Coach

Wow, great bird! Congrats to the young hunter, and good job calling! Not to change the subject, but how do you make a call out of the wing bone? I've heard of that before and would love to know how it's done.

I'm not sure. A couple years ago my sons drew mule deer and cow elk hunts in 3C (both youth hunts). The deer hunt ended the day before the elk hunt. Maybe it's unit-specific???

I'm very happy with my Garmin GPSMap 60csx. If you shop around you can find smoking deals on them too.

I won a free trip to Cabo a couple weeks ago that I am not going to use that you can have. You have to have pay for your travel though. I'll PM you.

I'll have to admit, I was once one of "us" that disliked Ted's approach. It seemd too harsh, too loud, in-your-face, whatever. For many years, I found Ted totally abrasive. Too loud, too outspoken, too confrontational, and often wreckless with his words. I wanted a voice for the hunting community that resonated with calm, rational, intellectual awareness. Think Fred Bear, Howard Hughes, you get the idea. Truth be told, those people were there all the time, and despite their valliant efforts, they went mostly unheard. So, despite Ted's wreckless behavior and his propensity for sticking his foot in his mouth, I have truly come to admire the guy, because he gets air-time and has a ton of guts and a vision he believes in, that is very close to mine. He has earned the chance to speak on behalf of a lot of people who are usually very calm and complacent, but share his values. Now that message is being heard, and that message is starting to get somewhere.

So sorry to hear about the upcoming battle your daughter and your family will be living with. Prayers sent from our family. Best wishes and Godspeed to Brianne.

Dang, I had sworn off Mexico because of all the bad things going on down there, but you guys have me really wanting to back! Anyone have a place down there for rent?

Glad to know it's coming. The current format is very comfortable - but I understand that change is inevitable.

Man, that looks really good! I also like to build my own boxes. There's something about trying to figure out all the weak points and how to make it better - It's just fun, and gives you a certain confidence when you do leave it out that someone is going to have to really work if they want to take it. Kudos on a great box, with a lot of attention to detail.

Awesome! Congrats to Skyler - looking forward to checking out the video.

I'm certainly not a biologist, but I would attribute it to low oxygen levels, and off-balance pH. The water is dense and murkey. The few female crappie we caught were "re-digesting" their eggs, for lack of a better term. The egg sacks were totally diminished, and resembled a "goo". When the lake was healthy, the eggs looked a lot more like you would expect healthy fish eggs to look like. Full, round, larger than a BB, and filled with nutrients. The eggs we found were like like a gelatenous "creme of wheat" consistency.

Went out this morning with my dad. First hit must have been a big cat - took my drag like crazy but wasn't hooked well and eventually got off. You could feel the low pressure system moving in and it was mostly overcast but not windy. Shortly after losing the cat or whatever it was, the first few crappie went in the livewell. They were hitting, but were extremely finicky. You could see them making beds in 6" of water and cast at them over and over, and if you got the speed right and the angle right, they would hit. You had to be casting almost parallel to the bank and reeling just enough to get the roadrunner blades to spin. When you did it right, you'd get hit. Casting directly at the shore and reeling back almost never produced a hit. The jig had to be pretty much falling at a slow pace and right in front of their face. I ended up with 22 crappie and my dad got 2 crappie and one cat. Funny part is, we were using the exact same setup. 1/16 oz roadrunner heads with BBC (Black/Blue/Chartreuse) 3" bodies. Nobody else on the lake was casting to the shore - all minnow fishing, and it looked pretty slow for that method. The herons were all over the crappie. About 1/3 of the ones we filleted had either scars or recent punctures from the herons. I've never seen that before. Overall, it was a fun day at the lake. I sure hope they don't let it die, but it is obviously in a bad state right now. We saw no balls of baitfish, there were huge, dead flatheads in the coves. I have a picture of one where the head was wider than a bud-light bottle I dug up next to it and used as reference.

When fishing off the sandy beaches using squid, I usually only caught rays. However, if you use a heavily weighted bobber (big balsa or styrofoam with weights at the bottom) and a steel leader with a surf rod, you can cast squid right off Rocky Point into the breakers between the rocks and catch a lot of trigger fish and some others. It's hard, and you will hang up in the rocks from time-to-time, but it can be very productive and triggers are darn good eating. If you really want to have some fun at Rocky Point and have a great fish fry at the end of the day, you might look into a Hawaiian Sling, a good mask and snorkel and quality fins. Snorkel out into the big rocks off the point and learn how to lead those big triggers with the sling. It's like bowhunting ocean fish. It took me a couple hours to learn how to hit them, but once you get the hang of it, it's pure exitement. One thing...wear a light shirt. My back got so sunburned doing this, because it's still out of the water most of the time, I was sun-sick all night - I'm sure it had nothing to do with all the imbibement going on during and after the fish fry. Point being, you will get burned to a crisp if you snorkel and spear-fish shirtless for several hours without a shirt. I haven't tried the kastmasters, but have heard the same thing as others here have posted - they are apparently very productive for flounder.

