors”, meaning they seek out the best of the best that’s available within their home range. They eat only the best portion of each plant (not the entire thing and they feed five to six times per day. General food sources vary throughout the South, but agricultural products (alfalfa, corn, soybeans, sorghum, etc.) and food plots (chicory, clover, lablab, iron clay peas, winter peas, etc.) are great options. Don’t overlook natural food sources as they reign supreme throughout the region. Soft mast, such as persimmon, plum, pear, peaches and other foods are popular eats for whitetails. Hard mast, such as acorns, are critical food groups, too. During the pre-rut, it’s not uncommon to witness deer transitioning to hard mast, not hitting fields and open food sources quite as much. If this is your reality, it’s important to transition with the deer, and hunt where they are. This is true all season long.
4. Pinpoint Water Sources
Water is important. Deer drink several times in 24 hours. On average, a 200-pound buck must consume three to five quarts per day to remain healthy. Interestingly, most of the mature buck beds I find are located 10 NOVEMBER 2020 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // 877.314.1237
within 50 yards of a water source, even if it’s a small, stagnant one. Some studies also suggest deer rise from their beds in the evening and move toward water. That isn’t always the case, but in my experience, it holds true most of the time. Because of this, I focus many of my stand locations near water.
5. Signs of the Times
Rubs and scrapes are dead giveaways of buck travel routes. Rubs dot the landscape, but established rub lines connect the dots between wellused bedding areas, staging areas, food sources, water sources, etc. Use these clues to help pinpoint preferred travel routes. When observing rubs, study them. If rubs are facing in all different directions in thick cover, it can mean several things. First, if buck beds are all around, congratulations. You found the bedding area. If there are no beds nearby, but rubs still face all or most directions, it’s likely a staging area deer use at different times of the day, or how the buck oftentimes enters and exits the bedding area. If rubs are in a line, and consistently face the same direction, it’s a preferred travel route. Analyze the direction they face. If rub faces (exposed tree trunk) point toward bedding cover, that’s probably how the buck leaves its bedding area in the afternoon. If the rub faces point toward food sources, that’s likely how the deer returns back to its bed early in
10 Deer Hunting Tips and Strategies for the Southern Pre Rut
the morning. Little nuances like this can really help dial in on a buck’s core area. Don’t overlook scrapes, too. Of course, southern deer don’t move far from their beds during daylight. So, hunting scrapes on the edges of fields might work in the Midwest, but rarely gets the job done around here. Instead, camp out over scrapes in staging areas, and along travel routes that are closer to bedding areas, not food sources.
If you find a rub that looks like this, best find the X and put in some treestand time.
And if you find a good rub line or community scrape, throw a couple cameras out. It’s a good way to take inventory during the pre-rut. In pine tree country, these oftentimes follow the lines where pines and hardwoods meet. Any other type of edge habitat works, too.
6. Profile the Targets
Throughout my years as a bowhunter, I’ve learned that deer have personalities. Not complex personalities like humans, but every deer shows different levels of aggression, food preferences, daylight walking, susceptibility to pressure, etc. Part of getting it done on a smart southern buck during the pre-rut is learning how to profile specific targets. I do this over time. In-person sightings are great, but trail cameras in video mode work, too. You can see how deer communicate with other whitetails, their habits, etc. Over time, a picture will come into focus of how deer behave and knowing this can make all the difference. For example, you wouldn’t snort-wheeze at a deer you know is timid. In contrast, you wouldn’t hesitate to grunt or rattle at a buck that’s a proven bully. Or, if a deer rarely moves in daylight, you’ll have to hunt closer to its bed. Whereas, deer that tend to move further in daylight don’t need such a treatment. See what I mean?
7. Pattern the Targets
Profiling and patterning go hand-in-hand. Patterning a deer requires intimate knowledge of the property you’re hunting, and learning how deer use and traverse it. I do this by glassing from afar and carefully running trail cameras. I place cams in three layers (food or water sources, staging areas and bedding areas). I sparingly check most food, water and staging cams, but I do so from a truck, ATV or bike. Bedding area cameras are either cellular models, or only get checked after deer season. In instances of the latter, I use that knowledge for the next deer season. If you have historical knowledge, such as sightings or trail camera photos from past seasons, this can prove extremely valuable, as deer sometimes (but not always) carry over habits from year to year. Over time, all of the knowledge you gain for specific target deer culminates into a game plan, and the pre-rut is a perfect time to execute it.
8. Find the “X”
As in duck hunting, finding the X is just as important when chasing whitetails. This isn’t quite as important when hunting with a rifle, but it is with archery tackle. It all hinges on being able to drill down on that one spot where you can intercept that buck. That’s easier said than done, but steps No. 1-7 culminate to get you here. Personally, I like to put everything down on an aerial map. In-person sighting, trail camera photos, historical information, food, water, scrapes,
rub lines, deer trails (charted during the off-season), known bedding areas (again, located after deer season), and any other valuable information is placed on the aerial. When I started doing this, it really clicked and painted pictures of how deer used properties, even for specific deer.
9. Time It Right
Once you know where the X spot (or spots) is/are located, wait for the right time. Deer don’t always move well, and it pays to take advantage of high-odds days, such as: temperature drops (a 10-plus degree change in highs within 24 hours), rain events, low humidity, and days with good moon overhead/underfoot positions help get deer on their feet more during daylight. Maybe even go the risky route and hunt a just-off wind? That’s up to you, but it works. I’ve done it.
10. Throw Down Those Cards
Now, it’s time to thread the needle and play your hand. You know the buck, what it does, when it does it, and how to kill it. Now, just go do it. 877.314.1237 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // NOVEMBER 2020 11
BY IMANIKAY
Recipe and image courtesy of Allrecipes.com
Seared Rabbit with Rosemary Potatoes I’m Palestinian and my mother would cook this for special guests. A very exotic twist to cooking rabbit with sage, olives, artichokes and served alongside rosemary potatoes. Prep: 15 mins • Cook: 55 mins • Total: 1 hour 10 mins Ingredients
• • • • • • • • • • • • •
6 potatoes, peeled and sliced ¼ inch thick 2 onions, peeled and thinly sliced 5 sprigs rosemary, leaves stripped and finely chopped ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil 1 pinch salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste 1 – 4 pound rabbit, cleaned and cut into pieces 1 onion, diced 1 tablespoon chopped green olives 10 leaves fresh sage 1 teaspoon chopped fresh marjoram 6 baby artichokes, tips trimmed and tough outer leaves removed 1 teaspoon tomato paste 1 bunch fresh parsley, minced
12 NOVEMBER 2020 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // 877.314.1237
Instructions
1. 2. 3. 4.
5.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Toss potatoes and 2 sliced onions with rosemary and olive oil in a large bowl. Season to taste with salt and pepper; spread into a large, shallow baking dish. Bake potatoes in the preheated oven until tender, about 45 minutes. Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a large skillet over high heat. Cook rabbit pieces, turning once, until brown on both sides, about 10 minutes. Add the remaining onion, olives, sage, and marjoram and cook for 2 minutes. Reduce heat to mediumlow, cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Stir artichokes, tomato paste and parsley into a skillet with rabbit. Replace cover and simmer until artichokes are tender, about 15 minutes. Serve with rosemary potatoes.
Cook rabbit pieces, turning once, until brown on both sides, about 10 minutes. Add the remaining onion, olives, sage, and marjoram and cook for 2 minutes. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Stir artichokes, tomato paste and parsley into the skillet with rabbit.
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Fish slicks like these are great indicators of feeding fish
14 NOVEMBER 2020 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // 877.314.1237
FISHING
FALL FISHING PATTERNS FOR
BY CAPT. BOBBY ABRUSCATO
REDFISH & SPECKLED TROUT
There is something about the summer transition into fall that almost everyone enjoys. It could be knowing that we are in for a respite from the hot weather, being closer to the end of hurricane season or that college football is on. The inshore anglers on the central Gulf Coast relish the seasonal change for another reason, it offers some of the finest fishing of the entire year. Cooling water temperatures and typically some of the driest weather of the year trigger a massive shrimp migration. The key to the Mobile Bay system’s speckled trout fishery is shrimp. Wherever the shrimp are you’ll find speckled trout as well as many other inshore game fish. In the case of the fall, the tidal river systems that are adjacent to the Bay and Sound are where the shrimp end up in the fall; thus the location of the speckled trout. Of course, the other most sought after inshore game fish on the coast is the redfish. Here again, fall is one of the best times of the year to pursue the reds. The marsh systems teem with rat and slot sized reds, while the bars at the mouth of Mobile Bay get loaded up with bull reds.
Let’s look at tactics for catching each of these wonderful fish during fall on the northern Gulf Coast. A quick survey of the geography of the area shows that Mobile Bay and the Mississippi Sound both have numerous tidal river systems adjacent to them. The largest of course is the Mobile/Tensaw River Delta located on the very northern end of Mobile Bay. Even in an average fall, fishing in the delta is world class. Triple digit catches of quality speckled trout are common throughout the vast system. The five rivers that make up the delta all hold trout and the technique is pretty much the same for all of them. Early in the fall, the best way to catch trout is to focus on the shallow bays that are on the edges of the main rivers. Drift fishing while throwing popping corks with shrimp imitations like GULP Mantis Shrimp or VuDu shrimp will out produce any other technique for both quantity and quality. Keep in mind that the trout will be on the move in these bays, so it’s important to keep your eye out for signs of feeding fish. Diving gulls and slicks are dead give-aways.
877.314.1237 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // NOVEMBER 2020 15
Fall Fishing Patterns for Redfish and Speckled Trout
Popping corks are easy to use and will catch both quantity and quality in the fall
is staying in contact or very near the bottom and make note of your location when you get a bite. Setting up the same drift will usually yield more fish. One note on setting up a drift in both the deep and shallow applications; be sure to idle around the area you are planning to fish as opposed to right back over it. Running an outboard right over the fish is a sure way to scatter even the hottest school of fish. In the deeper applications, low stretch line like braid or fluorocarbon will do wonders detecting a deep bite. Slot and rat sized redfish inhabit all of the above mentioned areas during the fall and the same techniques will often catch reds right along with the trout. When targeting redfish though, try focusing on the banks of the shallow bays. Look for irregularities on the banks like points or creek mouths. This is where you are liable to find the best concentrations of redfish. Popping corks work great here too and you will not find any more effective soft bait for the business end than GULP for redfish. The lure is literally made out of scent and it dissolves in the water. Redfish having a very keen sense of smell love it. Another old standby for redsespecially in grassy areas is the gold spoon. This lure works well from south Florida to south Texas and the Alabama coast is no exception. I like ½ oz. Johnson Silver Minnow in gold and it is a pretty easy lure to use. Just make along casts and slowly reel it back in. A gentle “roll” of the rod is all the action that you’ll need to impart as the spoon has a tremendous amount of natural action.
When fish signs are seen, approach from the upwind side and drift slowly towards the school while making long casts. Be prepared to stop the boat using some form of anchoring device when you get a bite. Oftentimes the fish are really schooled up, so one quality stop can lead to some incredible action. There is no substitute for Power Poles in this application, but anything from an old fashioned anchor to a metal spear will do the job. Some of the rivers further down the Bay like Fish and Fowl can really be good areas to throw fin fish imitations for speckled trout in the fall. Top water plugs and the Slick Lure from Pure Flats on low light conditions are primo for quality trout. One key to catching nice trout in some of these smaller systems is to try to catch a day when there is little boat traffic. These systems seem to really produce well on those fowl weather days when the sane people stay at the dock! Later in the fall period, usually after the first hard freeze, the fish will tend to move and relate more to the river channels. It’s time then to replace the floating and slow sinking lures with a lead-headed jig. GULP shrimp are the go-tos for both trout and reds, but when they are really biting almost anything will do. A stop by the lure section of any tackle store will show that there are lures in every color of the light spectrum available. So, what do you choose? There will be the rare occasion that the fish will want some funky color, but 99% of the time either chartreuse or root beer colored lures will do the trick. Rig the soft plastic on a ¼ - ⅜ oz. jig headed and focus on the channel drop-offs while drifting with the tide/wind. Be sure your lure 16 NOVEMBER 2020 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // 877.314.1237
The Alabama coast has another world class fishery in Dixey Bar located at the mouth of Mobile Bay. Dixey Bar runs about three miles roughly due south from the western tip of the Fort Morgan peninsula and is about 1 mile wide on the northern end. The tidal current washes over the bar from northwest to southeast on the fall and east to west on the flood. The water column shrinks as it flows over the bar thus increasing in velocity, much in the same way as if you restrict the flow of a garden Bull reds on light spinning gear are a blast in the fall
Fall Fishing Patterns for Redfish and Speckled Trout
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Top water plugs will usually get the bigger trout in the schools to bite
hose with your finger. The powerful bull reds face into the current and whack prey like shrimp, crabs and fin fish as it is swept helplessly across the bar. The bull reds are king of the jungle and are always willing to eat, especially if the presentation is made correctly. Figure out which way you’ll be drifting and start at the edge of the bar. A live fin fish drug behind the boat on a Carolina rig will work well, but the majority of the bull reds we catch are on GULP Swimming Mullet in white or chartreuse rigged on ⅜ - ½ oz. jig heads. Cast perpendicular to the current on both sides of the boat while drifting and if someone hooks up, cast all the lines in their direction more often than not you’ll hook up every rod on the boat. That’s when it gets fun! The chaos on the boat that occurs with three or four on at once has been dubbed the “Dixey Bar Shuffle” as everyone is ducking and diving trying to stay untangled. Remember that even though the bulls are fun to catch they are poor table fare; moreover the bull redfish are the breeding stock and are anywhere from 10-30 years old. It’s a shame to see any of them killed when a quick picture and release will keep the memory alive forever. It’ll also give someone else a chance to enjoy a great fight. Fall is one of the best seasons for many things and inshore fishing on the Gulf Coast is truly one of them! If you decide to use any of the above tactics I hope they work as well for you as they have for me. Important Contact Information Captain Bobby Abruscato A Team Fishing Adventures odepot@bellsouth.net www.ateamfishing.com
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18 NOVEMBER 2020 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // 877.314.1237
HUNTING
Learn When Deer Tend to Move the Most BY JOHN E. PHILLIPS
Although the wind is a key factor for keeping the hunter’s scent out of his hunting spot for him to be successful, equally as important is the time when the hunter should approach his stand and deer move.
