Top_Heavy's World

The ripples on the ditch full of water caught my attention. Even at 75 miles per hour, I could see the backs of the carp sticking above the calm surface. I visually followed the long sleek body of water, the end closest to the river was dry now. The far end was about 400 yards ahead. I made a mental note of the location, a parking stategy and I headed back to the office. The next day I had to make the same long trek to a job site that took me past this flooded ditch. I parked the truck as far onto the shoulder as I dare, but fully off the interstate. I traded my leather, steel toed boots for a pair of Lacrosse knee high rubber boots and I grabbed my recurve. I keep it unstrung behind the seat of the truck for just such occasions. I waded to the South end of the pond, the dozens of fish wallowing there beckened me on. I was about to step again when a long dark shape caught my attention. The mouth was long and the nose was light gray at the tip. A shortnosed gar! I haven't shot one in a few years, this was a treat! I drew and aimed... right over the very thin fish. I was really disappointed in not capitalizing on the chance, until I saw the carp rolling about 20 yards further on. I had a fantastic shoot, filling a cooler quickly and I was back in the truck headed for work. The entire hunt took only 17 minutes and I shot over 30 times! I went back to the flooded ditch this past weekend. The water is about a foot lower and the weather was really poor. Visibility on cloudy days with wind is about zero. I did manage to see about 20 carp, several shortnosed gar and a long fish, possibly a pike, but it moved so quickly that IDing it was impossible. I managed a shot at 2 large gar and this one wasn't very lucky!

I am not advocating hunting in every flooded interstate ditch, that can be dangerous, parking and entering/leaving your vehicle, but it might be the perfect place to look. I don't even know if fishing is legal in the interstate right of way, I know hunting isn't, but bowfishing is regulated by fishing rules. I am trying to show that tiny, unusual locations can be hidden hot spots for all kinds of outdoor activities. Being the first one to a location is often times the best. Keeping your equipment with you is the next step in taking advantage of an oportunity, then actually having the desire and where-with-all to get out and do it is icing on the cake.

Be on the look out for special locations, short term opportunities like a chance to be the first person to a flooded road ditch. Opportunities like this are only what we make of them!

The weekend was fantastic, bowfishing, deer scouting, crappie fishing, mushroom hunting, family time, my parents moved back for the summer and I only took 12 business calls this weekend! I shot the first gar of the season, I have to research somemore as I think it is a shortnosed gar, but am unsure. We saw several others and I shot at 2 times but missed... the first gar of the year. We found several big yellow mushrooms under elms, the Siberian Elms haven't been good for me yet this year. I walked some unbelievable public ground today, deer tracks and trails were everywhere. I followed the trails and I found the best funnel I have seen in years. I found a buck staging area that had at least 25 tree rubs from 3" across to over 8" across with most of them in the 6" size. I will be putting cameras in this area by mid summer and I will show you the pics, maybe we will find a shooter and you can be there for the entire season from now to harvest. I caught some crappie this weekend, the biggest being about 14" long. The big white crappied took a spinner with a chartruese tail. My parents are finally back from their winter home and my family got together for a Mother's Day meal. I hope everyone had a great weekend too. I will post the pics of the fish and talk about specific fish location ideas so you can look for the fish you are after.

I am fixing fish points and cleaning retreiver reels as I found the most awesome ditch filled with carp and gar. I did a 17 minute hunt on the flooded road ditch and I shot 8 fish and missed about that many more. We are going to get serious about it in the morning and I will have pics and guidance on finding hot spots like this in my next entry. I wil also go into the poor features of the Bohning fish points and how to fix them to prevent fold back and pull off problems. I fixed 4 of them and I think I will break the line now before the barbs fold back again! Wish me luck!

The spring rains have come to Eastern Iowa in huge quantities. My favorite ponds are as full as they can be, the creeks are like a yo-yo, up and down. My local rivers have left their banks for several days in a row and my favorite carp killing reservoir is as high as I can remember.

