The One That DIDN'T Get Away!

WHAT ARE THE CHANCES?!?!

OMG I can't even believe what just happened to me! I check my email quick before work and see this from a woman named Pam, "our foreman found one of your coyotes hanging from our poles, do you still want it?" I google the company and see they are nearly a mile down the railroad tracks.

Two weeks ago, when I got those double males in cable restraints, I actually caught a third coyote but the quick link opened and she got away. Embarrassed, I didn't say anything to anyone. Well it turns out this female was trying to jump across a pile of poles at their site and the snare end got wedged, so she hung herself and died instantly. Looks like she died just a couple days ago so what the hell I'm going to skin her out. I think I can now call that double a TRIPLE!!

Coyote in a Cable Restraint

I caught this cute little female in a cable restraint this morning.  I loved all the dark markings on her and the white tip on her tail.  Unfortunately though, when I went to skin her out, I noticed her pelt smelled horrible, and she was just ridden with lice.  Her skin was oozing a foul brown juice and her hair was matted and falling out as I brushed her.  So, after trying my best to salvage her, I disposed of this carcass so no other animals could be infected.

All those little "seeds" are lice crawling in and out of the skin and mats of fur.

Wisconsin Cable Restraints; My Second Season

Coyote held securely and humanely in a cable restraint with a relaxing lock.   

 Last year I didn't do so good using cable restraints.  I made alot of stupid beginner mistakes, and after being skunked, I worked really hard to figure out what I was doing wrong.  It looks like I finally figured it out because I got these two males the night after setting, and only had 6 sets out in this area.  Please visit the WI DNR trapping page for the cable restraint handbook.

Two males within 25 feet of each other, caught in cable restraints set on trails and crossing intersections.

Before the catch, notice the cable restraint loop hanging...

After the catch.  The key to successful cable restraint catches is NO entanglement; notice the HUGE catch circle that a cable restraint creates, and that the coyote was not able to reach another that could catch on the cable and not to wrap around that barbed wire fence in the background.

Turned out to be a nice big male.  The landowner was especially pleased, as he is a sheep farmer and loses lambs every year, as well as his cocker spaniel was attacked by coyotes last summer.

PERFECT NECK CATCH!

This is a perfect cable restraint catch.  The coyote went under the fence, and down the path, putting a perfect neck catch on himself.  No entanglement, no fur damage.

Before/After, set hung for 3 weeks

Beautiful Wisconsin Coyote!

 I caught a nice 34 pound Wisconsin coyote this morning.  Her fur was so thick that it took me longer than usual to skin her because I could hardly get through her thick hindquarter fur! 3rd female coyote in this same spot this season.

This is the set I used, a urine post.  I found this anthill that a big male I've name Two Toes has been using (L), and set a Duke #4 coilspring accordingly (R).  I then put both coyote and red fox urine on the grass and that's it, brushed out my tracks and left it alone.  It had nothing hit it for a few days, I refreshed the urine last night, and caught her this morning! She was running with Two Toes, for I found his track right next to hers, but he's just too smart to catch! Stay tuned...

My First Red Fox

I ventured out in single digit temperatures this Thanksgiving morning to check all my sets before the freezing rain comes tonight, and caught this beautiful female Wisconsin red fox!  

I was targeting coyotes and had not noticed any fox sign in this area, which is why she's in a #4 coilspring, but she was in good shape and will make a beautiful mount for someone!

I used Northland Animal Lures red fox urine, made by Adam at Trapper Art's Supply in Cornell, WI on a urine set that had been previously marked by a male coyote.

Here is the original urine set that I made before the catch:

My First Fisher(s)

WOW! What an awesome day!  

After waiting since August to get my fisher traps out, I finally was able to put my sets in Zone F of Wisconsin last Saturday.  This is a woods that I bowhunted and ran snares for coyotes and fox all winter.  I had regular trail cameras and snare knock-downs from all the dang fishers in this woods.  I know for a fact that there were atleast 5 different fisher in this 125 acre area.  This last spring, I called in a nice male while turkey hunting.  

Zone F	Number of applicants - 2,502 State quota - 260 Permits issued - 1,505

This little female could have been one of the two I caught, but it's impossible to tell.

This big male is the one I was hoping I would get...

So, it's only logical that I would target one of these fishers to put my tag on.  I checked all 5 sets on Sunday morning, but nothing had moved through.  A major storm system was moving through and we were expected to get anything from 12-20 inches of snow in one day, critters were on the move.  My son and I headed out to check our sets on Monday morning through a blizzard and unplowed roads.  I live about an hour from my sets because when I applied for my fisher tag, I was living in one zone, and in the summer I moved into another zone, and the DNR did not allow me to switch zones.  So I was stuck commuting an hour one way to check my sets, making a filled tag even more important.  Luckily, I didn't have a make another trip.  

My son and I checked the first 2 cubby sets but nothing.  I thought I would try both cubby sets and running pole sets using 220 conibears.  In Wisconsin, regulations state that conibears need to be either enclosed from all but one point of entry to the conibear, or atleast 5 feet above ground with no sight exposed bait.

Upon coming up to the 3rd set, I saw this nice fisher hanging there in a perfect conibear kill; a clean blow to the back of the head, you can tell by the body position and lack of struggle that the fisher never knew what hit it and died instantly!  There's nothing more rewarding to an outdoorsman that a clean, quick kill.  

So after being just over the moon happy, I tell my son that we need to go get the other two sets because we are done. So we grab the 4th one and pack it up.  Then we come up to the 5th and final set and WHAT!? Another fisher! Same perfect conibear kill, same position, and almost identical size fisher!  

I was so thrilled! I had been worried that I wouldn't fill my one tag this year with the early blizzard, but I ended up getting two animals in one night!

