wild turkey adventure...

My boys and I spent last weekend trying to hunt wild turkeys out in a county close to the Missouri River in my state of South Dakota. A pretty problematic situation in that its late in the season because the birds have been hunted hard, are scattered especially on publicly accessible land, and good turkey habitat is either few and far between or is inaccessible. But most days out in the field are better than one in the office or on the couch, so we gave it a try.

We tried pretty hard but by Sunday morning well after sun up things were looking dim. But then again things can change in a hurry and my younger hs freshman (who is the more aggressive hunter) ended up bushwhacking (South Dakota style) a nice tom. What was ironic was that he ended up getting this one about 150 yards away from a chance encounter last year.







I'll take 1 out of 3 birds in this type of situation although I think dad should get to fire a shot in at least every 3 years or so...

A bonus on the way across the county on a township gravel road (most of the township roads are gravel), we came upon a freshly roadkilled badger. The fur of course looked like crap but the front feet were in good shape and I hoped the skull as well. I threw him in the trunk and then later at home cut off and skinned out his front feet (1 nail was busted off the others were in good shape). Hopefully I can sell the borax dried feet on ebay for $5-10 a set.

Alas, the skull was busted up from him getting hit on the road but I did manage to get out half of the lower jaw that had both both front canines (if that's the proper call for them) and part of the sides of the upper jaw with a canine each. I boiled these a bit but I think I'll throw them on an ant pile that is in my wild grass area of the back yard and see if the bugs, sun, and rain with clean them up more. The bottom jaw thing is sort of unique in that I think mr. digger had a Bill Murry Caddyshack slur in this jaw. The big teeth aren't in perfect line of each other across the jaw and this actually makes holding it a bit nicer. Maybe it can be made into a nice little knife handle when all cleaned up!

Gee .... it's amazing. The wildlife has been making a comeback here. My back yard seems to be critter central now. Was having my morning coffee at about 5:30 A.M. the other day and a couple of hens were out on the lawn feeding. A couple of days later the Tom showed up.

The place is crawling with deer after sundown. Sometimes the doe and her lamb will come out during the day while i'm working in the yard. She doesn't seem to care as long as there's some distance between us.

Got nothing against hunting & trapping.... it's just that i like to watch all the creatures that pass through during the cycle of the seasons.

It's kind of a comfort too. Things will probably be fine, but if the ship ever does hit the fan we know we will be able to provide for ourselves. Between what's available from the land and from the ocean there will be plenty enough to feed the people here in the island for years.

And some pics from the past week or two of the fish I've caught. In this first he one with me on a friends boat out on the the Saltwater down the shore theirs no fish to show because cause I had a big Bluefish but we were rigged for Fluke and my buddy refused to use the net saying it would have ruined it so as he tried to pull it into the boat by the gabbing the monofilament leader Naturally the leader snapped from the sharp teeth these Bluefish have. It had to be 10 pounder at least, and I lost my Bluefish that I fought and played out for ten mins just to get him boat-side. I'm bringing my own Gaff next time Still a great day though

This was my first Largemouth Bass in like 4 years. Not huge but not a bad size for a public lake in North East NJ though.Caught him on my long time favorite. A Zoom Super-Fluke Plastic Jerkbait.


Here's the First fish I caught in my newly Camo Painted Trapping Canoe on her maiden voyage in the swamps nearby my house. Its a a tiny brown bullhead catfish I believe.

And Finally this decent sized Channel Cat? not sure that I got on a live worm with a bell sinker from a boat launch dock in the Passaic River on the other side of town recently.

Oh and here's my nice coon pelt I got with the newly NJ Fur-Trapping approved Dog-proof Trap (other states have allowed these traps for years)
Yes I'm Licensed Fur-trapper BTW

Thanks for sharing your outdoor adventures Jersey D. I dig that canoe of yours!!! Your various fish look good. One of the success stories of federal and state efforts on cleaning up our rivers over the past 40 years is that fisheries have improved greatly. Now, I don't know if I would eat fish from the Passiac River every week on a regular basis but that's a fine looking channel cat.

I hope you getting your share of old a/cs people are getting rid of in your area. FreonJoe just had a nice thread about his coolant recovery and finding a new buyer a good distance away from him. You probably have a number of options for selling the recovered coolant in the Gotham metro area. Good luck!!!