Possibly Attending the Bassmaster Classic

The Bassmaster Classic is probably the closest it will ever be to me this year at Grand Lake, Oklahoma.  I have always wanted to attend an event and this would be the top notch event to attend.

I would already have my bags packed but there are a couple things keeping me from going.  I don't like large crowds.  We were at Chuck E Cheese this weekend and it was too crowded for my liking.  The other thing is that I may be traveling to Grand Lake in 2 more weeks for a tournament.  With a new baby, and my wife not working, I don't know that I could afford 2 trips there in less than a month.

One of my friends has booked a room at the Grand Casino close to the lake.  If he invites me to stay with them, I will go.  I would like to go to the launch ramp and watch them get ready to take off in the mornings.  The take-off is outdoors so the crowds wouldn't seem as bad.  I would probably go to a weigh in too since I would be there. 

If I do go I will not fish the BFL tournament 2 weeks later. 

It's a tough decision.  I would love to see my favorite Pro's in person.  This will be my one chance to fish in a tournament this year.  Either one would be a blast.  My son could go with me to the Classic where he wouldn't be able to go to the tournament. 

More Camping This Year

We are over half way through January and I am still not planning on fishing the BFL next year.  I wish there were a club series around here, or water for that matter. 

The longer I go without fishing, the more I wonder if I can make it a year without fishing the BFL's.  Signing up for that has always given me the excuse that I have to go.  I am going to try to fish the first one at Grand Lake, but that may be it. 

We are really wanting to get out camping quite a bit this spring.  Having a tournament series along with family commitments, and friend commitments, and work around the house ties me up so that I cannot go camping.  Maybe, if I don't fish the tournaments it will free up a little time.

Once the baby gets here, I will have a little better idea of what to expect.  The 2 older boys are starting to get to where they can take care of themselves a little bit.

I was thinking about selling the boat this spring but don't think I will.  It would be a good year to do it.  I could sell it and watch for a newer bass boat for when I get back into tournament fishing. 

I'm hoping that Canton Lake will fill back up this spring.  It's now 9 to 10 foot low and would be impossible to put a boat in.  It may be a little safer as I heard that the islands are now sticking up out of the water so you know where they are at.  It's our one close lake at 1 1/2 hours away that I know I can catch fish at.  We can pull both the boat and the camper there.  A lot of the other lakes I would love to try are 2 to 2 1/2 hours away.  It would be quite a bit more costly to pull both the boat and the camper that far. 

This should be a good year for fishing and camping as the boys are at a perfect age to start learning some new things, like tubing, and maybe the older one can start tying on his own lures.  I'll at least put a snap swivel on for him so he can change them himself.

Maybe I will schedule camping trips like I have booked bass tournaments.  I can pick out weekends that I think will work and book a campground at some lake that weekend.  Then I can try out new lakes and be committed to go camping.  Then when somebody says, "Can you help me with this, this weekend?", I can say, "Sorry Charlie, I've already paid for a camping spot for this weekend."

Winchester Shells - Bad

Friday around lunch time Dad called and asked if I still wanted a deer.  I have had a few people ask if I wanted a deer this year but each time they did not get one.  I told him I did.  He said to come up then he could pretty much guarantee me a deer.

I took off work about an hour early and headed North 4 1/2 hours to Mom and Dad's.  It was blowing around 45 mph the whole way.  At one point as I was passing a semi going the opposit direction, a gust helped by the truck hit the explorer hard.  I heard the roof collapse a little then pop back out and a loud snapping sound.

When I got to the next town I pulled over and looked at my roof rack.  The wind burst had busted my roof rack and taken one of the cross bars.  I was dissapointed but still excited to get to go hunting with Dad.

During my drive after dark the whole way I had many deer run out in front of me.  I could have gotten several with the truck on the way to Mom and Dad's.  The deer are thick.

It was late by the time I visited with Mom and Dad for a bit and got to bed.

Saturday morning we got up at sunrise and started driving around looking for a whitetail doe to fill Dad's tag.  We saw a ton of Mule deer on the land we have access to hunt and a ton of Whitetail deer on private, no hunting, no tresspassing, keep out, violators will be prosecuted land.

Finally we checked a piece of land that that had trees and a spring surrounded by corn.  We walked in and saw a large herd of whitetails.  We couldn't get a shot at them and they were on top of the next hill by the time we got out of the trees to see where they were. 

We could see they were wanting to come back in there so we left and made a plan to come back before sunrise on Sunday and sneak in there.

