Apache7mm

incase anyone is wondering how San Carlos Lake is doing right about now here's some info for you...fishing is really starting to pick up very well right now for Crappie and Bass, especially Crappie! everyone's been out around the Old San Carlos Point and Mohave Point areas catching plenty of fish, i think everyone is doing much better from the boat out in the little deeper areas but i've also heard from a few guys that they're doing just fine from the shore as well, was out yesterday and there were about 40-50 boats in the one area so i'm sure fishing was very good, here's a few pictures of what the water levels are looking like as of right now....if you got the time get out there and do some fishing! DAN

most of the guys i talked with were using minnows and some jig baits and rubber worms on the bass, there's the Lake store there where you can purchase pretty much everything you need for the day out, minnows are also available there, here's the fees on the fishing... $5.00 boat fee $3.00 second pole fee $7.00 daily fishing Persons under 12 may fish without license if accompanied by adult with license. DAN

some fine coues there, you and your family got some nice trophies for sure! good job on them all. DAN

well i think the bragging rights thing will work out better than an actual contest, started off with some good buzz but quickly died down, it would be nice to see some killer racks and have some sort of challenge and find out where the biggest and baddest coues and elk are dropping their racks, but yea i think for bragging rights sounds good to me. DAN

Any thoughts on a Shed Contest? maybe something along the lines of what the Whitetail contest was with categories related to shed hunting? seems all the sheds posted here on CW are Coues and Elk, it'd be nice to see how big the biggest sheds in AZ and surrounding areas are this year, seems a contest would bring more pictures and knowledge of whats lurking out there in the woods, just a thought, anyone else with any thoughts? DAN

man i really needed that today, some good laughs...i'm with josh on the finding giant sheds, i usually find one good set maybe every 3 yrs, the rest are either busted up or only the single side, i think the biggest set i've ever found would have been about a 380 bull, hoping to find a 400 class set one of these days to get mounted, and i have yet to pick up a good coues set, anyway seems this could be something to look forward to for everyone, i'd really like to see alot of the big racks that go under the radar each year around the diff areas cuz i know some guys pick up some monster sheds all over. categories i'd like to see are... COUES *highest scoring single (typical) *highest scoring set (typical) *highest scoring single (non-typical) *highest scoring set (non-typical) *heaviest (lb wise) *most deformed/unusual *smallest in size (ie. spikes, buttons, etc.) ELK *highest scoring single (typical) *highest scoring set (typical) *highest scoring single (non-typical) *highest scoring set (non-typical) *heaviest (lb wise) *most deformed/unusual *longest main beam thats what i've come up with so far, if someone would like to add throw in your .02 cents, another thing that would have to be a rule i guess would have to be all the antlers entered would have to be from 2006, meaning picked up between now and the contest end.....older sheds would count so long as you actually hauled them out during this contest run. thats all i have so far, more input and thoughts would be nice to hear though, and as far as someone maintaining entries and such, if anyone who has tons of time on their hands would like to take the lead that would be awesome. DAN

HAHAHA! man i know i got a good kick outta that one, thanks KEVIN, really needed that right about now, actually everyone gets to see or hear of big sheds each year here all over in AZ but i'm more interested to see some HUGE sheds from other places, especially NM, i know they have some monsters out there and to see them sheds would be awesome, as far as rules go, i think maybe brainstorming it first and getting more and more ideas from diff members will help, a few of the things i was thinking of would be... well first off the obvious Highest scoring single, matched, typical and non typical racks. heaviest (lb wise or cir. wise) longest main beam (elk) most # of points ...just to name a few things off the top, any other ideas would be great to hear. DAN

this set was dropped in 2005, havn't heard of anyone picking up any brown antlers yet but then again i don't think anyone has been out looking just yet, but i'm sure a few are starting to drop their racks already, last year i found my first brown one right at this time (end of FEB) but i was able to go out a lot more last year compared to this year, work got me pretty tied up this time around but i'll still get out there though, good luck to everyone and lets see some monster sheds! DAN

Here's a set i seen earlier this year, was laying in a heavy traffic area so i had to go back and pick it up asap, would have been a pretty good set to keep but his main beam was broken off on the one side, still a good set from '05. DAN

nice looking pigs there you and your dad got, nice job! DAN

Whoops forgot the rest of the pictures... DAN

few pictures of some critters spotted over the weekend.... DAN

was waiting for someone to spot out that these were taken from up in the air, seen a lot of nice wildlife over the weekend, Nantac Rim had some good bulls but nothing DRY LAKE worthy, seen a lot of bulls with broken tines and antlers too so good to know that we've still got a rowdy bunch of elk, on Big Prairie we counted 136 antelope total with 31 being bucks and then on Ash Flats we counted 114 antelope total with 30 being bucks, 9mile area had tons of big bucks as usual and R-100 had at least 300 elk but few bulls, the main herd of R-100 bulls has moved west towards Yellowjacket area i hear, many sightings there recently. DAN

check out some of the newly added pictures in the SCATRW galleries.... http://scatrw.com/v-web/gallery/Gallery-1 http://scatrw.com/v-web/gallery/Gallery-2 DAN

hey Todd, WOW! hey congradulations to you and your buddy on two very nice bucks! sounds like you all had a good time and everything turned out nicely in the end, good job to the both of you! DAN

