Friday, April 29, 2016

How to install an on board battery charger!

Here is a quick video on how I installed my on board battery charger. My old one just stopped working but it lasted for more than 5 years so no complaints there. Bass pro actually still had the same model and even though it was a bit expensive, it does a great job. It provides 100% of the available voltage for the three batteries I have installed and does a discharge, condition, and re-charge. So the installation was as easy as it gets however, you will get the idea if you have never done this type of repair.

Check out the video and don't forget to like and subscribe!!!! Thanks for reading and watching!!!!



Sunday, April 24, 2016

Lake Calumet Open 4/23/2016

Saturday was my first tournament and what a day it turned out to be. I got the invite from the angler who was running the event and was glad to participate. The tournament was held in an urban area and this was new to me. The venue was to be Lake Calumet on the South Side of Chicago in Burnham IL. I had never been here before and once my entry was confirmed and I had a co-angler, we made plans to meet and do some pre-fishing since neither one of us had fished there before.

We got out only once but the fishing was great and the water quality was good as well. In some areas, the water had great visibility and seemed to be very clean for the area it was in. Although, the lake is connected via The Calumet River to Lake Michigan so it made sense that the water would be clear. I had heard bad things about Lake Calumet from other anglers and did not have high expectations however, I was pleasantly surprised at not only the launch but the fishing as well.

The tournament was leaving from the Waterfront Boat Ramp in Burham IL. This is a nice little place with friendly people who were willing to open up the bar area at 5:00am when all the anglers from the tournament arrived. We proceeded to splash the boats and get ready for the tournament meeting and last minute rules. We got ready to draw for our starting positions and my co-angler Rene drew boat number one. The was great seeing as though there were other anglers with much faster boats than mine. We launched on time and made our way down the river to the locks before Lake Calumet. We got through the lock and it was game on. It took a little while but we developed a pattern quickly that would turn out to be extremely productive.

We found fish in shallow water and they were hitting hard. I have heard that the largemouth in this lake were very small but I did not find this to be true. We got almost exclusively largies and the biggest was 4lbs on the nose. We had a limit by 8:30 or so and by 9:30 culled 3 times. In the end we took second place to two very good local anglers Tyler Uteg and Ryan Whitacre. We had a 15.71 pound sack of largemouth and they had an impressive 18.33 pound bag of brown bass.

Was great to compete in this environment against some very good anglers and it felt good to develop a pattern quickly that produced pretty much all day for us. Even though in the end we fell just short, it was still great to get out and cover the entry fee. It was also great to find such a nice body of water that had the quality of fish that this one did. Hope to compete again soon and will be looking to enter in something else in the near future. Was also nice to meet another fishing partner for these events. Rene Luis, thanks for coming along. Had a great time!!!!

Here's a pic of the sack we came in with.






















Here's the winning sack!

Thursday, April 21, 2016

How to add a trailer hook to a spinner bait!

Just wanted to put up a quick little post about trailer hooks for spinner baits. This is a good way to increase your hookup ratio because bass often will hit the back of the lure. If there is not trailer hook, you will feel the bite and the fish may even hang on for a while. In the end, with no trailer hook, you will probably lose the fish. Here is a video of how I did these two that I am using in a tournament this weekend. Enjoy and if you haven't, add them to your spinner baits, especially the ones with the longer skirts.

Sunday, April 10, 2016

First Big Game Mount: White Tailed Deer

I have been interested in taxidermy for several years now and have completed only waterfowl. The mounts have come out pretty good and were surprisingly not that hard to do. Here are some of my mounts.



















I also did a couple more but unfortunately do not have pics.

I decided when I got a pretty good buck this past year to try my hand a big game. This is a bit more intensive than the ducks due to the prep for the skin. These need to be tanned or they will be destroyed by bacteria. I will be updating as I go through the mounting process and for now, I have the antlers attached and the manikin prepped for the hide. I also did tan the skin but will not be documenting that process since I have never done that. I will see how it goes and if the tanning is good, next year I will document how to tan a skin.

For now, here is a quick video of how to attach the antlers to the manikin as well as how to finish them once installed.

Thanks for reading and watching!!! I will be putting more videos up as I finish the deer!

Monday, April 4, 2016

Finally found some headgear!!!!!

Well, I have been fishing a lot lately and not taking my two pointers out for late season pheasant hunting or shed hunting. I did notice on my deer cams that the deer on the property I hunt still had all of their headgear on well into late March. This would be the reason that I had been shed hunting several times with none to show. Here are some pics of the bucks with headgear in late March.



















With the weather coming in I decided to take the dogs out for some shed hunting because the deer finally lost their racks and I thought maybe we will have some luck. As it turns out, we did. Both of my pointers found a single side of a rack which was pleasant because I was beginning to think they just had no interest in sheds. They both proved me wrong.

Was a cold morning and snowing at times quite heavily. We walked for about 4 miles and found these two antlers in the bushes. The amazing part was I never would have known they were there if the dogs had not found them.


Dogs did great finding them and bringing them back to me so I know have the pointers trained to find songbirds, squirrels, rabbits, pheasants, quail, and sheds. Great feeling when both dogs got a set. Here is one rub of note because I have not seen too many like this one. This was an extremely large deer note the diameter of the tree.


Great to be out in the woods with the dogs and have them working. They never cease to amaze me at their instincts when it comes to everything hunting.