Grow the Hunt

Three Tips You Must Know Before Musky Fishing

-By Brandon Wikman

Musky anglers from across the country have their own set of techniques, tactics and theories, but here are three things that every musky maniac can agree with.

The Figure-8
When people talk about musky, they often bring up the infamous “figure-8.” I never fully understood why it was so essential making that silly figure-8 with your lure before swinging it into your boat, until now.

Oftentimes musky, and many other game fish, will follow your bait several yards before chomping into it. This is a common trait in the musky world. Sometimes it’s the erratic movement, swift turn, or circle that will ultimately convince the fish to bite. Many times careless fishermen lose countless opportunities because they pull their bait out of the water too soon!

I caught my second musky ever on a full-fledged follow up only feet away from the boat. I watched as he slumped his back, which jutted out of the water like a shark-fin, and eased only inches away from my bait. It wasn’t until I made my first turn in the figure-8 that he engulfed my buck-tail. I’ve also witnessed many other musky anglers slam on this technique.

The Pierce
If you ever have the chance to feel how rugged and tough the mouth of a musky is, please do. I promise you’ll be stunned by how hard their mouth is. Now considering that their mouth is difficult to pierce, we must come to an assumption that we need to use razor sharp fishing hooks.

Fish, sand, seaweed, underwater tree falls, and rocks will dull your fishing hooks in a hurry. It doesn’t take too much or too long before they turn into “practice hooks.” It’s no different than going archery hunting with a dull broad head. Sure, a dull point may kill the animal you shoot, but I’m not going to take that chance. There’s already enough chance involved in hunting and fishing. I like to improve my odds and control any simple variables I can.

Hooks are often overlooked. Whether it’s bass, walleye, or any other game fish, it’s critical to sport sharp hooks. The finely honed hook will jab into the lip far quicker, and easier than a dull one. This seems super obvious, but so many anglers forget to take out the sharpener and fine-tune their hooks. It only takes a few minutes and truly, those extra minutes will make the difference in a successful hook-set.

The Tackle
Baits and lures come in an array of different colors, shapes, sizes, and forms of movement. Some float, while others sink and so on and so forth. There truly is a bait for each and every day musky fishing. That is why it’s so important to have a showcase of different kinds of tackle to choose from.

Your typical top-water bait is one that can be used any time. The ‘Top-Raider’ has a swirling tail that flutters water and makes a tiny wake behind it. Or else you can try the infamous, “Suick,” which floats, but when used angles back-and-forth in and out of the water. Everyone is familiar with your buck-tail baits that have a spinning spoon attached to it. These are all different forms of lures that can be used at different times of the year, and periods of the day.

Color is by far one of the most significant factors involved in catching a fish. There’s really no telling what day is matched with what color, but the nice thing is that you have the ability to fling the entire rainbow if you wanted. An entire spectrum of colors in your tackle box will ultimately give you an edge when fishing.

These are just a few tips that you’ll need to know before you wet your line!

Field and Stream's July photo contest winner

Congratulations to Josh Moore who won Field and Stream’s July photo contest. Check out this action shot that he captured on his Moultrie Game Spy D-40 trail camera. Thanks for the awesome photo Josh!

http://www.fieldandstream.com/article_gallery.jsp?ID=1000022462

The Importance of Mineral Sites

-By Rich Miller

We all work, sweat and worry planting and maintaining our food plots and some of us even supplemental feed. All of this is done to attract and help grow the deer we are hunting. Having these food plots and feeders in place are great, but I think there are a couple things we can do that is just as important, if not more, to help grow bigger and healthier deer.

The one thing that I practice religiously on the properties that I hunt is keeping mineral sites out and available to deer year around. We all know that having mineral out for bucks helps them grow bigger antlers, but I believe that there is a lot more to it than that. It starts long before the bucks get the minerals. I believe it all starts with the does. I am not talking about putting out a salt block and thinking you are giving the deer what they need. We are not trying to give our deer high blood pressure. I am talking about using blends that contain calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, sulfur, potassium, and several different types of vitamins.

