I was reviewing my public-land game cam pictures from this weekend and came across this gobbler following this nice buck!!! This has gotta be the neatest set of photos I ever had.

For anyone who was interested in knowing more about the bear that had ran up on my dogs and I in the article I posted last month here is the concluding result.

The bear that attacked my dogs and I was indeed a momma protecting two babies. I guess we got lucky she didn't turn us into CUB FOOD, lol. The bears left the area 2 hours after I had set my cams which was about 300 yards away from where we saw her. Then two other bears passed one night. One was BIG.

Well yesterday evening I was longbow hunting for does ready to unleash the 100lb beast while I was watching a beautiful sunset on the mighty Mississippi reading a book when I heard something behind me. A racked buck was a ways off feeding slowly. I decided, why not see how close I can get expecting to get busted in the dry crackling leaves, but I climbed down anyways and approached with ninja stealth hopping from one downed tree limb to another. I was hoping a doe was with him. However, he was alone, so I laid down the bow and crept closer. Somehow I got within 35yds before he even noticed something was nearby. I was able to get great video with my camcorder in the fading light. He was walking off 30yds broadside when I blew my extinguisher twice. He looked up and was wondering why I didn't have horns coming off my head. Wow, what an amazing experience for sure. Even though I'm tagged out of bucks, to me this was just as fun as harvesting deer and the reason why I'm still in the woods every chance I can get. But next year I hope our paths cross, once again, in bow range!

The pic is not great quality because I snapped it from the camcorder screen.

I have many cool stories to post of this year's adventures with some really neat tactics that I used and a whole lotta' luck, lol, but I need to find some time to write 'em up and edit all my footage.

antlered doe

saw this link: cool story

http://www.wsj.com/articles/oh-deer-its-an-antlered-doe-1421103734?ru=yahoo?mod=yahoo_itp

Earlier this summer my friend invited me to go hog hunting at his place in Alabama to get a head start on filling the freezer, but after reading the new regulations I passed and waited for September. Here is my article on the new rule changes. Good luck to everyone this hunting season! http://www.louisianasportsman.com/details.php?id=5653

I got plenty of emails and messages about where to find the net and lights from my frogging article that released last week on my column.

The 16 foot aluminum pole for the net can be purchased at any Ace Hardware. The net's wire frame and mesh netting can be bought at the Pierre Part Store. My headlight was bought brand new for $25 on Amazon.com. At Cabelas it is $60. The Black n Decker light was bought at Walmart for $20. They have the rechargeable and AA batteried ones that all last long. They also make a more costly water proof one and water resistant one, so you can pick for what best suites your needs. Sorry I didn't mention all the details in the article. Hope everyone out there can come across the gear they need.

Here's the article:
http://www.louisianasportsman.com/details.php?id=5356

Also been busy as could be so haven't posted many of my fishing stories on here like I usually do. Took my wife out shark fishing Saturday in Lake Pelto instead of going after big trout like usual since she wanted to sleep in. We caught and released about a dozen nice sharks. With our chum we had action every 5 minutes. We caught mostly blacktips and a few bulls sharks. My first one of the day was HUGE! Had more fun on that trip than all dozen of my trout trips this summer put together, but I love battling giant fish more than anything.

Here are my other two fishing articles from this summer incase anyone didn't see and wanted to read. I got several emails with ppl needing info or advice about the Keys. Anyone feel free to message me, I love to help.

The Bachelor Fishing Trip Reboot:
http://www.louisianasportsman.com/details.php?id=5247

The Florida Keys vs Louisiana's coast:
http://www.louisianasportsman.com/details.php?id=5205

Well here is my results and stories from my last month of hunting including the 4 deer and 3 hogs I shot on the trip. I've haven't been posting because I was away from the computer on my long camp vacation hunting everyday. Now have a freezer full of meat but still finishing off the season bow hunting at St. Catherine's Creek NWR in Mississippi this weekend and next thursday. Had an almost big enough 6 point at 12 yard this past weekend and saw countless does. Hoping a shooter will walk by.

