Here Piggy Piggy

As my summer vacation comes to a close, I'm forced to start thinking about land-locked outdoor activities. Primarily...Hunting.

Bow season around Gainesville begins in a little over two months from now and I've already begun planning. In my usual fashion, I missed the quota drawing for the WMA's this year and will be forced to hunt only one area during gun season. However, I have two areas on my radar for bow season and a total of four areas for small game season. I'll start off the season bow hunting Lochloosa WMA, home of the Kevlar Deer. If I find that I'm not having any luck there, I'll change it up to Goethe State Forest (which I've yet to hunt).

Once bow season is over, however, I'll completely switch gears off of deer and focus all my effort on wild hogs. I've had my fair share of run-ins with hogs in Florida dating back to my first hunting season at age twelve but have yet to kill one.

Never gotten a picture of one...I just needed an example

The first pig I'd ever seen was on Eglin AFB in an archery only area during scouting season. My dad and I were walking along a road near a swampy area and we jumped what looked like a black Volkswagen in a mud puddle. To this day, it's the biggest pig I've ever seen and it must have weighed a good 400lbs. The next pig was later that season. It came to the noise of my dad climbing out of his tree stand and just about walked right into him. It easily weighed between 200-250lbs and was cinnamon colored.  A few weeks later, I had one come to the sound of me climbing out of my tree and when I turned around, a little 50-75lbs pig took off the other direction.

Years later, while hunting (the now closed) Bluewater Creek WMA, I was nearly stepped on by a group of hogs. I was sitting under a tree near a creek bottom during Archery/Muzzleloading gun season and heard a group of pigs coming my way. Unfortunately, they came on the other side of impenetrable brush just 10 yards behind me. I heard every one of them, but didn't see a single one.

During my deer spotlight surveys last summer, I saw dozens of hogs and last season I nearly got lucky enough to shoot one at Devil's Hammock WMA. I recently read an article in Field and Stream and discovered that Florida is second only to Texas for it's feral hog population. In most places around the state, there is no size or bag limit as they cause TONS of damage to crops and agriculture every year. They're also known to carry several diseases. All of this translates into: Shoot more pigs.

So when Gun season opens up, I'll probably be making some trips over to Lower Suwannee NWR since they are actually open without a quota for gun hunting. I saw a video on youtube of some guys two years ago who hunted Lower Suwannee and bagged three pigs in two days. With any luck, I might be able to do the same.  I'll just need to decide on what gun to bring. The SKS...

or the 12 Gauge

I like the idea of the SKS in that I'm comfortable with the iron sights up to 100 yards. I also like that I can squeeze off 5 rounds immediately. However, 3 inch slugs from the Benelli will definitely drop even the biggest boar in its tracks. Any of you ever taken a hog with a gun before?

After gun season, small game opens and I'll still be able to shoot pigs. This, however, will have to be done with a shotgun because center-fire rifles aren't allowed during small game season. I've read reports of a bunch of hogs taken from Goethe, and I've personally seen the hogs in Devil's Hammock, so those two areas will be my go-to spots for small game.

And that will be my plan for the whole hunting season. Now it's time for me to live up the next two weeks and get as much fishing in as possible. Almost got some nice spearfishing footage on my camera today, but the camera was off when I finally shot a fish. Stay tuned!

The Maritime Wrecking Ball

Ask any saltwater fisherman which fish they -never- green gaff and the answer will always be:

Cobia Dolphin

Wait...Dolphin...like Mahi-Mahi Dolphin?

Yes, that Dolphin.

OK OK, so the answer isn't Dolphin...it's actually Cobia. After all, a green gaffed Cobia has been known to break coolers, bilges, rods, rod holders, tackle boxes, unfortunate limbs, and all around do its best to sink the boat. But after a recent trip offshore, there's a new species that comes in close second: Dolphin.

I was lucky enough to get invited to go offshore in my brother's boat this past weekend. Prior to this, I hadn't been offshore since I was a junior in highschool (I'm now a super-senior in college). I was stoked and was really hoping to get into some king/cobia/black snapper/whatever else is legal to keep with Florida's ridiculous seasons. After casting to a few schools of spanish out in the pass, we motored out to an area of live bottom to start bottom fishing. We drifted over the area and proceeded to feed the snapper. I managed to pull up two enormous ruby red lips that I used for bait, and that was it. My brother's king rig went off but the hooks pulled and my dad managed to land a little red snapper.

Soon, we spotted something floating in the water. After driving close to it, we saw that it was a sea turtle. A HUGE sea turtle...the biggest I've ever seen. I quickly cast a dead cig to the turtle in hopes that a cobia was following it. A few seconds later, something took the bait and the fight was on. It almost immediately jumped and at the angle I was at, it looked like a little tarpon.

