Summer Honey Holes

Got this picture from the Bass Madness blog
As my wife loves to say, I have a season for every season. In the Fall its hunting, football(Appstate that is) and...well...more hunting season. In the Winter its hunting/cool mods to my truck season. In the spring nothing gets my blood pumping faster then the sound of ol Mr Tom gobbling as he approaches, other then Sunday afternoon at Augusta National. So by the time summer roles around I have not only been bitten by the golf bug, but out of no where comes this familiar obsession with needing to catch fish. The problem I keep running into these days is finding a good place to do that. Once upon a time finding a summer honey hole was no challenge at all.Here lately it seems near impossible to find a place that hasn't been trashed, over fished, or lost to some form of development. Couple that with the crazy price of gasoline these days, and us outdoorsman find ourselves unwilling or unable to find a good place to fish within a reasonable distance. Recently I was lucky enough to stumble onto a place that has produced some great fishing. A small pond only 2 or 3 acres in size full of large mouth bass, that has seemingly been ignored or forgotten.It is a ton of fun catching fish here, they are very aggressive because they haven't been caught. The biggest I have caught out of this pond so far is 4 lbs. However we have seen bigger fish swirl or jump as if they were taunting us. On average the fish here weigh in around 2 lbs. My old standby summer setup is a watermelon seed or pumpkin seed trick worm( finesse worm will work also) on a 1/0 or 2/0 worm hook(blood red usually),bullet weight or not depending on the pond vegetation. Combine this with a bump..bump...reel 1 rotation retrieval, more often then not I find a fish. What are your go to summer setups for landing that lunker? What cool stories do you have about fishing your favorite spots? Has anyone else had a hard time finding a good spot?

Review of the New Cooper AT3

Obviously not my truck, but a great picture of the new AT3

Well, I literally just completed a really long post about my experience with these new tires, and for some reason instead of posting to my blog, the whole post just disappeared. I do not have the energy to retype everything so I will give you the short of it all.
I have had 3 weeks to test the new Cooper AT3 tire. This tire has passed every test I have thrown at it including deep mud,sharp rocks, hill climbs, 70 MPH on the highway in pouring rain, and over loading my truck with fire wood for a weekend camping trip. There are three things I really like about this new tire. It has a 55 thousand mile warranty which is great for guys like me who don't want to buy new tires every 2 years. It is much more quiet and smooth riding then its predecessor the Cooper ATR, and it is a sweet looking tire. I literally look at it every time I walk by my truck. Personally I don't mind the hum of a tire rolling down the road, but some people don't like it. The aggressiveness of this tire rivals the BFG AT which has held the top spot in the All Terrain tire world for years. The AT3 has more of an open and deeper tread then the Toyo Open Country AT and the Nitto Terra Grappler which are also competitors. I have put about 600 miles on this set, so far I am really loving them. If I were to design the perfect tire for all of my needs it would be very similar to this tire. Warranty, weight, sidewall strength, tread pattern and tread depth are all important factors I consider when looking for tires. The AT3 so far has met or exceeded all my needs. I hope it continues to perform well as I put the miles on. There will be much more to come. Stay tuned, I think my fellow outdoorsman should be very interested in what this tire has to offer. And no, Cooper did not tell me or pay me to give this tire a positive review.

The New Cooper AT3

So a few months back I did a post called "Tires for my Tacoma". I wrote about the research I had done in selecting a new tire for my truck. If you have read the post you know I was very picky. The tire I choose was the Cooper Discoverer ATR. Apparently my post caught the attention of Cooper Tires because I was recently contacted by their Marketing agency with a unique opportunity. Cooper has recently designed a new all terrain tire dubbed the Cooper at3. The want to give me a new set of these tires and a video camera to document the tires performance. Yesterday I received the flip video recorder and got the tires installed.
For years BF Goodrich has set the standard in terms of all terrain tires with the BFG AT KO. Has Cooper changed that with the at3? Much more to come soon.

A special addition to my arsenal

To start things off, I did not make it to the Dixie Deer Classic this past weekend. Friday and Saturday I was swamped with other stuff and Sunday just didn't work out like I had planned. I heard from several people that it was a great time and that I really missed out. I suppose if I had gone it would have been painful to just window shop since I don't have the funds to spend on any new hunting gear any way. Seriously though, I wish I could have made it, next year for sure.
Moving on, Recently I acquired a shotgun that was my grandfathers. It is a Fox 20 gauge side by side. I believe it was manufactured in the 1960's. At that point the Fox Gun Company had been owned by Savage Arms for quite some time. This gun is not one of the highly sought after Fox side by sides of the early 1900's. However it is still quite the specimen. It handles incredibly well and has very little visible damage. I haven't fired it yet, I plan on taking it to a gun smith just to have it checked out first. However from the looks of things this gun has barely been used. I absolutely cannot wait to take it out into the field. It holds 3 inch shells so it should be the final verdict for early season ducks. Also it will make an outstanding small game getter. Hopefully I will have the opportunity to take a few quail or dove with it next season. Here is a great link to learn a lot more about the famous fox shotguns AH FOX COLLECTORS ASSOCIATION. Also check out the article from the most recent Winter edition of the Quail Unlimited Magazine. It goes into great detail about the story and production of these guns over the last century. I cannot locate a copy of this article on line, but if you have the magazine it is a great read.
I could not be more excited about this gun, not only because it is a Fox shotgun , but more importantly because it was my grandfathers. If I have any say in the matter this shotgun will be enjoyed by my family for generations to come. The gun pictured above is nearly identical to mine markings and all. Until next time...

