Winter is upon us, deer season is petering out, and my mind is beginning to shift towards the fishing opportunities of the coming year. Taking this time, when snow and cold weather keep you inside, to tie flies and prepare is a pastime well-invested in the future.
The two patterns shown in the picture are CK Nymphs and Wooley Worms--both excellent, all-purpose nymphs for both cold and warm water fishing. Other patterns that I find falling off of my vise early in the tying season are Wooley Buggers, Clouser Minnows, Red Tags, Pheasant Tail Flashbacks, Mr. Rapidans, and the occasional ambitious bass popper.
What are your favorite flies?
Friday, December 28, 2012
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Write a Review!
“Please, write a
review!” An automated email plopped into
my inbox soon after Christmas day, following on the heels of an online gift
card purchase at Cabelas.com. Reflexive
orders from online stores are becoming more and more common these days, as
online shopping becomes more main-stream and relatives turn to gift cards to
relieve holiday pressure, spurring growth in the ever-helpful, yet sometimes
misleading system of customer reviews.
As indicated by the annoying emails, anyone can author such a review,
many times resulting in unintended good humor.
Often, especially on outdoor supplies stores’
websites, I’ve found, patrons take much enjoyment out of relating stories from
the field. Proud owners of expensive
gear are sure to specify that “the deer tried to eat the foliage from my ‘ScentBlocker
Protec XT, Mossy Oak Break Up’ camo jacket!,” or that “the fish followed our
boat around the lake to get some more of the ‘Berkley Powerbait’ Something Or
Other.” Sure they did.
Equally
entertaining is the customer who clearly displays his lack of knowledge of the
product that they invested several hundred dollars in. “The rod was broken in four pieces, in the
package!,” read one of my favorites, written in ignorant vengeance by the
unknowing, lucky owner of a four-piece Sage fly rod.
A small minority—for whom I am very thankful—take the
time to include lengthy stories with their enthusiastic thumbs-up or
thumbs-down, meandering slowly to the point at which the featured product makes
its decisive entrance into the plot. In
particular, I have in mind a certain testimony I read concerning a deer call
that was new on the market a few years ago.
Hunter’s Specialties’ “The Kruncher” claimed to relax
deer with the confidence sound of crunching acorns. A gimmick?
Maybe. That’s exactly why I
checked into the reviews on Basspro.com.
After reading one, and sorting through the rest of
the monotonous opinions left by southern deer hunters, one posted by an Idahoan
elk hunter caught my eye. The story
started when the call arrived in a package via mail, and continued as the man
awoke on the morning of the hunt, hiked to a high knoll on a neighboring,
avoiding his neighbor’s llama farm, and taking a seat to implement “The
Kruncher.” It was unusually well-written
considering the context. The man may
have fancied himself an outdoor writer had it not been for what lay at the
bottom of the page. Much to the author’s
pleasure, “The Kruncher” relaxed completely the cow elk in the area, and it
wasn’t long before a tall, solid specimen wandered to within range. With a clean rifle shot, the animal went down
without a struggle, and I, the reader, was relieved of the built-up
tension. As a satisfying end to the
hunter’s chase, there, at the bottom of the page, in all its ironic glory, was
an inserted picture of his harvest—a large, solid, and bloodied, llama.
Now this greatly relieved some of the stress built-up
from exams prior to the Christmas break, and I soon felt airy and had a new
appreciation for common sense.
Unfortunately, the humorous saga was flagged as inappropriate by some
concerned citizen, and my hidden treasure was promptly taken down from the site. I did
eventually purchase a “Kruncher,” but never did I have the same luck as did the
comedic Idahoan. But oh well, I’ve never
heard too much good about llama meat, anyway.
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
A Successful Bushytail Hunt Offers a Lesson in Big Game Hunting
It’s no secret
among hunters that the squirrel hunting indulgences that proceed the big game
seasons help with re-acquiring woods skills; but an afternoon in a lively
hardwood stand also offers a lesson in the more weighty aspect of big game
hunting—the shot.
The squirrel, as
is the case with any game animal, has its unconventional followers. Muzzleloaders, bowhunters, shot-gunners,
riflemen, and air-gunners have all assimilated their tackle into the world of
squirrel hunting. A question poked at
their motives most often brings out a hidden pride, accompanied by two
words—“the challenge.” The governing
rules of this challenge are determined by the method. Form follows function. Each hunting faction emerges with its own mainstream,
suitable hunting tactics.
The same holds
true for big game hunters. Adaptation in
the face of limitation is the reason why many bowhunters are treestand
connoisseurs, riflemen often practice still-hunting, and muzzleloading hunters
will stand hunt or stalk within a very comfortable range. The key is in knowing the limitations of your
approach and applying them to your hunting strategy.
As a general
rule, stealth will more readily make or break a deer rather than a squirrel
hunt—a missed shot can be detrimental to future prospects of the day. Even still, a pressured squirrel will often
seek a comfortable, unreachable spot in the crotch of a tree to broadcast to
the rest of the bushytail community the details of your existence.
One late-season squirrel
hunt comes to mind. Rain overnight had
dampened the leaves, and I moved quietly through the open woods. Several grays eyed me as they moved playfully
about the ridge; but I approached slowly, gently teasing the boundaries of
their flight distances. When I felt I
was in good position, I found a solid rest, waited for the perfect
opportunity—still target, no branches in the way—and gently applied all my
knowledge of shooting to the trigger. From
the first to the last of my limit, every squirrel dropped in a surrendering
spring from its perch, and all from the same two acres of woods.