My brother's first Louisiana buck with video:

http://www.louisianasportsman.com/details.php?id=4773

And Here's my broken bridge buck:

http://www.louisianasportsman.com/details.php?id=4721

Here's my latest article on my hunts from Thanksgiving through this past weekend where I hunted Bayou Cocodrie on the gun lottery hunt. Hope yall like the video. It isn't the best footage, but i'll be trying harder to improve on videoing hunts. We had hunted Wallace Lake and the biologist said only one 8 point was killed on Wallace Lake. Did anyone else hunt Bayou Cocodrie and have any luck or hear about any big ones being killed on other units? Not many shots were fired from the amount of trucks I saw on Wallace lake unit and many hunters I spoke with said few animals were moving. I did finally see some fresh rubs along with smell some bucks looking to rut in my area.

http://www.louisianasportsman.com/details.php?id=4614

Last weekend was a success. I had a two does come up directly behind me on bayou cocodrie one morning at 8 yards, but I was unable to get drawn in time for a shot as they skipped through. The next morning my finacee went hunting at a lease hunting in the stand with her maid of honor who was having her birthday party that weekend. Laura missed a doe on a long over 100 yard shot on her first ever shot at an animal with the rifle. Then a few hours later at 11:30 AM I had 8 deer, a 4 point, spike, 5 does and yearling come through while at red river but was unable to capitalize with 16 eyes watching me. Later that day I stalked close to a 200lb boar but wasn't given a shot opportunity. It wasn't looking good and I was frustrated, but Sunday it came together. She was able to get her first deer with my .270 dropping her instantly with a heart shot on the lease hunting with Jan again. Minutes after getting her text I had 3 medium size hogs come through giving me a perfect 20 yard shot. Twack, the spotted boar only ran 15 yards and died within minutes with my new striker magnum 1.5' diameter broad heads clipping the heart and smashing the lungs with an easy passthrough. It was my first ever spotted hog and I'm keeping the pelt. Not wanting to drag it out and mess up the hide, I decided to jog the piggy out the 1.6 miles. What a fun way to end the weekend. She was able to see over 7 deer each hunt while on the lease and even got to see a big doe get on her hind legs and fight off a spike. Still she said she rathers the long walks and rush of just hearing something walk by on public land to getting dropped off by a vehicle in a box then watching deer feed next to her dead deer for the entire hunt, but it was good practice for future hunts on public land where its hard enough just to see a deer much less kill one. Her pics were taking back at the their camp. For Thanksgiving i'm cooking the hog whole instead of a turkey!

My friend got these bear pics from a buddy who hunts near big lake wma. He says the bears are loaded over there. Here's my latest sportsmans article,'Not Enough Arrows, Just Enough Shells.' After 29 bowhunts this season I have no meat to show, yet after 1 hunt with the shotgun I got 2 hogs. Also i'll be switching to new broadheads this coming weekend. The striker magnum 125 grain which has a 1.5' cutting diameter. Its the biggest fixed blade I could find and I want the same broadhead to use for my x-bow, compound and recurve so I can switch them out easily. I got 2 packs in the mail today, but my broadhead target is at the camp. Is there a big drop off in distance when switching from a 100 to 125 grain head with x-bows and compounds? Just wondering if anyone has experience switching to heavier heads and performance. I'm eager to get more massive blood trails. Anyone uses the striker magnums? I've killed many animals with my montec g5's and they fly perfectly, but rarely will I have solid blood trails even with many well placed shots. A few shots I had no blood at all though I recovered the animal as they fell within 100 yards. Next year I'll be getting a blood tracking dog, so i'm eager to get my new dog to start training.

http://www.louisianasportsman.com/details.php?id=4502

A buddy at the gym sent me this link and thought some of yall out there would be glad to see someone get caught. A friend of his had his stuff stolen a few years back and they were able to recover the trailer and 4 wheelers, but were in very poor condition. Glad this guy is caught. Unfortunately, when my vehicle was broken into this summer I got no justice and the police never looked into my case to my knowledge. I called several times on a weekly basis for a month and every time they said they'd call back later that day. I never received any calls and every time they said they haven't looked into anything yet. I went to the office and done as much research as I could on my own with bank statements and called all cards for every detail of information I could find to help out, but who knows if they looked at any of the information I gave them. Guess only way to get justice in my over 12K in stolen goods is to hope my thief steals a dozen 4 wheelers and tractors too, then gets busted. Not trying to bash any of the great job our law enforcement workers due, just saying its the first time I ever had to deal with anything with the law and feel let down. Here's the link to this theif from Mississippi in case anyone out there is missing stuff from a camp in Mississippi.

http://www.wlox.com/story/19856149/man?clienttype=printable

Here's my results from last weekend and some rules on primative weapons which many hunters I chatted with didn't know. I eager to see what kind of thumpin my new gun with these big bullets will due on some animals latter this year. Also, I got pics of this bear and never seen one so plump. I know they have cubs in early winter and wonderig if this bear is pregnant. I hope so. The picture that shows how long this massive snake was is in the article.

http://www.louisianasportsman.com/details.php?id=4436

Here's my results from Laura and I's first week of hunting. I hope I can learn to hit the animal next time, lol. Bowhunting can be so rewarding, but usually its just frustration! At least i've been in the action.

