Gobbler Nation

09-27-15 Checked out a new piece of property yesterday morning on my way up to camp. At first I wondered if I was in the right place seeing the parking area wasn't flattened down from vehicles and there was no dog park dog poop on the trails. A place like this near my house would gets lots of traffi...

My first fall wild turkey. Bearded hen 2007 ME. http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q87/dohearn/100_2395.jpg My second fall wild turkey. Another hen 2007 NH http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q87/dohearn/12C.jpg My best and last fall wild turkey. A mature gobbler in the pouring rain 2008 NH http://i1...

Grouse are also an endangered species in the covers close to our home. It is due to no forest management. Partridge need second growth and where we live most parcel ownerships are less than 10 acres and nobody is chopping. There are grouse in the piece with the beaver pond. But you could wear out th...

09-20-15 It has been hot. Real hot! Over ten degrees more than the average here in coastal NH. Along with the heat the humidity has been oppressive. Not your ideal training weather. Well according to New England tradition, the weather...she's a changing. I've been working Belle along tote roads this...

Treerooster wrote:One of my favorites is the ruffed grouse.

YUM!! Our season starts 10-1. Love hunting those missiles over a good dog.

09-19-15 Oh well the bassin' and buggin' may be over but the clammin' is just getting going. Second week..... Second peck http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q87/dohearn/Bugs%20and%20Bass%202015/09-19-15%20Clams.jpg It was gorgeous out there this morning so when I got home I rounded up the wife and w...

Bugs and Bass 2015....is over. 09-12-15 Who needs a Seafood Festival when we have Great Bay? Today the soft shell clam season opened. We are allowed one peck and one peck it was. Oyster season is also open. Nothing like picking them up off the bottom as you wade around. http://i134.photobucket.com/a...

09-03-15 The beautiful lady below is the reason I am able to live a dream. Today is my birthday and it was her idea to take the boat out on Great Bay and stop for lunch. We went to Lexie's Landing at Great Bay Marina. http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q87/dohearn/Bugs%20and%20Bass%202015/20150903_1...

08-30-15 Left the dock in darkness at 0500. By 0530 on our first drift, under the fading light of a full moon, Joe put this striper in the boat. http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q87/dohearn/Bugs%20and%20Bass%202015/9930cd99-9811-40ab-8c20-451f2b887026.jpg Two more sub legal bass found the landing ...

Celebration of Life 08-24-15 Our Dad would have been 86 years old today. In his last few good years we would always take a trip out into Great Bay in search of a striped bass or two to celebrate. Tonight Shawn and I did our best to keep that tradition alive. Out to Fox Point we went and the bass did...

08-19-15 Subtle Changes Even with the river temps, http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q87/dohearn/Bugs%20and%20Bass%202015/IMG_1676.jpg the striped bass were calling me. So in Beverly Hills fashion I loaded up the boat and moved to Fox Point where I found 70 degree water. On the ride out I cruised a...

08-08-15 Checked the first trap and had a keeper lobster. That was NOT the way the rest of the tending went. Caught some shorts and an unfamiliar fish that slipped through the trap wire before I could steal its picture. Where I notched the berried female and released her next to the babe boat a mont...

You don't see this every day. And they do not feed.

Margaritas anyone?

Not what you are thinking. :) My brother in law sent me this picture of twin fawns he took 07-31-15. http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q87/dohearn/deer%20hunting/2%20fawns%2007-31-15.jpg Just before I left work last night my neighbor sent me this picture he entitled Pool Party. When I got home my w...

08-01-15 The lobster crawl has settled down. Less lobsters today than traps. But still enough for a couple feeds. It is all about August and the rising water temps. Today 73 to 75 degree surface water temperature. It is time for the off shore trappers to shine. June and early July favor the Bay's an...

Backyard Update 07-28-15 Looked out the window at 0630 and saw this foursome. http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q87/dohearn/Backyard%20Pictures/4215a5dc-d17d-4b0f-b86d-38ca63730027.jpg One long beard, the two jakes from this spring, one's beard is getting longer than the other, and one hen. Brood u...

Shucks, I thought this was a Bigfoot thread.

07-24-15 Brood update. Looks like a very good hatch this spring. The first brood produced out back in June was two hens and ten poults. It has been two and eight ever since. Got a text this week that our neighbor saw one hen and nine very small poults. Today she is down to seven poults but it says t...

07-22-15 Just fit under the trestle by an inch due to the high tide. There was enough water to cut the flats on my way to the Point. Had a big fish swirl on the skinny water in front of the boat at WOT. Little did I know this was telling me something. You only get one chance.......at a big fish. Put...

07-20-15 The tide was out two hours when I got to the boat. Headed to the south shore to fish the oyster beds, The seventy nine degree water in open bay changed my mind. A rapid change of direction and the bow pointed to Fox Point. Found sixty nine degree water in my first drift. This spot empties t...

What is your favorite lobster recipe? http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q87/dohearn/Bugs%20and%20Bass%202015/IMG_1609.jpg The misses is going to make some Lobster Mac and Cheese. Looks like lobster rolls for lunch next week. I love the bounties of Great Bay. Lobsters, crabs and oysters and clams in...

I tried it with deer hides one year. They turned rancid in the trap. The bait is precut. A couple good pieces goes in each bait bag. It lasts about three weeks. It it soaked in something. Really opens up your nostrils. But the lobster like it. 07-19-15 Belle is two years old today. Hard to believe t...

07-17-15 Having a look at tomorrow's forecast, rain and thunderstorms, I took off a little early from work to go out and check traps. The peak is over for now. Last week averaged four pound per trap, this check two pounds per trap. A commercial lobster trapper will tell you a half a pound a trap was...

07-14-15 Went striper hunting again at the bottom of the tide to the turn at approx. 1900 to 2030. I'm trying new spots. The kind that remind me of the Merrimack. Mostly skinny water next to the channels. Dick showed me a few places to try during our outing a couple weeks ago. Didn't find any love. ...

07-11-15 Had to wait to check bug traps until the afternoon due to needing low tide to find a trap I set too deep last week. Man did I pay for that in the way of a wicked sunburn. Personal best for 2015 today. Easily over forty pounds of lobsters found their way into the cooler. I even took a bigger...