Upon close inspection...it wasn't.

A Dolphin! Only a few miles offshore and my first one -ever-! After a short malfunction with the gaff, we got the fish in the boat and took a quick photo.

My First Dolphin

Then all hell broke loose. The Dolphin managed to wiggle its way off the gaff and flop onto the deck with treble hooks still shaking about. The scaly ball of death then proceeded to flop its way over to the only two rods laying on the deck and began to thrash them. All during this, the fish tried its best to imitate The Shining and sling blood onto anything within a 15ft radius. Standard protocol for such events is to move around the deck like someone dropped a live grenade, wave your hands wildly, and shout as many obscenities as you can before the fish dies.

We tried to grab the rods, but the fish managed to tangle itself in them and started to bash them. Finally, my dad gaffed it a second time and we all breathed a sigh of relief once the fish was under control.

So that it could get a second wind....

Off the gaff it came again and made another B line for the rods. We all were forced to complete the standard protocol again before the fish was gaffed a -third- time and quickly put into the cooler before more damage could be done.

Total damage done:

Two broken guides on the rod I caught my Tarpon on

A broken bail on an antique reel. (sorry, no picture)

And enough blood splatter to keep us busy cleaning. I'm just glad it wasn't any bigger. The damage could have been -alot- worse.

After that fiasco, we saw numerous chicken dolphin,  but were unable to keep any on the line and land the whole school. Luckily it was a gorgeous day out and the water slicked off and became glassy around 11:00. We ended the day with one Dolphin and a little spanish. Overall, I had a blast. I certainly never expected to pull a Dolphin out from under a turtle that close to shore. Gotta give a big thanks to my brother for the trip and my first Dolphin.

Till next time,

Fish on.

A day of shooting

A few weeks back I realized that I hadn't practiced shooting in a very long time. I feel as though practicing shooting is a necessity, especially if one plans to hunt during the fall season. It doesn't take much for that rifle scope to get all outta whack and I'd hate myself forever if I missed a big buck because I didn't make sure my scope was sighted in.

I knew that the shooting range in my county was closed on odd-ball days, so I called ahead to verify that they were open. After the phone rang for a good minute, someone finally picked up and said that the range has been closed permanently. This was certainly news to me. Unfortunately the nearest public range aside from that one is 40 minutes away in Alabama. So it looked like I was in for a drive...

I took my girlfriend Chelsea as well as her friend Brittney and her boyfriend Jarrod with me. My girlfriend had never fired my 30-06 or my SKS so I took both in order to sight them in and let her shoot them.

Hard to top shooting guns with a beautiful girl

My 30-06 was just a hair off. Ended up being about an inch to the right at 100 yards. They had a 200 yard range there, but we didn't have time for me to play around with it. Everyone got a chance to shoot the 30-06 and even though it kicks relatively bad, there were no bruises on anyone.

Checking my shot placement

Me calling out shot placement for Jarrod

The look on Brittney's face says it all

When I initially loaded the SKS for my girlfriend, I told her that it didn't have much kick because of the gas blowback. I fired one round down range to make sure things were working and was shocked at how hard it kicked.

I don't remember it kicking -that- bad, I thought to myself as I handed it over to Chelsea. Oh well...

She pulled the trigger...and nothing happened. I took the gun back, and discovered that the rifle had not ejected the old brass. I cocked the gun again, and handed it off. The gun fired, and of course, kicked pretty hard. I knew something wasn't right as I noticed this time that the round had not been ejected again. After fiddling with the gun for a moment, I noticed that a little lever was out of place toward the front of the barrel. I moved it into a different position and effectively turned the gas blowback -back- on. After that, everyone had a hoot shooting it.

Chelsea laying waste with the SKS

 
I was thoroughly pleased with how well my SKS shot. I hadn't shot it for over a year and with iron sights at 100 yards I actually managed to shoot the bulls eye out and had a very good grouping. Sadly, I didn't bring my camera with me and just forgot to take my own pictures with Chelsea's camera.

I also brought a .22 pump rifle (from the early 1900's...1912 sticks out for some reason) that has been passed down through my family. Even though everyone else enjoyed shooting the 30-06 and SKS, I enjoy shooting the .22 more. It's just fun to shoot.

I do wish that I had easier access to a place to shoot. Having to pay a bunch of money and drive 40+ minutes just to shoot for a few hours almost isn't worth it. Even though the 30-06 ammo was reloaded, ammo in general isn't exactly cheap. I suppose though, at the end of the day, it's all worth it when you shoot that buck, or hog, or whatever, and aren't kicking yourself for not sighting in the gun. So get out there and practice. The season is just around the corner...and don't forget about those bows!