Mother’s Day is such a special day to show your love and appreciation towards your mother. All around people will be celebrating the lives of their Moms on this special day, whether it is sending a card, calling, having dinner, or just spending the day together. This Mother’s Day, I will be celebrating being a mother…but in the woods with my children!

Haley, Husband G.O. and Children

I am a loving wife and proud mother of two young children, and I have been hunting since I was six years old. On Family Traditions on Sportsman Channel, I hunt with my family and friends across the globe, enjoying the outdoors and time together, as well as the passion of hunting. I travel with G.O., my husband, and at times, in kid friendly camps, we take our young children, Gunner and Dakota. At age 6, I shot my first deer with my daddy, and once G.O. and I got married, we built our house on that exact spot. And the deer? It’s mounted inside.

Throughout my childhood, my mother would often go with me in the woods. Watching her passion of the outdoors showed me it was okay for women to enjoy hunting, just as it was passed down to her. Now being a mother of two, I feel it is important to pass this tradition on to my children. Whether they grow to hunt as their passion or not, I want them to understand what I do and what has been a huge part of our family for generations. Quite frankly, it’s more than a hobby or job, it’s a lifestyle.

Being a woman in the outdoors shouldn’t have a stereotypical look as far as “outside” appearances go.  Most people that I meet are unaware of the show and would never guess my profession. I, like any woman, enjoy days at the spa, being a soccer mom, going to Atlanta to shop and getting my hair done and dressed up for events; however, I am most comfortable in my “cam,” with my family enjoying the wonderful outdoors. I truly believe I’ve achieved the balanced work, life and family trifecta successfully. It’s a challenge, of course, balancing being a professional, mother and wife, but it’s the most rewarding lifestyle. And being a mom takes the top spot.

Haley, daughter Dakota, Husband G.O. and son Gunner

This year, like so many in the past, I will be sitting with my children at the break of dawn waiting to hear a turkey gobble and hoping to get a shot at one. Regardless of the hunts outcome, this Mother’s Day will forever be etched in my memory, because we are doing exactly what we love and so many of our family members have loved and passed down throughout the years.

So, to all those reading this—whether you’re a mother yourself, a proud husband, or a thankful child—Happy Mother’s Day weekend!

Trying to get your pup accustomed to the sounds of gunfire isn’t quite the same as training them to sit or flush quail or stay put. Gunfire is an artificial intrusion in the field, and if you try to rush their training, the pups could become gun shy or nervous and jittery around loud noises. And unlike those other behaviors, this isn’t something that you can easily correct.

The goal is to introduce the pup to the sounds of gunfire a little at a time and create positive associations. This can be a very involved process, and it goes beyond just firing a gun nearby and then giving the dog a little treat. Take the time to carefully acclimatize the pup to these sounds and avoid some of the common mistakes, and you will have a lot more success.

Things to Avoid

There are a number of common mistakes that can effectively ruin your efforts to train your pup. Remember that it’s all about going slow and working up to the loudest guns at close proximity. You should never, for example, just fire a gun around the dog to see if he is gun shy. Being gun shy is not a genetic predisposition – it’s something that is instilled from bad training.

Sadie - Dog of the Author

You should never take the dog to a shooting range. Some people believe that by “throwing them in the deep end” they will acclimatize faster, but in reality they will probably just traumatize faster. Do not take the dog out hunting prior to a proper introduction to gunfire and hope that the on-the-job training will be sufficient. And finally, never fire a gun close to the dog while feeding him. This will not create the right kind of associations.

The Most Effective Training Process

By taking a dog through the right training steps, slowly and deliberately, your pup will have a better chance of getting used to the sounds of gunfire without getting gun shy.

Step one: provide lots of live bird contacts. This initial phase doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with loud noises. Get them out into the field and see how they react to live animals. The important thing is to make sure they show enthusiasm about retrieving and chasing before you start to test their resolve. If they are having fun when they hear the artificial noise, they will be more likely to create positive associations.

Step two: start small and from a distance. While the pup is running around, fire something very small (perhaps a .22 crimp shell) while you are at least 75 to 100 meters away. Ideally, the dog should be chasing a bird when you first introduce him to the .22 shot to start building the right associations. If the pup has an adverse reaction of some kind, wait for at least a week and then try again. Once you are sure the pup is accustomed to the sound from this distance, you can start moving a little closer until you can fire a shot nearby without startling the dog.

