G2 Hunting Journal - 2017 Season

[EricS]

I did some cyber scouting and found an island over there with a peninsula about 3/4 mile long and had a spot about 70 yards wide at the beginning of it.

 

[g2outdoors]

lol. I'm probably hunting it.

 

[g2outdoors]

THIS IS VERY BORING! DON'T WATCH!!!

LOL - I said I was going to catalog my whole season, so I feel like I need to post this.

On this hunt, I was hunting the cypress swamp I setup in the Hunting Journal Day 5 video.

 

[g2outdoors]

Here's the next one.

 

[redsquirrel]

Here's the next one.

Love the checking saddlehunter clip!

 

[flinginairos]

Here's the next one.

Solid video my friend. Good b-roll! That gator was definitely a shooter!

 

[swampsnyper]

I have a stakeout pole, but with the tides, the water can literally change by a couple feet during a normal hunt. That's what has me a little nervous. If the tide gets sucked out and the river drops two feet, I could lose my boat!

What I'll more than likely do is but multiple dog stakes and screw them into the ground on my permanent setups.

I spent many years duck hunting the marshes of south La. Knowing what the tides were gonna do and how the wind effected them was critical. Staking the main boat out and using a pirogue to slip in deeper was common. There were no trees to tie to. And if your boat gets sucked out the delta its was headed to Mexico. I actually have a friend that was hunting from the pirogue and as the sun came up he didn't see his boat across the flat. Luckily he was with another group that gave him a ride back but they never found his boat.
For a tie out, I welded 1in square tubing 3ft long with another piece about a foot long making a tee on top. It could also have a ring or loop on top. That's just to tie the boat off and give a pull up handle. About 2ft from the bottom I had a 6in piece of tubing welded on sticking off one side like a step on climbing sticks. That was to step on to shove the bottom 2ft of the pole into the ground. It worked very well to put in and pull out. For a yak you could use something a lot lighter like 1/2in rod or rebar. But the step and the top tee handle is what made it easy to use. 2ft in the ground to the step and one foot above ground.

 

[swampsnyper]

Don't feel negative toward high water. I know it messed up your plans from your scouting but high water is a great tool for tightening up and creating pinch points in game travel. Usually in swamps there isn't enough elevation change to use topo maps but sometimes you can look at satellite imagery and tell the foliage is different in some areas. Swamps take more foot on the ground scouting than high land. It can all look the same from the satellite other than the water bodies. With time you will learn the land and start cross referencing what's in the field and what it looks like on satellite imagery and be able to be more effective at picking up clues from the comforts of your home. It's just pure hell sometimes to be in those woods until late December. It's definitely not a pleasure to take a stroll in the woods. Use that high water to your advantage. You off to a great start. Good luck.

 

[g2outdoors]

@swampsnyper - priceless advice. Every time I tie off my kayak on a changing tide (it can change several feet) I worry about my boat getting sucked away. Or it could be left on top of a mud flat. You can't walk through them because you sink to your knee and there's no chance of pushing a 160lb kayak off the flat.

Thanks for the topo comments as well. I've struggled to find good terrain to key in on in the deep swamps. The edges are easy, but when everything looks the same, it's much more difficult.

I'm going to pay more attention to the micro terrain in my swamps.

Thanks for the help! I really appreciate it!

Sent from my Galaxy S8.

 

[g2outdoors]

Solid video my friend. Good b-roll! That gator was definitely a shooter!

I'm working on my b-roll. The dslr makes a big difference there. I don't have one, but I'm trying my best with the camcorder.

Sent from my Galaxy S8.

 

[g2outdoors]

Also - I got some excellent footage from my last hunt and got 2 kill shots on camera. I'm pumped for you guys to see it!

Sent from my Galaxy S8.

 

[flinginairos]

I'm working on my b-roll. The dslr makes a big difference there. I don't have one, but I'm trying my best with the camcorder.

Sent from my Galaxy S8.

Looked just fine!


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[fawnzy]

That's a cool idea. I've seen similar design with scopes. I never made the jump in my mind to a bow. Clever.


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[swampsnyper]

@swampsnyper - priceless advice. Every time I tie off my kayak on a changing tide (it can change several feet) I worry about my boat getting sucked away. Or it could be left on top of a mud flat. You can't walk through them because you sink to your knee and there's no chance of pushing a 160lb kayak off the flat.

Thanks for the topo comments as well. I've struggled to find good terrain to key in on in the deep swamps. The edges are easy, but when everything looks the same, it's much more difficult.

I'm going to pay more attention to the micro terrain in my swamps.

Thanks for the help! I really appreciate it!

Sent from my Galaxy S8.

That muck mud that you sink to your bojangles in I'm well aware of. That's why coonasses build flat bottom pirogues. We had some out of light gauge aluminum that would slide across mud flats. If the top layer was wet you could hydroplane across them with a push pole. Just the weight of the pirogue would help water rise to the surface like tapping on wet concrete mix. That's all the slush you needed to get moving. I don't even recall ever having a paddle in the marsh. It was all push poles. In the swamps we would sit down and paddle but mud flats we stood up and push poled.
I remember a time we went duck hunting and my hunting buddy brought his girl friend. It was kind of awkward for me. Felt like the 3rd party in my own boat. I had a mud boat with a Gatortail motor. We went into a duck hole before light. Put out decoys and waited for the sun to come up. I was well aware of what the tide was gonna do. Figured it might make it her last trip with us. We shot ducks and she started noticing the land rising out of the water as far as she could see all around us. She said, ummmmm what is that? Lol
I said it's gonna be a long day girl. Better get comfortable while we wait for the tide to come back in at 2:00. Lol She called home and told her mom she wasn't gonna make some event that Jason got the boat dry docked on an island and we got to wait for the tide to rise again! We use to do that all the time. Those last lil pools of water was what the ducks would go to on low tide. Wasn't a big deal to us. We had a lil gas grill in the boat and we would cook deer sausage while we waited. The look on her face was priceless. Lol. They ended up getting married and when ever we have get togethers and there are new people around she always tells that story about how I had her stranded and she had to call home.
Ahhh man! More stories from the good old days!

 

[g2outdoors]

That's awesome! She learned the hard way!

Sent from my Galaxy S8.

 

[g2outdoors]

Ok guys here it is.

2 pigs out of my tree saddle. Self filmed. What a rush!

Would you guys mind sharing this video on social media for me? I'm trying to grow my channel and the tree saddle nation!

Sent from my Galaxy S8.

 

[EricS]

Way to get it done. My new boots aren't snake proof. When you have snake boots on it is such a relief. I've killed snakes in December here.

 

[ADKMtnTrapper]

In regards to you staking the yak question. Buy some earth anchors like this and you can preset them ahead of time. No way for the yak to pull it.

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[g2outdoors]

In regards to you staking the yak question. Buy some earth anchors like this and you can preset them ahead of time. No way for the yak to pull it.

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This is a really good solution. Thx.

Sent from my Galaxy S8.

 

[REID2168]

Great hunt!!!!!!!