Brewer's first duck

Tough life, this was after a day of shed hunting by me and Brewer. Abby our cat is always up for a nap too.


Well, finally after almost 2 years, many long training sessions and several duck hunting trips that turned into wildlife viewing escapades, Brewer and I found our selves in somewhat of the right place at the right time. Several weeks ago(waterfowl season) I was hunting with a friend at Falls Lake. A merganser flew by and my friend dropped him with one shot.Ignoring his training and out of built up excitement, Brewer took off into the water without me giving the signal and was on the bird within a few seconds. Turns out the bird wasn't quite dead yet when he got to it, caught off guard he swam in circles around the bird for a good 30 seconds barking. I am certain he could be heard for a solid mile in all directions. Finally he got the courage to grab the bird and he made it back to shore. It would have been a near perfect retrieve but he dropped the bird just short of my hand, shook off his coat and just looked at me like what now. Patience is a must when training your pup. Brewer is 20 months old, and my first gun dog. We are both learning as we go but I was so proud of him when he brought that duck back to me.This was a huge step for him in the right direction, I am confident we will get there... But in the mean time I thought I would share this funny story with you about Brewer's first duck. Unfortunately I was without a camera to capture this feat, I have really got to get a camera.

-Andrew

Tires for my Tacoma

This post was going to be a few weeks down the road, however having recieved a comment from a reader suggesting tires, I felt I should go ahead with this one. So if any of you are like me at all, you get into ruts where all you can think about is the next cool thing you want to buy or in this case need to buy. For the last several months I have done tons of research on the right tire for my tacoma. I have a pretty good base knowledge of tires but my situation is a bit unique. I have a 2004 Toyota Tacoma extra cab with a the 2.7 liter 4 cylinder engine. It is also a five speed manual transmission and 4WD. The truck has 1.75 inches of lift in the front and around 2.5 in the rear along with a camper shell.My dilema is that while I want to continue to run a larger then stock tire, I also have to be gas conscious and make an effort not to wear out my clutch before its time. Currently I run a 265/75/16 Bridgestone Dueler Revo in the Passenger rated (4 ply) version. This is one size larger and 3.5 lbs heavier(42lbs) then my stock tire. These tires have been outstanding, and I have gotten right at 62k out of them. If I had rotated them more and kept better tabs on the air pressure I probably could have made them last longer. Any who, I also get 22 mpg on the highway if I keep it just under 70mph.
I want to move to a different size tire 235/85/16, I really like the tall skinny look of these tires. Not to mention the added benefits of less wear and tear on your drive train/steering components,and being a little less likely to hydroplane. The problem is that this size only comes in the LT (light truck)E rating (10 ply rated). This makes for a much heavier tire, which defeats the purpose of a skinny tire in my specific case. One other variable to throw into the mix is the fact that whichever tire I buy has to last as long as possible(not always a priority). So here is a list of criteria for my perfect tire.

- at least 31.7 inches tall
- fairly aggressive tread
- at least 50k warranty on tread
- no more then 45 lbs per tire, less is better
- in the ball park of $150 per tire
- good online reviews

Of course I would love to run the old stand by BFG AT but in the size I want to run that tire weighs 49 lbs, which equals less clutch life and worse gas mileage. As far as tires go, that one is my absolute favorite no doubt about it. After researching many different all terrain tires and judging them against my picky criteria one has emerged a clear winner. The Cooper Discoverer ATR. In 235/85/16 It is 31.78 inches tall, has a tread depth of 16.5/32, a 50k treadlife warranty, fits my budget and weighs in at a light 42 lbs per tire according to www.gripston.com. I think it will be a great fit for my backwoods adventures while still providing a good tire for all of my daily driving. Other tires I seriously considered where the Hankook Dynapro ATM, the Bridgestone Dueler Revo, Toyo Open Country AT, and the Kumho Road Venture AT. All of these tires came very close but had one strike against them. I havent purchased my new tires yet but it wont be long. Well I have to go for now, This was a brief overview of my findings, but hopefully it will be helpful to someone else.

Coyotes in the triangle

If you talk to any hunter around NC or do a quick google search it is easy to figure out that we are being encroached upon by the wily Eastern Coyote. Or perhaps we have encroached on him. In either case encounters with these wild dogs are becoming more and more common all over North Carolina, including the triangle area. I have written a very similar post in the past, but in the past few weeks at Raleigh Country Club, basically in the heart of Raleigh, there has been a fury visitor roaming the grounds. While the coyote hasn't been spotted in two weeks, for about a week before that he made several appearances during regular working hours in broad daylight. He was spotted one morning at 9:30 standing on one of the greens not 50 yards from the main clubhouse. While the NCWRC website linked above lists coyotes in this area topping out at around 44 pounds, I saw this one in person and I estimate him/her to be closer to 55 pounds.Regardless of my opinion on its size, animal control was called to set traps since you cant have a coyote mingling with golfers. To date there has been only a raccoon caught in the trap and no more sightings of the coyote.Maybe he went back where ever he came from or maybe he just got smart, who knows. The greenway for the city of Raleigh is not far at all from the golf course, perhaps he found a safe place along that trail. One thing I learned is that if you are suspicious a coyote may be roaming around your area, look for sign. Scat was seemingly easy to find, holes dug in search of moles and voles where abundant and a deer carcass dumped by hunters was found in pieces throughout the golf course. Even if I had never seen the coyote it was pretty clear that something similar was taking up residence close by. I will keep you posted on this on going story, but in the mean time, I would love to hear other stories of coyote encounters in North Carolina. Shoot me an email or just leave a comment.