The more you study the habits of deer – learning their haunts and understanding their movements - the better deer hunter you’ll be. When I first met avid bowhunter Dr. Bob Sheppard of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, he’d spend all day in his tree stand to attempt to take a buck deer. However, after years of studying and keeping records on when deer move, Sheppart points out that he hunts less and takes more nice bucks since he’s learned more about deer movement. LEARNING DEER MOVEMENT PATTERNS BEFORE THE SEASON STARTS The buck’s movement patterns before the season starts are the patterns he’ll follow naturally and normally when he’s not spooked and doesn’t have hunting pressure exerted on him. Learning these patterns is primarily for the bowhunter and the blackpowder shooter and may hold true for the first of gun season. But when the woods are full of hunters, and deer are moving more from fright than for any other reason, these patterns often don’t work. “I begin to scout 4-6 weeks before deer season begins,” Sheppard reported, “If you start any sooner, the deer’s feeding patterns may change, and the foods they have depended on before may not be the same they rely on during the season.” Early-season scouting is primarily for deer moving to or away from their feeding areas which are often agricultural crops. “To increase your chances of taking a buck, you need to pinpoint where tracks go into and come out of the field at the same point, which is where the likelihood of catching a deer entering or leaving a field is the greatest,” Sheppard explained. “Although deer generally will come through the same region day in and day out, they’ll also meander through an area. If they start from a point to move into a field on a particular day, they may use the same point to go out from 877.314.1237 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // NOVEMBER 2020 19
January
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Learn When Deer Tend to Move the Most
Although bucks will stay in thick cover when hunting pressure is on, they’ll still have to get up, stretch, go to the bathroom and maybe feed some in that thick cover. If you get high enough in a tree to look into the cover, you may be able to spot one.
the field. Or, if they come into the field from the place you’ve predetermined, then they may meander out in another direction. But usually, deer will prefer to use one or two places along the edge of a field to enter - primarily corners of the field that back into the woods or where the land funnels back into the woods.” Many hunters have learned that the best way to scout a field to learn deer movement is immediately after a rain. The tracks will be fresh and you can pinpoint the places with the most deer movement that reveal tracks moving in both directions. UNDERSTANDING DEER MOVEMENT DURING DEER SEASON After deer have felt hunting pressure, their movement patterns change, which often will occur after the second week of bow season, if considerable pressure has been put on the animals from other hunters. Because the deer realize they’re having hunter encounters during daylight hours, they’ll feed after dark and stay away from their food sources until nighttime. Therefore tree stands and ground blinds will have to be moved from the food source to another place, if you want to consistently bag deer. In order to know where to move your tree
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January
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Big
a
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Best
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Gulf
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Alabama
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Learn When Deer Tend to Move the Most
stand to, additional scouting is required. One of the signs that indicates a hunter should begin to scout for a new place to put his tree stand is when he sees deer entering the field from several different directions. He may learn that when he moves his stand to set up an ambush, the deer may not come out consistently in the same place every day. He also may notice that he doesn’t see as many deer move into the field during daylight hours. But after a rain, he observes just as many tracks in the field as he has at the first of the season. To put your stand in a more-productive area, the most-effective technique is to back that stand up to a point in the woods the deer are coming into prior to entering the field after dark. “To locate this region, I’ll scout on the days when the weather or wind conditions aren’t right for hunting,” Sheppard said. “Common sense is your best tool to find that staging area after the deer have quit showing-up in the field. The most-reliable signs for locating deer are identifying places in the woods where the deer’s feet hit the ground regularly.” “Go to the trail where you’ve hunted effectively during the early season, and follow the trail away from the food source into the woods. I’ve gotten down on my hands and knees before to track deer further back into the woods away from a primary food source two to three weeks after the season begins. Using this tracking method may not help you understand the total deer-movement pattern. However, you’ll have a better picture of what the deer are doing and will know where you should place your tree stand than you’ll have had by sitting on the edge of the field, waiting for the deer to show-up,” Sheppard advised. You may backtrack one deer 100 yards and find a place where two or three trails cross. Or, you may continue to follow a trail and locate the edge of a slough where 40 deer walk down that slough’s edge regularly. By following one deer trail away from the food source, more than likely you’ll discover an area where many of the deer using that field as a food source will concentrate prior to entering their feeding ground. Once you discover a region like this, you’ll see many tracks going in both directions. That’s where you want to set-up your stand for the first part of gun season. However, instead of relying totally on one of these staging regions away from the field, the consistent hunter will follow four or five trails out of the field going in different directions to several staging areas. In each of these staging areas, he’ll locate a tree for his tree stand. If he’s a bowhunter, he’ll cut shooting lanes in four directions from the tree where he plans to place his stand. Also with his compass, he’ll know which way the wind must be blowing from for him to hunt a stand. If his tree stand faces north, then the best time for him to hunt out of that stand to keep his scent from being carried into his hunting area will be with a prevailing north, a northwest or a northeast wind. Using this system of patterning deer, the hunter will have at least one tree stand he can hunt from in the staging area - no matter what the wind condition is. “Remember that after the hunter has taken a deer or has shot at and missed a deer in these staging areas, the deer begin to learn they’re in
danger when they enter these staging zones,” Sheppard emphasized. “They’ll show up in lesser numbers and finally, not at all during the daylight hours. Then the deer will wait until later in the evening to enter the field or come out earlier in the morning, which makes successful deer hunting harder. When you begin to backtrack the deer even further from the staging area, the trailing becomes more difficult, because more leaves are on the ground and following the deer trails becomes more difficult.” SCOUTING FOR DEER MOVEMENT LATER IN THE SEASON The more you look at deer tracks, and the harder you search for tracks, the better you should be able to interpret what the deer are doing when they’ve made the tracks. So far, we’ve found the buck at his primary food source, which we’ve designated as a field. We’ve backtracked him through what we’ve called a staging area where several deer crossings meet, and where he seems to wait for the cover of darkness to enter the field. Now we have to go even further into the woods to discover the holding region where the deer stay during daylight hours when hunting pressure is intense, which is the most-difficult pattern to try and interpret. If you can follow a deer track and find some type of thick cover – a briar thicket, a pine thicket, a cut-over field or some kind of heavy foliage where the deer can hide in during daylight hours – then you’ve located a region to scout for your end-of-the-season hunting. “Scouting thickets is much like the scouting you’ve done in the beginning of the season when you’ve scouted the fields,” Sheppard
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Learn When Deer Tend to Move the Most
Many hunters prefer using permanent stands or ladder stands in the late season to make little or no noise. The most-difficult bucks to pattern and hunt are those that have spent all season long learning what hunters do, and when they do it. KNOWING THE EFFECT OF MOON PHASES ON DEER Although no absolutes exist about when deer move, many hunters have reported they believe that moon phase impacts deer movement. However, no one element absolutely affects deer movement. The hunter also must factor in wind, weather, the time of the rut and the amount of hunting pressure deer have had on the property he’s hunting.
Each day you hunt – whether during bow or gun season – make notes of how many bucks you see, the weather and wind conditions and from what direction you see the bucks coming, critical information for this season and the next.
explained. “Walk all the way around the thicket. Find tracks going both into and out of the thicket at the same place. If the thicket is large enough, and more than one deer is utilizing this cover during daylight hours, you may be able to pinpoint several places on the edge of the thicket where the tracks go both into and out of the thicket. Place a tree stand there, or designate a tree or a ground blind site for a stand. Take your compass out, and determine which way your stand must be facing, and which way you’ll have to approach that stand with a favorable wind. Then you can plan your hunt and decide which stand you’ll hunt out of according to wind direction on the morning of your hunt.” Sheppard has learned that the advantage to using these stands is you can catch your deer in the mornings coming from the food source and going into the thicket or in the middle of the day - if they’ve been spooked by another hunter coming into the thicket. These late-season thicket patterns may be your best, all-day hunting. All these patterns work well during gun season in areas with little or no hunter pressure. PAYING STRICT ATTENTION TO DETAIL At the end of the season, strict attention must be paid to every detail. The deer are alerted and looking for danger. Although the wind is a key factor for keeping the hunter’s scent out of his hunting spot, equally as important is the hunter’s approach to the stand. “When gun season is on, I rake a path from my tree stand back 150 yards toward where I enter the woods,” Sheppard reported. “Then on the day I hunt, I can walk to my stand without making any noise. I normally take 15 minutes to get to my stand during the first part of the season, but I may spend an hour covering the same distance in the later part of the season to keep from spooking the deer.” 22 NOVEMBER 2020 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // 877.314.1237
Here’s what scientists have learned about the moon phases that some successful hunters factor in to predict when deer move. The scientists have found the moon phase is a marker, but not the actual cause and effect that makes deer move. The actual cause for deer to move is the temperature and not the moon phase. Temperature has a greater bearing on deer sightings than moon phase. In other words, if a cold front hits during a bright moon, then the deer will move. But a bright moon phase and warm weather means hunters won’t see many deer. Scientists have learned many factors causing deer to move, but temperature is the overriding factor. By investing more time scouting and studying deer and their movement patterns and learning where they feed, where they wait to feed, and where they hold when hunting pressure is on, you’ll be better able to predict at what point in the woods to place your tree stand or ground blind for an effective hunt.
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Change in How STA Morning Waterfowl No-show Opportunities are Distributed BY TONY YOUNG
Florida is offering veterans and active duty service members a special opportunity to hunt waterfowl Feb. 6-7, 2021.
24 NOVEMBER 2020 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // 877.314.1237
HUNTING
This year, waterfowl hunting opportunities created by permit holders who don’t show up for morning Florida Stormwater Treatment Area (STA) hunts will be distributed differently. Almost half the hunters who draw STA morning-hunt waterfowl permits don’t show up for the hunt. Because of this, large crowds of hunters gather at STA check stations at 5 a.m. – hoping to be drawn during the early morning onsite lotteries. Based on input from hunters, FWC staff, and the land management partner, the South Florida Water Management District, will be using an online random draw system instead of onsite lotteries to distribute morning no-show waterfowl hunting opportunities. This change is expected to minimize safety hazards due to overcrowding, improve hunter check-in management and more fairly distribute the no-show hunting opportunities. Those who want a chance to replace a no-show hunter at a morning STA hunt can apply at GoOutdoorsFlorida.com. A management area permit is needed to apply. Hunters may select up to 10 hunt choices on their standby opportunity application, which will be available for four waterfowl application periods: September Special Early Duck, and Regular Season A, B and C. Only one application may be submitted per period. Applicants may receive up to one standby opportunity in Phase 1, and any standby opportunities not issued in the Phase 1 drawing will be available first come, first served during Phase 2 until all opportunities are issued. The online drawings for morning standby opportunities will be held about two weeks prior to the first day of the hunt for each of the four waterfowl application periods. The random drawings will produce a standby list of selected applicants in numerical order. Hunters awarded a standby opportunity will receive an email that explains the standby process and directs them to MyFWC.com/Duck to see what number they were awarded on the standby list. This numbered standby list for each morning STA waterfowl hunt also will be posted at the area check station and provided to local FWC law enforcement officers. It’s important to note there is no guarantee a person on a standby list for a given morning hunt will get the opportunity to enter the area to hunt. The number of standby STA opportunities will be the same as the total number of permits for each hunt, with the “next in line” standby hunter replacing each no-show until the original quota is met. Only those hunters on the standby list are eligible to replace noshow hunters. Those on the list who do not initially get to hunt may wait at the check station in hope of taking the place of any hunters who leave early but there are no guarantees of getting to enter the area to hunt. The new no-show issuance process is only for the morning STA waterfowl hunts. The afternoon hunts will continue to issue no-show STA waterfowl opportunities by on-site lotteries, which in many cases aren’t required.
877.314.1237 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // NOVEMBER 2020 25
Change in How STA Morning Waterfowl No-show Opportunities are Distributed
An online random draw will replace onsite lotteries for distributing morning no-show waterfowl hunting opportunities at stormwater treatment areas. This change is expected to minimize safety hazards due to overcrowding, improve hunter check-in management and more fairly distribute the no-show hunting opportunity.
NEW BAG LIMIT ON SCAUP The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is reducing the bag limit on scaup due to a 10% population decline between 2018 and 2019. States were allowed to choose from the following options to meet this new bag limit requirement for scaup: • One bird daily for the entire 60-day waterfowl season, or • One bird for 40 days of the season and two birds for 20 days The FWC chose the second option and placed the two-bird bag limit on the last 20 days of the duck season to give Florida hunters the most opportunity. Scaup numbers in Florida are at their highest toward the end of the season. During the 2020-2021 waterfowl season, the bag limit on scaup will be: • One scaup per day from Nov. 21-29 and Dec. 12-Jan. 11 • Two scaup per day from Jan. 12-31; during the Youth Waterfowl Days (Nov. 14 and Feb. 13); and during the new Veteran’s/Military Waterfowl Hunting Days on Feb. 6-7. NEW WATERFOWL HUNTING WEEKEND FOR MILITARY AND VETERANS Veterans and active duty service members are getting a special weekend to hunt waterfowl beginning this coming hunting season. The new Veteran’s and Military Waterfowl Hunting Days will occur Feb. 6-7, the weekend after the regular duck season closes.
26 NOVEMBER 2020 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // 877.314.1237
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Change in How STA Morning Waterfowl No-show Opportunities are Distributed
Due to a population decline, duck hunters should be aware of a reduced bag limit for scaup during the 2020-2021 waterfowl season. Photo courtesy of the USFWS.