I caught both of them on running pole sets.  Check your regs before making this same set.  I wired a 220 to a tree that has fallen and has one end on the ground, and the other end goes nowhere.  You then wire the bait or scent right up next to the trap on the backside.  In Wisconsin, no sight-exposed bait is permitted so then you take some pine boughs or birch bark to use as a covering so predatory birds cannot get to it, and so the fisher can only enter the conibear from one direction.

Please note that this picture was taken during the set making process.  After, I put skunk gland lure on pine boughs and stack them over the bait to hide from birds and non-target catches.

Now it's unfortunate yes, that I killed more than the one fisher needed to complete my tag, but an incidental catch, as it's called, is nothing but a waste, it is given to the conversation warden in full, and they use the carcass for research and the pelt for trapper education courses and teaching experiences.  
Visit the Wisconsin Trappers' Association website.

I ended the day with two female fishers, and ended up keeping the older, bigger one.

Doe Down! Second deer of the 2014 WI archery season!

After being lucky enough to fill my buck tag on opening weekend, I took this big mama doe last night from the same stand. 

 No glamour shots here, as this doe took me to hell and back tracking just spots of blood every few yards or so with a cell phone light through the swamp.  I didn't recover her until 11pm, but she had only gone about 60 yards.

 I have 2 more doe tags for bow, gun season, 3 fall turkey tags, and a fisher tag left for the 2014 hunting season!!

Barefoot Hunting

I was honored when Heidi Fiscus, writer of Barefoot & Paleo, approached me after seeing a post on the Society for Barefoot Living's Facebook page, asking me to talk about why I hunt barefoot.  

Here is Heidi's write-up as featured on her blog: http://www.barefootandpaleo.com/2014/09/barefoot-hunting-with-skye-goode.html 

The Shortest Hunt of My Life

This story will not be like my previous, longwinded anecdotes that encompass countless hours in the stand and details that boggle the brain.  This is not the story of the Pope & Young monster that I worked my butt off all season to shoot.  This is the story of my 1 hour deer hunt that opened and closed my 2014 bow season in a matter of minutes. 

            Over the weekend, I headed out on the back of the Harley for the last and coldest ride of the season up to Tomahawk, WI to enjoy “Mini Sturgis”, while the rest of the state was taking to a tree stand for the Wisconsin bow opener.  On Sunday, after driving back 4 hours and returning home at 3pm, I thought I would sneak out to the stand for a couple hours, since I would not get to hunt again until the following weekend.  I was full of makeup, hairspray, perfume, and motorcycle exhaust.  I didn’t get a chance to shower, and hadn’t really showered in days.  I grabbed my Mossy Oak camo from my Watson Airlock bag that I washed the year before, and shot 3 field points into my target for my first three shots of the year; my sight hadn’t shifted from the previous season so I was good to go.

            I was dropped off at the woods at 4:02 so I wouldn’t leave a vehicle behind because the deer sometimes come from across the dirt road.  Walking into my stand, I kicked up 3 flags.  I climbed up my treestand and realized that I forgot a bow hanger and my video camera.  The mosquitoes were AWFUL.  I usually hunt barefoot but was forced to put some green socks on because the mosquitoes were eating me alive.  Nearly 15 minutes later, a doe with a buck fawn came into my food plot; I assumed these were some of the flags I jumped just minutes before.  I was eager to harvest a doe, but this one had gotten pregnant as a yearling and given birth to a buck fawn this spring, so I knew she was good breeding stock to keep in the herd, plus I could never live with myself if I killed a doe with her baby as witness.

            As I watched these two graze among the clover, I noticed they both perked up to something behind me.  As they meandered off, I saw a deer coming in quick over my left shoulder.  I saw it was an 8 pointer, young, seemingly a 2 year old. 

I took a few pictures on my phone, thinking, “I’ll post this to Facebook, bragging how I pass up this ‘good buck’”.  But then I quickly realized, What!? This is a nice deer, a great shot opportunity (broadside at 15 yards), and the fact that I drew a fisher tag for this fall season was the most important thing in the world to me right now.  If I pass this buck, I’ll really regret it in November when I’m struggling to find any deer that would qualify as a buck.  To me, an unfilled tag is the ultimate defeat. 

At 5:06, after giving it a split-second thought, I drew back on this deer.  I shoot a 1997 Vector III PSE Nova youth model, AKA: The Noisiest Bow Ever Made.  The buck jumped back from 15 yards broadside to 30 yards straight on.  I’m a confident shooter so I took the shot to the center of the chest.  The arrow hit slightly to the left, entering his chest and exiting under the right shoulder.  The buck took off, ran 30 yards, and I heard him topple over.  I let him sit an hour to be sure since he was out of my eyesight, then got down from the tree.  I started to track him and found blood sprayed all over the leaves and high on the trees, confirming the shot placement.  I only took a few steps when I was able to see him laying over yonder. 

One hour and 4 minutes.  My 2014 archery season consisted of one hour and 4 minutes.  I’m aware that I still have doe tags to be filled, and gun season will be upon me quickly, but it’s still bittersweet that I won’t be in the stand with my bow during the rut, covered in doe pee, making mocking scrapes, and calling my best series on the grunter. 

Most of you reading this post are thinking, “I would have let him grow another year”.  Good for you.  I, however, have a lot of life changes on my plate, limiting the number of days that I have in the stand this year, so I vowed that the first 8 or better I saw this year was getting a shot.  Next year, I definitely won’t be taking a buck in the early season unless it’s a booner or in velvet because I’m already SO incredibly bored.  Luckily, I have a several turkey tags and some doe tags left in my pocket!  On a brighter note, as I mentioned before, I did draw a fisher tag, so come October I’ll be putting all my time, money, and effort into making sure that tag does not go unfilled.