First Longbow Deer

    It all started one Monday at work. I was driving around right at dawn to see what was going on at the park and I am glad that I did. The deer activity was absolutely on fire. Bucks were squaring up in the fields to assert their dominance, others had their noses to the ground trotting in wide circles trying to pick up the scent of any number of willing does. It was the most deer activity I had seen in a couple years and I wanted part of it, the only problem was, it was only archery season.

    I have been shooting traditional archery for 20+ years. That all started at a local Renaissance fair when I was a youngin' and I was just begging my dad to spend the $5 to let me shoot a dozen arrows. He said no and I was bummed (at least I assume that I was). Little did I know that we would be stopping on the way home at one of his buddies houses and picking up an old fiberglass youth bow that I would then proceed to absolutely wear out over the next couple of years. Fast forward a couple of decades and here we are. 

    All that being said, I had not really hunted with a bow in probably 10 years and I hadn't even shot any of my bows for the past 2 because of an aching shoulder. In the mean time, I fell really hard for slingshots because they use pretty much all the same principles but with a 5lb draw weight. I have taken a few rabbits with the slingshot and I tell ya, its mighty satisfying. That hobby and the thousands of shots taken is the only reason that I don't feel too bad about the decisions I made next...

    Back to the story, deer were active, I was out of practice, I didn't have all of my gear, I hadn't done any scouting, I had to borrow some broadheads from my buddy because mine were at my parents house. I was unprepared to say the absolute least but I had the next day off... I was gonna give it a go. The bow that I felt the most comfortable taking out into the woods was my Bodnik SlickStick, 35lb @28, probably lighter than most would consider ethical but we all know its about shot placement and getting close in. Arrows were Beman Centershots and I was shooting the borrowed 100gr G5 Montecs, total arrow weight was just over 460 grains. I was as ready as I could have been for such a short notice hunt.

    I walked out to the stand behind my house and was situated and listening to the woods wake up just before shooting light. Once there was enough light for me to make out what I might be shooting at I started blowing on a grunt tube, nothing fancy, just a burp every 5 minutes or so. I didn't expect to have such a quick reaction. Not twenty minutes into my first sit in the woods with my bow in over a decade, I have a deer coming right at me through the hollies. All I knew at that point was that I was hopefully getting ready to send an arrow through my first tradbow deer, and as luck would have it, it wasn't a spike. I stood up as smoothly as possible and brought the bow up. I drew back just as the deer was about to walk into a basketball sized shooting lane, where he proceeded to come to a dead stop. At that point, I was at full draw and my knees were knocking so much that I could have played backup maracas for a mariachi band. It felt like an eternity and I was just waiting for the deer to see my movement and bolt but as luck would have it, he put his head back down and took a step forward. Arrow was loosed and it disappeared into the side of the deer, a bit high and back... but I had done it.

    For the first couple seconds, all I could do was confirm it to myself over and over in my mind "you got it, good hit, you got it, good hit". All the while, I was able to hear the deer crash out behind me. I was elated, I knew it had to be a good hit when I heard that the deer hadn't even made it to the field 70 yards behind me. Good judgement and sound advice from my bowhunting buddy said, let the deer rest for at least an hour but I just couldn't wait. After 15 minutes, I had calmed down enough to feel safe climbing down from my stand and I walked over to my arrow which lay, absolutely drenched in blood, just under where the deer was standing (10 yards as I would later measure). I said a quick prayer, thanking our Heavenly Father for the opportunity and the ability to take a shot on such a beautiful animal then I set off to find my prize.

    As expected, I found the deer, expired not more than 50 yards from my stand, I was through the roof. I said some more prayers of thanks, took some pictures, sent them to my family and hunting buddies, walked to the house to grab the side by side and the youngin's and we set off to get my hands bloody...

View from the stand, deer came in and was shot at the 4 o'clock position

Turned out to be a liver hit with a major artery severed.

I couldn't be more proud of this harvest. Everything really came together for me and it has rekindled my love of traditional archery, hopefully my shoulder can keep up. Later that week, I had the opportunity to take a shot at another, smaller buck not 10' from where I shot this one but he spotted me and smartly made a 180 and got out of town.

