Resica
Senior Member
I've got some un impressive salt water adventures out of Cape May New Jersey, I will put up in the next day or 2.
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Tell a hunting or fishing story
- Thread starter Danuwoa
- Start date
sprewett
Senior Member
It was my first hunt on Sapelo Island. My brother had bailed on me and I just went by myself. I arrived a day later than most of the hunters so I wasn't able to do any scouting just picked a number. I will say that I asked Stanley (a fellow that grew up on the island and works for the DNR). That morning I got on the trailer at about 4:30ish off to the races. My trusty 30-06, a ground blind I had never set up, and zero ideas of what awaited me. The trailer arrived at my number long before daylight soon as I got off the trailer animals were running every where. Pigs galore!!!! I couldn't see a one just heard them running grunting and squealing. So I try and find a spot in the dark with a bad flashlight and a sandy magazine because I tripped and dropped it when I got off the trailer. The blind was supposed to take 5 minutes to set up. After 15 minutes, red faced mad, and pouring sweat I finally got it. Surprisingly, enough the pigs were still around; however, it was dark and I was nervous. I was thankful when daylight arrived so I could at least tell folks in heaven what got me. I realized in my haste I had set my blind up in a pig wallow! I realized I had better move it but I wanted to walk the land a bit. I decided to climb a live oak it looked easy enough. I climbed it fine it was the coming down that presented a problem, I fell. I shook myself off and then saw a pig. Once, I finally got my blind set in the edge of a huge field right at dark a puff of wind blew my blind away and there I sat in the wide open. I gave chase to the blind finally catching it all the while scaring off one of them bulls that roam around. I can't believe I didn't kill a deer that trip! Haha.
I love Sapelo I have been back as often as they draw me since that trip.
@Gadestroyer74 you sure you still wanna hang with me. Haha
I love Sapelo I have been back as often as they draw me since that trip.
@Gadestroyer74 you sure you still wanna hang with me. Haha
GeorgiaBob
Senior Member
This one goes back over 30 years. I drove more than 10 hours from Tennessee to Dallas, Tx to pick up my older brother, then another 4 hours to our hunt camp in central Texas. Finally get set, meet two friends, get unpacked and sort our gear. I think I got 20 minutes of sleep before we all got up, dressed, and decided where we would each hunt.
I remembered a nice blind that overlooked a field and one of our friends said he dumped a pile of corn there a week before. I said "YES, there!" We went our separate ways (no buggies or such, we walked) and I approached the blind about 5am on a very cold clear night with a quarter moon a little above the horizon.
About an hour later, my mustache was crusted solid with ice. My toes were stinging with the cold I felt through thermal and wool socks and heavy boots. I had my slightly modified Model 1903 pointing across the small field where I heard the sounds of an animal cautiously moving through the brush.
As it got lighter I could see the antlers, at least a dozen points, but it was still mostly in the brush under a tree. I wasn't tired, or cold, anymore. The light was showing me a beaut of a buck. Heavy shoulders pushed through the brush and I was ready, already measuring my breaths for a seventy yard, clean shot.
Suddenly, the the buck lifted his head and leapt backwards! I listened to the sounds of his rapid departure just as I heard my brother stomping along the trail behind me. He shouted out that he was coming up the trail, and asked it I had seen anything. Seriously? It was still several minutes before actual sunrise.
I remind him of this often and point out that I have never forgiven him. In truth, one of our friends had taken down a sick looking 'dillo with his .45SA by flashlight, and my brother WRONGLY decided that the shot had run off all the dear in the area. We all gathered up our stuff drove into the small town and were eating breakfast by 7:00 am. By 9:00 am I was sound asleep and only woke once (to eat supper) before 4:00 am the next morning. Didn't get a deer that trip.
I guess not all stories are about great shots taking monster bucks.
I remembered a nice blind that overlooked a field and one of our friends said he dumped a pile of corn there a week before. I said "YES, there!" We went our separate ways (no buggies or such, we walked) and I approached the blind about 5am on a very cold clear night with a quarter moon a little above the horizon.
About an hour later, my mustache was crusted solid with ice. My toes were stinging with the cold I felt through thermal and wool socks and heavy boots. I had my slightly modified Model 1903 pointing across the small field where I heard the sounds of an animal cautiously moving through the brush.
As it got lighter I could see the antlers, at least a dozen points, but it was still mostly in the brush under a tree. I wasn't tired, or cold, anymore. The light was showing me a beaut of a buck. Heavy shoulders pushed through the brush and I was ready, already measuring my breaths for a seventy yard, clean shot.
