Early Season Scouting

So I purchased a trail camera during black Friday in 2010. I thought I got a good deal, paid about 70 bucks and walked out the door. Then rifle season came, of course I was too lazy to get the camera out on the farm to get some snapshots. Winter and spring passed by as the camera lay sleeping in the attic with the rest of my hunting gear and the resident raccoon. Which his lease is now up. I finally broke down and setup my camera on local hunting spot through a co-worker. We laid out some corn and setup the camera.

Three days later I received a call from Brian (co-worker) to let me know that the camera had 60 pictures already. I was amazed that there were so many. Than I thought about it, maybe we didn't set it up right and it is capturing a moving branch or sunlight movement. Brian had the same idea, "you are going to have all pictures with squirrels in them". Geez we weren't being very positive about this. I went early in the morning to meet Brian and we downloaded the photos. We noted that after five days all the corn was gone....

Well we were both wrong, the camera found what we had originally hoped for. Deer! As you can see in the photo at the top of the page, our first resident doe is the cover story of most of the photos. She found our food source within 5 hours of putting out. Check out the Infrared photo, I didn't realize the camera was capable of such crisp and details pictures.


Well she wasn't the only star of the photos. We had a whole flock of turkeys and a small group of raccoons feeding with the deer at night. Incredible, with only a few days of photos we captured so much wildlife. So lets talk about the camera equipment. Wildgame Innovations have a whole line of trail cameras, and as mentioned above, I took advantage of some early season Christmas specials at Dick's Sporting Goods. The camera is the IR 3.5 and is able to accept a 2 GB memory card (not included). The camera requires 4 C sized batteries or can be powered by an external battery pack. The camera can take day and night photos as seen in the blog, and you can be the judge of the quality. Obviously the slower the animal moves passed the camera the less fuzzy the image is. I was blown away with the good deal I got on black Friday, I want to correct myself and say "I got a great deal".

Wildgame Innovations provide lower and higher grade of trail cameras with more bells and whistles like more memory, video capability, and better distances. I believe I got just the right equipment for my need. This camera as shown me so much about the area I plan to hunt and would recommend it to anyone.

With that being said, make sure you share you feedback with others when purchasing hunting and fishing equipment. Its through lessons learned and personal feedback that we can improve the techniques, approaches, and equipment used on our adventures. Don't be a turkey!

Shark River, Belmar NJ - Striper Fishing

My first time fishing out of New Jersey came this year, 29 years it took me to realize that such a valuable fishery was so close to home. So taking up the offer of a co-worker (Capt Dave) to join him on his boat for a NJ fishing trip was in order. Within an hour we at the waters edge from leaving the house. After a short cruise to the inlet we hit the ocean with hooks ready. It was quite a rough day and there was a mass of boats hugging the coastline to the south. We setup on the outskirts of the fleet and dropped in some live bunker. A helpful fisherman leaving the dock provided us some fresh bait when we were launching the boat (much appreciated).

After about 40 minutes of drifting along the fleet, one of the reels went screaming. I popped up quickly and grabbed the rod. This was such a similar feeling to a tuna pulling off line from the initial hookup. I wasn't expecting such a strong fight this early in the morning. I can say it kicked my butt. Within about 10 minutes the fish was in the boat that measured 38". Awesome, I have never caught a striper, no less a huge one. But the action was short lived, as we floated along for another 1 hour without a bite.

We decided to move up north and do some flounder fishing (Fluke for NJ folk). Our spot of choice was Red Church fishing area. Using Capt Dave's high tech sonar from HumminBird we drifted the hills and lumps identifying good spots. It wasn't long before we had 5 or 6 keepers in the boat. Capt Dave takes real pride in his flounder fishing techniques and tackle. After my early retirement from offshore fishing career (...summer job) I focused on my own approach to mastering flounder fishing. We made floundering look easy that day and reeled up the lines around 5 o'clock to head back to the dock.

After a long day on the water, we could see the inlet within view. Then we noticed a small group of boats before that. Dave slowed the boat down, and we both realized what the boats were doing. A large school of bunker was being hammered by stripers. Dave's son and I grabbed the spinning reels with large treble hooks to snag some of the bunker. It was only minutes when we floated the live bunker back into the school. Whammy! Two fish hooked up right off the bat. This was the most excitement I had in long time. I remember the days during chartering when we would get multiple hookups at one time. This was the same case, in turn, the boat was filled with chaos and adrenaline.