Bluegill

     I find it frustrating at times that my mind cannot focus on one hobby at a time. If my current interest is going out and shooting flintlocks in the woods, you could probably convince me to sell all of my slingshots, modern firearms, convention fishing tackle, reloading supplies, you name it! I have a one track mind and when I am into something, I'm in it 100%, that is, until I see a random short on YouTube of a guy tying a partridge and orange. Then my mind switches tracks faster than a derailing freight train. That very thing happened a week or so ago, in conjunction with a short fishing trip with conventional tackle where the telltale "smack" of a bluegill sucking a bug off of the surface made me wish I had a fly rod with a foam bug rather than an ultralight spinning rod with a jig.

    At the beginning of this year, I decided to keep a fishing log, nothing special, just a spreadsheet to keep track of how many and what kind of fish I was catching, weather, number of outings, etc. I had been watching ultralight fishing videos all winter (thanks Fish Anything) and told myself that I was gonna get an early start with the ultralight spinning setup fishing dropshots, floats, spoons and whatever else works in the cold. Now all this being said, I have been fishing for the past 20 years solely with a fly rod. Looking back, that was kind of dumb because there is a ton of fun to be had with conventional tackle and there is no doubt that fishing warm-water bodies of water during the winter is just plain more effective with a spinning rod over fly tackle. I'm not saying its impossible but its easier to fish 20' of water with a jig than a wooly bugger. Anyhow, that is exactly how I spent the first half of this year, bringing about 120 fish to hand in 19 outings so far. Maybe not great numbers for some but that counts the 15 minute sessions as well as the 6 hour ones. 

    Alright, focus... After all that fish catching fun on the ultralight, that dang partridge and orange sparked that drive to pull out the fly rod. I grabbed my most recent acquisition of fly tackle which is a 7.5' 3wt Blue Halo fiberglass rod. There is something about a light and limber rod that just feels right. Anywho, I tied on a bit of egg yarn and took it out to the yard to tease the ducks and cats. I tell ya, casting a fly rod is just like riding a bike, you never do forget that rhythm and dang is it pleasant. The next weekday that I had off, I loaded up the "Skookum Choocher" (1984 15' Michicraft aluminum canoe) and headed off to the pond. As you can imagine, the first thing I was gonna fish was a partridge and orange albeit, suspended below a Llano bug. The soft hackle definitely got some interest but they were just as enthused about the topwater offering so off with the dropper and on with the popper! It was non stop action with that fine little rod for about 2 hours, bringing 29 decent (up to 8.5") bluegill to hand. 

    The next question is "what is better than bluegill and fiberglass?" Well bluegill and bamboo of course! And so a week later, I found myself out on the same water with a 7.5' 4wt bamboo rod and another Llano Bug/soft hackle combo. Same story, this time, the fish were only looking up though and could care less for the dropper. Started off with what could only be described as a "cute" largemouth bass, then it was almost non stop again with the bluegill. This time bringing 28 bluegill and 1 bass to hand. 

    On a side note, this was the first time I fished any of my 4wt rods with a not so new but definitely neat little reel. I found a J.C. Higgins (Sears I believe) fly reel in a junk store a couple years ago for $10 and picked it up simply for a shelf decoration. I think the old school solid spool and narrow design caught my eye and didn't think to use it until I was sitting there looking at my L.L. Bean Angler reel thinking "this just doesn't look quite right". Well the old gal was missing the drag spring but I was able to cut a hardware store spring down to fit and with a bit of cleaning and oiling, I had a perfectly functional piece of kit. I think it looks mighty fine with the bamboo too, even if its not a Hardy Perfect...

Hot and Humid

I will just never understand some people

The "Skookum Choocher" in all of her metallic glory

I hear there are big ones in this water, he ain't it, yet.

Some mighty fine 8"ers

I lied, I fished a cork popper a bit too.

Llano Bug for the win

Big one of the day, unfortunately did not have a tape measure

Looks pretty good to me!

Battle worn and missing limbs

End to a successful trip