Suddenly, the the buck lifted his head and leapt backwards! I listened to the sounds of his rapid departure just as I heard my brother stomping along the trail behind me. He shouted out that he was coming up the trail, and asked it I had seen anything. Seriously? It was still several minutes before actual sunrise.
I remind him of this often and point out that I have never forgiven him. In truth, one of our friends had taken down a sick looking 'dillo with his .45SA by flashlight, and my brother WRONGLY decided that the shot had run off all the dear in the area. We all gathered up our stuff drove into the small town and were eating breakfast by 7:00 am. By 9:00 am I was sound asleep and only woke once (to eat supper) before 4:00 am the next morning. Didn't get a deer that trip.
I guess not all stories are about great shots taking monster bucks.
Danuwoa
Redneck Emperor
Good stuff, y’all. Keep ‘em coming.
Danuwoa
Redneck Emperor
Back in the spring of ‘05 I was working second shift at a job I had no intention of staying at. One of those stop gap jobs. When I got off work that night I got home and just wasn’t tired at all. I was planning to go turkey hunting the next morning but wasn’t in the bed until about three o’clock. The weather was calling for hard winds and it was cold. I decided I’d get up and if the wind was howling I would go back to bed.
I got up and went outside. It was cold but calm. I headed out but by the time I got where I wanted to listen the trees were bending and swaying with the predicted wind. I was disgusted but I was out there and decided I was going to hunt.
I didn’t hear a thing as daylight came and nothing answered my owl hoots. I set up on a food plot with some tall grass beyond it and then a field beyond that. I just yelped every thirty minutes or so not thinking anything would hear me over that wind. Some time around nine thirty I saw a dark shape moving near the wood line on the opposite of the field. It was a turkey and not long after I saw him he blew up and spread his fan and was headed my way. I couldn’t believe it. I hadn’t heard a thing and the weather was horrible for turkey hunting. About forty degrees and high wind. But here he came.
Now you have to understand, from where I first saw him to where I was made about four hundred yards that I had to sit and watch this gobbler coming. He didn’t get in a hurry but he didn’t make me wait much either. He was coming to me slow and steady. He kept coming and when he got within rang I blasted him. Eleven and a half inch beard, inch and half spurs, twenty three pounds. Never gobbled. Never made a sound. But he was a true boss gobbler.
That day taught me not to pay the weather any mind. You ain’t GON kill one in the bed and if you’re in the right place at the right time the weather doesn’t make a whole lot of difference.
I got up and went outside. It was cold but calm. I headed out but by the time I got where I wanted to listen the trees were bending and swaying with the predicted wind. I was disgusted but I was out there and decided I was going to hunt.
I didn’t hear a thing as daylight came and nothing answered my owl hoots. I set up on a food plot with some tall grass beyond it and then a field beyond that. I just yelped every thirty minutes or so not thinking anything would hear me over that wind. Some time around nine thirty I saw a dark shape moving near the wood line on the opposite of the field. It was a turkey and not long after I saw him he blew up and spread his fan and was headed my way. I couldn’t believe it. I hadn’t heard a thing and the weather was horrible for turkey hunting. About forty degrees and high wind. But here he came.
Now you have to understand, from where I first saw him to where I was made about four hundred yards that I had to sit and watch this gobbler coming. He didn’t get in a hurry but he didn’t make me wait much either. He was coming to me slow and steady. He kept coming and when he got within rang I blasted him. Eleven and a half inch beard, inch and half spurs, twenty three pounds. Never gobbled. Never made a sound. But he was a true boss gobbler.
That day taught me not to pay the weather any mind. You ain’t GON kill one in the bed and if you’re in the right place at the right time the weather doesn’t make a whole lot of difference.
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Resica
Senior Member
Very true! You never know!
splatek
UAEC
One spring day, after just learning about blue line fishing, I was about a mile past the closed gate and maybe 1.5 miles up the stream. Climbed over two waterfalls and was approaching my third in hopes of finding the jewel of the south. As I’m bushwhacking this particular waterfall I hear something coming at me through the thick ground cover. At about 2 yards out pops a yellow lab wagging his tail. Surprised is an understatement. I immediately start looking around for a possible owner, maybe they slipped fell all sorts of things running through my head. Then I see something move out of my periphery…. A young couple having the time of their lives, buck naked on the top of the falls. I gave the dog a pat on the head and moved on upstream. Never did find specks on that stream.
specialk
Senior Member
That story reminded me of a not really a hunting story but the first time we went to look at a piece of property in butts co just outside jackson, we pulled of a logging road according to the map. The road forked and made a big loop back around to the hwy. I was around 13 maybe, ....me, my dad, step mom and step bro were riding and looking when we road up on a car backed up in between some pines and 2 teens were jumping around in that car trying their best to put clothes on while hiding their faces....thats been 40+ yrs ago and we still lease that same piece....
