Well, I didn't kill a deer at all last year, and I got to hear about it for the months immediately after the season from my loving wife, who taunted me relentlessly about it. She had accidentally hit one with her Jeep at the beginning of the season and killed it, so I got to hear that I was "playing catch up" to her all season, and then at the end of the season it was "Kathy 1, Glenn 0" according to her "deer count".
This year, I have a beautiful 11 pointer that was coming around at night, but recently has been showing up at 5am, 10am, 2pm, 4pm, etc... on my camera. I walked in on it on Saturday. I got a late start and walked up to my feeder slowly, only to round the bend immediately before it and come face to face with the buck at the feeder. He snorted and took about 3 bounds to clear an area almost 20 yards wide, and then he was gone. He's not feeding - he's sniffing around. My camera only catches him feeding at night. During the day, its head up, nose going. He's looking for does, I'm pretty sure of it.
Fishing... The ABA's are just ABA's. Nothing fancy, nothing special, and probably won't have a ton of boats in the tournament anyway, so it may not even be considered a full field. That equals reduced payouts. At $70 each to fish, even if I win one of the two (one Saturday, one Sunday), after factoring in gas, lodging, etc... I might only be breaking even for the weekend. Win both, and I'd be ahead. Lately, the winner of Saturday ends up about 3rd or 4th on Sunday. Not many take both days. The tournament is on Choke Canyon, and although it's my favorite spot to fish, I haven't really slayed them this year either.
If I can catch at least one keeper, then I'm all about fishing. If I can at least see a deer, hog, etc... while hunting, I'm all about hunting too - even if I don't take a shot. Lately, I haven't caught fish, and I'm not seeing animals while I'm in my ground blind, so now... I'm not really about either in a big way. :lol:
Wife came up with a good plan. I'm going to take a vacation day on Friday of this week, and hunt all day long - predawn to dusk. Taking a lunch and drinks with me and I'm just going to stay in the blind all day. Saturday, I'll fill up my feeder and do some maintenance around my stands and come home to spend time with my family. The following weekend - fish the Saturday tournament and see how I feel about Sunday. If it's not looking good, come back and hunt next Sunday. If it looks good, then I'll fish both tournaments.
All the best,
Glenn