This opportunity allows only veterans and members of the armed forces on active duty, including members of the National Guard and Reserves, to hunt ducks, geese, mergansers, coots and common gallinules (moorhens). During Veteran’s and Military Waterfowl Hunting Days, bag and possession limits for each species are the same as the regular season. Learn more about waterfowl hunting opportunities at MyFWC.com/Duck.
877.314.1237 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // NOVEMBER 2020 27
What to Stock in your Pond and Why BY WILLIAM KENDY Photos by SE Pond Management
Fall in Alabama brings a welcome sigh of relief from the sweltering heat of summer. It also shepherds in the long-awaited hunting season. The degree of the cold and crispness of fall mornings depends on where in Alabama you are. Still, sitting on a deer stand, still hunting, in a ground blind or up in a tree, getting a little “cold bite” for a change is a blessing in and of itself, regardless of how successful you are. Fall also ushers in an uptick in fishing action. Cooler days mean that you can stay out on the water longer and it also means that the fish are getting friskier looking to pack on weight. The Great Days Outdoors Alabama Freshwater Fishing Report recently featured Norman Latona, president of Southeastern Pond Management, which specializes in helping lake and pond owners manage their aquatic resource for maximum fish development and recreational enjoyment. SEPond offers a wide range of services, ranging from ecosystem analysis, management programs, liming, fertilization, fish inventory and removal processes, stocking and more. The decreasing temperatures in the fall means that SEPond needs to hustle and make sure that forage is delivered for maximum largemouth bass health and productivity during the colder months. While stocking threadfin shad is a given at this time of year, intermediate size bluegill come roaring back into priority play. “We stock a lot of forage fish at this time of the year and our priority is to get those fish in a pond before it gets too cold and maybe even get another spawn out of them,” Latona said. “We stock bluegill in the spring but after around May we leave them alone and let them grow but we have a nice little window in the fall where we can handle them safely again.” 28 NOVEMBER 2020 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // 877.314.1237
FISHING
Fall is an excellent time to stock forage fish
877.314.1237 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // NOVEMBER 2020 29
What to Stock in your Pond and Why
Rainbow trout not only provide quality forage but are fierce fiters and great on the table
Latona explained that the term “intermediate bluegill’ refers to a bluegill that is three to five inches in length and is a decent chunk of food for the voracious largemouth bass eating machine. “An intermediate bluegill is a suitable size prey for a hungry largemouth and it’s large enough to do them some good,” Latona said. “The really important distinction is that those size bluegills are not only good pieces of food but also sexually mature. That means that if it does get eaten it provides a lot of nutritional value and if it doesn’t it provides a more long-term benefit because it is going to reproduce quickly.” Latona emphasized that bluegill and threadfin shad get the highest marks for sustainable forage fish in large part because of that reproductive capacity. “Bluegill will spawn roughly every 30 days and if the water temperature stays in the high 70 and low 80-degree range they will keep spawning all the way through early fall and they are the only type of bream that has multiple spawns,” He said. “Threadfin shad also have a multiple spawning capability. I’ve witnessed threadfin shad spawning in December and January and that amount of reproduction obviously translates into a lot of food.” While SEPond stocks a number of different species, there are three that deserve special mention; crawfish, tilapia and rainbow trout. “We stock a lot of crawfish in the spring. They are relatively inexpen30 NOVEMBER 2020 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // 877.314.1237
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What to Stock in your Pond and Why
Just waiting for the gates to open
sive, high in protein and bass love to eat them,” Latona said. “We stock a lot of tilapia, mixed sexes and they will spawn every 18-20 days as long as the weather is warm but they don’t survive cold weather.” “Once the water gets down to the high to mid40s for any period of time you will see tilapia start dying off or getting eaten simply because they start slowing down and become easy targets. The predator bass just pick them off,” Latona pointed out. “With trout we get into the opposite.” While rainbow trout aren’t usually associated with warm water environments, Latona says that when the weather gets colder there is a demand for stocking rainbow trout to be used as a “put and take” type of fishery, just to add some variety to the lakes. “They’re a lot of fun to catch, are great to eat and we stock them at a size that they’re immediately catchable. In fact, we can stock them up to three, four or even five pounds apiece,” Latona said. “Typically, we stock fish that are about a pound each and then we use supplemental feeders, just like we do for
32 NOVEMBER 2020 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // 877.314.1237
HOG RUSH
What to Stock in your Pond and Why
bluegills, through the late fall and winter.” Trout possess a number of traits that make them ideally suited for use in ponds. First, they are eager and aggressive feeders and will take a wide variety of baits and lures all winter long. Once hooked, trout are great fighters, often leaping from the water in wildly acrobatic displays. In addition, they grow quickly when fed a high protein artificial food. Trout feed conversion rates can be close to 1:1 on such a diet, meaning that each pound of feed they consume translates to nearly a pound gain in body weight.
“THERE WILL BE BLOOD”
Latona said that rainbow trout that are stocked in November, preferably prior to Thanksgiving, will typically survive through April and even May, depending on the water temperature but they will die off in the summer. That is just the opposite of the life cycle of tilapia. “Normally, by the end of April and the first part of May in the Deep South, water temperatures will approach 70 degrees and the trout will struggle and you will lose them,” Latona said. “The good thing about trout is that they are long and slender and you would be surprised what a five- or six-pound bass can eat when it finds a rainbow trout that is stressed out from high water temperature and hardly moving.” “Some of these large bass can get a one-pound trout down their throat and they take advantage of them while they can,” he added. Latona points out that while species like rainbow trout and, to a lesser extent, tilapia may not reproduce at the frequency of bluegills or threadfin shad, depending on the stocking density, a pond owner can stock and grow them for at or less than it would cost them to buy at the grocery store. “We say, particularly for tilapia, you get fish that are producing tons of food for bass all through the growing season and they are pretty easy to harvest and, if you like to eat them like I do, you are getting the best of both worlds,” Latona said. “It also is not unusual for trout that started out at a pound in November, being fed, to end up being two or three pounds in April.”
THERMAL NIGHT
HUNTS
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Since rainbow trout that are stocked in warm water environments have a finite life expectancy when the water heats up, it presents an opportunity to provide some short-lived forage for fattening up bass. “We occasionally will use trout as forage when we have some smaller trout in the spring and early summer before it gets too warm for them to survive,” Latona said. “We will stock them as a dietary supplement because they are super rich in protein and the bass will suck them right down.”
Important Contact Information SEPond Management Norm Latona CP: 205-288-1371 Office: 888-830-7663 www.sepond.com
334-430-8111
www.HOGRUSH.com 877.314.1237 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // NOVEMBER 2020 33
BY GOMER45
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Baked Pompano Delicious fall-off-the-bone fish Prep: 25 mins • Cook: 37 mins • Total: 1 hour 2 mins Ingredients
• • • • • • • • • • • • •
1 cup soy sauce ½ cup rice cooking wine 5 tablespoons olive oil, divided 2 teaspoons hoisin sauce 2 teaspoons fish sauce 2 teaspoons oyster sauce 1 lime, halved 1 shallot, diced 1 (2 inch) piece peeled fresh ginger, diced 1 (1 1/2) pound whole pompano fish, gutted and cleaned 1 teaspoon dried dill, or to taste Sale and ground black pepper to taste 2 cups napa cabbage leaves, or as needed
Instructions
1.
2. 3.
4. 5. 6. 7.
34 NOVEMBER 2020 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // 877.314.1237
Whisk soy sauce, rice wine, 1 tablespoon olive oil, hoisin sauce, fish sauce, oyster sauce, and juice of 1/2 the lime together in a bowl. Heat 3 tablespoons olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Cook and stir shallot and ginger until starting to brown, about 2 minutes. Pour in soy sauce mixture; simmer until slightly thickened, 5 to 10 minutes. Score both sides of the pompano in a crosshatch pattern. Pat dry with a paper towel. Season both sides and inside of the pompano with dill, salt, and pepper. Slice remaining 1/2 of the lime and arrange slices inside. Drizzle remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil over pompano; rub over both sides. Layer cabbage leaves in the bottom of a large baking dish; place pompano on top. Pour soy sauce mixture over pompano. Cover the baking dish with aluminum foil. Let marinate as the oven preheats. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Bake pompano in the preheated oven until fragrant, about 20 minutes. Remove aluminum foil; continue baking until pompano flakes easily with a fork, about 10 minutes more. Peel back skin and lift pompano flesh off the bones using a fork. Transfer to a serving plate.
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877.314.1237 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // NOVEMBER 2020 35
Nathan Whitehead with a handful of beautiful Pickwick Lake smallmouth. Having your dad as a guide sometimes pays off!!
36 NOVEMBER 2020 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // 877.314.1237
FISHING
late season
Smallmouth Bass
Tactics
BY CAPTAIN BRAD WHITEHEAD
When it comes to late season smallmouth bass fishing on Lake Pickwick and Lake Wilson it really all comes down to current and presentation. LET’S TALK ABOUT CURRENT FIRST. When you are utilizing the dams to help you with catching your limit (or fill) of smallmouth, being aware of how much water the dams are passing through and how you utilize it to your best advantage. When the generators are pushing between 20,000 and 40,000 cubic feet per minute of water, that is going to work fine if you are fishing up close to the dams but if you don’t fish downriver you really need to have about 60,000 cfs of water to really make it happen. One of the keys to success is to familiarize yourself with gravel bars and other areas which allow the fish to hang out away from the current. I like to anchor the boat so to be able to “feed the minnows” to these smallmouths and let the current pushes these minnows down the river. Basically, what we have to do is go up or down on our weight size depending on the flow. Now let’s get down to brass tacks about fishing live bait for smallmouth in November on Lake Pickwick. I’m going to just move down a list of the things that fishermen need to consider and implement if they want to be successful catching smallmouth. First off, you don’t have to be on the water at daylight. If you are on the water by 7:00 or 7:30 that is fine and the reason is that
once the sun starts to break over the trees and the dam it will pull your bait, as in threadfin shad, up to the top of the water and it is easier to catch them with a cast net. Once you safely secure your bait in your aerated tank, then it’s time to evaluate current. If I’ve got 60 cfs running out of the dam, it’s probably best to go downriver. If I’ve got 30 cfs pumping out of the dam, I’m probably going up river closer to the bank and work my way down. As a note regarding current flow, before 9/11 there was an app that showed you the future of what was going to run. Since then, due to security, it shows you the history of what has run which presents some challenges. That makes fishing a bit tough because sometimes it can be turning 60,000 and fishing is really good and then you will notice that your marker buoys aren’t moving and suddenly you aren’t catching fish. You need to be continuously aware of where you are at and the conditions around you. I’ll talk more about that further in this article. When it comes to tackle and rigs for bait fishing smallmouth bass on Pickwick, it is pretty simple. Concerning rods and reels, I use B’n’M 7’6 Sam’s Super Salt Series spinning rods. This rod was designed for inshore fishing but works awesome for live bait fishing for smallmouth. It has easy flow stainless steel eyes that makes the line flow very easy for quick hook sets in the current. 877.314.1237 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // NOVEMBER 2020 37
Late Season Smallmouth Bass Tactics
As far as reels and line goes, any quality 3500 series or larger spinning reel will do the trick. I am a big fan of eight-pound Vicious HighVis (monofilament). I have landed six-pound smallmouth up to 15-pound catfish, drum and even sale water stripers on this line and the high visibility allows me to see and monitor client’s lines and respond to strikes. For hooks, I use #2 Eagle Claw bait hooks and I prefer “earless” (the ones you can remove) #3, #4 and #5 split shot. The solid shots help eliminate bait twisting and the size shot depends on the current. It basically is a simple hook, split shot rig. The other rig I use is a Carolina rig. To tie this rig, you thread a ¼ - ½ ounce barrel or egg sinker on your main line, followed by a glass bead and then the line is tied to a barrel swivel. Then a 16-18-inch leader is attached to the other end of the barrel sinker. The glass bead is to protect the knot and it also produces a ticking sound which can alert fish that something good to eat is nearby. A Carolina rig basically lets you feed that minnow down the current to the strike zone, which is rock rows, rock piles, gravel bars that come out 40-50 yards from the bank and then turn downriver and that makes the ultimate smallmouth set-up. When you rig your minnow this way, you can flip your bail, keep your finger on the line and feed it back so you don’t have to cast it. It allows the weight to sit on the bottom and the minnow to get 12 to 14 inches off the bottom to swim and looks natural to the smallmouths.
Brad Whitehead with another Fall smallmouth. Light tackle is the way to go when catching big bass.