Ruger roo
Senior Member
Last bow season I was hunting a food plot with oaks lined through the middle. The grass was about 2 feet high, I was on the edge of the field in tall grass on the ground. I seen about 150 pound hog walking the line of oaks. I couldn’t get a shot on it so I stood up so I would be above the grass line and to my surprise the rather large sow had 2 piglets with her. Me being about 20 yards from the sow it spotted me quite quickly, it immediately false charged me to about 10 yards. My nerves threw the roof being I only had a crossbow and the sow was straight on me. I started to back away slowly and it charged again and stopped to close for comfort. I continued to back peddle and lucky it turned and bolted the other way. So far my most intense hunt and one I’ll remember forever.
Mars
Senior Member
As a teenager I would go bass fishing with my dad and bother in an oxbow lake off the Oconee river on some chalk company land. We loved fishing here because there were some big bass and alot of them. It seemed like we were pulling 3-5 pounders out with every other cast.
In this particular day, my dad and I were in a small aluminum jon boat and my brother was in a canoe. Dad and I had just started around the bend of the oxbow when we hear the hollers of excitement from my brother. We turn around to see him standing in the canoe, holding on to the doubled over rod for dear life and that canoe looked like it had a 9.9 on it. He got drug across that lake with some speed! Finally the line broke and I wish yall could see the fit that ensued. He was none too happy to have lost that monster.
To this day there is still some debate about if it was a bass or a gator. I'm leaning towards gator because we had several try to snag our top water lures there. I still have a jitterbug with teeth marks in it that a 4'er tried to take from me.
In this particular day, my dad and I were in a small aluminum jon boat and my brother was in a canoe. Dad and I had just started around the bend of the oxbow when we hear the hollers of excitement from my brother. We turn around to see him standing in the canoe, holding on to the doubled over rod for dear life and that canoe looked like it had a 9.9 on it. He got drug across that lake with some speed! Finally the line broke and I wish yall could see the fit that ensued. He was none too happy to have lost that monster.
To this day there is still some debate about if it was a bass or a gator. I'm leaning towards gator because we had several try to snag our top water lures there. I still have a jitterbug with teeth marks in it that a 4'er tried to take from me.
Redbow
Senior Member
Mars I fished with a jitterbug many times in my young life wish I had just one of them today from decades past but I lost every one of them over the years walking the river bank and snagging tree limbs where I could not retrieve my lure. I have often wondered if some of them are still hanging over that river on a tree limb even today.
Cool Hand Luke
Senior Member
Gun season about 15-20 years ago on crisp fall day hunting my small lease in NE GA. Had just climbed down around noon and decided to walk down to the creek and sit for while. Found a blow down and sat down. Somehow I ended up on the phone with my sister probably talking about Christmas or something. While talking, I see movement out of the corner of my eye and tell my sister to hold on. I set my phone down, shoulder my rifle and wait. Few seconds later a big male yote pops his head up from behind a sand bar at 5 yards. He took one to the throat. I'm just glad I didn't have my back to him, I believe he was stalking me. Didn't look rabid so had him mounted how he looked last time I saw him alive.
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Mars
Senior Member
He looks rather surprised to see that muzzle flash!
Mauser
Senior Member
Prob 15 years ago or maybe a little longer, me and and a buddy were putting out bush hooks above Cordays mill on Notchaway. It was getting close to dark so we took both our boats so we could get em put out a little faster. He went up and I went down the creek. A few minutes later I heard the dangdest commotion you could possibly hear from a 6 horse evinrude. You know the kind when you throw it in reverse and it’s coming up out the water. When we met back up he had 3 wild hogs in the boat, he said about ten were swimming across the creek and he run amongst em and throwed it in reverse and went to choppin. Still to this day he’s the only one I know that has killed hogs with a evinrude.
BeerThirty
Senior Member
When I was 14 our Boy Scout troop took a canoeing trip into the Quetico Provincial Park in Canada. We heavily relied on catching fish every day to meet our calorie needs.
When it comes to fishing in Canada, there is something you need to know about the lakes. In many locations the water gets extremely deep right off the edge of the shoreline. In other words, you can be fishing from the bank and two feet out from where you're standing, the lake can be 50-feet deep, or more.