Also i'm very impressed with the new groundblind, the ameristep penthouse, i bought for Laura for her b-day. Its absolutely amazing and 8 feet tall inside and $130. She can set it up and pick it up herself in seconds. I'll write an article about it soon.

And before I catch any flack for having a loaded weapon in a pic as I did with my big buck a while back. I was stalking on the way out with the weapon and handed it to her for a quick pic to remember the moment. Just crossing my t's and dotting my i's for the critics!

http://www.louisianasportsman.com/details.php?id=4403

Here's my new article. I plan on watching this video before my hunts this year to get amped, hope it inspires some of yall to give public land a chance. I went scouting this past Sunday. First stop was Tunica Hills WMA. I went over there more so for hiking purposes, as I love running the trails and trying to climb the steepest hills. I did see some good deer sign at a spot I hunted before, but unsure if I’ll have enough time to hunt there this year much. Then, i scooted across the river to 3 Rivers. I found some awesome sign near some of the edges of the woods and jumped a nice buck. Also, saw some of the thickest hog sign I’ve come across yet. I can't wait for the season to start. I hope to scout Cat Island then Bayou Cocodrie next weekend.

http://www.louisianasportsman.com/details.php?id=4321

My buddies went up to the public land and hammered the teal. Here's a pic of all the birds they smoked on opening day. Wish I had time to duck hunt some, but I'm too excited about bow season at the moment scouting every free second I have.

Also my friend who works at the gym I train at went to Dularge with her Uncle to a spot I fish at and she caught this big Alligator gar on a shrimp on the bottom. What a cool looking fish. I’m jealous and been trying to catch one all year with no luck though I rarely fish for them too often.

Here’s my snapper, Mr. T, like the actor. He’s mean and feisty and the coolest! I hand feed him fish or deer everynight. I found him just hatched the size of a quarter on the track 2 years ago in the midday sun about to dry out. Anyways its 2 years later and I just got a 4 foot long 75 gallon aquarium. I’ve been adding in fish from the bayou, which my turtle scarfs up when he can, but the tank starts to get dirty. I tried scum suckers from the stores but he ate those within one night. The perch do well with keeping the scum at bay. I read about that trick and it worked better than scum suckers, but they don’t clean the bottom of the tank. The small socalait I put in after Issac is too quick for my turtle and doing well. I scoop grass shrimp regularly and the fish go nuts eating those. I was thinking small catfish would be just as good for keeping the waste in the tank cleaned, but I don’t know where or how to catch a small 2-3” catfish. They cost 7 dollars at the store so that’s out of the question since they’ll get eaten. I called the game wardens and they told me using a minnow cage for a few baby catfish is legal. Anyone has any ideas or where to scoop or set a minnow cage to catch them? I asked all my friends and none had a clue either so i'll try on here. I tried in bayou Lafourche with no luck yet. I can catch millions of catfish in the bayou but I can’t recall catching babies. I’m puzzled.

Scouted all weekend for deer @ 3 Rivers and Red River taking advantage of the cold front. With perfect temperatures in the 50’s Sunday morning I walked 8 hours. I jumped 3 deer, 2 rabbits and startled some hogs which allowed me to creep into the 15 yard danger range. All of the deer sign was near temporarily unpressured field edges and water sources as usually in September. The woods are back to being very dry. Found a few key persimmon trees about to drop which I’ll focus my hunts soon. Unfortunately I didn’t have any big buck pictures on my cameras, just small spikes, though I have several spots with a bunch of daylight action on the does and hogs. My cameras saved me from hunting my usual turf which I planned come October. I had 3 cameras in one area which didn’t have any deer pictures after sitting nearly a month. Previous years had that spot loaded with bucks in September. That section is overrun with hogs. Speaking of hogs, I heard a loud grunting noise in the woods followed by pig squeals. I’ve only heard a pig with a grunt so ferocious a few times before in my life and I knew it was a big boy. Luckily after checking my camera in the area I got pics of this gianormous bore. Anyone wants to guess what that thing weighs? I can’t wait to go stalk him and add those tusks to my collection. That big boy should be easy to spot. Got him fighting another hog in the picture. I love hearing those hogs tussle while hunting. Got a bear at that cam too. Just 3 more weeks…..I can’t take it.

On a good note from the robbery from last week, I received an envelope in the mail this weekend with only my license in it which someone apparently found while cleaning their yard. It’s not much but a start in the right direction and saving a long wait at the dmv is always a plus!

Went look in the bayou Lafourche in the backyard yesterday and the fish were at the surface sucking air. I rescued one small socalait by hand and put in my 75 gallon bayou style freshwater aquarium. Beautiful addition. Today i put in the pirogue and went for a paddle. I saw big bass everywhere bearly hanging on. The water started smelling and turned to that blackish color. I notice all the socalait were dead and floating. The bass and perch were still hovering the surface. I hope some of those bass can make it. Beaks my heart to see the fish suffering like this. Anyone know how long it takes for the water to return to normal or if it'll get worse? Huricannes suck.