HERE IS THE IDEAL SITUATION. Envision the front of your boat anchored or spot locked. You are standing in the back looking at the motor and you can cast to the left and you
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38 NOVEMBER 2020 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // 877.314.1237
www.ccaalabama.org 251-478-3474
Late Season Smallmouth Bass Tactics
Brad Whitehead with a 6lb smallmouth on Pickwick Lake! Live bait in the Fall equals big brownies!
can cast to the right. You’ve got a big bar that comes out behind you about 40 feet. You feed that minnow, you move it about five or six feet and then you stop it and let it just sit there. Then you move it about five or six feet and with the current moving that fast it will move the weight. The fish are looking up current and the bait is coming over the top of their heads and It’s perfect. You can catch 6-8 bass from each of these spots and it is a lot of fun. It is extremely important when you are fishing dams that you come up and fish dams you head needs to be “on a swivel” in that current and you need to always be looking behind you for dangers. You’ve got bridge columns, bars, obstacles and other boats behind you and always remember that it is a sight game. Fishing in a current like this is totally different for many anglers. Even though you may only be going two miles an hour and it doesn’t seem fast, that two miles an hour goes by as fast as a blink of an eye. The best thing to do if you are new to fishing the dam is come to the area and just sit and watch what the other boats are doing and you can tell the locals and follow their lead. Taking a few minutes to see what is going on could save your life. Contact Information Brad Whitehead 256-483-0834 Bradwhiteheadfishing@yahool.com Brad Whitehead Fishing on Facebook/Instagram
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Understanding Land Lot Loans for Rural Residences BY JOE BAYA
42 NOVEMBER 2020 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // 877.314.1237
LIFESTYLE
One would think that in this topsy-turvy economy with the Coronavirus and the volatile political landscape that the demand for rural homesite lot property would be marginal at best. That isn’t the case. As a rural real estate professional, I speak to sellers and buyers nearly every day and we are seeing a significant uptick in interest for rural property. We are finding that people who may have previously kicked around the concept of relocating out of the city to their own 10 acres or more country retreat are now starting to make that self-sustaining lifestyle a reality. We’ve found that many prospects don’t realize that financing a rural home parcel isn’t the same as funding a home with a conventional mortgage. To help shed light on the differences and considerations, we caught up with Travis Jordan from Alabama Ag Credit, a financial coop with nine locations in Alabama to help us understand land lot loans for rural residences. “Rural home sites have always been a big part of our business but I can’t remember a summer where we’ve been as busy as we have been this year,” Jordan said. Jordan explained that there are a number of things that potential land purchasers need to keep in mind when it comes to rural land and homesites and evaluating lenders. From Alabama Ag credit’s perspective, the size of the property isn’t of great importance as long as it is outside the city limits and the population size is less than 2,500 people. In addition, AAC offers borrowers 85% “loan to value”, which means that they can provide up to 85% of the purchase price or the appraised value, which is higher than many other lenders. Also, since AAC has their own appraisal “shop”, their appraisal cost is less. “Most institutions that offer land financing are going to be somewhere between 65 and 75% of the purchase price or appraisal and that is a huge factor in terms of money down,” Jordan said. “Also, since we have our own appraisers, the cost for an appraisal is only $200 which is inexpensive.” With an eye towards helping borrowers save money, Jordan encourages them to seriously consider a shorter amortization term for their home site. A borrower may favor a 30-year term since the required monthly payment will be less. On the other hand, a 15-year product allows them to build up more equity by paying down the principal faster. Depending on the time lapse between when the property is purchased and a home is built means that the raw property can appreciate in value. “Going with a shorter amortization term for financing a piece of property means that when the time comes to build that house, they will need less money down to pay for the construction loan,” Jordan pointed out. “A construction loan will need a new appraisal and any
appreciation will be assessed and go towards the equity needed to construct the loan.” “Both of these things are going to help soften the burden of the down payments required,” he added. Jordan points out that while a 30-year mortgage will have a slightly smaller monthly payment, the 15-year mortgage goes so much further in reducing debt and is almost like a forced savings account that can help fund the down payment of a home construction loan if that is the goal. “Borrowers really light up when they find the payment difference for a 15 and a 30-year loan isn’t significant and then again when they see the difference on the principal balance after five years on 15 verses a 30-year mortgage,” Jordan shared. “When it is broken down that way, they understand how their money is working harder for them with a 15-year mortgage.” Jordan explained that when it comes to “improvements and assets” it is a case by case situation and each can take on a different twist. For example, if an owner builds a pole barn, constructs a fence in the property or makes other improvements and is “prepping” the property prior to building, the improvements may or may not factor into the appraisal. That includes wooded parcels. “If you bought five acres and cut the timber to get it ready to build your house, we’re not much interested in that,” Jordan said. “If it was 200 acres, we’d want to be on the front end with discussions because that may require some principal reduction depending on where you are in your loan and collateral.” Speaking of collateral, one of the things that Alabama Ag Credit offers that many other lenders don’t is the ability to leverage other property and assets by “pledging” them to go towards the down payment. That flexibility provides more options for the buyer in assembling that down money and allows them to finance less. While the concept of just buying some land out in the country and building a home is pretty simple, depending on what someone wants, it can become complicated. “For instance, you can’t go to any traditional bank and get a construction loan on what we call a ‘barndominium”, which is a barn or metal building that includes living quarters and storage,” Jordan said. “AAC is one of the few financial institutions that cater to people looking to build homes that are not of the cooker cutter type that you would find in your traditional neighborhood.” Alabama Ag Credit offers a sheath of smaller services and procedures that, on the surface, don’t seem very significant but in essence, all contribute to the quality of the loan package. A case in point are comparables. In a normal real estate transition, agents and institutions analyze the market to find what comparable properties are selling for. The problem arises when you have a 877.314.1237 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // NOVEMBER 2020 43
Understanding Land Lot Loans for Rural Residences
non-traditional property, like a barndominium, that sits on 30 acres and it isn’t easy to find something similar to support the cost of the construction.
working with Alabama Ag Credit is the fact that since it is a “borrower owned” institution, every year that it shows a profit it returns some of that money to its members in the form of a “patronage” check.
“Our appraiser might have to go to the next town or even the next county to find a barndominium that sits on similar acreage but we aren’t restricted in the same way that other financial institutions may be,” Jordan said. “We also have the ability to work with just about any builder who is licensed in the state and in good standing.”
“For the last 15 years consecutively, we’ve paid a patronage. For the last 8-10 years it has averaged close to 1%,” Jordan said. “On a $100,000 loan at 1% that is $1,000,”
What about financial instruments and rates? According to Jordan rates are historically well even with the uncertainty of the Covid and the roller coaster economy. “Right now, the interest rate on a 15-year land loan is around 3.75%, depending on the type of mortgage you get,” Jordan said. “If you go to a traditional bank and get an adjustable rate mortgage product, your rate will only be fixed for five to seven years and then you have to get a new loan.” “I tell people who have the intention of building within a five-year period that the cost of a five-year rate and a fixed rate for the whole 15 years isn’t that different and to go ahead and lock it in,” Jordan adds. “On a 20 year, rates are in the low 4 to 4 ¼ range and it is a really great time to take advantage of a lower rate environment and a flat yield curve across the whole spectrum.”
“The way I look at it is if my rate on my home site loan is set at 3.75% and Alabama Ag Credit pays me 1%, effective that year, my interest cost was 2.75% and that is pretty cheap money,” Jordan concluded.
Contact Information Joe Baya National Land Realty www.NationalLandReality.com/GDO 855-NLRLAND (855-657-5263) Travis Jordan Relationship Manager (334) 270-8686 www.alabamaagcredit.com Alabama AG Credit (800) 579-5471 www.alabamaagcredit.com
Jordan points out that one of the best and profitable benefits of
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877.314.1237 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // NOVEMBER 2020 45
BY HANK SHAW Photos by Holly A. Heyser
Pickled Shrimp Pickled shrimp is a common Southern appetizer, especially in the Low Country, and various versions of it exist from Texas through the Gulf, around Florida up into South Carolina, where it is a Charleston classic. Pickled shrimp is best made with medium shrimp. It’s a nibble, an appetizer, something to eat at a cocktail party, or with crackers or on a salad. As a salad topping might be the best thing, because the pickling liquid, which includes some olive oil, becomes the salad dressing. If you don’t love every ingredient in my pickled shrimp recipe, you can change things to suit yourself. Onions are traditional, as is mustard seed and bay leaf. Peppers of some sort make an appearance a lot — I use jalapenos, but bell peppers are probably more common. Unlike a ceviche, pickled shrimp are actually cooked before pickling. Some cooks just toss a bunch of bay leaves in the salty boiling water, but I prefer either some Old Bay seasoning or Zatarain’s crab boil. It adds one more layer of flavor. I prefer medium-sized Gulf shrimp for this recipe, but you can adjust it to whatever you have on hand. And keep in mind that this is how I like pickled shrimp; there are lots of variations on this dish. Prep: 25 mins • Cook: 5 mins • Total: 30 mins Ingredients
• • • • • • • • • •
10 ounces pearl onions 2 tablespoons Old Bay seasoning 1-pound shrimp, peeled 2 tablespoons capers, with a little of their brine 3 jalapeno peppers, sliced 1 teaspoon dried thyme 1 teaspoon mustard seeds 7 ounces lemon juice 1/4 cup olive oil Distilled vinegar (see below)
Instructions 1. Bring a couple quarts of water to a boil and boil the pearl onions for 3 minutes. Remove the onions but keep the water. Rinse the onion under cold water so you can handle them, then slice off the root end. Use your fingers to pop a cleaned onion out, leaving the peel in your hand. Compost the peels. Set the onions aside. 2. Add the Old Bay to the onion water and bring it back to a boil. Add the peeled shrimp and turn off the heat. Pull the shrimp out after a couple minutes, when they are just cooked through. 3. Divide the onions, sliced jalapenos and shrimp between three-pint jars. Mix together the capers, 46 NOVEMBER 2020 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // 877.314.1237
CAMPHOUSE KITCHEN
4.
a little of their brine, the thyme, mustard seeds, lemon juice and olive oil. Pour this evenly into the jars. Add a few spoonfuls of the cooking water. The shrimp need to be completely submerged, so top up with some vinegar if you need to. Hand-seal the jars and keep in the refrigerator. They will last a week or two, and can be eaten 24 hours after they’re made.
• • •
Instructions
1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add a healthy pinch
Sichuan Twice-Cooked Pork Belly Twice-cooked pork gets its name because the pork is first simmered until tender, a process that also renders out a lot of fat, and then stir-fried until nicely browned.
2.
This recipe will work well with either regular farmed pork, or, if you can get it, a fat wild hog. Bear belly would work, too, if you happen to be a bear hunter.
3.
Prep: 15 mins • Cook: 2 hours • Total: 2 hour 15 mins Ingredients
• • • • • •
1 to 1 1/2 pounds uncured pork belly (do not use bacon) 3 medium-sized leeks, sliced in half then in pieces you can pick up with chopsticks 3 tablespoons peanut oil or lard, reduce by 1 tbsp if your pork is very fatty 1 tablespoons chile bean paste 3 tablespoons black bean sauce 1 tablespoon Shaoxing cooking wine, or dry sherry
2 teaspoons soy sauce 2 teaspoons sugar Salt to taste
4.
of salt to it. Drop the pork belly in it and lower the heat until the water is barely simmering. Cook domesticated pork belly like this for about 45 minutes, or wild pig belly for up to 2 hours; somewhere around 90 minutes is normally about right. Remove the pork belly and set on a plate in the freezer to chill. When the pork belly has chilled through, which should take 30 to 60 minutes, slice it thinly across the grain. You want thin squares or rectangles you can pick up with chopsticks. Heat a wok or large sauté pan over high heat until it’s good and hot. Add the peanut oil and swirl it around, then add the pork belly. Arrange the pork belly in one layer all around the wok and let it sear like this for a minute or two, until it gets a little browned and starts to release some fat. Toss to flip and use tongs or chopsticks to make sure the pork is cooking on the opposite side. Let this cook for a minute or two. Remove the pork for now. Add the chile bean paste, black bean paste, cooking wine and leeks. Stir-fry over high heat until the leeks are bright green and glossy, about 2 minutes. Add the pork back and stir-fry another minute. Add the cooking wine, soy and sugar and stir-fry another few seconds. Serve over rice.
877.314.1237 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // NOVEMBER 2020 47
Camphouse Kitchen
Venison Backstrap with Cumberland Sauce You would be surprised how easy it is to find red currant jelly in supermarkets. Every decent-sized one will carry it, and I’ve even found currant jelly in towns as small as Fayette, Missouri, and Ashley, North Dakota. If you really can’t find it, though, use lingonberry or cranberry jelly. Raspberry is not as good a substitute. Oh, and if you can find syrup of any of these fruits, get that -- it dissolves easier in the sauce. Prep: 30 mins • Cook: 15 mins • Total: 45 mins Ingredients VENISON • 1 to 1/2 pounds venison backstrap, in one piece • Salt • 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, duck fat or cooking oil CUMBERLAND SAUCE • 1 shallot, minced • 1/2 cup Port wine • 1/4 cup Demi-glace, or 1 cup regular stock • A pinch of salt • 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard • 1/4 teaspoon cayenne • Zest of a lemon and an orange • 1/4 cup Red currant jelly • Freshly ground black pepper 48 NOVEMBER 2020 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // 877.314.1237
Instructions 1. Take the venison out of the fridge and salt it well. Let it rest at room temperature for 30 minutes. 2. Melt the butter in a sauté pan large enough to hold the venison backstrap over medium-high heat. When it’s hot, turn the heat down to medium and brown the venison on all sides. Use the finger test for doneness to cook the meat to the level you want. I prefer medium-rare. Remember it will continue to cook as it rests, so take it out a little before it reaches the doneness you want. Move the meat to a cutting board, tent loosely with foil and let it rest while you make the sauce. 3. When your meat has come out of the pan, make sure there is at least 1 tablespoon of butter or oil in it. If not, add more. Sauté the shallot over medium-high heat for 90 seconds, just until it softens. Don’t let it burn. 4. Add the Port wine and use a wooden spoon to scrape up any browned bits stuck to the pan. Let this boil furiously until it is reduced by half. Add the demi-glace (or stock), the salt, citrus zest, mustard and cayenne and let this boil for a minute or two. Stir in the red currant jelly and the black pepper. Let all this boil down until it is thick, but still pourable. You can strain it if you want a more refined sauce. 5. Slice the venison into medallions. Pour any juices that have come out of the meat into the sauce and stir to combine. Serve with the sauce either over the meat or alongside.
