Amazon

Today, I fly from Miami to Brazil through Panama. My final destination is Billy Chapman's Anglers Inn floating lodge on the Amazon. Our goal is to get two great Peacock Bass shows for Stihls Reel in the Outdoors. This is the fishing trip I have always dreamed of doing. My goal is a twenty pound plus Peacock on a topwater! I have beefed up the hooks on all my Lucky Craft baits to handle them... I hope!

Hunting Ibex

Ibex on the mountain through our spotting scope.

I just returned from what I have determined to be the toughest archery hunt on the planet! After many attempts, I finally drew an archery tag for free ranging Persian Ibex in New Mexico. Typically they are hunted in places like Mongolia and Pakistan, but after six breeding pairs were transplanted in the 1930's, there is a significant herd now ranging in the rugged Florida Mountains in New Mexico near the Mexico border. 

The success rate for bow hunters on these animals is only 3% to 4%, depending on the year so I knew I had my work cut out for me. I trained very hard for this hunt by doing tons of cardio and climbing work as well as developing my long range shooting. One hundred yard bow shots are very common on these animals. To hunt these animals effectively meant getting above them each morning, so we would leave the vehicles and climb two hours in the dark by headlamp. Much of the climbing was on all fours due to the steepness of the terrain.

After several close calls, I finally got a great opportunity at a large billy Ibex at just under 80 yards, but an unseen cactus branch saved his life and temporarily ruined mine! At that moment, I totally questioned the sanity of what I was doing.. When it was all over, I had survived seven of the most brutal hunting days in my lifetime and came up empty handed. I have total respect for these animals and in spite of my lack of success, would have to rank it among my most memorable hunting experiences!

A blown opportunity!

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. I've been on the go pretty hard so I wanted to bring everyone up to speed on what I've been up to!

I had chance to go to Detroit a couple weeks ago to visit my friend Mike Babcock, coach of the Redwings. It was cool to catch a game and watch him do his thing. Next I spent a week on Lake Okeechobee shooting Ultimate Match Fishing out of Roland and Mary Ann Martin's Marina. Great matches and great fishing!

I've finally gotten official score on my woodland caribou. We had hoped it was a new archery world record, but he ended up being #2.

Finally, I spent the morning after Christmas hunting Geese with my nephew Joey.

January is shaping up to be very busy too, as I'm heading to New Mexico and Arizona to video hunts and then to Brazil for peacock bass and another episode of Stihl's Reel in the Outdoors.

A Dual Purpose

Over the weekend, I had a chance to take my nephew Joey hunting during the Ohio Youth Gun Season. The weather was cool, but very windy which is never good for deer movement. We ended up only seeing a couple of button bucks, but still had a great time together. I get people all the time trying to commend me for taking my children, relatives, and others fishing and hunting. Yes, it is my goal to give them a taste of the outdoors and hopefully they'll develop as hunters and anglers as they get older. But truthfully, my other reason for doing it kinda selfish.... I like going just as much as they do and if I can kill two birds with one rock....

Joey is ready for action!

A Great Idea?

"Hey, I've got a great idea,"  I told my producer, Jim Kramer, last week. My idea was to hook up with my long time friend and Lake Erie expert Mike Traumbly and head up to the big pond for some late fall largemouth fishing. Mike has always told me stories about certain canals along the Michigan shoreline that load up with wintering largemouth bass. Sounds great right? It was great! All except for the daytime high temperature of 38 degrees coupled with 20-30 mph winds and, oh yeah, snow flurries...

It has been a long time since I have been so cold, but it was definitely worth it! We caught about 30 bass in the 2 to 4 pound range and action was fairly steady. The best bait for the bigger fish was my go-to 3/8 oz. Arkie Jig in black and blue with a black/blue crawfish trailer tail. The key was to fish the sea walls very slowly, just crawling the bait across the bottom in the 45 degree water. Surprisingly enough, the strikes were very aggressive for such cold conditions.

The other bait that worked very well for Mike was casting a Blade Bait into the center of the canal when we would start to mark the fish on the Humminbird Graph. The Blade Bait didn't produce fish as big, but definitely accounted for good numbers.

Chalk up one episode for next years Stihl's Reel in the Outdoors!

Shooting with a Camera

I've been hunting near Lewisburg, Kentucky for the past several days with Drop Tine Outfitters trying to get a nice whitetail on camera for the Scent Loks High Places Show. Saw lots of deer, but no bucks big enough to shoot. One morning was very foggy as you can see in the picture. I plan to hit it a couple more days before Kentucky's rifle season opens on Saturday.

A Treat

It is very rare when one of my blogs my blogs has nothing to do with fishing, hunting or the business thereof, but a guy has to have a little fun! Last night we went to our friends house in Terrace Park, Ohio for Trick or Treat with the kids. The live in a beautiful neighborhood where the folks really get into Halloween. When you live on a farm at the end of a dead end street, you don't get very many trick or treaters.... like zero and the houses are so far apart that the kids would have to hike several miles to fill a ziplock baggie with candy. Terrace Park on the other hand is a target rich environment!

The girls looked real cute in their costumes and a good time was had by all. I'll let the photos tell the rest of the story.... Oh, yeah it is nice to be home for a change!

Little Red Riding Hood

Dorothy and Toto

Trying to steal candy from Red