This road is several miles from where I normally put in my boat, the water changed our launch location! I would have put in right here if the logs hadn't drifted in so tight.
High water is a blessing for hunters, the water floods new areas of grass and other brushy vegetation and the carp move in to look over the fresh food source. I actually ended up hunting behind the logs from the bank, the carp were stacked at the mouths of creeks and feeder streams. This water was clear as it dumped into the chocolate milk colored reservoir, not only does this attract them, but they are much more visible there as well.

Carp shooting is as much an art as bow hunting for deer, setting goose decoys or fishing for walleye, each has it's seasonal factors and changes that affect the way the hunt is conducted. Spring hunting- cold water, spring rains change the water level weekly if not daily, no leaves on the trees, the sun is lower in the sky, no water vegetation, but lots of fresh land growth that is teporarily flooded.... lets go through them a little and see if I can help make your next trip a little better.
Cold Water- the carp are not wallowing and trying to spawn yet, which is the easiest time to kill 100 fish in a day or more. The fish usually are tail up in the water as they root around at the base of grass clumps or bushes. The fish often sit about a foot deep in clear areas as they try to warm up in the sun light.
Water Fluctuations- constant changes mean you have to be more flexible, and willing to walk more often as the fish are most often in the newest flooded material. One of my biggest secrets when hunting big fish, usually grass carp, is that when the res goes up and gets muddy, the grassys will be in the cleanest water, and some current will be a bonus. When we move out of these areas into the muddy water, the german carp become the norm.
No leaves on the trees- this means less shadowy areas, a many fold use. The fish are most easily seen in the bright sunlight so they are visible amongst the branches of flooded bushes now, when they won't be in the summer. Your shadow is now more visible and detrimental to the hunt. Carp see your shadow and sink out of sight or blow out and disturb the other fish near them, watch your shadow or kill less fish. The fish are going to relate to the bank more than flooded brush as in the summer as the only green material to eat is the bank grass, summer floods are awesome for shooting fish in the large flooded willow patches.
The sun is lower in the sky- the summer sun is more directly over us and thus produces better visibility and less paralax. Deep fish are barely visible this time of year as shadows are more prevalent due to the angle. The lower sun also is slower to warm shallow bays which can be one of the best shoots right after a major influx of new water. The bays flood 100 feet into new grass and the summer sun hits it for 1/2 the day... You are killing fish, in the spring, it might take a few days to warm up much. The angle of the sun also creates more reflection and even with polarized glasses, you still see less fish.
No water vegetation- In the summer I hunt the edges of weed beds like a wooded fence row between timbers during the rut! Fish will relate to these edges and I have sat, anchored in place, for most of a day and seldom had to wait more than a few minutes between shots. This is fantastic shooting practice and a very relaxing form of hunting. The good part of that is that all of the fish will be near the bank, much less gear is needed and more people will be able to enjoy the sport.

When the water comes up look for the clearest, warmest and most sheltered bays, hopefully with flooded grass, and you will find the fish. Hunt slow and use this time to tune up your equipment, it is only a matter of weeks and the fishing will be crazy good! We will be having multiple 100's of shots per day soon!