Step three: try again with something bigger. Now you can move from the .22 crimp stage on to a louder .22 blank. From there you might try a shotgun. Every time you graduate to a larger gauge or louder gunshot, start back at the 100-meter distance and work your way toward the dog.

If you are concerned that the pup has developed some gun shyness, or that you may have pushed things too fast, you could try some “group therapy.” Sometimes it can be effective to use a group of dogs that are already accustomed to the sounds of gunfire to help the pup learn by example and start rebuilding confidence.

Training is an ongoing experience because it’s always possible to learn something new and improve abilities. Take it slow in the early stages, stay consistent over time, and you and your new dog will have a much better time in the field.

Last November, on my way from the Tallahassee airport to the Florida Panhandle, also known as the “Redneck Riviera”, I caught that clever saying written across a convenience store T-shirt.  I get it, the “…Banjos” reference was to the “Deliverance” movie and we know what happened to those guys.  Funny.

I was headed to Apalachicola for my first Dead Meat TV shoot.  I’d spent some time with friends in the area in the past.  One year, we went upriver to check out the opening of squirrel season.  I recall camo-clad locals, young and old, drifting along feeder creeks looking for squirrels.  The air was alive with the smell of charcoal and the sound of gunfire.  It was like the movie “Apocalypse Now”, only the aroma wasn’t napalm, it was grilled gray squirrel.  “Deliverance” meets “Apocalypse Now”…

The Apalachicola squirrel opener is like no other.  I’d heard that kids leave school early so they can get a jump start on going upriver and into the forest where many of their families have camps, houseboats or they just pull up and claim a high spot on the water.  While planning the trip, I’d actually had a hard time finding someone willing to take me and the crew to join in the fun.  The local guides would rather shoot squirrels than babysit a bunch of Yankees and miss out on one of the biggest deals all year.  Now, I’m no stranger to the South.  My father was an Alabama farm boy, my mother hails from Florida and I grew up in Virginia (OK, not really the South).  It doesn’t matter to these guys, I’m still a Yankee.  Adding insult to injury, I’ve called California home for many years.

Bacon Wrapped Squirrel

Through a friend, I found Tommy, a local fishing guide, to take us to his family’s cluster of houseboats and do some squirrel hunting.  Tommy’s group is also legendary for putting on a big time opening weekend fish and game feed that’s open to anyone with a boat and a cold beer.  You can’t get to most of the camps by land and, if you don’t know your way around the meandering cypress swamps, you can get turned around easily and lost for days.  During the shoot, Tommy told me about the best way to hide a dead body in the forest, but his accent was so thick that I only caught about every third word.  I spend a lot of time in the South, but we’re going to need subtitles for Tommy.  Anyway, I got the message – don’t mess with Tommy.

Tommy’s wife, Melinda, knows her way around a camp kitchen as well as any I’ve met.  There was stuff wrapped in bacon, fried, grilled, stewed and skewered.  Best of all were the iced coolers loaded with briny, perfect-sized Apalachicola oysters – my favorite oyster in the Universe.   They had greens, beans and muscadine wine that was served in a jelly jar.  Of course, we were there to shoot squirrels so the food and drink gave us an incentive to get out, whack a few tree rats and come back to camp for the after-the-hunt chowdown.

Tommy

It’s easy to understand why the Apalachicola natives might want to keep a lid on the squirrel opener and not let too many people know about just how much fun they have with a boat, a gun, a campfire and a great group of friends.  At no time did I fear for my life or feel the need to “paddle faster…”  OK, maybe a couple of times with Tommy, but I’m sure it was just my imagination.

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It was life-altering in a way that is hard to define to anyone who wasn’t there. But as with most defining moments, it was the culmination of events that lead up to it that made it a truly, one-of-a-kind experience.

Last February, Kyle and I drove from our then Alpine-based home to Cheyenne for an audition. Kyle was successful and earned a spot to be one of the 13 participants chosen for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s “Call of the Wild: Generation Next in Wyoming” show. The reality-based program thought a mother-son elk hunt would be a great Wyoming adventure so they expanded the hunt to include me.