Hey everyone hope all is well on the homefront and everyone got a chance to go out and do some hunting, me and a few of my family were able to go out all 3 weekends of our season and at the end everyone got some nice kills, here are a couple of nice whitetails we took, the heavy buck grosses 99 7/8" and the wide buck grosses 104 1/8" with an 18 1/2" spread. DAN

thanks for all the comments everyone, i've been watching all the bucks coming in for awhile now and man there are some really really nice archery bucks and a lot of good hard horns too, this year was the year for wide bucks for me, i seen about 4 bucks that were all over 19" outside easily, i'd guess the widest guy i seen was probably at least 21" outside, the wide buck i posted had a 18 1/2" inside spread and his outside was just over 20", another one of our friends took a really heavy 3x4 that also had a 18 1/2" inside spread and that buck grossed 103", i'll see if i can get a picture of that buck to post, also heard of a lot of 4x4's killed this year as well on the San Carlos so i think it was a really good season for a lot of people. Aoo' Dish Neh says it all Ernesto! haha i liked that. Grim, hunting the San Carlos for the elusive Coues deer is just as exciting as anywhere else in my opinion, we have everything from the desert cacti bucks all the way up to the ponderosa pine bucks and of course everything inbetween, San Carlos is very diverse as far as habitat goes, like i said its got the desert floor creatures up to the deep woodland creatures so choosing the San Carlos could give you a lot of options, but of course there is the cost, i understand completely how a lot of people would like to give it a try but are held back by the cost, it is a lot of money and not everyone can afford it and thats too bad, i wish everyone could have a chance to come here at least once and have an experience hunting some of the big game San Carlos has to offer, if you want more info on the rez or would like to see some pictures of the land or any other questions send me and email or PM. good luck to all remaining hunters on their seasons, take lots of pictures to share with us all! DAN

thanks everyone! DAN

Been out a few more times scouting for some bucks and seen some good quality out there, hopefully get a few chances to pass up some of them for the bigger boys! we'll find out this weekend i guess, anyway out on the scouting trips been able to spot a lot of antlers all over so i brought a few back out that i seen, here are some from yesterday, enjoy and good luck! DAN

haha...........AOO DISH NEH don't really mean anything much, just a made up slang word me and my Hopi bro used alot to tease our Navajo roomate, AOO' means yes in Navajo so we used it whenever he asked us a yes/no question to answer YES to him, DISH NEH means sort of like "i said so!" in Navajo but we just added it for i dont' know why, but yea all it is is just a longer version of saying YES. DAN

jlhcoues, hey i'm glad you've had some good experiences hunting the coues on the rez, man there are some giants in all the units all over the place, lots of hidden pockets no one ever hunts, once the season comes around they just disappear! haha, thats how it goes i guess, me and a couple of my cousins are trying to score on a nice NT 5x4 with some killer mass but he keeps dodging us, see if we can't get him this year, going to try for some big muleys opening weekend though, the herd of elk along the rez line and Unit 28 just keeps growing and growing, hopefully soon enough there'll be a ton of them in there and just be all over the place, its a nice low land place for them to hang out i think, all in them pinons and canyons, well you should get back up in there again sometimes with your son and take some pictures of them bulls, don't forget the packframe for them racks! DAN

Man thats one nice rack there your son picked up! seen a lot of the elk along the southeastern border of the rez that share the same characteristics of that bull, not too much on mass but man they have some long and wild points! the area your son found those skulls is the same area where Mr. Agnew took his 454 a few years ago, we've filmed a lot of elk in that same area too that are very impressive, starting to look really good along there these days, anyway thought i would post a pic of a nice 6x6 that was killed in the same area as well, he's not much on mass but pretty good on tines with 63" main beams, he's the bull on the right in the pic. and one more thing, i think you're right about the elk wandering off the higher elevations to die, seen a lot of sick or wounded elk along the border too, hanging out by themselves down a little lower than the rest of the bulls, i bet if you do some good walking back up in there you can find some more nice racks. DAN

Here's a few pictures of some trophies of the past, first pic is of a really nice 4pt single shed compared to a set of mounted 110-115 gross sheds found back in the early 90's. the second pic is of the same bleached 4pt shed which was found back in the 90's compared to a non-typical pick up skull dating back to the 80s, it scores maybe close to 105 gross or so, no score on the single 4pt shed, maybe some of you coues experts at guessing scores can come up with something, last pic is of a couple of nice muley bucks, the typical buck measures 32" and the non-typical has an outside spread of 34 3/4", just a few pictures to get everyone a little more fired up for the season, happy hunting! DAN

congrats on a nice bull azhuntnut, i like his tine's, very long! your first pic of him sort of reminds me of the bull J. McClendon took awhile back, got the same shape to him, good looking bull, good job. DAN

nice buck Coues7, my first coues i killed was a 3pt that grossed 92", my buck is probably just a little bit smaller than the one you have pics of so i'd say he goes mid to upper 90s, possible 100" buck but i agree with others that he's a little narrow on spread and his beams are on the shorter end, but those tines of his are pretty long and even! i think the first pic you have up of him shows him best, nice looking coues though. DAN