Location of a nutrition or attraction planting is key to success, perfect location and you will be on the cover of magazines for years to come, a poor location and you will be mowing lots of vegetation because nothing is eating it or visiting the plot. I talked considerably about location from the security factor. If a deer is not comfortable there, you will not see it there or at least not see it during day light hours. I think the next set of factors that will affect how you set up a plot is the "Limiting Factors" list. This list will help determine what to plant, when to plant, when to hunt the plot, how the plot will affect the overall management of the property... this small concept will affect you in ever part of planning this plot.
Evaluate your property, wether 4 acres or 4000, there is something missing somewhere. Catalog your basics, water sources- is there year round water or is your property totally lacking any surface water. Bedding areas- that is the thick security cover that offers shade in the hot months and dense hiding cover. Loafing areas- that means open hill sides and ridge tops where deer can relax, groom, have good visibility of their surroudings while in the shade or partially concealed. Harsh weather protection- that includes large enough areas of thick evergreen materials or tall native grass areas to offer thermal and predator protection. Spring food and mineral stations- the deer are coming off of the hardest part of their year, their bodies are able to shift from survival to weight gain and antler developement, do they have just enough or is life easy for them to allow for maximum recovery at this crutial time. Summer food- that is enough high protien food, in proper location to the water and bedding/loafing areas to provide security with out traveling too far. Special foods/treats- that is the seasonal biggies that draw deer off of average properties in droves. This could be apples, and other fruits, grapes, both vines and fruits, acorns... any super attractive seasonal food. Fall foods- the deer start to work towards hard grains, legumes such as peas and beans, agricultural crops and twiggy or woody plant materials they will start to eat just before winter. Winter food- this is the tough time, the time in a deer's life where it will not be able to gain weight, recover completely from the rigors of rutting activity, stress and severe winter weather. This is usually grain products, beats, turnips, woody brouse and ground covers such as clover, brassica and winter wheat/relatives such as rye and tricolate. What if there is 6" more snow than average? What can the deer get to then? What if the snow lasts over 100 days and it gets ice build up on it? What is available then?
I have properties where the limiting factor is size. The deer have learned over the past 5 years that about October 1 the eating is really good. They flock to this property until the weather gets really bad and by then there are too many deer and the food source is depleated. That is fine for bow hunting, but it is not a true food source to better the overall heard.
My goal is to pull as many deer off of the fringe areas around me, using the seasonal perks the deer get from those properties, as possible. The main range for the deer is on me or the ground I contol the hunting pressure/harvest decisions on. This is fantastic if you have enough ground or if you are backed up to a refuge of some sort. This could be municiple areas, golf courses, actual state or federal refuges, or my favorite... it backs up to a huge private property where no hunting is allowed! I love these places as they protect deer in a natural setting while I can use plantings and foresight to pull the deer to my hunting locations when the time is right!
Catalog your limiting factors, in writing to help see patterns, using arial photos and take notes on these photos to understand the crop rotation around you. We will get more detailed on each factor and how you might use it to better your land.

This big deer was taken by examining the limitig factors of 3 things; 1. Winter food with snow on the ground 2. Heavy cover between the food and the bedding/loafing cover and 3. the only crossing over a water filled ditch that was no longer crossable due to thin ice! Limiting Factors come in many shapes and styles, if you learn to see them this way, you will be able to quickly evaluate properties and logically put yourself in the key areas when needed!

The bull was huge, there is no other way to describe it, way over 1500 lbs. This magnificant creature was the biggest eland ever taken on this ranch and when it was harvested was in the top 75 ever recorded, today the bull still scores in the top 105 all time. The bullet had entered exactly as I wanted, just behind the last rib. It traveled over 50" through both lungs, just above the heart and into the off shoulder. The bullet was recovered and the 300 grain Trophy Bonded Bear Claw bullet retained an amazing 98% of it's original weight. I had walked for over 2 days, lost sleep, lost weight, fought exhaustion and dehydration, all of the important parts of earning a trophy of this caliber, then I got the results in the easiest harest seen by my PH, a 60 yard standing shot from a rest. I wish I had my bow, I believe I could have moved up on the bull into easy range. The wind, the noise from the leaves, I believe it would have been perfect, this bull would have scored many inches over the current free range Livingston Eland World Record... it wasn't to be, as I left the bow back at camp.