If my inclusion in the hunt ever upset Kyle, he has yet to show it.

So when we left last week for our four-day hunt in Douglas, the directions were what directions are like for most rural areas in Wyoming: spotty. I could get lost in my backyard so imagine my difficulty finding a remote Douglas ranch in the dark. Add to it heavy fog, roaming cattle and horses and it was a navigational nightmare. That’s when Kyle’s optimism shone through the darkness.

“This is going to be so much fun.”

I almost hit something when I looked over at him. Kyle can’t lie. He doesn’t have a poker face and his voice isn’t capable of dishonesty.

“Mom, I’m so glad we’re doing this together. Thanks for being here with me.”

He leaves me speechless. What teenager thanks their mom for practically crashing their elk hunt? I wouldn’t. But I’m selfish and Kyle isn’t.

Kyle is also very gracious, I wasn’t just a hunter’s worst fear, I was a teenage son’s relative nightmare who undoubtedly hopes that my genes are recessive.

Apparently “Oops” is not something people like to hear when you’re hunting with a rifle slung over your shoulder.

And when a hunting guide quietly points toward a herd of elk, it’s really frowned upon to loudly exclaim, “I see one!”

Kyle and his cow elk

The first response makes everyone in the hunting party take cover or take away your rifle. And the second reaction causes the herd to quickly disseminate.

Still despite my repeated blunders, and there were many, Kyle stayed the course with me. And when a hunting party of eight is tracking your every move with video, cameras and microphones across miles of thick snow-covered terrain, Kyle is who you want in your camp.

After hiking in the neighborhood of 12 miles within two days, rocks began to look like elk and elk looked like rocks. When I did actually spot an elk and not a rock, the herd appeared on the skyline of a mountain, where they can’t be targeted. At every turn the elk seemed to taunt me.

There was a moment when I completely lost my composure and started to cry. I was physically spent, emotionally tapped and spiritually wrecked.

Kyle came up behind me and placed his hand on my shoulder. He didn’t say anything. He leaned his forehead on the back of my head and I felt the presence of God between us. I wiped my eyes and resumed the hunt.

The best gift of 2011 was spending four days this December with Kyle. Wyoming’s “Call of the Wild” will make its premiere on the Sportsman Channel in 2012. I hope you’ll tune in to see Kyle’s big game debut. And get a good laugh at how his mom fared in the wilds of Wyoming.

Read more: http://trib.com/opinion/columns/my-son—-a-hunting-partner-like-no/article_eb3a960a-639d-5533-b26b-86e5fd3888d6.html?mode=story#ixzz1kWAU30jj

Guest post by Mary Biliter – mother of Wyoming’s Call of the Wild hunter, Kyle Thomas.

The full version of this column first appeared in the Casper Star-Tribune.

]]> http://www.thesportsmanchannel.com/community/blog/2012/05/my-son-a-hunting-partner-like-no-other/feed/ 0 http://www.thesportsmanchannel.com/community/blog/2012/05/recipe-for-nutria-yep-from-the-new-series-dead-meat/ http://www.thesportsmanchannel.com/community/blog/2012/05/recipe-for-nutria-yep-from-the-new-series-dead-meat/#comments Tue, 01 May 2012 15:35:13 +0000 admin http://www.thesportsmanchannel.com/community/blog/?p=996 Continue reading →]]> Guest post from Scott Leysath, host of Sportsman Channel’s newest series: Dead Meat.  Today’s post is from the first episode where Scott learned how to cook Nutria and experimented with seasoning hog backstrap. Watch Dead Meat Sundays at 9:30 pm E/P.

A big “thank you” to everyone for tuning in for the first episode of Dead Meat!  We received several viewer comments asking for the recipes from the show.  We had a great time in Louisiana and, believe it or not, the nutria did taste good!

The nutria and hog backstrap that I prepared in camp was pretty simple.  I suggest rubbing it with your favorite seasoning, soaking it in red wine vinegar and olive oil for several hours and then slap it on the grill until it’s done; about 165 degree at the center.  Then, wrap it up in some heavy foil with a cup or so of barbecue sauce and place it back on the grill until the meat pulls apart easily.