Blueberry/Huckleberry Barbecue Sauce with Grilled Doves This is essentially a blueberry barbecue sauce recipe, as it is so easy to grill your doves. You will want to make the sauce first, as the doves take very little time to cook. Don’t have doves? No problem. Try this sauce on pork, duck, squab or even chicken thighs. I think it’s too intense for chicken breasts, though. The recipe below makes a lot of sauce, but the grilled doves are meant for 4 people as a main course. You will actually have enough sauce to coat a flock of doves, however, so you could conceivably serve 12-20 with this much sauce. Prep: 20 mins • Cook: 25 mins • Total: 45 mins Ingredients
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12 to 16 doves, or 2 pounds chicken thighs Salt Olive oil BLUEBERRY or HUCKLEBERRY BBQ SAUCE • 3 tablespoons unsalted butter • 1/2 cup chopped onion • 2 garlic cloves, chopped • 2 cups blueberries or huckleberries (fresh or frozen) • 1/2 cup tomato puree • 1/2 cup brown sugar
• • • • •
Camphouse Kitchen
1 cup cider vinegar 2 teaspoons dry mustard 1 teaspoon cayenne 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste 1 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary
Instructions 1. Take the doves out of the fridge, salt them well and let them rest at room temperature while you make the sauce. 2. To make the sauce, heat the butter in a pot over mediumhigh heat. Sauté the onions for 2 minutes, then add the garlic and cook another minute. Mix in the remaining ingredients and simmer gently for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. 3. Turn off the heat and allow the sauce to cool a little. Pour it into a blender and puree. Be careful blending hot things, and keep your hand on the top of the blender; sometimes the steam can make it pop off. Wipe out the inside of the pot you cooked the sauce in and pour the pureed sauce back in. Keep warm over low heat. 4. Coat the doves in the oil and get your grill fiercely hot. Grill the doves breast side up, with the cover down, over medium-high to high heat for 2 minutes. Lift the cover and paint them with the BBQ sauce. Cover the grill again and grill for another 8 to 10 minutes, depending on how welldone you like your doves. Remove to a platter and paint with a little more sauce. Let them rest for 5 minutes before eating.
877.314.1237 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // NOVEMBER 2020 49
NEW & COOL GEAR BY WILLIAM KENDY
Wildlife Research Scent Killer Helps You Not Smell
The Wildlife Research Scent Killer Gold is 99% effective at stopping replicated human odor and prevents new odors from forming for 10-20 days after it has dried. It works in both dry and wet conditions and is effective on clothes, decoys, quivers and any outdoor gear that may alert whatever you are hunting for. Combo Includes one 24-ounce bottle and one 24-ounce refill. Suggested Retail Price: $15.99 www.wildlife.com
Leupold VX-3i 3.5x10x40mm Rifle Scope
The Leupold VX-3i scope delivers precision magnification from 3.5 to ten times in hunting situations ranging from tight brush to long range shots. The Twilight Max Light Management System performs in low-light conditions in the beginning of the day to the end and utilizes 98% of the available light. Made with aircraft quality aluminum the one-inch tube is 100% waterproof, shockproof and fogproof. Suggested Retail Price: $519.99 www.leupold.com
New Winch Rods from Abu GarciaÂŽ Designed for Crankbaits
The new AG Winch series of crankbait rods are offered in seven and one spinning variations. They feature cork and high-density EVA grips and ergonomic FujiÂŽ rod seats with stainless-steel guides with Zirconium inserts. They are built with customer composite-construction with a more moderate action for fishing everything from jerkbaits to shallow and deep-diving cranks, squarebill and flat-sided cranks and even bladed jigs. Suggested Retail Price: $149.95 www.abugarcia.com
Our Expedition Offers New Backpack Child Carrier
The new OE 2 child carrier weighs in at 4.4 pounds including a detachable backpack and offers hands free transport for children weighing up to 45 pounds. It is designed to offer hip support and transfers the weight to your waist. The frame is aluminum/steel, with EFE foam encased in a durable polyester material. Includes a removable fanny pack, adjustable 4-point safety harness, ankle straps and more. Suggested Retail Price: from $169.00 www.oecarrier.com
Sneaky Hunter Hiker Bootlamps: Headlights for your Feet
With SneakyHunter bootlamps you can easily focus on where you are walking and, since they are positioned below the waist, can help with your depth perception. Battery powered, water resistant, they feature a white, red and green light option and attach via an 18-inch long one-inch wide cinch strap for slip-proof performance. Designed to be worn on either boots or on your knees. Suggested Retail Price: $59.99 (pair) www.sneakyhunter.com 50 NOVEMBER 2020 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // 877.314.1237
NEW AND COOL GEAR FOR OUTDOORSMEN
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The stable, self-supporting and ergonomic ThermaSeat® D-Wedge series is covered with waterproof, polyurethane-coated “SilentTouch™” Mossy Oak Camo, Realtree XTRA, Coyote Brown, or Black fabric. This adds another layer of freezeproof protection that won’t get hard in sub-zero temperatures. This lightweight seat features an over-the-shoulder carry strap with side-release buckles, breathable mesh, military-grade hardware, webbing and a rubber-coated non-slip base. Available in Mossy Oak Camo, Realtree XTRA, Coyote Brown or black. Suggested Retail Price: $68.99-$82.99 www.thermaseat.com
Turn Your Aluminum Beverage Cans into Cups
Now, whether you are at your campsite or even in the field you can easily and safely convert your beverage can into a cup with the new Draft Top in just three convenient steps: open the tool, insert onto the can top and twist. The result is an incredibly smooth edge that’s safe to drink from. Best of all, the Draft Top easily fits into your pocket. Suggested Retail Price: $24.99 www.drafttop.com
CZ Upland Ultralight All-Terrain Over/Under
Designed as a shotgun meant to be carried all day, the 5-pound, 14-ounce 20-gauge CZ Upland Ultralight All-Terrain sports a corrosion-resistant muted green Cerakote finish, walnut stock, extended chokes, sling swivels and a set of rare earth magnets installed in their extractors or ejectors. With the magnets in place, most modern shells are retained in the gun even when the gun is turned upside down. Suggested Retail Price: starting at $791.00 www.cz-usa.com
G5 Introduces First Fixed 4-Blade Broadhead
The G5 Striker-X incorporates a 4-blade stainless steel broadhead design with replaceable razor-sharp LUTZ blades and a 100% machined ferrule for strength and topped with a deep penetrating razor sharp contact tip. It offers a 1.25-inch cutting diameter and the G5 Anix blade locking system keeps blades secure in flight and produces improved arrow flight. Available in 100 and 125 grain weights. Suggested Retail Price: $42.95 (3 pack) www.G5outdoors.com
Yo-Zuri TopKnock Floating 3D Inshore Pencil The floating Yo-Zuri TopKnock Pencil features the patented 3D Internal Prism that reflects light in all directions. It includes a large single internal cadence rattle located in the tail for fish attracting sound while “walking the dog” and helps in making long casts, even in a strong wind. It is constructed of touch ABS resin and features 2.3X Super Tin treble hooks Available in 4-5 inch and 5/8- and 1-ounce weights. Suggested Retail Price: $7.99 www.yo-zuri.com 877.314.1237 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // NOVEMBER 2020 51
Leasing Hunting Land Is Not Too Hard I finally did it. I bit the bullet this year and leased some hunting land close to Montgomery. I had been wanting a place to hunt within a 45-minute drive from home and the office. I have been thinking about it for a couple of years, but I just wouldn’t bite the bullet. I thought it might be hard to find a place or expensive. It turned out to be a pretty easy and affordable process. BY CHRIS BLANKENSHIP Commissioner of the Alabama Department of Conservation & Natural Resources
The last couple of years I have hunted on several of the Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) close to Montgomery. The WMAs have some big deer, and I am thankful we have good public hunting in Alabama. We are adding more public land on a consistent basis through our Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries Division and the Forever Wild program. While I have enjoyed hunting on the WMAs, I also wanted to have a place I could go anytime I was ready. I receive invitations to hunt with people all over the state. That is one good thing about having a lot of friends. I enjoy spending time hunting and hanging out around the camp with them in different
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parts of the state, but I am always a little reluctant to harvest a deer that they may have been watching for the whole season. I have seen friendships strained by a guest shooting Ol’ Big that the landowner had been seeing on game cameras for two years and had been waiting on. That is why I usually only harvest does on those hunts! I wanted my own place. I thought I might have a tough time finding something close to Montgomery. I was unsure about who to call or how to go about finding what was available. I did not want to spend a fortune or get some really big place. I just wanted about 200 acres or less where my family and I could spend some quality time on the edge of a green field, enjoying the beautiful and abundant resources God has gifted us with in Alabama. A place I could manage for multiple types of game. A place that if Ol’ Big walked out I would have no qualms about taking him. I started the process by looking at websites and talking to several timber and investment companies that lease land.
FROM THE COMMISSIONER That was overwhelming. There is a lot of land in Alabama available for lease, and it was a challenge to wade through the plethora of information. Don’t get me wrong, it was great information and those companies do a good job laying out the specifics. It was just hard to focus on the best area for me. The Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources State Lands Division auctions off hunting leases on state-owned property every five years. This year, 145 property hunting leases were bid. These properties provide a lot of good places to hunt; however, the law does not allow a DCNR employee or the commissioner to bid. So that was no help for me. To find just the right place, I did what most of us do to find what we are looking for: I asked a bunch of different people if they knew of any place to lease within 45 minutes of Montgomery. It was amazing how helpful everybody was. I had some great leads and even better testimonials of certain locations and what deer, turkey and other game I could find in this place or that place. I am thankful that I have some good friends who helped put me in touch with the right people. I went and looked at a few places and found a nice spot that was 32 minutes door to gate from my house. I have the green fields all prepared and planted. I have a few stands and blinds set up. I am ready! It took a good deal of work to get it in shape, but it has made for an enjoyable fall so far. I have seen some nice deer as we have been working, and I can’t wait for gun season to start later this month. I still plan to hunt the WMAs and with friends around the state, but having a place just for me and family should make this hunting season a real blast. PUBLIC SAFETY INSURANCE FUND There are still good people in this world who really care about their
fellow man. Grant Sullivan, Jerry Kyser and the other members of the Public Safety Insurance Fund (PSIF) are some of those good people! The PSIF is a program that was started by Montgomery businesses more than 20 years ago to provide life insurance benefits for police and firemen in and around the Montgomery metro area. The fund now covers public safety employees in Montgomery, Wetumpka, Millbrook, Prattville, Butler County, Bullock County and many other jurisdictions. It also covers State Troopers and Conservation Enforcement Officers statewide. Since the fund was started, over $650,000 has been paid out to families of law enforcement officers who died while covered by the program. Three Conservation Enforcement Officers’ families have received benefits from the fund. These funds have been so valuable at providing for funeral expenses or helping keep the families on their feet after the passing of the officers. The annual premium is paid 100% by contributions of area businesses and concerned citizens. The benefit is provided at no cost to the officers or to the government agencies. This is strictly the business community caring for the families of public servants. Isn’t it great to see businesses and citizens showing such compassion and duty to the people who put their lives on the line every day to protect and serve those same businesses and citizens? What a beautiful picture of how mutually supporting one another provides a symbiotic benefit to the community as a whole and makes this state a better place to live and work and play. Thank you, Mr. Sullivan and all the businesses that contribute to the Public Safety Insurance Fund! If you or your company would like to be a supporter of this program, please let me know and I will connect you with the right people.
EASY APPLICATION!!! Unlike many liquid fertilizers, Clark’s Plot Nutrients: • Will not settle out in your tank or application equipment • There are no particles large enough to clog spray nozzles • It is readily absorbed by plants because it is a foliar application. Therefore, within one hour 80-90% of the fertilizer is already absorbed into the plant and working • Heavy rain will not wash away the fertilizer See what a difference it can make on your place!
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877.314.1237 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // NOVEMBER 2020 53
Argentine black and white tegu. Photo by Dustin Smith
The Danger of Invasive Species in Alabama Preventing the introduction of non-native invasive species is an important job of the Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries Division. With great diversity of both aquatic and land habitats, Alabama is the fourth most biologically diverse state in the United States. The mission of the Alabama Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries Division is to manage, protect, conserve, and enhance the wildlife resources of the state. A crucial task in accomplishing this mission is combating invasive species that can harm our 650-plus native species of wildlife. BY CHARLES “CHUCK� SYKES Director of the Alabama Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries (WFF)
Invasive species come in many shapes and sizes. Whether they are introduced accidentally or intentionally, non-native invasive species can drastically alter our native ecosystems. In Alabama, cogon grass and kudzu are well known invasive plant
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species that have wrecked native habitats. Originally introduced to control erosion, they quickly began to take over due to their fast growth rate. They now outcompete native vegetation and can be difficult to control. Invasive insects, such as the imported red fire ants, are also detrimental to our native wildlife. Red fire ants have been in Alabama since the 1930s, when they were introduced accidentally through cargo ships in Mobile. While fire ants are a nuisance around homes and cause millions of dollars in damage to agriculture and livestock, they can also wipe out bird nests and are especially hard on ground-nesting birds such as bobwhite quail and turkeys.
FROM THE DIRECTOR Non-native invasive wildlife can be found in Alabama as well and is often tied to the exotic pet trade industry. The brown anole, a native species of Cuba and the Bahamas, was introduced to the U.S. through the pet trade. This species has quickly expanded its range along the Gulf Coast and outcompetes our native species, such as the green anole. Another example is the Mediterranean house gecko, which has quickly expanded its range in Alabama and can now be found across the state. They are highly adapted to humans and are often found in and around houses. They can be seen at night clinging to the sides of buildings, waiting for insects to prey on. Mediterranean house geckos are also popular in the pet trade, a possible reason for their increased spread across the southeast.
