Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Of Birds, Memories and Men

Bath County Virginia is a very special place to me and my family. Beautiful mountain views, gorgeous trout streams and plenty of game make for an adventure that I look forward to every year. My father has been making the trip for over fifty years to hunt grouse and turkey. Over the years close bonds have been made with friends and family in this very special area of the Allegheny’s.

Each year my father plans a three week trip with Roy Gutshaw who is from Bath County. Roy is a straight shooting country wise individual who will keep you on your toes with a sharp intellect and a wealth of knowledge in a plethora of topics from tapping maple trees for sweet syrup to how to find water in a drought. Being a very successful owner of a real state firm, Roy, spends quite a bit of time in the woods looking at properties and keeping tabs of the local game population. His keen woodsman ship and accommodating nature makes for a great trip year after year.

I had planned to hunt with my dad, Roy and my brother Greg four five days. We stay at Roy’s wife Karen’s family farm that overlooks the town of Monterey. This is a classic piece of highland property with steep slopes, huge maples and the ever difficult to negotiate laurel thickets that are common in the area. Good populations of grouse, deer and the occasional turkey roam the farm.

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POSTED BY CHRISTOPHER WOODS AT 08:00 AM | 3 COMMENTS | LINKS TO THIS POST

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

The Bush Creek Rifle Buck by Christopher Woods

4:00am comes really early considering I just got off the plane from New York just a scant 3 hours ago. Brushing off the cobwebs and lingering annoyance of 4 layovers, a smile comes across my face realizing that it is finally here. Rifle season in Virginia has arrived. A quick shower, slug of coffee and I’m on the road to meet my buddy Jason Flora for a hunt at my property at Brush Creek.

Opening the gate to the property I noticed the wind for the first time. I don’t mean a slight breeze I mean full on 20-30mph gusts and oddly enough for a November morning it was hot. A quick check of the camp thermomenter confirms it. 58 degrees. Not particularly great conditions for a hunt but who cares its rifle season and if the wind and heat keeps them bedded surely the hoards of pumpkinheads will have them moving soon enough.

I decide to hunt across the creek overlooking a 30 acre section of cutover. This stand has been productive in the past and if the hunt club down the road does any drives they usually push deer through this part of my property. A couple seasons ago I was sitting on the other side of the creek and heard the hunt club guys start a drive and within 20 minutes I was staring at a 7 point albino directly under the stand I am sitting in now. As the morning wore on and without seeing anything my back was starting to kill me from the flight so at 10:00am I decided to get up and do a slow quite push towards Jason’s stand in the hope of pushing something to him. The tactic worked last year and Jason shot a nice 7 point. No such luck this time but I did find a number of scrapes and trails around the creek bottom that could be promising.

POSTED BY CHRISTOPHER WOODS AT 07:20 PM | 6 COMMENTS | LINKS TO THIS POST

Monday, October 13, 2008

First Deer of the Year

POSTED BY CHRISTOPHER WOODS AT 08:45 PM | 2 COMMENTS | LINKS TO THIS POST

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Nomsen Receives Special Recognition Award from Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies

Saint Paul, Minn. – September 11, 2008 – Dave Nomsen, Pheasants Forever (PF) and Quail Forever (QF) Vice President of Government Affairs, has received The Special Recognition Award from the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies. He received the honor last night at the Association's Annual Meeting in Saratoga Springs, New York.

The Special Recognition Award is given to individuals who have a distinguished record of accomplishment. "Everyone knows of Dave's commitment and devotion to fish and wildlife conservation through his work with Pheasant’s Forever and Quail Forever as well as his leadership in the conservation community. But he also helped our broader community define, focus and mature our Farm Bill proposals and played an instrumental role in the maturation and enactment of the Farm Bill this year. We thank him for his tireless dedication to reauthorization of the Farm Bill and to the conservation of fish, wildlife and their habitats." Matt Hogan, Executive Director, Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies.

"This is quite an honor," Nomsen said, "I work with a special group of people that have a shared passion. When I look at this award, I'll think of people like my Father, who spent his entire career working for the Iowa Conservation Commission, and my mentor Bill Baxter, Sr., a longtime wildlife biologist with the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, people who devoted their lives to conservation. And because of them, I devoted mine to the cause as well."

POSTED BY CHRISTOPHER WOODS AT 11:08 PM | 0 COMMENT | LINKS TO THIS POST

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Deer Cam Pictures from the Farm

Some great pictures taken from the farm that I own and hunt.

 

POSTED BY CHRISTOPHER WOODS AT 11:03 PM | 0 COMMENT | LINKS TO THIS POST

Friday, August 29, 2008

The Stealth Approach

As many of you may know ducks and geese are not getting any less wary. Hunters today employ any number of sneaky devices such as mojo mallards, quiver magnets, duck kites and many others in order to bag more ducks. Ducks in my home state of Virginia can become very decoy shy as the season winds on so a different approach is needed to insure success.

Take one part summer fun boat plus one part camo and viola. You have yourself a sneaky low profile duck hunting machine. I started with a 12 foot dark green kayak. The color of the kayak is very important. You cannot and I mean cannot paint a polyurethane kayak. I tried and within minutes of being in the water the paint was sloughing off in sheets. So the base color of your kayak needs to be a dark color such as green or brown.

POSTED BY CHRISTOPHER WOODS AT 12:59 AM | 1 COMMENT | LINKS TO THIS POST