Sir Royal, you are right about what is stated in the FAQ section. I pasted the information from AZGFD's website below: Can a big game tag be transferred to a child? Yes, the Arizona Game and Fish Department allows a parent or legal guardian to transfer their big game permit or tag to their child. The child must be between the ages of 10 and 17 at the time of the transfer, possess a class F or G hunting license and, if under the age of 14, have satisfactorily completed a hunter education course approved by the director. Once the tag has been transferred, it cannot be transferred back to the adult. Be aware that the adult who transferred the permit or tag must accompany the child in the field and be within 50 yards of the child when the animal is taken. Any wildlife taken by the child applies toward the childs annual bag limit. Learn more about hunting regulations by visiting the Arizona Game and Fish Departments Web site at azgfd.gov/hunt. But from the revised statute, we read this: Arizona Revised Statute 17-332(D) requires that after the tag is transferred, a parent, legal guardian, or grandparent must accompany the child into the field. There is some confusion in regards to whether the statutory intent was that the parent, legal guardian, or grandparent must be the adult that accompanies the child on the hunt. Legislative staff indicates this was not the intent of the legislature and that any parent or legal guardian (or any grandparent if the tag was transferred from a grandparent) should be allowed to accompany the child on the hunt. So it looks to me like we have two different interpretations. One clearly states that it must be the same adult who signed over the tag, the other clearly states that it DOES NOT have to be the same adult. I'm no lawyer, but I would expect that the wording of the actual statute trumps the FAQ wording, as they are claerly contradictory. I would think that in court, the wording of the actual statute would hold a lot more weight than a "less official" definition on the AZGFD website, but I wouldn't want to be the one trying to split hairs in court either. It would sure be nice if we could get a concrete answer about this one way or another so that poeple trying to play by the rules don't find themselves on the wrong side of the law.

That's for sure, Shane. I wonder why they never come in to my calls when I have the tag, lol. Seems they always go the opposite direction when I'm hunting them, but come in on a string for the kiddos. I can live with that.

Sorry for the delay, Brian. They were both taken in unit 1, very far apart.

Awesome video - I've never seen them eat crappie that big. How much do you think that cat weighed live? Looks huge! I'll be there at first light - hopefully they'll be going at least one more day!

Neat pictures and story. Was it spooky at all being that close? I've had a couple really close at the Black River and Bonito Creek but they weren't too manacing - not like the ones that hang around the camp grounds and are used to people. Thanks for posting those.

Awesome! Congrats to TJ, and great job dad calling him right in like it's easy!

Awesome footage! Nice job.

Awesome TJ. That looks like a blast. My dad goes up there every year with his flyfishing club and they have a great time. Great pictures too! Thanks for taking us along!

Thanks guys, I really appreciate your kind words. I really have to give these young guys the credit. When I was that age, I couldn't "keep my cool" as well as they have been able to do.

Follow-up: Josh nailed his gobbler this morning. This kid's on a roll. Got his first big game kill during the javelina hunt in Feb, shortly after his 10th birthday, and today took his first turkey. It was awesome, but I'm going to start a new post tomorrow with pictures and details. Tonight I've got to get everything ready to get his big brothers out there so hopefully one or both of them will have some photos to add. They've been really patient as they have each taken two gobblers and wanted to let me focus on Josh first. The short-version of the story is, they were right were we left them yesterday. At first light, we called them in to the decoys and he put a good shot on a mature tom at 20 yards. He fell in his tracks. Hunting with kids is the most fun you can have in the woods, IMO, but it is definately work. I'm feeling it tonight having been up by 3 am scouting and hunting several days straight. I know of two other youth hunters that filled their tags this morning - one a friend we just happened on this morning. The other, a close friend that I was able to hunt with on the youth Javi hunt. His daughter also took her first Javelina this Spring and now her first turkey. With his permission, I'll try to post pix of her as well. Take care, Jason

That sounds like leverage.

Thanks bonecollector. We had a decent morning with a slow start. Finally heard some gobbles and got close enough to see some birds, but no shot. Hopefully tomorrow they will cooperate.