Scott Leysath - Man on a Mission for Dead Meat!

The hog cooked by Foster Creppel at Woodland Plantation was also simple, but time consuming.

• Give the meat a good rub (Foster had his own blend) and refrigerate overnight.
• Brown it either over a hot grill or in an oven.
• Spread honey over the browned meat and place in a roasting pan.
• Add wine and beef broth, about 1 – 2 inches depth.
• Add chopped celery, carrots, onions and cover with heavy foil.
• Place in a 375 degree oven for 5 – 6 hours or until the meat pulls easily away from the bone.  If you check it and it’s not tender, keep cooking.  It’ll get there.  Do make sure there’s always an inch or so of liquid in the pan.  It helps break down and tenderize the meat.

Bernie Young’s pan-fried nutria from Delta Marina in Empire, LA was a bit more complicated and he kept the exact recipe close. But here’s my estimation: The hindquarter is boned, pounded, seasoned, floured, egg washed and then coated with breadcrumbs.  Then, it’s fried in a few tablespoons each of butter and olive oil until golden brown.  Bernie topped it with fried oysters and a hollandaise sauce that also contained cooked and diced andouille sausage.

I hope these above recipes get your mouth watering! And I’ll see you next week!

One of the keys to fishing success is to be constantly learning new techniques and new baits.  The problem is that when I go fishing, I want to catch fish. It is real easy to use the baits or techniques that I have the most confidence with, instead of something new.  The way I accomplish this is by leaving all of my tackle at home, except for the bait I want to focus on.  This prevents me from falling back on my confidence baits.

When I film One More Cast, I focus on a single bait for each episode.  This has forced me to use a specific bait for the whole day, I don’t have the option of changing to something else.  Using a bait for an extended period of time, forces me to experiment more with the bait itself.  I try it at different depths, different retrieves, different speeds, etc.  I learn what the bait can do, what the fish like and what they don’t like.  I learn how the bait works or doesn’t work in the different types of cover.

Shaw with a nice Largemouth Bass

The best example that I can think of occurred several years ago at the Stick Marsh in Florida.  I was filming a tube bait show with a Strike King Denny Brauer Flip-N-Tube, and pitching it just inside the edge of the grass.  During the day, I noticed fish movement deep in the grass under the algae.  I took the tube bait and rigged it with a real light 1/8th or 1/16th ounce tungsten weight and threw it on top of the mat just like I would have done with a frog.  I immediately had bites with a high percentage of catches.  I learned that a tube bait could be used much like a topwater bait.  I still use this technique and I would never have tried it if I would have had access to a topwater frog that day.

If you want to become a better angler, don’t be afraid to force yourself to take only what’s needed to fish a new bait and leave the rest on the bank.

The world of “catch and release” has changed bass fishing forever.  Now that most states have adopted no kill seasons, the bass fishing fun begins weeks and even months before these fish spawn.

The tactics used to catch bass in the early spring vary considerably from those commonly used in the summer By making some simple adjustments in mind set and the places fished, early spring bass angling can be some of the best action of the year.

Mark Romanack, host of Fishing 411 recommends using jerkbaits to target shallow water pre-spawn largemouth and smallmouth bass.

THINK SHALLOW

Both smallmouth and largemouth bass love to hunt for minnows, crayfish and frogs in extremely shallow water. This pattern starts immediately following the ice melting. When the majority of the lake is icy cold, a ribbon of warmer water forms along the shorelines where the sun can quickly warm water temperatures. The north shore of these lakes get the best sun exposure and are the first to warm and attract fish. Dark bottom areas warm quickly and start to attract fish first. Gradually other bottom types like sand, gravel or clay warm up and start attracting fish.  For several weeks these fish feed actively and spawning is the last thing on their minds.

WEIGHTLESS SOFT PLASTICS

When bass hit the shallows, the water is so skinny the back of the fish is nearly exposed! Almost always when a fish strikes, the water boils on the surface! Fishing in water this shallow forces the angler to cast a fair distance to avoid spooking the fish.  Unweighted soft plastics are ideal for this style fishing. Wacky rigged worms, Texas Rigged Flukes, action tail grubs, paddle grubs and beavers are great baits for pitching into the shallows. A seven foot medium light spinning outfit equipped with six pound test fluorocarbon line is the ideal way to fish these lightweight baits.  Shallow bass aren’t typically found just setting out in the open. Bass like to snuggle up to cover when possible, and use these spots as ambush sites. Sunken wood, rocks, dock posts, sea walls, clumps of cattail or other vegetation are all great visual targets to try.