That was my question at lunch. Arlan had come into our part of the ranch and managed to spook the small herd we had been following for the better part of 2 1/2 days! Lunch was quiet and cold, I was not in the mood to eat much. I unloaded my equipment, bow, quiver, binocs, 2 rifles, knives, camera, everything that had been building up there over the last few days. I was dejected and in the mood to go take a nap, and try to wake up on a different day. Even the trackers were down and Allan was just numb. We pouted around the circular, thatched roof cabin for about an hour, no one sure how to get out of the funk we were in. "We could just go ride around... the trackers and fuel were payed for in my daily rates right? Let's just go and try to find something for in the morning." My idea must have hit the spot because life started to creap into my new African friends. I took only my Remington 700 in .375 H&H Mag and my camera. That is all we needed, no expectations, desires or requirements, I was in Africa on Safari, How Dare I Pout!
We drove the road towards the burns we had been walking around lately. The amount of sign was proof that huge herds of animals were eating the fresh growth. We used a different gate to enter that pasture. The ranch was once a working cattle ranch and it was cut into 4 different pastures. In the middle of the property there was a set of sorting pens and loading shoots, we used the gate that let to this area of the ranch. I hadn't been to this area, it is not a game filled area, so it is seldom seen by the hunters that visit the ranch. I am such a "People Watcher" that Allan believed I might appreciate the way the workers lived. We came to a group of stick huts, a village if you will, built to support the workers during the times of cattle movement. I couldn't believe the simple ways of these people. They had almost no modern conveniences and lived without beds, linens, common utensils or the basics that we take for granted in the US. Laundry was done in the river or the small creek that wound it's way from the lake to the river. Drinking and cooking water was from the same pool! A common fire was often used for several men to cook over and the amount of food these people lived on each day made me feel greedy. I ate more daily than a normal worker ate in 3 days.

This primative area is the lodging for almost 20 workers when the cattle are being sorted and moved.

We started back towards the burn, the trackers and I got along very well, they were not used to someone who genuinely cared about them and the way they lived, most paying hunters only want to find more animals to harvetst. In our conversations I asked again "Is there ever an easy Eland?" Allan failed to answer me at lunch so as I asked the second time I assumed the answer would be a resounding "NO". I was right, he started in on stories about people hunting for over a week to get a good shot at one, others had not gotten one at all. He was talking about how close we were and how seldom a big bull gets taken when I looked up to see a native cow. It was a long ways off, standing in the open against a bush. I noticed it but didn't think much of it as we drove on. We rounded another bend in the dirt 2 track, and the cow looked like a Brahma bull. We rounded another bend and that put us directly behind the big bull and we were driving straight at it. We got about 60 yards from the domestic bull when the lead tracker grabbed my shoulder and pointed. His excited speech caught Allan in mid sentence and he quickly stopped the truck. I actually looked at the animal in front of us and realized it was infact a Livingston Eland. Huge is an understatement, this bull was monsterous. We had a direct rear view of him and only his back legs and his dangling manhood was visible. The bull was standing with his head in a very dry bush. He was facing into the wind and the leaves were a constant rattle. I think he was using the leaves to keep any remaining bugs out of his eyes as he slept.
I couldn't beleive my fortune, I was sitting about 60 yards from a mature bull eland. "Where is my bow?" I was frantic, looking for my bow I finally realized I had left it back at camp. I laid the rifle on the bonnet, the windshield was already down, and used the scope to examine the huge buckskin colored animal. The tail was a lot like a cow from back home, a short haired main section with a tuft of hair on the end. The hips could have been from any over sized bovine, the back hams were huge. The scrodum hung larger than I remembered, I guess I never spent any time examining one, but that big dangling pouch looked like it would be perfect for the tobacco I smoked in my pipe. I was already thinking about how cool it would look on a leather cord, lined in red silk. While we sat watching, he finally lifted his head. He actually shook his head as if a fly was bothering him. That exposed his long spiral horns. Allan about dropped his binocs. "Shoot him, shoot him!" I settled into the rifle and waited, I didn't want to try a Texas Heart Shot. I don't usually shoot animals directly from the rear and I wasn't going to start on one this big. I waited. The bull shifted his massive weight to his right side. The movement exposed his rib cage on the left side and I could see the last rib on the near side. "I am going to slip the bullet over the back ham, into the flank, and that should hit the off side leg" The plan looked easy enoug, I just knew the back leg would be large enough to stop the bullet if I missed. I settled in again and squeezed the trigger. The recoil was almost unfelt, I was still able to see the massive bull as he donkey kicked and lunged through the bush. He was behind the bush and running all out, a fantastic site. The bull turned 90 degrees to the right and was coming into the open at about 80 yards when he piled up. I had just harvested the largest Eland anyone on the ranch had ever seen. We raced to the fallen beast and the awe started.