Well with all the good news I heard from Dularge I drove down to Cocodrie yesterday afternoon to fish the last two days of the Star tourney for labor day if everything was ok. I called to check if the roads were open and if was ok for fishing and got the okay. The place looked pretty flawless for being a hurricane came through. I saw several people fishing and others using the Harbor light launch so I put in and took off to see how the Island looked. Weather was nice, though a bit breezy for topwater. Some of the Island was washed away and the beach looked nonexistent as the waves were just feet from the grass bank, but the tide was high so I couldn’t make an accurate assessment. I was surprised to not see a single piece of trash or floating debris in the water the whole trip.

I tried fishing artificial and live bait from the surf but was only catching hardheads. I was hoping the full moon would have a few big trout on the beach but I’m guessing all the beach action is done and the hurricane messed the water up. It was a tad too rough to try further out rigs where I’m guessing the bigger trout were with cleaner water. I decided to wait and see if the trout would bite under the lights at some rigs in Pelto after enjoying the sunset from the beach. All they had were small trout and not many at that so I called it a night. When I got back someone smashed the glass of my window and stole my gear. They had glass everywhere in my vehicle. It took me several hours today to vacuum that out but it’s like glass dust everywhere, almost impossible to clean. They took my sound system, 3 roger fed tennis rackets around 8 pairs of running shoes, some expensive jewelry which I forget to take out when making Laura’s ring, credit cards, nearly a thousand from my client’s checks, work gear, tools, my hunting bag with loads of gear, etc. Luckily the alarm system made them move quick and leave some stuff. The cop was really nice and said 90% of the time they get caught as they have a crew of 20 officers assigned to robberies. I’m hoping they catch them. They tried using my cards at walmart so I hope they can be caught on video. I’ve never been robbed before, so I never think about taking all my gear out of my vehicle or where I park. I’ll think twice from now on. Its around 10K in lost gear, but I’m still healthy and happy and it takes more than losing a few material possessions to bring me down. Only thing that really upsets me is that I couldn't go fishing today as planned :(

In case anyone doesn't know the best site I found to check the water levels at pretty much anywhere is www.rivergages.com

I wasn't able to make it to my hunting camp this weekend which is on cross bayou in Concordia parish so I just hit the Bayou cocodrie @ deer park link which shows the water heights. Luckily for me the water is still low there, but i'm watching it closely. You can see the water levels along the coast as well. The weekly link and yearly links are quick and easy. Just hit the plot buttom. If interested you can look at the long term history of water levels in your area which is interesting for fishing information. Since i hunt along the Mississippi river checking this site is very important to which areas I can hunt.

http://www2.mvr.usace.army.mil/WaterControl/stationinfo2.cfm?sid=CE5EDA42&fid=&dt=S

Didn’t bother fishing with the wind this weekend. Made a trip to three rivers to set trail cameras and scout. I was seeing plenty of good sign and fresh deer tracks. Sure enough while standing at one of my favorite spots I ground hunt from I heard a big creature in the tangle. This was the same spot I doubled up on two years ago when I killed a doe a quarter mile away. Then stalked and grunted up a 4 pointer an hour later with my Mathews. I was standing directly where I shot him, reliving the moment of one of my favorite hunts, and planning where I’ll set my ground blind with the summer growth for October when I heard the hogs. I turned on my video and proceeded to stalk getting in bow range. I was looking at another hog in the thickness when I saw this one, but couldn't get good footage with all the bushes. Still it’s enough to excite me for bow season. Walking out I walked up on a rabbit to ten yards in a clearing. My girl wanted to come for the trip too. While I was setting cameras she went on her weekly long run getting in over 8 miles. I dropped her off at the end of the road by the Red River and took off with my vehicle, jokingly saying good luck finding me! She was going to go scouting for doves while running but the trail I like was overgrown so I’ll check it out next time. Then she read a book while waiting for me to finish in the woods. It surely beat driving up there alone like I used to. We saw a family of baby coons and one deer, a doe. Also, when leaving, a giant pack of hogs was in the campground next to the road. The whole heard of around 30 took off just a few yards from the vehicle. It was quite the site. I hopped out the vehicle, kicked off the crocs and started running after them through the campground like a pitbull on the chase…oh the things I consider fun! Laura was upset she couldn't hunt them yet.

I told my buddy not to bother with saltwater with the wind, but he went anyways yesterday only catching 3 sailcats and a few undersized specks. I hope the storm isn’t too bad so I can go fishing for the coming holiday.