As the spring progresses, anglers can travel north to encounter cooler waters and extend their pre-spawn fishing action. Here Fishing 411 pro staffers Jake Romanack (left) and Kendall Ulsh show off some amazing Grand Traverse Bay smallmouth caught (and released) near Traverse City, Michigan.

OTHER BAITS TO CONSIDER

Jerkbaits and shallow diving crankbaits can also be effective when the bite heats up. These hard baits are ideal for fishing over the top of emerging weed flats that often attract the most fish.

ETHICS

Fishing for pre-spawn and spawning bass requires anglers to exercise good ethics. It’s important to return landed fish to the water as soon as possible. If you want a photo, keep your camera handy, snap a quick pic and release the fish immediately.  By starting with lakes in the southern part of an angler’s fishing area and moving north as warmer weather encroaches, anglers can tap into great pre-spawn fishing opportunities for several weeks. So long as anglers respect the resource and handle fish with care, no harm is done to future fishing opportunities.

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Bass anglers so overlook the last category (the boot-tailed soft swimbait category) but it can be so deadly, that I want to offer a few examples of options to get you started. For rubber-legged jigs most often fished by bass anglers - compact jigs in the 3/8 to 1-ounce range – try 3.25 or 4.5-inch Lunker City Shakers. The Shaker has a flat body and it does a nice job of making most of the jigs move. Experiment by shortening the softbait body to get it to couple with the jig you’ve chosen.

One of my favorite conehead jigs is the 5/8 ounce J-mac jig. yes, it’s a big one designed by muskies. Bass anglers spend too much time fishing too small. The 1-ounce J-mac also works well. At times you need to trim the skirt back a little. The weedguard works in weeks, but it doesn’t deflect wood. A few options include:

Doug with a nice smallie

1. Add a 4.5 inch Lunker City Shaker body and the jig swims (wobbles) modestly on a straight retrieve – and swims well in the fall.

2. Add a 5-inch Berkley Flatback Shad and the jig swims more distinctively on a straight retrieve, but goes dead (doesn’t swim) on the fall. Overall, I prefer the jig to swim on the fall, but many times bass like it on a dead fall.

3. Trim a 6-inch Lunker City Shaker body back by an inch and it swims the package superbly on a straight retrieve and it wobbles a bit on the fall. This one starts to get a bit big for a 2 and 3-pound bass. Trim the Shaker by 2 inches and it still swims great on the retrieve by no longer swims on the fall.

4. Add a narrow-bodied swimbait – hybrid swimbait, as I call them. Many companies offer bodies like the Lunker City SwimFish and the Berkley Havoc Grass Pig, both 5 inches. The bodies move the jig modestly on a straight retrieve and the fall. It’s one of the hottest new options.

I won’t complicate it by discussing at length coupling jigs designed for swim jigging with swimbait bodies, although you should consider it if you fish these jigs. Swimbait bodies work best with heavier jigs. The bodies need a sturdy pivot point to work against in order to swim; so 3/8 ounce is about the minimum weight for jigs with even a thin skirt.

Good fishing to you.

There’s a lot of discussion about one of the best bass lures of all time: the rubber-legged jig, which usually doesn’t fish as well without the addition of a soft-bodied trailer to make it come alive. Bass anglers often find it difficult to decide which trailer to use. You never know for sure until you start fishing and comparing the options. It’s easier to work through the choices if you divide tipping options into three categories.

1. One trailer category adds bulk along with the slightest vibration. The classic option here is the #11 Uncle Josh Pork Frog, but today many similiar chunks are made of soft plastic. In the last post, I mentioned the 4-inch Berkley Gulp! Shrimp, which adds a nice glide to a jig on the fall. Bass respond visually to the jig as it swims and falls. With their lateral line, they also feel the jig pushing water.