One evening on this trip, I was fishing on some rocks below our camp. I was casting a silver rattletrap lure and I hooked a decent-sized northern pike (pickerel), somewhere about 35 inches long. This is where things got interesting. I had the fish up to the shoreline and was bending over to grab it out of the water. All of sudden, in the depths of the water I noticed a very large dark object rising from below my fish. It happened so quickly that it kind of scared me because I didn't know what it was at first. Turns out to be a massive otter, close to 30 lbs. It grabbed my fish and took off with it under water while I still had it hooked. Over the course of the next 5 minutes, I fought the otter and my drag. It would take the fish on a deep run then let go. Fish would surface and the otter would hit it again as I started reeling it back in. Miraculously, the otter eventually let go and I got the fish after all. The funny thing was, the otter was so hungry that he started chasing a few loons right after he gave up on the fish. You just had to be there.
When it comes to fishing in Canada, there is something you need to know about the lakes. In many locations the water gets extremely deep right off the edge of the shoreline. In other words, you can be fishing from the bank and two feet out from where you're standing, the lake can be 50-feet deep, or more.
One evening on this trip, I was fishing on some rocks below our camp. I was casting a silver rattletrap lure and I hooked a decent-sized northern pike (pickerel), somewhere about 35 inches long. This is where things got interesting. I had the fish up to the shoreline and was bending over to grab it out of the water. All of sudden, in the depths of the water I noticed a very large dark object rising from below my fish. It happened so quickly that it kind of scared me because I didn't know what it was at first. Turns out to be a massive otter, close to 30 lbs. It grabbed my fish and took off with it under water while I still had it hooked. Over the course of the next 5 minutes, I fought the otter and my drag. It would take the fish on a deep run then let go. Fish would surface and the otter would hit it again as I started reeling it back in. Miraculously, the otter eventually let go and I got the fish after all. The funny thing was, the otter was so hungry that he started chasing a few loons right after he gave up on the fish. You just had to be there.
crackerdave
Senior Member
This is a great thread!
Enjoying the stories.
Enjoying the stories.
huntfish
Senior Member
Hunting at the family property in Wisconsin. Had about a 1/2 mile walk to the stand on the backside of the property and just using the moonlight. About 100 yards from the stand, I see something cross in front of me. Thinking I might be pushing deer, I stop and wait about 10 minutes to let things settle down. About 30 yards closer, I hear movement on both sides of me as I'm walking. Stop again, things settle down and proceed towards the stand. I'm about 20 yards from the stand and I'm hearing movement again, but decide to hurry up and get in the stand. I climb up and turn on my headlamp to tie off and hang by fanny pack. When look down to pull up the rifle, I catch movement and turn my head to look.
Staring up at me is a pack of 5 wolves!
Staring up at me is a pack of 5 wolves!
GeorgiaBob
Senior Member
Dropping back a few years (again, more than 30) my surviving brothers and I (three of us) were fishing Copano Bay from a friend's 200' pier (which put us out all the way to hip deep water if we decided to get wet, almost as deep as the deep channel in the bay!). My eldest (ancient, elderly, really old) brother was working hard casting with a lure while our little brother and I were watching corks hanging above live shrimp on Eagle hooks. We were hoping to pull in a few speckled trout, but would not be upset if a flounder jumped on the hook.
Suddenly my older brother shouted and started reeling against the sound of the line spinning off the bail. He had hooked a monster. He decided that it must be a sea bass, it was fighting too hard for even the biggest Red. Eight pound test isn't usually up to the kind of rod doubling fight he was having with that sea monster.
After an hour of reeling, hearing the line run out as the fish pulled, and reeling again, he finally had the fish near the "T" of the pier. We had the big net out and I looked at the shadowed shape pass across in front of the pier and told my little brother, "We are gonna' need a gaff." The next pass sent little brother back for the BIG gaff.
A little more struggle and we had it. Took two of us to lift it on the gaff, still struggling. A GAR! A mean looking, prehistoric, inedible 53" long, 62 pound gar. The way we gaffed it, there was no way it could survive so little brother tried a head shot with his .38 snub nosed revolver. The bullet bounced off that creature's skull! (He had wadcutters loaded)
A quick reload and two shots (FMJ), point blank, into the side of the gar's head left it limp and certainly deceased. After getting out the tape measure and weighing it we dumped it in the bay, the blue crabs feasted that night. We, on the other hand, had spent the entire afternoon NOT catching tasty speckled trout and had to settle for burgers off the grill. The next day, three near limit catches of completely legal and pleasantly heavy speckled trout, plus two very large Redfish, made up for the Big Fish Fight.
