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Here are some of my favorite hunting and fishing photos. We've got some great white-tail deer in Nebraska, but we have to travel for the big fish.
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| FINALLY - my first buck! Hey, it only took 5 years to get him! :) Ethan and I were hunting a new spot (long story) and really didn't expect to even see anything. We were in a camo tent in the corner of this corn field. Right at dusk I spotted a doe along the opposite tree line - about 300-400 yards out. I wasn't comfortable with the shot, so we waited. We then saw two deer come out of the same trees and slowly work their way towards us. I could tell one was a small buck and the other a doe. My plan was to wait until they got close enough for a good shot and take the buck. While waiting, this bruiser came out of nowhere, trotting across the corn field. My adrenaline went through the roof! He stopped about 120 yards out and put his head way up and started sniffing - we'd been busted! At this time, the light was really getting poor and the cross hairs of my scope were starting to disappear against the brown fur of the buck. I realized that in 60 seconds one of two things was going to happen: he was either going to turn around and leave, or it was going to be too dark to take the shot. I kept waiting for him to give me his side, but I realized that wasn't going to happen. I put the cross hairs right in the center of his chest and squeezed the trigger. My 270 is a loud gun, but neither Ethan nor I remember hearing anything! The buck dropped on the spot - a nice quick and clean kill. It took us about 30 to 45 minutes to find him in the dark, but boy was it worth it - six points on each side! |
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| My first Canadian fishing trip! I caught this monster pike in the last hour of the last day of our trip. |
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| This was my son Ethan's first deer hunt with me (2004) - he was 6! I think he might have been bigger than the deer. |
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| This is me and my dad on our Canadian fishing trip. We had a blast! |
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| My dad wrestled this small mouth bass out of the river to receive a Master Angler award. |
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| This is my first deer. I shot this at about 60 yards while walking a trail towards the end of the hunt. |
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| This is my son Ethan learning to shoot for the first time! |
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| This is Ethan's first-ever shot from a gun. He shot a .22 rifle with iron sites from 35 yards and put it right in the kill zone! He's a natural; I was sooooo proud of him. :) |
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| Here's another view to show you just how far Ethan was shooting. Almost every shot hit paper, with most in the orange. Next to him is our hunting buddy and fellow co-worker Pat. |
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| This is my daughter Tess and her first fishing experience catching bluegills and sunfish in the Ozarks. |
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| When we were in the Ozarks during the summer of 2006, a bunch of fish came up to our boat and started swimming with the kids. Here's Ethan and Tess and you can just make out the big catfish in the lower-right corner. There were a number of large catfish, a bunch of small ones, and a lone carp swimming with the kids that day. It was a blast! The cats didn't scare the kids, but the carp freaked them out for some reason. |
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| This picture has nothing to do with monster fish, but it's still a great picture of Ethan fishing in the Ozarks. |