The morning dawned clear and warm, the trackers, Allan and I went to look for my wildcat. I could tell I made the 19 yard shot, the white feathers looked like a tracer bullet in the tacticle flashlight. The lung tissue on the rocks and the massive blood trail was easy to follow to the beautiful little cat. Other than it's large size and the brown hair tufts behind it's ears, it looked just like a barn cat from back home. I felt sort of funny, having traveled half way around the world to shoot a stray cat! Pictures were taken, my arrow was recovered and we went in for breakfast.
Breakfast was completed and we journeyed to the burn area where we lost the eland tracks before. We found the tracks and started the millipede routine again, for the 3rd day. I was tired, the trackers were tired, we had logged way more miles on foot than I had expected in the past few days. We weren't on the tracks and it bacame obvious that we were getting close. The sand was very wet from their urine, the droppings were still warm, the sap was still running where the eland pulled down branches. We had to be close. The entire group worked up onto a pile of rocks for an elevated field of view. I was just settling in when the sound of an approaching vehicle. I sat in horror as Arlan drove by, about 400 yards away. I saw brief flashes of the white vehicle as they had decided to check the leopard baits on our side of the ranch. Allan was furious, his uncle was the PH for the other 2 hunters in camp and they had gotten so drunk last night he allowed the hunters to venture for themselves. They were not to be on this side of the 40,000 acre property! Movement caught my eye... 3 eland were now visible, about 100 yards away, racing through the trees with no hope for a shot. I was furious, I asked if I could shoot Arlan. The natives use a term "bwana" a respectful term for boss such as a PH. "Bwanga" means fat and bald man. Arlan believed he was being called the PH term but as I found out, he was the running joke on this farm. He had hunted ther for over 20 years and fancied himself MR AFRICA. I was ready to bury him there. The group returned to the truck, quiet and disappointed, we headed back to camp for lunch.

I just finished a fantastic story about a cat in africa with my bow... somehow the page expired and I lost the entire hours worth of work. Sorry, I will have to go back and rewrite it later. I am getting up early to work on food plots and hunt for turkeys, sorry.

OK, I admit it, I started this series a little disorganized. I was so into the plot Jody and I put in that I mislabeled it, got ahead of the first several steps, stepped on my own feet and probably got some people confused. I will bring this back together before planting season is over!

The first step in getting into the management concept is being involved in the political side of the equation. Some people buy duck stamps and don't hunt, some take others hunting and don't carry a weapon themselves, some just stay active in fund raising and in gathering votes or notice for good outdoor related causes. To any and all of these people I say thank you, your efforts help me and yet you are never praised. Thank you again. This is going to be geared towards the people that take a little more aggressive action towards management. The CONSUMPTIVE outdoorsman, the individual who is going to buy a tag, even occasionally, and attempt to harvest animals.
Educating yourself and those around you with hunter's safety classes and possibly more, is a good step. Some of you will be involved by passing a known button buck, a yearling buck or by not taking a questionable shot at an unknown deer. Those steps are all good too.
The goal to managing for deer is just that, managing FOR deer. I know some people that think they can manage THE deer, they are driving themselves crazy. We need to determine our desires, turn them into goals and strive to achieve them. This is nature, it is God's design and Devine Intervention when we succeed on any level in the Fairchase world. I am not talking here about high fence farm animals. They are fun to hunt and great sport but they are the animals that can be managed as animlas go. The precise breeding pedigree is established and the natural side of things is reduced. I am talking about the ways of Nature.
We must determine our involvement level. Monetarily, time availability, personal goals... the WHY of it all. If you are the guy who just wants to have a better chance at killing a "good" buck, better than you have in the past perhaps, this can help. If you want to get very serious and attempt to create an environment where the next world record is grown, I might have something to help there too.
You must get permission on a property. That might be to buy the ground, lease the ground or just ask and get daily or "open" permission from the landowner. I have very little ground that I own, I lease very little ground anymore, almost all of my hunting is done by permission. We could go on about getting on the ground, keeping it, landowner relations etc. but you need to figure that out for yourself. I will give this advice: Be genuinely concerned with the landowners well being, his property and lively hood, and you will go and stay much farther. I make it a point to be what the landowner wants, and then a tiny bit better.