Experience has
dictated that a good shot will put animals in the bag faster, and before they
have time to tell on you. The same
tactic should be practiced with bigger game.
In either case, missed shots should be diligently avoided.
The medium
between a missed shot and a made shot is perhaps worse in total than an
outright miss. The hunter assumes a
responsibility for preservation upon initiation, and a wounded animal is in
direct violation of that trust. Not only
is it an unpleasant occurrence for the animal, but it is also an unfortunate
loss for the hunter, and entails much energy spent tracking and searching,
sometimes to no avail.
Squirrels have
the considerable advantage of being able to climb trees to escape humans, and
have a nasty habit of doing so in the event of a non-fatal shooting; whereas
bigger game animals take to tight cover, still easily accessed by the tracker.
For me,
squirrels lost to trees usually result from assuming the animal dispatched and
turning my attention to others in the vicinity before collecting the prize,
which bring us to another point. Never assume an animal dead. In the squirrel woods, the biggest
consequence may be a bushytail lost to a den tree or a badly scratched or
bitten hand; but in the world of big game, the swift paw swipe from an angry
bear, or powerful punch of a deer hoof could be deadly.
Prevent this
incident by always approaching an animal with a weapon readied.
If ever it is
safe to assume an animal lifeless, it is if it has tumbled from its tracks down
a rocky bluff and, maybe . . . into a river.
Are you going to retrieve such a harvest? If so, you’re in for an icy bath and possibly
bacterially infested yields. The surroundings
of a target and its possible moves if wounded are elements worthy of
weighing. In most cases, if the recovery
of a shot is questionable, waiting for your quarry to move could present a
better situation, or, even at the loss of the harvest, prevent the possible
waste of unrecoverable game.
The key to
maximizing the effectiveness of the shot lies in being conservative and apprehensive. The squirrel woods are a great place to
pursue the sport of hunting, and lessons learned there are equally suitable to
all hunters.
Mixed Bag
Unfortunately, the
hunting seasons are coming to an end; but hopefully that means you have plenty
of pictures of trophies! Share them here via
the contact form on the navigation bar at the top. If you have stories worthy of sharing, share
them too!
Saturday, December 8, 2012
Detected CWD in Pennsylvania Will Affect Virginia Hunters
On October 12 of this year, Pennsylvania was added
to the rank of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD)-infected states when a Whitetail
doe, an escapee from an Adams County deer farm, was killed and tested positive
for the disease. Not only is this bad
news for the Pennsylvania Game Commission, but the discovery also places new
restrictions on Virginia hunters venturing to the Keystone State.
CWD
is a progressive neurological disease that affects the cervid species—deer,
elk, and moose—in North America.
Infection causes deterioration of the brain, visibly reflected through
emaciation, odd behavior, loss of control of bodily functions, and always
results in death. Despite its relation
to livestock diseases like Mad Cow Disease, CWD has given no indication that it is transferable to humans, pets, or
livestock, but is theorized to be passed laterally (between co-existing
animals).
Because
of this contagious and incurable nature, Virginia, like most other states,
prohibits the transportation of whole
deer carcasses from locations designated as carcass-restriction zones back into
the state. Such restriction zones occur
in the bordering states of Maryland (Allegany County), West Virginia
(Hampshire, Hardy, and Morgan Counties), and now Pennsylvania (Adams
County). Other carcass-restriction zones exist in the
states of Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri,
Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota,
Texas, Utah, Wisconsin, and Wyoming, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta and
Saskatchewan.
The
state of Virginia allows only the following carcass parts to be imported: de-boned meat that has been cut and wrapped,
quarters or meat portions unattached to the head or spinal column, hides/capes
without heads, cleaned skull plates with antlers, antlers with no tissue
attached, the animal’s upper canines, and finished taxidermy products.
These prohibitions by the
Department of Game and Inland Fisheries are implemented as precautions to limit
any possibility of worsening its own case of afflicted deer. When CWD was discovered in western Frederick
County in 2010, the Department established a CWD containment area in Frederick
County, the portion of Shenandoah County north of Route 675 and west of I-81,
and in the City of Winchester. The DGIF
enforces within the containment area a mandatory sampling of deer taken on the
first three Saturdays of the general firearms season, as well as several
restrictions concerning the exportation of deer carcasses, parts, and wastes
originating inside the containment area, and the rehabilitation of deer inside
the containment area. In the areas included
in the containment area, as well as neighboring Clarke County, feeding deer is
illegal year-round, and seasons and bag limits on private lands have been
adjusted liberally to attempt to lower the population.
More information
regarding deer harvest treatment and preventative measures against CWD can be
found on the VDGIF’s website, on the wildlife department websites of the
aforementioned states and provinces, or at www.cwd-info.org.
A deer suffering from CWD will often appear extremely emaciated |
If you do happen to
harvest an animal that can behaviorally be suspected of infection, even outside
of the established containment area, it could prove vital to contact a local
wildlife official—doing so could be critical.
All of these regulatory
hoops may seem like a lot to trouble oneself with; but they come with a
reward. Since the beginning of sampling
procedures in Virginia, nearly 7,000 animals have been tested, 10 years have
passed, and only four deer have been confirmed as positive for Chronic Wasting
Disease. Only through the continuation
of widespread public participation and respect can this biologically
detrimental disease retain such favorable statistics.
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