Suddenly my older brother shouted and started reeling against the sound of the line spinning off the bail. He had hooked a monster. He decided that it must be a sea bass, it was fighting too hard for even the biggest Red. Eight pound test isn't usually up to the kind of rod doubling fight he was having with that sea monster.
After an hour of reeling, hearing the line run out as the fish pulled, and reeling again, he finally had the fish near the "T" of the pier. We had the big net out and I looked at the shadowed shape pass across in front of the pier and told my little brother, "We are gonna' need a gaff." The next pass sent little brother back for the BIG gaff.
A little more struggle and we had it. Took two of us to lift it on the gaff, still struggling. A GAR! A mean looking, prehistoric, inedible 53" long, 62 pound gar. The way we gaffed it, there was no way it could survive so little brother tried a head shot with his .38 snub nosed revolver. The bullet bounced off that creature's skull! (He had wadcutters loaded)
A quick reload and two shots (FMJ), point blank, into the side of the gar's head left it limp and certainly deceased. After getting out the tape measure and weighing it we dumped it in the bay, the blue crabs feasted that night. We, on the other hand, had spent the entire afternoon NOT catching tasty speckled trout and had to settle for burgers off the grill. The next day, three near limit catches of completely legal and pleasantly heavy speckled trout, plus two very large Redfish, made up for the Big Fish Fight.
splatek
UAEC
Another fishing story about blue lining
Not sure if it was @Buckman18 or @Killer Kyle or @Dredger who gave me the Intel but it was about a speck stream Way off in no man’s land. Anyhow I accepted the challenge. The gate was right at the parking area and my maps showed a trail and then possibly some old abandoned logging roads.
The walk in was a bit of a walk and mostly bushwhacking. The entire way in I felt like someone was watching me, and possibly throwing rocks, pebbles at me (now that I hunt I realize the acorns were just falling all around me, lol). My imagination was running wild. After a decently long hike I trip over something in the woods. It was 2-300 pound (red) monofilament. And I see that it’s outlining an area of trees. Eventually I untangle my wading boot from the line and look up to see a lean to primitive shelter, fresh smoldering fire and a berm full of whacky tobacky plants. I decided the fishing wasn’t that important and got outta there.
Not sure if it was @Buckman18 or @Killer Kyle or @Dredger who gave me the Intel but it was about a speck stream Way off in no man’s land. Anyhow I accepted the challenge. The gate was right at the parking area and my maps showed a trail and then possibly some old abandoned logging roads.
The walk in was a bit of a walk and mostly bushwhacking. The entire way in I felt like someone was watching me, and possibly throwing rocks, pebbles at me (now that I hunt I realize the acorns were just falling all around me, lol). My imagination was running wild. After a decently long hike I trip over something in the woods. It was 2-300 pound (red) monofilament. And I see that it’s outlining an area of trees. Eventually I untangle my wading boot from the line and look up to see a lean to primitive shelter, fresh smoldering fire and a berm full of whacky tobacky plants. I decided the fishing wasn’t that important and got outta there.
RamblinWreck88
Useles Billy ain’t got nothing on ME !
When I was about 9 years old, I was squirrel hunting with my dad on some family property in Wheeler County. This was some of the first hunting I'd done with my very own first shotgun, a .410 single shot that had "Made in USSR" stamped on the side.
At some point, dad had either shot at a squirrel or was just trying to get closer to it. Either way, he told me to stay exactly where I was, a simple task, yet often challenging for an excited, curious young boy. Some time after he'd walked away, I looked down and saw a rattlesnake coiled up and silently looking right at me from about 3 feet away and directly in front of me. I called out and said "Daddy, there's a snake right here." He replied "Shoot it." So I did, and the rattler was dead, having been nearly decapitated.
When we uncoiled it, we found it to be an Eastern Diamondback about 4' long. We figured that it might not have rattled because of the cold. I don't remember how long we estimated the fangs to be or how many rattles it had, but upon sight of the fangs I surely was glad I did as I was told and stayed put that day.
At some point, dad had either shot at a squirrel or was just trying to get closer to it. Either way, he told me to stay exactly where I was, a simple task, yet often challenging for an excited, curious young boy. Some time after he'd walked away, I looked down and saw a rattlesnake coiled up and silently looking right at me from about 3 feet away and directly in front of me. I called out and said "Daddy, there's a snake right here." He replied "Shoot it." So I did, and the rattler was dead, having been nearly decapitated.
When we uncoiled it, we found it to be an Eastern Diamondback about 4' long. We figured that it might not have rattled because of the cold. I don't remember how long we estimated the fangs to be or how many rattles it had, but upon sight of the fangs I surely was glad I did as I was told and stayed put that day.