Using a quality blend that contains these minerals will help does with weight gain and increase fertility come the rut. Healthier does mean healthier fawns. The does will have better milk production, which in turn will give the fawns the head start they need. Since I have been using minerals year round, I have noticed that my 1 ½ old deer that were spikes and little rag horns have tuned into little basket rack 8-pointers with a lot of potential.

Even with all the food plots and minerals in place, none of this will work if the deer do not live long enough to grow a good rack. Where I live in the South we have very liberal limits on deer. The average buck killed is a 1 ½ old and they never live long enough to become a trophy. I know a lot of people that complain about never being able to see a big buck and they will be the first one to shoot a little spike or 4-pointer. I am not saying don’t ever shoot a deer again unless it is a world class deer. I am saying don’t, shoot every little deer you see. Give some of them time to grow up and you will be surprised at what they turn into.

Moultrie Helps You Grow the Trophy

Hunting season is close, but are your deer ready? Moultrie Feeders wants to help get your deer in shape for the fall. For a limited time, receive 10% off all regularly priced Moultrie game feeders.

Choose from Moultrie's photocell, demand or programmable units, tripod or hanging, or make your own feeder with Moultrie's feeder kits. Whichever route you go, know that you are growing a larger, healthier herd. And don't forget accessories!

Plan, Plan, Plan

-By Rich Miller

This weekend I was in the woods again putting up tree stands. It is amazing; looking back at when I was clearing out areas in preparation for food plots that with a little more thought I would have saved myself a lot of trouble in the long run. I realized how important it is to take everything into account. I should have planned my tree stand locations at the same time I was planning my food plots.

When cutting away trees and brush I normally, as a rule, take all the trees out of the middle and then all non-desirables trees from around the edge. If I had it to do over again I would have left a few of those non-desirables, such as some of the cedar trees, to place stands. On the particular food plot I visited this weekend, I really didn’t have a plan. I was just clearing to have a place to plant. I have done the same thing while preparing other plots, and with a couple of them I must have gotten lucky because I couldn’t have planned them any better. Now when I am preparing food plots I try to plan everything in advance.

I start with the overall shape of the plot, taking into consideration prevailing winds and where the bedding area is. Usually I plan these plots for rifle and archery hunting. I try to design them longer in length and narrower in the width. That way for my I can position my rifle stands on the opposite end of the bedding area with a view of the whole food plot. As for the bow stands, I will try to leave as many trees with cover on them as I can around the food plot. For these cover trees I like cedars and pines, they will provide cover from the start of the season to the end and also they will help mask your scent. With a lot of these trees around it will give me a lot of options for morning or evening hunts and a position to hunt in just about any wind.

Putting in a pinch point or a funnel in the design of the food plot is also a good idea to help channel the deer or turkey into range of either side of the plot. There are a few more tricks I use to help guide the deer to the places I want them, and also get them out into the open during daylight hours. I like to cut a trail from the bedding area to the spot where I want the deer to enter the field. Deer are like water, they will take the path of least resistance and you can direct them to go where you want them. I also plant a buffer strip of sunflowers or sorghum around the edge of the plots as a buffer strip. This will help make the deer feel a little more secure and get them out in the open a little earlier.

Thinking about a few small details before hand will go a long way in the long run and help put some trophies in the truck.

What is a Trophy Deer?

There is a lot of hype in the deer hunting world about taking a trophy buck. Judging from the emails and pictures we receive at Moultrie it seems like there is no clear definition of a trophy buck. One hunter’s trophy is another hunter’s cull. Moultrie wants to know, what constitutes a trophy buck? Does it depend on where the deer is taken? On one hunting property in the country, a small basket-racked buck may be considered a trophy. While in a different part of the country, a deer would have to score over 200 to be considered a trophy deer. Is a deer a trophy if it is the biggest buck you have ever taken? If you ask a dozen hunters what a trophy buck is, you will probably get a dozen different answers. So let us know by leaving a comment: what does it take for a buck to be a trophy deer?

