Winter in Imlay City- 2005
Talk about a star property! This Imlay City farm provided excitement from the first day of my posting efforts. In late June, I was putting up some signs along the northwestern border of the property when I noticed large fish breaking the surface out near the middle of a nearby pond. One of our members had left a small duck boat on the bank in anticipation of the waterfowl opener, and I carry a spinning rod and tackle box in the van all summer, so I decided to explore the fishing opportunities on the many ponds and connecting canals that predominated this farm. The first pond was too weed-choked for anything but a floating weedless lure, so I put on a floating worm and headed out. It took me three or four casts to finally hit open water, but when I did hit a clear patch it immediately exploded with a vicious strike that brought the bass a foot clear of the water, and the worm two feet clear. The next cast prompted a second strike that netted me a three pound glob of weeds. Two more lost fish, and I went looking for less frustrating territory in the next pond. In the connecting canal, I noticed some open water up next to the bank and tried a cast. Another immediate strike and the fish buried himself in the nearest weed bed. I pulled over close to the weeds, horsed him to the surface, pealed enough greenery off to find his mouth and lipped him into the boat. Seasoned practitioners of Murphy’s Law will know what comes next. A two foot long pike clamped down on my thumb with several of his longest teeth and commenced to thrash around sufficiently to gain my full attention. By the time I was able to let loose, he had opened multiple cuts along my thumb, and by the time I extracted my hook and released him, I was contemplating a trip to the nearest emergency room for a blood transfusion. Luckily I had two Band-Aids left in my first aid kit, so I was fishing again within minutes; wiser for the experience - these waters contained toothy critters as well as bass. The next pond down the canal was open water with a few patches of weeds around the edges so I headed that way. When I got close enough to reach the spot where the canal emptied into the pond, I pitched the bait as far as I could into the open, intending to ease it back up to the edge of the weeds. As soon as it hit the surface, there was a boil of water and the pink worm disappeared. This time I boated a bass that was in the neighborhood of five pounds. Two casts later, another monster bass; then another. By nightfall, I had caught thirty-one bass, and the top five would all have been over five pounds. I didn’t actually have a scale with me, but I started marking the length of the biggest fish on the boat paddle with my knife, and the top six were over twenty inches. The biggest was over twenty six inches and the average was probably around eighteen inches. Within a week I was back on these waters accompanied by Kelly Gotch and Gabe VanWormer from Michigan Out-Of-Doors Television to film a bass fishing episode. Even though we didn’t get any over twenty inches to pose for the camera, we caught several bass on camera and it was a great day of fishing.
The next event on this farm took place in August when I was finishing the posting. I had gotten many pictures of fawns and doe in early summer, but hadn’t seen any bucks until this trip. As I was posting one of the woodlines, a group of eight bucks wandered into the bean field. By the time I got my camera from the car there were only seven left - two were ten pointers, but the most mature looking deer had been an eight point bruiser that had left the group. I did get a few pictures before the light faded:
However, this was one of our most popular properties, so I didn’t plan to make any reservations during the early bow and gun seasons. I did make one last trip to this property in late September and got a few pictures to put on our website.
Almost every club member who hunted deer this season had reported many sightings, and the harvest was excellent. So when the late archery season rolled around, I reserved a few days on club properties in the last week of December, and this farm was on my list. On my first visit to some land near Flint I saw two young bucks fighting, a couple of doe, and a big group of deer grazing in the neighbor’s field. But there was not much movement, and nothing even came close to bow range. I had to cancel the next trip, but was able to block out the entire day on December 28th to hunt the Lapeer farm.