You are on a plot of ground and you want to make it better for the deer, you are just dabbling and want something easy. You could merely spring seed a mowed area with clover and alfalfa. These plants will easily germinate and grow, require very little help and if allowed to stay in the 4 to 10" size, will provide a quality food supply in an area that there wasn't before. I turned a plot of grass, a back yard actually into a food plot by doing just what I am suggesting. I don't hunt right on the spot, but the deer come to it everynight. You might be a little more serious or adventurous than this, and you want to clear ground and plant something to be able to hunt over. A Kill Plot, as we defined before. This will require you to look for a niche in your area. What is missing at the time you can hunt? If you are in an urban area, the odds are that anything you plant will be devoured and you will have to shoot lots of deer just to protect the planting. If you are in rural Iowa and there is lots of standard ag practices around you, much more thought will be needed.
I personally believe security is the most overlooked, under talked about and most limiting factor of any site to be hunted. Big deer are old deer, old deer have seen many hunts, variables, mistakes and normal life occurances. Deer can be conditioned, but I also believe they can be educated. Both of these will be involved in a deer's feelings of security.
Conditioned deer are the ones that run out of a timber in the same manner each time you enter it, they follow the same trails, they are predictable for a certain stimulus... your movements. Educated deer are the ones who learned a lesson, who saw a specific activity by a human and know to look for it. The best example I could give you is the big doe that caught you moving one time and now everytime you see her, she is head up, eyes wide, looking at your stand or scent checking your location. That educated deer must be killed immediately if you want to continue hunting that area. That deer will educate the other deer and soon you will have no deer in shooting range... ever! Set a new stand about 20 yards down wind of where it always shows up (it is now becoming conditioned as well, which is easy to kill!), put a normal coat in your original stand to give off odor, and wait. That deer will show up, scent trail you to the normal comfort zone limits and you will have a simple shot. I have decoyed several does this way and it has saved many a good tree stand location. The goal of plantings is to educate the deer to the location and then condition them to patternable levels. Security at a slightly better than average location will almost always be better than a great food supply or source and open view to everyone and everything in the area. Big deer, as a rule, are not very showy. They are not snobby movie stars who want attention. It is just the opposite, the biggest deer I have seen are loners, masters of seclusion and survival. That big deer needs to be comfortable in your area and that requires attention to details. You must stay out of the area as much as possible. That might be keeping your dog from running in that timber on weekends when you are cutting wood, or it might mean you don't set foot on the area except for shed hunting and planting... PERIOD! Always think about what the deer is going to see or smell the next time it enters your area. Do you want to educate it to a particular tree that you want to hunt from by letting your kids climb into your ladder stand every weekend? NO. Do you want to condition that deer to moving at 9:20am everyday as that is when you leave the property most days to go to work? That deer will become educated the first time it cuts your smell and it will pattern you after the second time, and then it will be conditioned. That might mean it leaves your property permanently due to the intrusion. I know I am sounding like you need 2 properties, one for deer hunting and one for normal life enjoyment... I am not saying that, but the really top end guys are doing just what I suggest. Keep your intrusion to a minimum and provide security for you deer.
Security is more than just no human intervention. It is a control on the factors that limit a deers life. Predators, travel distances between food, water and seasonal shelter requirements, stress due to herd size or population density, Seasonal changes that affect the limited specific available food sources ex. dry year so mast trees don't produce and most of your deer move to less affected areas. Security will keep the deer in an area when most other things fail. Want proof of this? Where are the deer coming from when they enter the cornfield, alfalfa, beans or forbes at days end? Security, their safety zone or loafing area. I went long here as I want to show how important I believe this factor is.
In my next entry, I will get into my second most important idea... identifying limiting factors.