Fishing With the Pro's

-By Brandon Wikman

A large portion of a fisherman’s success is primarily based upon the amount of time your lure is in the water. Cast after cast, the anticipation of a fish engulfing your worm or spinner-bait escalates. This past weekend I had the privilege of assisting my two cousins on a northern Wisconsin fishing adventure. Both young anglers, side-by-side, fished their hearts out, even though much of the ‘fishing’ time was spent untangling line, slipping on worms, and understanding the proper ways to fish!

There’s no greater feeling of accomplishment than knowing that you made an impact on someone’s life. Whether it’s through tutoring a child in school, educating them about the outdoors, or simply leading by positive examples, the beauty of sharing memories and experiences is what life is all about. I had the pleasure of living the experience this weekend with people that I truly love and care for.

My cousins Wyatt and Mitchell Wikman couldn’t possibly be off to a better start on their outdoor lifestyle thanks to their parents, family, and relatives. For these two boys, Saturday mornings are spent in front of the Outdoor Channel watching my hunting ventures, rather than Elmer Fudd’s and the millions of other cartoons.

This wasn’t their first fish outing, as you can probably tell after I describe the story. Both Wyatt and Mitchell squeezed into their own lifejackets and grabbed a pole from the garage. They already knew what tackle to use and what fish they were targeting. Nothing more than the infamous Bluegill found in nearly every lake, river, or water flowage across the entire country! This is a worthy catch for two hardcore anglers.

Off they went, with sheer confidence and a will to come back to camp with enough catch for a family fish fry. The pressure was on and so was the pot of frying oil! Wyatt, who has light brown hair, flung the first cast into the depths of Bluegill haven, a very well known, tried-and-true fishing location off the end of the pier. As his worm plummeted into the seaweed and bobber settled afloat, Mitchell decided to plunk his bait near Wyatt’s. A very interesting, yet strategic approach to say the least, one I could learn from. Both bobbers nearly clinking against each other began submerging into the water within seconds. Simultaneously, they both cranked on their miniature fishing poles and made an incredible hook set on both fish! The two pro’s muscled their fish in as both poles fluttered. I watched in pure joy as the team duo landed their first fish of the evening on their first cast of the trip. I helped them both take off the fish and place the whoppers in the bucket.

It was as if I didn’t have to say a word, these boys kept their composure like pros and fished throughout the entire evening. A few tangled lines didn’t dampen their enthusiasm, nor did the constant re-worming of the hooks. I tossed out a few words of wisdom here and there as they filled their fish bucket brim full.

Two future outdoorsman with sore wrists from reeling, two smiling faces and a bucket full of fish made their way back to camp where a handful of hungry people awaited their success. The fish fry was on!

Watching these two aspiring fishermen brought back some very fond memories of when my Grandpa took me fishing for the first time. Life’s outdoor lessons bring joy and lifelong memories that will forever be engraved within my heart. Spending quality time in the outdoors with others is something we cannot fully describe. It’s far too rich, much too captivating, and way too remarkable to detail. Living the outdoor experience with friends and family is where unforgettable memories evolve.

Preparation Makes Luck Happen

-By Rich Miller

Heat, sweat, briars and mosquitoes - this is the time of year that I am in the woods preparing stands, cutting shooting lanes and finding trees with acorns on them. I don’t know every tree that I am going to climb or hang a stand in this year, but I can give myself a lot of options for the early season and have stand locations ready that I hunt year after year.

The last part of July and the first of August has always been my time to start preparing for my deer season. I can’t anticipate every place that I am going to hunt because I like to be versatile as the season moves into October. I like to have a lot of different options when September 15th roles around.

The reason I like this time of year to start my preparation is because the foliage is as full as it is going to be in the woods and any cutting that I do will not have time to grow back before I am ready to hunt. Another good thing about getting all of my cutting and clearing done early is that all my scent and sweat is gone from the scene long before season so that I am less likely to spook the deer I am after. Once I have these places ready to go I won’t return to them until I am ready to hunt.

