Deer Hunting 2018

For those of you who follow along regularly, you might recall a post about my goals for 2017.  For those who don't remember, feel free to take a second to catch up here:

2017 Goals

Essentially I exceeded my expectations and checked off three of the 4 goals:

1. Shoot a Tom Turkey

2. Catch a Muskie over 20 pounds

3. Trap a Bear over 200 pounds

However I fell short on the fourth goal of:

4.  Shoot a Buck over 200 pounds

I decided that I was going to focus most of my efforts on this singular goal in 2018 and saved up vacation time, finished as many projects as possible and generally tried to prepare for the month of November.

The season started slow, the trail cameras showed little for promising bucks, with one potential contender that I was hopeful for, getting shot on opening day by another hunter.  I scoured country, logged many miles whether in the pickup or wearing out the boot leather.  After two weeks of hunting I was feeling quite discouraged and had only seen three does for my efforts.  Then, I decided to stop exploring so much country and focus more on known areas that have more concentrated deer.  With snow coming early here in the north country deer were moving into what I call the transition areas and I started seeing multiple deer a day and my hopes were rejuvenated.  After seeing close to 60 deer, messing up on a buck, watching a deer get shot right in front of me and putting in over 80 hours, I set the rifle in the cabinet tired, forlorn and disappointed.  After resting for a day(No Sunday hunting in Maine), I decided I wasn't ready to throw in the towel yet and bought my muzzleloader stamp.  The six day season is short, but my hopes were high and on day two I was really close to getting a shot on a smaller buck.  Finally after 90 hours logged, I caught a break when a once in a lifetime buck slipped up and gave me a glimpse of him.  After watching a doe acting funny I kept glancing behind her and then all I saw was a huge chocolate rack looking at me.  Everything in me wanted to shoot, but I did not have a safe shot, so I watched as he melted into the dark timber.  A short track job later I caught up with him and six does and his mind was preoccupied long enough for me to get a good shot on him.  When I got to him, the 8 point chocolate colored rack contrasted against the white snowy backdrop and I was in complete disbelief.  I closed my eyes to picture what my dream buck would look like, then reopened them and he was laying at my feet.  As I hoisted him into the pickup, I was quite sure he would break the 200 pound mark, making him a Maine "Big Buck", and sure enough when the scales settled, the gentlemen at the tagging station announced 222 pounds and I don't think you could have slapped the grin off my face.  We put a tape to his antlers and he green scored right around 150" as an eight pointer.  I believe he should at least be in the high 140's after drying, which means he should make MASTC as well. 

Goal number 4 is now complete and in remarkable fashion.  I realize that a buck like this is probably a once in a lifetime accomplishment, but here's to hoping someday it might happen again.

Stay tuned as we do some hardwater exploration and now it is time to come up with our next set of goals to work towards!  Feel free to share your goals or successes with us!

Trapping 2018

The 2018 season was certainly not one for the record books.  It started off with a tough bear bait season.  I didn't have a bear that I was willing to target come to the bait frequently enough to set a snare, meanwhile I imagine I was feeding every raccoon in Aroostook county!  So while I did not trap a bear this year, I did trap several raccoons when the season finally opened.  I also got the kids out helping to trap some nuisance beaver and even a nuisance fisher.  We also managed to pick up a few bonus muskrats, so while the numbers were not impressive the memories we made were for a lifetime!

Muskie Derby 2018

The muskie derby this year was certainly interesting as lots of rain fell right before the start of the festivities and water that was barely accessible by canoe a week before became accessible by anything and everything up to and including a small party boat!  Even with our fishing hole at times looking more like a marina than a river, we still managed to find a few fish in the dirty water.  We ended with 9 muskie for the weekend with Brent placing on the leaderboard in 11th place with a 40 7/8"and 18.38 pound muskellunge.  It was a fun weekend and the weather was beautiful for most of our 40 hours of fishing.  I must admit though dawn to dusk in a canoe for two days followed by a third day of dawn to 5:00 when the scales close has me not wanting to see my canoe for a few days!

Brent's 11th Place Fish

One of my more unique catches.

Always Rewarded with Beautiful Scenery

The Final Standings

Stay tuned for some other stories coming soon!