Brown Anole Photo by Mercedes Bartkovich
With the increase in non-native invasive species comes an increase in competition for food and habitat with native species. This can destroy native populations of mammals, birds, and other Alabama wildlife, as can the new diseases and parasites that often accompany these invaders. In the U.S., many people who buy exotic animals do not research their needs, lifespan, or how big they will get. Without that knowledge, some pet owners don’t know how to properly care for and contain the animals, and they either decide to release them into the ‘wild’ once they have had enough of them or these pets escape. These intentional or incidental introductions into the wild are not only harmful for those pets that are released, but also for the native wildlife they encounter. As we have seen in neighboring states, non-native invasive wildlife species can wreak havoc on native ecosystems. One non-native invasive that has become an issue in our neighboring states is the Argentine black and white tegu. Popular in the exotic pet trade, tegu are strong lizards that can grow up to four feet long and often become hard to contain when not securely enclosed by someone with experience. Tegu and other non-native reptiles require warm, tropical climates and need cover to escape colder temperatures during the winter. In Alabama, our climate is warm enough to support these species throughout most of the state yearround, and our native ecosystems provide burrows and dens for refuge to escape colder temperatures during our typically mild winters. In particular, south Alabama where gopher tortoise burrows are found provides ideal conditions for these non-native species to survive and possibly become established. With eggs being a large component of their diets, tegu in the wild in Alabama could damage our native ground-nesting species such as gopher tortoises, bobwhite quail, turkey, and many more.
Mediterranean house gecko
Kudzu Photo by Ericha Nix
While we have not yet discovered any populations of tegu in the wild in Alabama, we routinely receive reports of escaped pets across the state. This is concerning because many of our native species that could be harmed by tegus are already in decline from habitat loss, disease and other factors. The threat of non-native invasive species could worsen these native species’ decline. We have regulations regarding hunting and fishing in Alabama to protect both our game species as well as the non-game native wildlife that Alabamians love. We recently strengthened one such regulation against non-native species to proactively protect Alabama’s native wildlife and to help our state avoid the challenges non-native species often bring. This will help us manage our native wildlife more effectively and lessen the threats to many Alabama species.
Cogon Photo by Roger Clay
All one needs to do is look at our neighboring state to the south: We do not want our native wildlife to experience what is taking place in the Everglades. Also, a look to the east at Georgia will reveal a recently established population of tegus, which is very disturbing. Many of our native wildlife have enough struggles without the unnecessary addition of non-native exotic animals to our ecosystem.
877.314.1237 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // NOVEMBER 2020 55
FIRST LOOK: THE S&W 9 SHIELD EZ M 2.0
The Shield EZ consistently performed as it was designed for when shot offhand at the range.
A Lightweight, Compact, Easy to Rack and Comfortable to Shoot 9mm Pistol. The hottest trend in semi-auto pistols for the last decade plus has been the concealable pistols chambered in 9mm which are either striker-fired or have an internal hammer. With that in mind in 2012 Smith and Wesson iintroduced the M&P Shield which became an “instant success” because it is easy to carry, comfortable to shoot and reliable.
BY CRAIG HANEY Photo submitted by Craig Haney
Picatinny rail and features an 8+1 capacity and with a 3.675-inch barrel with an overall length of 6.7 inches. The handgun also features a white dot front sight and an adjustable white-dot rear sight. The extra magazine has a 7+1 capacity. The Shield EZ I shot featured a grip safety that must be depressed before the gun is fired but did not also have a thumb safety. The pistol is also available with an ambidextrous thumb safety for those who desire one.
Being comfortable to shoot is important to many people because not everyone who purchases a handgun is an enthusiast who takes the time to thoroughly learn to handle and shoot it enough to become comfortable and competent with their gun. Often it is because they do not have the strength to fully rack the slide to put a cartridge in the chamber or it is hard for them to load the magazine.
The slide and barrel are both stainless steel and the slide has an Armornite® finish.
THE PISTOL The new for 2020 Shield 9mm EZ weighs 18 1/2 ounces and has a polymer frame with a 3-slot
•
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EZ…REALLY? Before handling and using the EZ, I wondered if it was much easier to operate than the Shield I have owned, carried and fired regularly for 7 or 8 years. The short answer is, yes. Here are the reasons why. The slide racks very easy which is good for any user but particularly for those with arthritic hands, small in stature or weaker
THE GUN RACK
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•
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due to their age.. This is a real positive for self or home defense for those firearm owners. The internal hammer-fired design allowed S&W designers to use a lighter recoil spring which makes the slide easier to rack. The fish-scale serrations at the rear of the slide slightly increase in height toward the rear where the slide has a small flare. This is a great design for any shooter using the pistol. The Shield EZ’s single-stack magazine was quick and easy to load thanks to the tabs on each side of the magazine which allows the user to easily compress the magazine spring. There are compact 9’s in the marketplace with 10-15 round magazine capacity but they are not as easy to load or rack the slide. It is easier to shoot a pistol for self defense that has a good trigger and easy to acquire sights. The Shield EZ has both. In use the trigger was crisp with little creep and broke at 4.7 pounds. Simple and easy to use, the white dot sights were easy to acquire on target. They are both dovetailed which allows them to be adjustable for windage. The loaded chamber indicator which is a lever just behind the ejection port protrudes when a round is in the chamber and is easily seen or felt.
The new S&W Shield 9 EZ is slightly larger than the iconic original S&W Shield.
I was not planning to shoot for tight groups but rather accuracy in a real world situation. The first 5 shots I fired from 15 feet, without having fired the pistol previously, were in the zone I needed. This held throughout my testing with more than 150 rounds fired with both brands of ammunition. Also there were no jams or failure to fire. Recoil was easily handled with these loads and the excellent grip design.
THOUGHTS FROM THE RANGE At the range, I shot the Shield EZ offhand at 15 and 21 feet with both Speer Lawman 124 grain TMJ and Remington UMC 115 grain Metal Case ammunition. The pistol was very comfortable for me to shoot with these loads.
I fired 20 rounds of self-defense ammunition through the Shield EZ with similar groups and no malfunctions. Recoil was more noticeable though not unmanageable or painful but a recoil-sensitive person could choose Hornady Critical Defense Lite.
I have a wide hand and the stippled or textured grip fit my hand perfectly. It also helps that the back of the trigger guard has an indentation which allows your hand to fit slightly higher and more securely on the grip. The small beavertail at the back of the frame is a great addition which adds your grip.
Overall, the S&W Shield 9 EZ is indeed easy to load, rack the slide and comfortable to use and carry . The additional safety features are a plus also. With its new design, it will be attractive to a wider variety of potential customers looking for a compact 9mm handgun.
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877.314.1237 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // NOVEMBER 2020 57
KAYAKS FOR DEER HUNTING- QUIET, EFFICIENT, AND LEGAL
Kayaks are wonderful deer hunting platforms and allow access to otherwise unreachable deer. Photo by Damon Bungard
It was a silent morning as I let my kayak drift along the dark waters of the tree-lined bayou-creek. I was paddling this after-summer cool fall morning on the huge Mobile Delta, but I could have been in many, many places on almost unlimited waters in Alabama where the land and the water meet.
If I’d had a gun ready and had not made any foolish noise or motion, this would have been an easy kill during deer season. The question is, would it have been legal to do that? Can Alabama hunters use a paddle-boat to reach otherwise unreachable deer?
Ancient cypress trees cast shadows across the water, and I could hear a pileated woodpecker rattling off in the distance. A small flock of teal whistled past me just above the smooth water. Then I heard a small crackling noise made by something walking in the dense underbrush of the streamside. I sat firm and still to see what was coming.
So I did some research.
And then from behind a clump of palmetto fronds, the shape of a deer, a big deer, appeared. This brute had six points of antlers on his head, and he cautiously approached the water’s edge for a morning sip of water.
To that end I contacted Carter Hendrix, asst. chief of enforcement of the Wildlife and Fisheries Division of Law Enforcement Section. He walked me through the legal language surrounding hunting from any sort of watercraft in Alabama.
He looked at me floating on the water. I have found that deer and other animals often do not spook when they see something motionless on the water. He lowered his head and then snapped it up to peer at me as I floated only sixty feet away. And since I made no motion or sound, the big old buck walked to the water, took his drink, and then walked slowly back into the swamp forest. From the looks of the path the big buck took, this water access was a heavily-used trail, and would be a natural location for a stand to help take a deer.
BY ED MASHBURN Photos by Ed Mashburn
Kayaks are wonderfully effective craft for scouting purposes, and an observant paddler can find loads of shoreline places where game animals come to drink.
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LEGAL ASPECTS I like to make sure when I research, what’s legal and what’s not.
According to Section 220-2-.11 of the Alabama Hunting and Wildlife Regulations: “…nothing in this regulation shall prevent hunting from a floating craft (except a sinkbox) including those propelled by motor, sail, and wind, or both, when the motor of such craft has been completely shut off and/or the sails furled, as the case may be, its progress therefore has ceased, and it is drifting, beached, moored, resting at anchor, or it is being propelled by paddle, oars, or pole…” So, according to this law, paddle craft are specifically named as legal hunting platforms.
PADDLE FISHING Of course, all other hunting regulations are in place for hunters who work from a paddle craft including legal rights of landowners. Simply put, this means that just because a kayak hunter can access land, if the owner of the land has not given permission, the hunter cannot hunt that land. So the rules are the same for landbased hunters and water-based hunters: owner permission to hunt is necessary to legally access private land. Also, the law is very specific to prohibit taking of deer which are in the water. Swimming deer or deer crossing water at shallow areas are not to be taken by hunters. And bow hunting from a kayak is also legal. So, now we know that kayak hunting is quite legal. BEST/MOST STABLE KAYAKS FOR HUNTING When we look at kayaks which are suitable for deer hunting, the field is wide open. Just about any kayak can work as a silent, stealthy hunting and scouting platform. Just about any kayak will serve well as a scouting boat. Quietly paddling along a stream or bayou can allow hunters to find trails which deer use often to reach water. When a good trail is located, a stand can be placed and the hunt can happen. For an actual hunting platform, as long as the hunter can paddle the kayak and then silently and easily reach a gun when a deer is spotted on shore, the kayak will work. Of course, sit-on-top kayaks allow easier access to guns or bows and in general are easier to load and unload with gear than traditional sit-in kayaks. A kayak which is particularly suitable for deer hunting use is the line of Kajun-Custom Kayaks built in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. These are dual purpose fishing and hunting craft, and they have gun holders and stand-up stability built into the kayak. They are built to take either an electric trolling motor or a small outboard. These kayaks could even be used by bow hunters. Going another way in the paddle craft game for hunters, if the boat is being used to simply transport gear and hunter to a more remote hunting location, then perhaps a canoe might be more suitable than a kayak. Canoes are open boats, and they can carry a lot of gear. For an extended camping/hunting trip on a bayou or island, I would prefer to transport myself and my living supplies on a canoe as I can just get more stuff to the camping area in a canoe. Another advantage of sit-on-top kayaks over sit-in boats is that in the case that the hunter should take a deer, it will be much easier to get the deer back to camp or car in a open kayak- a sit-on-top- than trying to safely and securely lash the deer on the deck of a covered sit-in boat. LOAD CAPACITY- KEEP IT REAL Kayak hunters will need to make sure that any kayak used for deer hunting can carry the hunter, gear, and yes, even a taken deer, safely and within the boat’s loading capacity. Most modern kayaks are rated for at least 350 pounds load, but many kayaks can safely be loaded with quite a bit more. So add up the hunter’s weight, the weight of guns, gear, and the weight of potential deer, and make sure it’s all within the kayak’s limits. EASE OF PADDLING- MOTORS CAN BE NICE Personally, I would not like to paddle a fully loaded kayak or canoe several miles up a river or bayou even for a potentially great hunting camp or blind. Paddle craft are wonderful, quiet, and efficient boats but moving a week’s worth of gear
by hand might get pretty old pretty fast. I would prefer a motor-powered kayak or canoe to get me and my gear to camp. Most modern kayaks can have a trolling motor safely connected which will provide miles of non-sweat transportation. Most canoes, especially square-stern canoes, can use a small outboard to great advantage. Once the hunting area is reached and camp is set up, then the kayak or canoe can be rigged for silent paddle propulsion for hunting and scouting purposes. SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS Although using a kayak or other paddle craft to reach otherwise unreachable hunting areas is a good idea, hunters must be sure to have permission to hunt these areas. Even though water access allows hunters to reach many places, if private land is the target area, hunters must receive owner knowledge and permission to hunt these areas. All other hunting regulations on public lands such as Wildlife Management areas remain in full effect. Hunters are reminded that deer in the water cannot be legally taken by either gun or bow. Hunters using rifles need to keep in mind that high-powered bullets can ricochet a long way when they strike water. Make sure to know what lies behind a potential target that is near the water. Finally, if a kayak is used to access a trail or stand location, make sure that the kayak is well-secured and pulled up and out of the water. It might be a pretty desperate situation to finish a good hunt and find that the kayak has relocated itself with changing water levels.
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Gulf Coast Fishing Outlook
Redfish will be a prime target through November along the northern Gulf Coast. Photo courtesy Capt. Richard Rutland, Cold Blooded Fishing
The call of fall will have many heading into the woods, but the cooler temps mean a hot bite for those who stay on the water MISSISSIPPI The backwaters of Mississippi will be alive this month as redfish, speckled trout, sheepshead, drum and others fill the rivers and bayous to stay warm and gorge themselves on shrimp, Menhaden and other forage. Many MS anglers look forward to this time of year where hiding in the calmer inland waters is the key to success and where weather has less effect on the fisherman. BY CHRIS VECSEY
“November is my favorite month to fish” says Captain Mike Foto of Biloxi-based Fish Finder Charters. “The passing fronts and cool weather
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will have fish pushed further into the backwaters, which means weathered-out days are rare. There’s always somewhere you can hide from the wind.” Foto likes to target the fall inshore variety with both live and artificial baits. “My go-to bait is a live menhaden, hooked through the lips and freelined on anywhere from a 2/0-4/0 Kahle hook.” Foto mentions that while menhaden are the top bait of choice, live shrimp will work as well and soft plastics like cocahoe minnows and 3-4” grubs take their share of both trout and reds. Sheepshead will also show up with the cooler weather and that’s where having the added live shrimp or fiddler crabs to your arsenal pays off. “Flounder will also still be available although they
FISHING OUTLOOK will be in smaller numbers as the bigger fish move offshore to spawn through the month.” says Foto. ALABAMA Along the same lines as MS, most anglers fishing nearshore waters in AL will be heading further into the backwaters. Capt Richard Rutland with Cold Blooded Fishing Charters will focus most of his trips along the tidal rivers of Mobile Bay searching for speckled trout and redfish. “This time of year I cover a lot of water and strictly throw artificial lures. I focus heavily on points and smaller coves, but you have to work a lot of open water as well and artificials are more effective for this.” Rutland likes to look for baitfish like Menhaden and Mullet and throws lures that imitate these. “The original Slick lure is my go-to bait. I like to fish it with a weighted Owner Beast 4/0 hook in depths less than 8ft along drops and points. For a smaller presentation I’ll use the lil Slick with a 1/8-3/8oz jighead.” In shallower water or when more commotion is desired, Rutland throws popping cork setups with smaller plastics like the Vudu Shrimp. Off the beaches, expect to find large schools of Bull Reds this month. They can be caught on the surface using spoons, big grubs and bucktail jigs and can also be caught trolling deep diving plugs when surface activity isn’t visible. Pay attention to your depthfinder while trolling for bait schools and bull reds lurking nearby. FLORIDA As with Alabama state waters, the action with bull redfish will be hot along Florida’s beaches and inland waterways. Pensacola Bay will be a hot spot for anglers running and gunning, while looking for big schools of redfish on top.