This is also a good time to find acorn trees and muscadine vines that are going to produce well in the early bow season. A good pair of binoculars is the only thing you need to find these. The muscadines will be ready come the middle of September, but most of the acorns will not start dropping until the last of September and into October. I normally prepare to hunt the most loaded trees first, even before they start falling because the squirrels will be cutting the acorns off before they start dropping and deer will find these and use them. A good thing about these natural food sources is that most of the time these places are where I will start finding my first buck sign.

Getting all of this done well before the season has always proved to be very productive for me. Several years ago I was at my hunting club and it was the second week of the season. There were several other bow hunters in camp and they were not seeing any deer while I had already taken a couple of does and a good eight-pointer along with seeing deer every time I was on stand. While he was checking out the eight-pointer, one of the guys made the comment that I was really lucky. That was the first time that he had been to the hunting camp all summer. He hadn’t seen all the hard work that it took to be seeing all these deer. I had more than a dozen different stand locations that I had prepared well before the hunting season so that I wasn’t putting too much pressure on one stand. The guy that made the comment was hunting the same spot morning and evening and he said “I was lucky”.

Nothing but Horns

Check out this cool picture that was recently captured on a Moultrie I-60 game camera. As hunting season closes in, this is the type of scene that a hunter can only hope for when the season opens.

The After Effect

-By Brandon Wikman

Hard work and extra effort does pay off!

This spring I implemented a food plot testing ground in my backyard, which paralleled my mother’s garden. By constructing a mini-plot testing facility, I was able to gather an array of data on the health and longevity of scrumptious deer greens!

The main purpose of the plot was to visually show participants of my hunting camp the difference between taking the necessary steps in creating a food plot in comparison to skipping a few tasks, which severely degrades the growing performance.

Sometimes people want to see it rather than hear it, so that is exactly what I did. I dedicated each test plot ¼ acre, which stretched side-by-side. I planted a mix of soybeans, buckwheat, sunflowers and sweet peas. An early season seed mix was the ideal choice, considering typical weather patterns during the mid to late summer growing months.

Test Plot #1
I busted out my riding lawnmower and put it to work on Test Plot #1. I gave the plot a short haircut, which left a mess of grass chunks throughout the middle. I raked the plot clean of debris and waited a solid week before spraying any chemical. I waited because the grass and weeds were severely stunted, so before juicing them with herbicide, it’s always important to let the new grass begin to grow. This is when the grass and weeds are most susceptible and will be killed on the spot once sprayed.

After the plot was mowed and sprayed, I rented a mega-sized rooter-tiller to chomp up the soil. It was nearly time for planting. I received my PH-Soil test data back and found my soil needed a quick jolt of lime, without question I purchased a few hundred pounds of ammoniated lime. This would boost my soil’s PH in a hurry. I spread the lime and coupled it with a good amount of fertilizer and Plot Max, which is a soil conditioner that helps in aiding the root system of your plants.

The final step was broadcasting seed and compacting the soil. Test Plot #1 was ready to take on Mother Nature!

Test Plot #2
The second plot I rushed and spent less time and money in preparing the grounds. I zipped through the plot with my lawn mower and took a heavy-duty rake to it. This would scrape debris and fluff the soil, considering I wasn’t planning on turning the soil over. Within the same hour, I began broadcasting seed.

I didn’t throw down lime, fertilizer, Plot Max or even bother spraying any type of herbicide. It was up to Mother Nature now…

As you’d imagine, Test Plot #1 thrived! It grew lush, weed-less, and tall, while Test Plot #2 was weed infested. In fact it had so many weeds that it choked off any chance for the seed mix to grow! I truly don't have to say much, considering the picture says a thousand words. Let this be a testament of how critical putting a little extra effort, money, and investment into your food plots truly pays off!