With the morning light came a driving rain that lasted long enough to melt most of the snow. The nasty weather kept things quiet all morning. I saw two doe cross a field, heading east toward a couple of houses in the distance, but nothing else (not even a squirrel) for hours. By mid-day most of the snow was gone, but I was still relatively dry when I got back to the Jimmy for lunch. I decided to move the car before the two-track washed totally away, so I headed for a road that bordered the east side of the property. There were at least two solid parking spots along the road, the wind was right for slipping into the woods from that direction, and there was a cattail swale that came right up to the road which served as a great funnel for east-west deer travel. I hoped the two deer I had seen earlier might have been headed toward a bedding area shared with other local deer — there was a thick, gnarly tangle of blow-downs and underbrush that was a likely spot between the cattails and a house at the northeast corner of the property. As I drove north past the house, I spotted a doe bedded down in the fencerow between the yard and the plowed field to the west. I drove up to a half-mile road, did a U-turn and headed back south to the house. As I coasted into the driveway and got out the binoculars, the deer alerted but didn’t spook. I looked her over, checked out the rest of the fencerow — nothing. Where the fence met the edge of the woods, there were several trees down and a lot of undergrowth, but even with all the heavy cover, as I glassed the woods there was a set of antlers clearly visible rising above a large tree-trunk lying parallel to the ground. I watched the antlers rock back and forth, twist left then right, but the angle was wrong to see any more of the deer, other than an occasional ear. The eight point rack was all I needed to see though — I eased back onto the road and headed for the closest parking spot.
All I had was white camo and most of the snow was gone, so I would have to find a route that was well out of sight from the bedding area. It would mean a wet crossing, so I put on some knee-high rubber boots and slung my insulated hunting boots across my back. It seemed to take the better part of an hour to cross the cattails, but I didn’t get a wet-foot so the delay would serve my comfort level well. Twenty minutes later I was settled into a sheltered spot that gave me a twenty yard shot to a trail along the cattails, and a ten yard shot to the main trail that bisected the woods. I was at least a hundred yards from the buck’s bed and it was a good spot, but when the wind changed I had to move further north so that my scent would blow into the field. Now I was in a spot that gave a twenty yard shot to the border of the field, a ten yard shot to the trail that paralleled the edge of the woods, and twenty-five yards shot back to the main trail that bisected the woods. I could see glimpses of the house and the fencerow, but couldn’t see the spot where the doe had been bedded. After another thirty minutes, the doe’s head came into view. She was headed toward the road. I tried a bleat call, but she only stopped for a moment, looked back my direction, and then continued out of sight. Over the next few minutes I heard movement, but cold not see the buck. When the sound seemed to be getting fainter, I got out the grunt call and rattle bag. I did one sequence and the noise of a moving deer prompted me to put down the toys and get ready to draw my bow. He was on the trail that would pass within ten yards, moving quickly and looking for a fight. When he went behind a large pine, I drew the bow and waited for him to step into the clear. I waited and waited — and thought about white camo against a dark background, wind direction changes, shot placement, focus. He stepped out and looked me square in the eye. He had gone to full alert while out of sight, so when I released, he reacted almost instantly I was aiming low, but hit high because he hunched down so far. The arrow hit, he jumped, stiffened out, and when he came down, he was dead. I have had spine shots before and they all seem to have a similar effect. I wish that I was a good enough marksman to purposely make that hit every time. It is humane and the tracking chore is a lot easier on my back.
It was raining in earnest again so my picture taking was abbreviated, but I planned to call one of the more artistic guys from the club and get some good photos for our website up by one of the entrances to the property. My idea dead deer/smiling hunter with club sign in the background–obviously lacked creativity, but one has to work with the tools God provides. I walked up to the house to get permission to drag the deer out through their yard rather that through the thick woods and wetlands. Nobody was answering the door, so I took that for a yes; and went to the car for my plastic deer drag (my wheelie would bog down in the muddy field). It seemed easier to just pull the Jimmy up to the drive and load the deer there, so that’s what I did. As luck would have it, a good Samaritan driving by saw me struggling the get the deer into the back of the car and stopped to help. He was a lifesaver — probably saved me from a heart attack. He did, of course, shut my finger in the car door; but I tried not to begrudge him that small indiscretion (there is nothing more dangerous than a rescuer). After all, if given the choice between a heart attack and a broken finger, I think most of us would choose the fracture. However, it put a damper on the photo shoot — maybe I’ll suggest we get pictures of several members standing around a barbeque, grilling up some venison burgers, with a club sign in the background. Works for me!