Sunday morning I was awakened by Dad at 6:00 to get ready to go hunting. We were out the door and on the road well before sun up. We made it to our hunting grounds by the time the sun was coming up over the horizon.

The first thing we saw was a bunch of turkeys roosting in the trees near where the deer were. It was going to be tough to walk in there without spooking the turkeys and not spooking the deer.

We waited until we could see then started sneaking down a fence row towards the deer hangout. We started sneaking and about 7 steps out of the 100's more to go the turkey's flew down from the tops of the trees. Our cover had been blown.

We continued as quietly as we could, which was far from silent as our coveralls rustled and frozen plants crumbled with each step.

We reached the trees and saw the deer running out the other side. Well crap. That might have been our one chance at getting a whitetail. The deer then stopped in the middle of a corn field at the edge of a draw. We decided to sneak down the middle of the draw and come up close to where they were hanging out.

This time we were downwind as the wind had finally picked up a little bit to cover our noise, and we found a clean path to follow to stay quiet.

I stayed back so I could only see the top of the deers head and let dad get ahead to get a shot. He stood up and sighted in the deer. Click. No boom. I see Dad eject the shell and bolt in another. Click. No boom. Same thing. This time he messes with the gun for a minute. You can see he's taking a little longer to aim this time. Click. No boom. He bolts in the last bullet and takes aim again. The deer are getting ancy but still haven't moved. Click. No boom.

The deer take off and Dad walks back to me. The gun fired fine the day before when he fired a shot at a piece of trash in the woods. Today nothing.

We get back to the truck after a good hike and Dad looks at the firing pin and other features of the gun. Everything looks o.k. We look at the bullets and all four had strike marks in the rim fire. We decided to try a bullet out of another box of shells. Booom! Put in one of the shells that did not fire and click.

Winchester had made a whole box of bad shells. It cost us a deer, my money getting up there and back and my time spent hunting the last 2 days.
We had planned everything out perfectly to finally get a shot and nothing.

I did have a great time hunting with Dad and am not to concerned about not getting a deer, but I am thoroughly peeved that Winchester makes such a bad product. These were new factory shells. I pulled up a search on the internet and saw that they have had other issues with this.

We will probably never by a box of Winchester shells again.

We had to call it a day after that as I had a 4 1/2 hour drive home today.

Now that the season has closed, I have pretty much decided that this year I am going to get my own tags to hunt.  I may not get a deer either, but it is a lot of fun trying.

Epic Bachelor Party Epic Prank

It looks as if most of the party will have budget constraints so we have narrowed down the scope some.  We will try to stay close.  Pending approval of the Bachelor we are looking at renting a houseboat for the weekend.  With several of us chipping in together it is fairly reasonable. 

We found a place that rents them out during the off season like a hotel.  You are stuck on the dock but that's ok with us.  We can still fish and have fun.  We will be outdoors.  I can take my boat so we can go out on the lake if anyone wants to.

We didn't get much other than that planned as one of us didn't make it down to OKC last time.   Since the bachelor doesn't drink we are thinking of having a nice dinner out one night.  The rest of the weekend, LOOK OUT!  The rest of us are going to drink a little.

I like the idea of the heated dock mentioned in the comments on the last post.  If the bachelor isn't up for something like that, I will probably talk to a couple buddies and see about doing that some other time.

To make things epic, I am thinking we will need an epic prank.  I'm drawing a blank on this one.  If anybody has any ideas for an epic prank that will not scar him mentally or physically I'd love to hear them.  If it will only hurt a little, I guess you can throw those in too.  More than one prank has to be more epic!

 

Epic Bachelor Party Ideas

My friend is getting married next spring and my other friend and I are in charge of planning the bachelor party.  Tonight I am driving down to Oklahoma City to come up with a date and ideas for the bachelor party. 

This will be one of the last of my close friends to get married, for the first time, so we are wanting to do something epic.  We are going to try to plan a long weekend trip.

My friend doesn't drink so a 3 day bender is out of the question.

We are thinking that a trip somewhere to do something is what is in order.  But what, and where?

The few ideas we have tossed around so far is driving down to the Gulf in Texas and get a charter to go fishing.  Most of us love to fish and none of us have been fishing in the Ocean.  It will be warmer there in February/March.

We are also considered going to colorado and renting a cabin or condo to go skiing.  We would prefer to go fly fishing but at that time of the year it will be more sensable to go skiing.