2. The second category is a big one. Within it fall all the options that add bulk and vibration, but add it without doing what the last category does, which is add vibration along with swimming movement. The options begin with the addition of subtle movement, by using say a Berkley PowerBait Power Hawg, which has straight legs and thin tails. To step up the vibration package, trim about an inch off the head end of a 7-inch PowerBait Power Worm and slide the remaining action tail on the jig hook.. To add even more distinct vibration, use a Berkley Havoc Craw Fatty, with its two wildly paddling arms. Again, each trailer adds a bit of bulk along with different vibration patterns bass can discern with their eyes and their lateral line.

3. One of the most appealing of all vibrations is produced by lures in the boot-tailed soft swimbait category. That’s the final trailer group. It can be incredibly deadly, and it remains mostly underutilized by bass anglers. The idea is to add a soft swimbait body to a jig so the entire package swims. That is you want the jig and trailer wobbling back and forth as the boot tail also thumps on a straight retrieve. It’s almost like fishing a wobbling crankbait, with the option to kill the jig at anytime and have it swim to the bottom, always a key triggering move.

The best jighead design is cone style, which works in concert with the soft swimbait to get the jig to swim. Head designs like the football head, by comparison, allow the thumper tail to do its thing, but the head remains too stable to get the package to swim. Meanwhile, the swimbait body should be rigged flat instead of up and down like it was designed to fish.

Bass often prefer options from one category over others, depending on fishing conditions. Once the water gets cold, for example, bass often prefer almost no vibration; so choose options from the first category. Fishing can be tricky at times. Once you discover which category is working best, work through various options from within the category to discover the best possible option overall.

Good fishing to you.

The addition of trailers to tip leadhead jib designs, ranging from hair jigs to rubber-legged jigs, has been around since each option hit the scene. In the case of hair jigs like the Cap’s Rock-A-Roos that I began fishing in the late 1960s, most early trailers were portions of pork rind. One favorite for smallmouths was a 1 to 1.5 inch portion of individual tail from a split-tailed U-3 Uncle Josh porkbait. The result gave the jig package a little more bulk, which meant a slightly slower fall and bolder profile, along with a bit more tail action to enhance the motion of the flowing hair. This was – and remains – a high-percentage option during the late summer and fall, especially now that anglers are discovering the versatility and productivity of hair.

Doug Stange with a nice Largemouth Bass

These days I tip with softbaits like Berkley PowerBait or Berkley Gulp!. One favorite is a 1 to 1.5 inch portion of the tail end of a 3-inch PowerBait Minnow. Slip the hook up through the trimmed end of the softbait so the split trail rides up and down.

Many different trailer designs are specifically tailored for tipping rubber-legged bass jigs. Most, like the PowerBait Chigger Craw, add vibration and bulk to the package. Don’t forget to add to your experiment at times just bulk, without much vibration. One favorite bulk-tipper is either a 3 or 4-inch Gulp! Shrimp, with the tail and underside of the shrimp laying flat. This adds a nice glide to the jig as it falls. It’s a deadly combination that no one uses.

More often than not, though, vibration is a vital part of the package. Beyond the flapper-like appendages offered by the Chigger Craw and others, I’ve tinkered successfully by adding swimbait tails to jigs. They have to trim down to fit the package, and only a few do that well. One is the 3.25 inch Lunker City Shaker, a swimmer with a thin body. Use about a 2.5 to 3-inch end portion of the tail and thread it on the hook so it rides flat. This adds bulk and glide but the tail still adds attractive swimming vibration to the overall package.

Doug Stange with a nice Smallmouth Bass

Another deadly tipping option for largemouths is a 7-inch Berkley PowerBait Thump Worm trimmed just ahead of the ring on the worm. Thread the ring onto the hook and it’s the perfect length to allow the tail to “buzz” on a straight retrieve – a unique sort of jig-crankbait hybrid. Fish take on the straight retrieve, but are more likely to be attracted by the intense vibration and then eat the jig once you kill it and let it fall. I usually rig the flapper tail so it rides flat, but it works just as well up and down. Again, this is an option no one else is using. you can be the first to trigger bass with it in your area.

In the end, catching fish is a matter of getting down to details in the presentation process, with the final delineator being getting the lure part of the package just right for the situation at hand. Good fishing to you!