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Sheepshead will be a popular target along the passes and bridges as the water cools. Live fiddler crabs, shrimp and sand fleas are top baits. Carolina or drop shot rigs will work best tight to structure. Offshore, warmer waters will still be found along bottom contours like the Nipple, Elbow and Spur. Action with wahoo, tuna and billfish will often continue until passing fronts drop water temps in the low 70s. Pulling a mixed spread of lures along these areas and around the public FADs will produce. Subscribing to a satellite service provider like Hilton’s Realtime Navigator is almost mandatory during the cooler months. These charts will help identify the warmer pocket of water and temperature breaks, critical keys to offshore fishing in the fall. Swordfish will continue to be a prime target for those who can make it out during the better weather windows. Action will be good both day and night in depths of 800-1500ft. Finding deep schools of bait will lead to Broadbills.
Important Contact Information Captain Mike Foto Fish Finder Charters 228-860-3299 Biloxicharterfishing.net Captain Richard Rutland Cold Blooded Fishing 251-459-4077 Coldbloodedfishing.com
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Pier & Shore Fishing Outlook
Pompano please surf casters along the Emerald Coast this month.
Fishing along the Emerald Coast in November is all about the resident and semi- resident species as water temperatures fall through the 70s. The weather can get chilly at times this month, but long periods of cold high pressure usually clear the skies and calm the surf. The shallow coastal waters grudgingly follow the cooler air temperature after fronts pass through. But the dry afternoons can be mild enough even for wade fishing without insulated waders. BY DAVID THORNTON Photos by David Thornton
However, the chill has chased away most of the warm water loving jack species and pinfish. This ‘cleans up’ the bite for shorebound anglers using shrimp or ghost shrimp for bait. It is now time for pelagics to bow out and the drum fish take center stage.
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From the smallish, yet plentiful kingcroakers and kingfish (three menticirrhus species locally called whiting and ground mullet), to croakers, seatrout (white and speckled), up to hefty “bull” redfish, and even huge black drum which may exceed 50 pounds. All these can be caught from shore as well as the gulf beach piers from Gulf Shores in Alabama to Panama City Beach in Florida. Spinning tackle of any size can be tailored to target individual species. Use of larger baits (live or cut fish) will exclude the smaller specimens in favor of targeting the larger ones. Of course, there are times when anglers will find it to their benefit to downsize both bait size and tackle in order to target these fine eating smaller fish. Light to medium tackle enthusiasts usually target pompano yet their methods may also
FISHING OUTLOOK garner whiting, ground mullet, croakers, larger drum, bluefish, and an occasional permit. Yes, in the past few years these semi-tropical cousins to pompano have been routinely caught from Florida Panhandle beaches and even the Baldwin County coast of Alabama. Late fall seems to be the best time to up your odds at catching one of these elusive gamefish outside their historic range. Bluefish often show up in the mix too. They are spawning this month and feed aggressively in the surfzone as small baitfish become scarcer. Spanish mackerel may still be caught as well. Especially for pier and jetty anglers using jigs, small spoons or plugs. Even king mackerel may make a final run from the piers before most move southward for the upcoming winter. You see the days are definitely getting shorter and it will seem even more so to us humans after the Daylight Savings Time ends November 1st.
easterly winds, large battering swells and widespread heavy rains. In the short term, lower salinity and persistent turbidity in the surfzone all along the Emerald Coast may well affect the recovery of beach fishing to what it “should be” this time of year. In the long term, this might affect the growth rate of this year’s class of pompano and other surfzone species. Also, the beach erosion, dune breaches, etc. in some locations could take quite a while for nature to repair. Most familiar sandbars and soft beach structures were erased. Not to mention damaged infrastructure: boardwalks, seawalls and piers, and indeterminable closures to our precious few public beach accesses. Granted many homes, boats, piers, and businesses were wrecked and deserve due time and attention. Likewise so does the public’s right to safely and freely access public beaches for fishing and other “essential” activities as in November we once again get to enjoy our great days outdoors!
NEAP tides will occur on the 11th-12th and again on the 24th-25th. In the fall, tidal progression has migrated so low tide usually occurs in the middle of the day. This often means the late afternoon incoming tide, coinciding with the warmest part of the day, may well be the best time to fish from shore. The trick is to identify the factors contributing to a good bite, so you can be prepared and be on it. EARN YOUR STRIPES IN THE FALL Sheepshead are another important non-migratory species that contribute to the fishing options for shorebound anglers. Once the water temperatures in the back bays start to cool, sheepshead begin their general movement toward the mouth of the estuaries and even into the near shore gulf waters. Jetties, pier and seawalls become popular gathering spots for these challenging gamefish and their popularity seems to grow every year. So far regulations seem to have kept pace with increasing pressure but they aren’t quite as easy to catch from shore as they were decades ago. Live shrimp and fiddler crabs are the baits of choice when sheepshead suspend near piling or just off the bottom. They also like hermit crabs and beach ghost shrimp fished on the bottom. Even a few of these captured convicts (averaging 3 or 4 pounds) can make a delicious family meal and they are great sport on light to medium class tackle. Flounder are another species traditionally targeted in November as they move from the estuaries into the gulf to spawn. However, their numbers have decreased to the point Alabama has a closed season on flounder the whole month of November.
ing, t n u H , e s n e f De l a c i t c a T , g n i t Shoo
Well, Hurricane Sally sure made a mess of things from Pensacola, westward to Dauphin Island on the night of September 15-16. Thankfully, loss of life was minimal, but property damage is estimated well over $2 BILLION dollars! Especially hard hit were the Baldwin County beaches in Orange Beach and Gulf Shores. The iconic Gulf State Park Pier in Gulf Shores was right in the eyewall through much of the night. It was set to reopen from a $2.4 million renovation project on September 16th. Instead, the only opening that day was a 175 foot wide gap in the walkway just north of the end octagon. Long term plans to rebuild the collapsed portion had not been determined when this was written but plans were being discussed to reopen the remaining portion of the pier as soon as inspections and repairs can be accomplished. The process started the next day when crews from the park searched for several miles west of the pier and recovered over 200 of the ipe wood panels. This will expedite the effort to reopen the pier. The Gulf State Park Fishing and Education Pier serves over a quarter of a million visitors each year. Hopefully, at least some good inshore fall fishing can still be salvaged there out of this crazy year. Another far more reaching effect from the storm’s slow approach toward the coast, was the preceding and numerous subsequent days of strong
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REGIONAL FRESHWATER Fishing Outlook BY ED MASHBURN Photos by Ed Mashburn
As the weather cools, fishing will get only better on Deep South backwaters of big lakes and rivers.
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FISHING OUTLOOK
FLORIDA WATERS
LAKE TALQUIN Jeff DuBree of Whippoorwill Lodge on Lake Talquin says crappie will be really biting well there. Anglers should try trolling double jig rigs trolling over stump fields and other underwater structure for the crappie. Mouths of creeks will be good locations to find the feeding slabs. Crappie anglers on Talquin ought to start their search with 1/16 oz. jigs in chartreuse and bubblegum colors which are usually very good here. If the water is stained or dark from recent rain runoff, darker colors will work better. Bass anglers will find November bass at Talquin to be moving in and out of shallows according to weather and sun conditions, and fishing drop offs and points will be good. It’s hard to beat plastic works and other soft plastics at this time. Catfish angers will still find some good fishing in November, and live bait will be best for the cats. Anglers can find all needed gear and good advice at Whippoorwill Outpost on Lake Talquin. WAKULLA RIVER Rob Baker guides anglers on the magical spring-fed waters of the Forgotten Coast of Florida, and he operates Wilderness Way Kayak Shop and T-N-T Kayak Rentals on the Wakulla River. “Things will be cooling down in November, and there will be much less traffic on the river and the water will be clearing with the diminished rain. Fishing should be even better then,” Baker said. Bass will be staging on the weed lines where the open channels and the weeds come together, and small Rapala crankbaits worked down the weed lines can be very effective. For fly rod anglers, small poppers worked around weed edges and along the shorelines can produce some great panfish, and anglers with the fly rod should not be surprised when sizable bass roll up on the poppers, either.
ALABAMA WATERS
MILLER’S FERRY Joe Dunn, of Dunn’s Sports in Thomasville, says that if we don’t get too much cold weather, the bass will remain in their fall feeding patterns well into November, and this means anglers can find some actively feeding bass that should be catchable. Bass anglers should look up in the major sloughs where the bass will be chasing shad and feeding up for the upcoming winter and cooler weather. If the weather doesn’t get very cold, the bass will be preparing for very early spawns at Miller’s Ferry, so anglers can take advantage of the fall fishing. Bass anglers can work secondary points of big creeks and the main river channels. Small crank baits, spinner baits, and chatter-baits worked around woody cover on big creek points. November should be very good for crappie fishing on Miller’s Ferry. ”Anglers should work the main river channels of the lake, and they’ll be deepfrom 15 to 30 feet depending on the water temperatures,” Dunn advised
of year to try bottom bouncing for the slabs with jigs and live minnows. Dunn has had good results on crappie with Blademore Road Runners fished vertically around snags and deep ridges. MOBILE DELTA “Although every year is different, November is probably the month that has the least amount of anglers and traffic, but it’s one of the most productive months for fishing,” says long-time angler and guide Captain Wayne Miller from the Mobile-Tensaw Delta Guide Service By the end of the month, we’re basically out of tropical weather danger and the conditions are usually very stable. According to Miller, the biggest fishing variable in November is the location of the white shrimp. They may be up in the Delta still, or they may have moved out to the bay. If the shrimp are still up in the Delta, it’s a free for all for bass and other fish that feed on the shrimp. Bass will start to pull up in the creeks, but before they leave the main rivers and feeding zones, they’ll be feeding heavily on the white shrimp. In November, bass anglers should think about using smaller lures. Since the white shrimp, the young crabs, and other bait fish are all small at this time, lures should match the size. Spinnerbaits in white and white with chartreuse in ¼ oz. sizes are good, and Miller especially recommends Bandit crankbaits in the 1,000 to 2,000 series for search baits. These lures run about two to three feet deep, and anglers can cover a lot of water with them to locate active fish. WEISS LAKE “Bass fishing at Weiss in November is great because you can catch bassboth spots and largemouth- just about anywhere and anyway you want. There’s a good top water bite and the underwater humps and gravel bars are becoming much more visible as the water gets lower,” says fishing guide Captain Lee Pitts. “Look for shallow docks with cover like brush, logs, and blow-down trees that will often hold good fish.” Smaller crank baits, soft-body jigs, and spinner baits are good baits for fall fishing on Weiss in November. Pitts says that crappie fishing at Weiss should be very good in November and pointed out that most of the crappie are moving on creek ledges and deeper river banks. “Look for isolated brush piles and especially stumps on the creek channels,” Pitts said. Crappie anglers should try a vertical approach by dropping a double jig rig with a ½ oz bank sinker on the end of the line. Pitts recommends the Bobby Garland line of crappie specialty jigs. “The Bobby Garland Baby Shad and Shad Slay’r jigs give lots of action in the water, and they don’t require a lot of rod movement by the angler,” he said. White bass will be schooling in afternoons, and anglers can have a lot of fun casting shad pattern top water lures to the busting whites. SIPSEY FORK Anglers in the Deep South, don’t have many cold-water fishing spots, but Sipsey Fork is the best place for rainbow trout in a very special location.
Crappie will be feeding heavily as the water cools, and this is a good time
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Regional Freshwater Fishing Outlook
Catfish should be easy pickings on Wilson Lake. Locate deep shad schools over channel ledges, old river lock structure, or the many submerged islands in 40 to 75 feet of water and the big cats will be close by. Big chunks of skipjack herring and gizzard shad heads will be the baits of choice. For eating size cats it’s easy pickings. Locate fish on your sonar, and drop small pieces of cut bait, chicken liver, or shrimp down to them and have fun. Catches of 50 to 75 eating size fish are common on both lakes in November.
Randy Jackson of Riverside Trout Shop tells us that as the weather in November cools, there will be lots of midge hatches and a few blue-wing olives will start to emerge, and the trout will feed heavily on all of these bugs. At the start of November, there will still be a few terrestrial bugs hanging around and falling into the waters below, so anglers can have good results with hoppers and ants.
If we get heavy fall rains and strong currents below the dams, the striper bite can be great. Simply drift with the current while casting large swimbaits or large live gizzard shad in the current seams. This bite is always best early in the morning and late evening even during the cold weather months.