There is also an option to get a cabin closer to us, but at that time of year there is not much that I can think of for us to do.  A couple years ago we rented a cabin and a boat at Lake of the Ozarks and had a great time boating and swimming.  This will be a little early in the year for that.  We are looking at doing something that will be as appealing as that was.

Vegas is a traditional big bachelor party experience, and I know several of us want to go there anyway, but the cost may be too high for some of our friends.  We could see about staying at a closer hotel and casino in Oklahoma or Kansas.

The three of us will be together this weekend.  We seem to always come up with new and exciting ideas when we are together.  Who knows when or where we will end up.  I guarantee you, it will be epic.

If you can think of any epic bachelor party ideas leave a comment. 

Thinking About Selling My Boat

The area I live in is pretty poor for fishing or boating.  Both of the larger lakes within an hour and a half drive are way low, to the point you cannot get a boat on them this fall.  The smaller lakes and ponds are really low as well. 

I was only able to get my boat out on 2 occasion's this last year.  I'm starting to wonder if it is worth having a boat here. 

It has crossed my mind to take my boat up north to Dad's or down South to Oklahoma City.  Both are quite a ways away though.  I bought a camper and would love to be able to go camping and fishing this spring and summer, but there is nowhere close to do that.  It's at least a 2 1/2 hour drive to get to anywhere that has enough water.

Dad is thinking of buying a pontoon for when we go up there to fish and camp with them so I won't need my boat up there anyway. 

Really, a smaller boat that I can throw on top of the explorer would be more of what I need around here unless Canton lake fills up this spring.  I'm tired of paying 100's of dollars every year, to keep a boat, hoping that Canton will be usable. 

We just aren't getting any moisture to keep the few lakes we have full.

I decided that I am not going to be fishing the BFL's this year so I can do some more camping with my family.  It would be great to have my boat when we do that, but then we need a second pulling vehicle.  The cost of that is also driving me to think of selling.

It may be time to sell my boat.  Maybe things will change by spring.  If not, I will haul my boat up North to my parents to sell it.  They live around a lot of good fishing and I think I could get more money out of it and a quicker sell.

Deer Jerky

Living out in the middle of nowhere, I stock up on a lot of food when we do go shopping with the exception of meat.  I usually have a freezer full of meat.  There is always a decent supply of fish and deer meat.  I have never been deer hunting to shoot a deer, but I usually get a deer from somebody that wants to go out hunting but does not want to clean the deer.  We get some beef from different people that are butchering a cow and need to clean out their old stock. 

Needless to say, I end up with a good amount of meat and some of it needs to be used up pretty quickly.  I have found a way to quickly use up my old meat so it does not go to waste.  I can either grind it up into burger, or turn it into jerky.

This weekend I opted for the latter and made 2 batches of jerky.  I started the first batch Friday night.  I grabbed an old roast we had just gotten from somebody.  I sliced it up and trimmed off the fat.  I then placed it into one of my favorite jerky marinades that consists of water, viniger, salsa, oyster sauce, liquid smoke, season salt, barbecue seasoning, garlic salt, chili powder, onion powder, and pepper.  I add a lot of seasonings and salts. 

That night I had dreams about tasting the jerky.  The next morning I put the strips on the dehydrator and let it do it's job.  A few hours later the jerky was done and it was great.  That night, I sliced up a hind quarter of a deer to do the same thing.  This time I let it marinade for a couple days.  Last night I made 2 batches out of the hind quarter.  It was not quite as flavorful as the beef since I had sliced it a little thicker, but it still got the nod of approval from my 6 year old. 

He had gotten into the beef jerky the other night and ate a whole zip lock bag full.  I had shared a lot of it with other people and had not gotten to eat a lot myself, so I was a little dissapointed because it was really good.  Last night when I went to put the meat on the dehydrator I realized I had not taken the beef jerky off one of the racks.  I still had a zip lock bag of beef jerky.  I hid it from the kids.  They can munch on the deer jerky.

I have another hind quarter to cut up tonight that my brother in law gave me to make into jerky, as long as he gets some. 

Another reason I started this jerky making marathon is to clean out some larger meat out of the freezer to make room for another deer.  Dad's neighbor has a tag to fill and does not want to clean the deer so he is going to shoot one, tag it, and give it to me.  As soon as he shoots it, I will make a trip up North to skin it, process it and bring it back.  A deer is definately worth 8 hours of drive time.

Since I shared the jerky with others, some of them are asking me if I want more meat to turn into jerky.  Who am I to say no?