We found that once you had your live bait ready to pull right up to the school and feed the line out quickly. An hour later we had fish in the cooler (overflowing) and two fish laying on the deck. Now began a trip back to house to fillet up half dozen huge stripers and flounder. When midnight rolled around we finishing up our fish cleaning with giant smiles on our faces.

Until next time, tight lines and screaming reels.

Cooler box for my Skiff - Part II

So it dawned on me that having a cooler on the back of the boat would be awesome. So with one more livewell box to install I put my thinking cap on. With some foam board insulation, fiberglass resin, and an idea, my cooler box became a reality. I cut pieces of the foam board insulation to cover all the sides of the box and held them in place with some masking tape. Then with some fiberglass resin I began a base coat or two. Then with fiberglass matting and more resin I began creating a sturdy covering on the foam insulation. Before I knew it the inside of the box was rock hard with fiberglass. But if this was going to be a cooler box, I didn't want ice and other items to beat on the fiberglass directly. So a trip to West Marine to pick up a can of gel coat was in order. The first couple of batches didn't turn out right, for some reason I ended up with a cup of spongy gel coat and could spread it across the surface of the cooler box. What a pain in the ass. So I thought it was too cold out, this meant waiting until warmer weather.

So June came along and an 80 degree day. Perfect timing to try it again, but the same thing happened. Not sure what I did wrong but it kept happening. So I just took straight gelcoat and painted the whole inside of the box. I didn't care at this point if I had to wait a month for it to cure, which is what it took. So some final touches and 6 months after having the boxes, it was time to attach my cooler box. A tube of 5200 sealant and a few hours of installation paid off. Both my livewell box and the cooler box have identical drains in the bottom of the boxes with removable plugs. In the picture you can see the livewell on the left and the cooler box on the right.

Next is to make a tight fitting lid for the cooler box to complete the cooler. The lids in the picture only flip down over an opening and does not seal the boxes from the outside.

Livewell and Cooler on my Skiff - Part I

After months of fabrication and curing of gel coat, my livewell and custom cooler box have been installed on the transom of my boat. The project for my Carolina Skiff started almost 8 months ago. I was looking to outfit my skiff with space saving ideas to open up room on the deck. Then it happened, I came across transom mount livewell boxes made by Carolina Skiff. So I tried tracking down a dealer, about 20 some calls across the east coast and mid west. I even called the senior sales rep from CS and was told that they had already discontinued the boxes. Finally a marina in Florida confirmed they had two in their inventory. I paid cash money and had them sent to the house. It wasnt long before two huge boxes showed up in front of the house. It kind of reminded me of the scene from Uncle Buck where John Candy is flipping the pancakes with a snow shovel. And he turns to the little kid and says the bacon won't even fit through the door.

Without wasting any time I tore apart the boxes to see my new purchase. I took one out to dry fit it to the back of the boat, crap, the edges of the boxes were oversized. It was obvisous that they would have to be trimmed down in order to fit, which was not an easy job. So I enlisted the help of my friend and co-worker (Capt Dave) to assist. We took our time using cardboard and a compass to create a template for the cuts. After several trips to local hardward stores for stainless steel hardware we were finally ready to drill through the hull (18 times) and attach the first box. 4 hours of hard work paid off. The livewell box came out great. So before final attachment, I installed a livewell pump, light, and plumbing to circular the water. Then with two tubes of 5200 sealant I made the final attachment. A leak test, water volume calculation, and it was ready for use. I installed one overflow about half way up the box with allows about 4 gallons of water which plenty for minnows. In the future I plan to put in one more overflow below that one. I feel too much water is being stored during getting on plane (a bit too much weight in the transom).

Then I made a cooler...

42 Days until hunting season

Its as if I can feel the brisk cool mornings of sitting in my tree stand overlooking the western extent of the christmas tree field in Indiana, PA. In the weeks coming it will become a reality. I have my gear boxed up and organized in the attic to which I will soon break out. Anything that can be deodorized has to be washed or sprayed and kept away from distinct odors. All doe tags and licenses have been purchased for the 2011 season. I have added a small property to hunt from one of my co-workers about 45 minutes from the house. This will definately help with the long trips to western pa to the family farm. I am hoping to provide some early harvest for the hunting camp when the statewide archery season opens at the farm. I have never been so excited and prepared for a hunting season.