MrGiggles

Been a tough season. Saw a whole lot of young bucks but nothing really worth shooting throughout archery and firearms. I share this property with 4 out of state hunters, they were here for 3 weeks straight and seemingly ran every deer off the place. Shot at a doe on the last day of antlerless and missed. Not a confidence booster. Decided to give the property a break after firearms for a few weeks, only checking cameras periodically. They started hitting the food plot and showing up in daylight a week after Thanksgiving. I did an observation sit on 12/26, did not have any deer in range, but watched the plot in the distance and counted 9 deer that afternoon, with 3 nice bucks. There was probably more that I couldn't see. On 12/28, the wind had shifted, allowing to me to slip in tight to the plot. I was in the tree at 2:30, by 3PM four does and fawns had come out for some salad. A short while later, a train of 7 does and fawns popped out of the woods, with this guy in tow. Unfortunately there was a tree in the way that prevented a shot at the point. While watching and waiting, I noticed that buck had his head up high, watching something in the timber. Shortly after, every deer in the plot bolted. No blowing, just gone. After that a coyote trotted across the field in that direction. I sat tight, hoping they would come back. Surely enough, the does and minis started slipping back in. The big boy must have slipped around the plot in the timber, he made a quiet entrance and just kind of showed up, to my dismay, right behind that stupid tree again. At this point it was getting after 4PM, I was weighing my options, watching that buck. He slowly crept toward a small opening in the tree limbs. Facing me at first, then broadside. 130 yards. My gun is zeroed at 100, so I aimed just a touch high, and pulled the trigger. Heard the smack of the bullet impact, but could not see his reaction in the cloud of smoke and brush, just the general direction they went. I called for help, attempted to reload, dropped the only bullet I had because I was shaking so badly, and climbed down after about 15 minutes. We looked briefly, at this point the sun had set and daylight was fading quickly. One dime sized drop of blood at the impact site, that was it. Decided to back out and come back in the morning, rather than push in and risk bumping him into the next county. It was a rough night of second guessing. Started looking right at daylight, found him only 80 yards away, dead as a stone. Perfect shot, I'm sure he was dead before I climbed out of the tree. Still no blood trail. I checked my cameras again, there are several other nice bucks frequenting the plot. I still have an unfilled archery tag, might give it a go again here in a few days once things settle down. I have never been much of a late season hunter, but when you have a good food source, it can be the best time of year. These deer have been on a schedule, showing up well before dusk.

I've been in Bolivar the past few days clearing lots for a new development. There was a whole pack of Robins picking through the fresh dirt. I thought it was odd too, but I guess it's not unusual for them to hang around sometimes. When I lived in Minnesota, they were gone by fall. When you saw them showing up in late April, you knew spring was here.

Bass Pro seems to have a 10-20% price hike over everyone else. Academy has great prices, but their selection can be limited. I wouldn't mind BPS if the closest one to me wasn't Springfield. That place is just a tourist trap.

But that $600 stimulus on the way makes it all better, right?

Sold

They probably got some good ice in Minnesota. Go up to Red Lake, rent a cabin, and load up on walleyes.

Selling my old 7SV. Bought new in June of 2018. Works good, comes with a hard cover, power cable, and CV52 transducer. I may have the original box too. $250.

I have had chicken pox twice. Reinfections of all viruses are possible, but rare.

My boss had been feeling off for a couple weeks. The symptoms never really matched Covid so he put off getting tested. He finally did and it came back positive. At that point he was pretty well over it. I figured he would be the worst off, being in his 70s and having a bad time with the flu last year, but he bounced back pretty well. One of his buddies of similar age happened to be visiting and caught it too, got over it just fine. My coworker (he spends the most time around the boss) got it and has been off work since the Monday before Thanksgiving. He's supposed to be coming back Monday. He's 40, in decent shape, not the type to stay home because of the sniffles. He still showed up earlier this year with a broken rib from a run-in with a bull. It's going around pretty badly here, but I seem to have dodged the bullet. From what I have read Covid is most transmissible through the air, not as much from surface contact. There is really no question as to whether or not masks help at this point, if people would wear them. I sat in front of Bass Pro on black friday for about 30 minutes while my order was being pulled. Probably 30% of people coming and going had no mask. The place was a zoo, like any other year. The reserved parking spots for pickup were mostly empty. They were offering a 5% discount just for curbside pickup, guess I don't understand why people would want to pay more to go inside and shop during a pandemic.

I used shad colored Keitechs. Only thing I ever caught on them was big crappie though. When it comes to active fish I don't think color means much of anything.

I usually quit once the water temperature gets below 60. It may work but I can't imagine it would be very productive. From what I've been seeing, jerkbaits are working pretty well right now, and I did pretty good with the ned on Thanksgiving.

Midway has some CVA models on sale. I grabbed one for $190 after tax to play with.

While the tech is amazing, from what I've read the fit and finish on those are pretty terrible for what they cost. And they are super stingy about replacement parts.

While the tech is amazing, from what I've read the fit and finish on those are pretty terrible for what they cost. And they are super stingy about replacement parts.

4 bass, two nice ones, a short walleye, and a 10" black crappie. All on the ned. Biggest was over 4lbs I think. 19 inches long. Have a good Thanksgiving guys, be careful out there tomorrow if you plan on going out. Water temps are 52-53 by the dam, pretty dingy, probably turned over or is getting ready to.

It's in the Pomme section, always was.

Best chops I ever had were from some Berkshires that I raised. They were still not worth raising them critters. Talk about an animal that's hard to handle, they're way too smart for their own good.

Easy, I wasn't born here. And I enjoy pork chops quite a bit, thank you very much.

Missouri is ripe for allergens. Mold throughout the warm months. Pollen in the spring, and again later in the summer from ragweed. I get a few months of reprieve in the winter, but the rest of the year I'm gobbling Zyrtec like tic tacs.

Been catching crappie pretty good on Pomme. On brush 22-28ft. Haven't been to Stockton for a while, hoping to make it back this week before it gets nasty again.

Well I think it would be counter intuitive to run all Garmin graphs, and not use the Garmin trolling motor, losing out on the benefits of doing so. Especially with a Ultrex, the Force is very comparable. Of course I have not even seen a Force, I don't know if they are all they were cracked up to be.

I used to not care about them, until I read that they are like four times stronger than a human. A chimp half your body weight could wad you up like a pretzel and not even break a sweat. Then there's this guy, tried to eat a friend of his owners. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travis_(chimpanzee)#:~:text=Travis (October 21%2C 1995 –,to attack a police officer.

I've had better luck finding keepers on Pomme this year than Stockton, usually it is the opposite. I always thought they lowered the length limits on Pomme and Truman to keep the population down.

Ace has trays of them, but I'm not sure that they'll have one big enough.

Had several in the 14s, but none bigger. Think I had one on Stockton that was 14 3/4", caught under the 245 bridge, and one on Pomme that was 14 1/4".