Anglers who use spinning gear for the trout can have very good luck by using the same flies that fly anglers use, but by fishing them under a bubble cork and swivel which gives enough weight for long distance casting. Trout Magnet lures in pink, black, and olive colors can be very good in November. Dark colored single-hook Roostertail spinners will work, too. Sipsey Fork is stocked every month, so anglers can count on good numbers of hungry, catch able trout waiting in the cold, clear waters of Sipsey Fork. WILSON/PICKWICK LAKES Veteran guide and Tennessee River angler Captain Brian Barton said that If air temperatures stay average or above normal, November can be as good as it gets on the Tennessee River.
“If crappie is your game, concentrate on the lower end of Pickwick reservoir. The Bear Creek, Yellow Creek, and Indian Creek areas will be top choices this month. Try trolling in open water in 15 to 20 foot of water. For traditionalists like myself who like to cast, target piers, and blowdowns on steep banks,” Barton added. LAKE EUFAULA “Bass fishing will get better as the weather cools off. Bass will be on all kinds of cover. The lily pads will be dying down with the cool weather, but the bass will still hold on the underwater stems and stalks of the pads,” advises Captain Sam Williams of Hawks Fishing Guide Service.
“Shad schools will still be hovering near the surface in shallow water early in the month. This can make for some great topwater or shallow running crankbait bass action,” Barton said. “Bass will be holding on points and main lake shorelines in 5-15 feet of water. For trophy fish try drifting the tailrace below the dams with live shad. My clients have caught more 6 pound plus smallmouth in November than any other fall month,”he added.
“There’s a good early morning top water bite in November, and the bite lasts longer and the bass will be more active than they were a few weeks before. Deeper water fishing will be good all day long near brush piles,” he said. Anglers wanting some topwater action on Eufaula in November can use a soft plastic frog or fluke over thick cover. Try to create some commotion
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Regional Freshwater Fishing Outlook
Soft plastics will be very effective on fall bass as they feed up for winter.
Important Contact Information Captain Brian Barton Brianbartonoutdoors.com 256-412-0969 Captain Jake Davis Mid-South Bass Guide Service www.midsouthbassguide.com 615-613-2382 Joe Dunn Dunn’s Sports 334-636-0850 33358 Highway 43 Thomasville, AL Rob Baker Wilderness Way Kayak Shop 850-877-7200 3152 Shadeville Road Crawfordville, Florida 32327 with the lure to attract the attention of the bass. November bream can be quite good on Eufaula. They will be deeper on the flats, and they will continue to move deeper as the water cools. Use red worms for some very hot shellcracker action. Crappie will hold over drop-offs, and if an angler can find brush piles or other cover near the drop-off some very hot crappie fishing can happen. Of course, catfish are always good at Eufaula, and anglers can use jugs or rod and reel to find great catfish action. LAKE GUNTERSVILLE According to Captain Jake Davis from Mid-South Bass Guide Service, the bite on Lake Guntersville in the later fall is all about the weather. ”During the first part of the month, we’ll still be working on the frog bite, especially in the middle of the day. The bite will be better at that time rather than early or late. We’ll use jerk baits and swim baits as the big grass mats die down. Anglers will need to slow down their presentations regardless of what kind of lure is being used,” Davis explained. Finding the schools of shad on Guntersville in November is crucial. The bass will be following the shad at this time. The crappie will be following schools of smaller shad, and the middle to lower parts of the lake will be best for finding crappie.
Captain Lee Pitts Leepittsoutdoors.com 256-390-4145 Captain Sam Williams Hawks Fishing Guide Service hawksfishingguideservice.com 334-355-5057 Whippoorwill Lodge Jeff DuBree 850-875-2605 fishtalquin@gmail.com Randy Jackson Riverside Fly Shop 17027 Hwy 69 N, Jasper, Al 256-287-9582 riversideflyshop.com Captain Wayne Miller Mobile-Tensaw Delta Guide Service 251-455-7404 millewa12000@yahoo.com
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MOON & FEED TIMES
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Photo of the Month! Simply share your great day outdoors with us!
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When Submitting Trophy Room photos, be sure to include as much information as possible about the person and the trophy. Final Decision is made by the editorial Staff of Great Days Outdoors Magazine. Submitting a photo does not guarantee it will be published.
PHOTO of the MONTH Daniel Blake Carrell with a respectable redfish
Jody Walker with his stud trigger
Darrell Townley holding a monster 300lb 75� swordfish
KID'S CORNER
TROPHY ROOM
Cory Mason, of Wilmer, AL with a nice bonita caught trolling a weedline 6 miles south of Dauphin Island
Ryder Boyington, caught this respectable largemouth in Gulf Shores
Drake Burgett, 12 has his hands full with a chunky black drum
1
ST
Fish
Colt McGuire, 3, with his first fish, a shell cracker
Fishing the Gulf surf obviously paid off for Kyle Goodwin.
Braxton Waddle, 10, first sheephead, he caught in Weeks Bay. He was with his dad Travis Waddle and cousin Cameron Flowers
Robert Dunn, 10, Dauphin Island, caught these 2lbs, on live shrimp in September
Give us your best shot!
Send your submission to info@greatdaysoutdoors.com. Submitting a photo does not guarantee that it will be published. We cannot give any guarantees on when a photo will be published. Please include: child's full name, age, mailing address, and any details. We need to know when, where, size (weight, points, etc.), shot or caught with what and any other meaningful information, like first time, etc.. CONTRIBUTIONS WITHOUT THIS INFO WON’T BE PUBLISHED.
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2020 STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP: 1. Publication Title: Great Days Outdoors. 2. Publication Number: 017-228. 3. Filing Date: 10/1/20 4. Issue Frequency: Monthly. 5. Number of Issues Published Annually: 12. 6. Annual Subscription Price: $34.00. 7. Complete Mailing Address of Known Office of Publication: PO Box 1253 Santa Rosa Beach, Florida 32459. 8. Complete Mailing Address of Headquarters or General business offices of Publisher: PO Box 1253 Santa Rosa Beach, Florida 32459. 9. Full Names and Complete Mailing Addresses of Publisher, Editor, and Managing Editor. Publisher: Joseph Baya, PO Box 1253 Santa Rosa Beach, Florida 32459. Editor: Joseph Baya, PO Box 1253 Santa Rosa Beach, Florida 32459, Managing Editor: Bill Kendy, PO Box 1253 Santa Rosa Beach, Florida 32459 10. Owner: Joseph Baya, PO Box 1253 Santa Rosa Beach, Florida 32459 11. Known Bondholders, Mortgages, or Other Securities: None. 12. Has not changed during the preceding 12 months. 13. Publication Title: Great Days Outdoors. 14. Issue Date for Circulation Data Below: October 2020. 15. Extent and Nature of Circulation: (Figures are average no. Copies each issue during preceding 12 month/actual number of Copies of single issue published nearest to filing date). 15a. Total Number of Copies 3140/2325. 15b1.) Paid/ Requested Outside-County Mail Subscriptions: 718/686. 15b2.) Paid In-County Subscriptions: 533/510. 15b 3.) Sales Through Dealers and Carriers, Street Vendors, Counter Sales: 366/244. 15b4.) Other Classes Mailed Through the USPS: 46/0. 15c). Total Paid and/ or requested Circulation: 1664/1440. 15d.). Free Distribution by Mail (Samples, complimentary, and other free): 15d 1.) Outside County 212/35. 15d2.) In-County: 0/0. 15d 3.) Other Classes Mailed Through the USPS: 0/0. 15d 4.) Free Distribution Outside the Mail (Carriers or other means): 166/120. 15e.) Total Free Distribution 378/155. 15f). Total Distribution 2042/1595. 15g.) Copies Not Distributed: 1098/731. 15h.) Total: 3140/2325. 15i.) Percent Paid and/or Requested Circulation: 81.5%/90.3%. 16.) Electronic Copy Circulation 16a.) Paid Electronic Copies 0/0 16b.) Total Paid and Print Copies 1664/1440. 16c.) Total Print Distribution plus Paid Electronic 2042/1595. 16d.) Percentage Paid (Total Print Distribution plus Paid Electronic) 81.5%/90.3%. 17) Publication of Statement of Ownership will appear in the November 2020 Issue of this publication. 18.) I certify that all information furnished on this form is true and complete: Joseph Baya, Publisher.
FISHING TIP
How to Successfully Land
Big Drum Surf Fishing
BY PATRICK MEEK When trying to land a big drum from the surf, whether it’s redfish or black drum, a lot of things can go wrong. I’ve been on the receiving end of heartache more than once and there’s nothing more painful than watching a nice trophy fish which is so close yet somehow manages to get away. Hereare 3 key elements to successfully land a trophy Drum from the surf / beach: 1. Patience Once you have got your drum near the shore line, tighten your reels drag slightly to have more control. DO NOT horse the fish in! Horsing a fish in is one of those cardinal sins. The harder you and the fish pull, the more chances of equipment failure and hook failure increases due to the unknown hook set. Patience is the key. Slow and steady wins the race. 2. Timing When the waves are breaking at the shore line, timing is everything. With your drag set appropriately and you have control of the fish, you want to time the wave so that when you pull your surf rod you allow the drum to “surf” or “ride” the wave in. With the correct timing of the wave, this will allow you to land the drum on wet sand in the wash making it easier to handle your catch and it puts less pressure on your leader. 3. No Interference I cannot stress this enough. As much as your fishing partner may want to get involved, they may be hurting more than helping. Never let them grab the mainline, especially braid since it can cause a deep cut. Grabbing the mainline or leader before the drum is ready to be landed only creates added pressure to the leader and hook. Since the hook set is uncertain, grabbing the mainline or leader can cause the hook to bend, it could cause the leader to break, or it could just pull the hook from the fish’s mouth to become free and you will be watching your catch swim away disappointed. As much as your partner wants to help, only let them assist when asked. Hopefully with these three tips, this will help you be able to put your trophy drum on the sand instead of watching “the one that got away.”
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A GREAT DAY OUTDOORS
The Absurdity of Big Racks The scores themselves probably point to part of the problem. Even the numbers are big. Here’s a typical example.
BY JIM MIZE
“I froze as a buck stepped into the clearing sporting a rack with more points than Michael Jordan . . .” Why is it that a big rack will reduce a hunter to a quivering lump of flesh with a frozen trigger finger? What’s the attraction that makes us drive across the state to see stuffed heads with enough hardware on top for a factory full of knife handles? And why does our life-savings sit in a CD waiting for that one great trip where we will get ours? It makes no sense. Think about it. First, we act like bagging a trophy buck is the biggest challenge since we tried to win a game of Whack-a-Mole at Chuck E. Cheese. But aren’t small targets harder to hit? We’re talking about a deer with the body larger than a square bale and broader than an Alabama billboard. Then, we keep score on Boone & Crockett standards. Guys, let me set the record straight. Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett probably never measured racks. If they shot a deer, it was because they were hungry. I can hear them now. “Oh shoot, Davy, it’s another big one. I’ll bet he’s tough as nails. Why can’t you ever shoot one of the little ones?” “Heck, Daniel, you know those things are too small to hit with this gun. Besides, I didn’t see you lining up to fire.” “Oh yeah, well, this one’s no big deal. He’s so old I’m guessing he couldn’t hear you sneaking up.” Or something like that.
A wildlife department representative takes a tape measure to the rack, scratches his chin, looks up in the sky while he does the math and then says, “Well, it totaled 214 and 3/4.” The truth is the buck had twelve points. But twelve is a little number. Like a shoe size. In fact, what is it with racks anyway? Why don’t we just measure the hooves on a deer? “Hey Davy, you shot a 9 EEE. Now that’s a good’un.” If we ever did that, bucks would be outscored by ducks. Not only do we pursue big deer, we go to extremes to make the deer bigger. For starters, we plant special high-nutrition food plots to grow deer with big racks. High nutrition. This from a bunch of guys who won’t even take a multi-vitamin or get a physical. Then we pass club rules not to shoot little deer. Any buck smart enough to sprout only seven points and grow them close together gets to walk around unscathed. So here we are again, coming up with an excuse that lets the meat get tougher while the inedible parts get bigger. Even the wildlife department encourages the pursuit of large deer. They do this in several ways. First, the seasons are set to allow hunting that one time of the year when big bucks get a little stupid. That is, during the rut. Second, many of them host special events to measure your mount and you get no credit for a head that only has ears. Once we shoot a big buck, the trouble really begins. Few of us can drag a 200-pounder out by ourselves. So instead, we’re field dressing tough meat and taking special care with the inedible parts so we don’t spoil them. The hide is carefully pulled to avoid nicks when in fact it’s probably too mangy to make a good pair of gloves. The rack itself takes an extra trip to haul out. The whole time you’re
78 NOVEMBER 2020 // GreatDaysOutdoors.com // 877.314.1237
banging into trees and turning to get the rack through the branches you’re wondering how a deer this big was able to walk through the woods. About midnight, once you’ve loaded up, you then have to find a taxidermist for a mount that will cost about the same as a BMW and weigh enough to tip over a double-wide. Not only that, but you’ll probably have to add on or move out. Antlers this large will fill the free space in your den and you can’t afford to hide something you had to second-mortgage your house for just to shoot and stuff it. Besides, you don’t have a closet this big and there’s not enough clearance in your attic. Before long, you’re using the mount to hang hats or let the laundry dry on it. Your prize possession becomes the family clothes rack and for April Fools’ Day someone dresses your buck in sunglasses and a clown nose. Also, don’t forget the extra room you need for the freezer you bought to hold a hundred pounds of deer sausage because the steaks were so tough the dog gave up on them. You have to go shoot a smaller deer for food and store the meat at a buddy’s house. So you see, shooting bucks with monster racks actually makes little sense. They’re easier to hit because they’re bigger, the meat’s tough since they’re old, they can be a lot of trouble to get out of the woods, and they can be awfully expensive to mount and store. All in all, it makes lots more sense to be one of those hunters who has never put a big rack on the wall. Someone like me, for instance.
JIM MIZE is most successful bagging big racks at yard sales. You can find his two award-winning books of outdoor humor at www.acreektricklesthroughit.com.
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