{"id":1684,"date":"2018-11-21T14:45:20","date_gmt":"2018-11-21T14:45:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.oldausable.com\/wordpress\/?p=1684"},"modified":"2022-04-06T15:03:40","modified_gmt":"2022-04-06T15:03:40","slug":"november-20-2018-deer-camp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.oldausable.com\/index.php\/2018\/11\/21\/november-20-2018-deer-camp\/","title":{"rendered":"November 20, 2018 – Deer Camp"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Old Au Sable Fly Shop Fishing Report<\/p>\n

Welcome to the white-tailed deer rifle season in Northern Michigan.<\/p>\n

We had an early cold snap that brought with it a blanket of snow. Snow is welcomed by all deer hunters.\u00a0 It makes it easier to spot the brown ungulates as they sneak through the spruces and makes tracking animals easier.\u00a0 That\u2019s especially welcomed by grateful hunters who have to follow up a mortally wounded buck.\u00a0 Blood \"6\"<\/a>trails show up brightly on white and even poorly hit deer that bleed little can be tracked successfully simply by following footfalls.\u00a0 There\u2019s an art to tracking animals after the shot.\u00a0 One that\u2019s much simplified on frosted ground.<\/p>\n

There is exhilaration with every trigger pull, but there is no true success until you find your game. The time bird-dogging your injured quarry is at once both exciting and anxiety filled.\u00a0 While losing an animal you\u2019ve wounded is the worst feeling a hunter can experience, catching the first sight of your deer spent on the ground brims with satisfaction.\u00a0 In the course of a successful hunt you feel a full gamut of emotions – hope and anticipation, excitement and anxiety, joy and sadness for a life taken.\u00a0 It\u2019s a complex undertaking.\u00a0 For most, anyway.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a fantastic ride for me so far this November. I started out by being invited to a fancy deer camp with my best friends.\u00a0 This is a first class operation with a beautiful cabin complete with a stone fireplace.\u00a0 It\u2019s nicer than my house!\u00a0 The blinds are all elevated and heated and look over big, well-groomed food plots.\u00a0 There were a pile of racked bucks on the many trail cameras.\u00a0 I\u2019d never really been to a fancy camp and this, I imagine, is as fine as any.\u00a0 But the deer didn\u2019t give a lick about all that and at the end of the first weekend, we all went home empty handed.<\/p>\n

I headed right to my Dad\u2019s place. Our camp.\u00a0 My Dad greeted me at the door; eager to tell the tales of the last few days and hunt with his son.\u00a0 The woodstove was warm and the new solar powered lights that replaced the lanterns and candles glowed nicely.\u00a0 We can flush the toilet here with a bucket of water gathered roof gutter, but we have to haul water from the well that we need to drink and cook with.\u00a0 The gas stove works and we can even watch the game on the T.V. thanks to the battery bank.\u00a0 It\u2019s cozy and clean.\u00a0 And we have blinds that don\u2019t leak much and the drafts aren\u2019t anything the heaters can\u2019t handle.\u00a0 We\u2019ve got some small food plots but when a deer walks out you aren\u2019t elevated and look him right in the eye.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s how I shot my six point this year. Right on his same level.<\/p>\n

I am so fortunate to be a part of both camps. One camp with best friends and one camp with family. \u00a0\u00a0Deer come a distant second to deer camp.<\/p>\n

Enjoy your Thanksgiving and remember how lucky you are to spend some time with folks you may just be too busy for during the rest of the year.<\/p>\n

Take care and I\u2019ll see you when I crawl out of the woods,<\/p>\n

Andy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Old Au Sable Fly Shop Fishing Report Welcome to the white-tailed deer rifle season in Northern Michigan. We had an early cold snap that brought with it a blanket of snow. Snow is welcomed by all deer hunters.\u00a0 It makes it easier to spot the brown ungulates as they sneak through the spruces and … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[200,151,152,84,7,182,166,167,5,68,158],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.oldausable.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1684"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.oldausable.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.oldausable.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.oldausable.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.oldausable.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1684"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.oldausable.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1946,"href":"https:\/\/blog.oldausable.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1684\/revisions\/1946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.oldausable.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.oldausable.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.oldausable.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}