Fishing ND Tailrace or Missouri River Part 2 6-21-12

I am sorry for such a long gap between Part 1 and Part 2.  I have very valuable information for you though. 

On April 8th(Easter), Amber and I had our baby girl, Evangelyne Joy.  Since her birth I have been out fishing the river almost every weekend.  Before she was born we did go out to the tailrace and fish from the wing walls.  So that is where I will start.

Fishing the wingwalls was very interesting.  You are fishing back water and release water that is coming out of Lake Sakakawea.  Then you are probably 20 feet in the air.  If you do catch a fish you have to try and put it in a bucket/rack that is tied to the fence and pull it up.  If you don't have one of them then you have to pull that fish up the 20 ft hoping that it does not get off or break your line.  And if you do not have a bucket you have to keep the fish.  If you drop the fish the 20ft it will not survive. Fishing the wing walls was interesting, it took me a while to figure it out.  What works for me is to cast a 5/16oz jig(some even use a 1/4oz) with a worm or Minnow and slowly jig it back.  Always keeping tenchen is key. They bite lite and you want to feel that bite.

After Evangelyne was born I was able to fish the river portion in a boat.  I will share this in my next post.

Fishing ND Tailrace or Missouri River Part 1 3-22-12

Being new to the area brings it's challenges.  Catching fish has been a challenge for us.  Back in Watford City I can tell you where to catch fish and the time of year you can catch.  Around the Beulah are, not so much.

North Dakota's Garrison Dam 2011 Water Release

Because of this I am going to challenge myself.  I am determined to learn how to fish the Tailrace or Garrison Dam and the Missouri River.  While learning techniques, what to look for on the river, where the main channel is, etc. I will blog it on here and also video tape it and air it on our TV show.  Hopefully this will help you learn how to fish the Missouri River as well.

My quest started by posting a topic on Fishingbuddy.com (http://www.fishingbuddy.com/fishing_the_tailrace).  In this topic I asked for some techniques or any helpful hints that other anglers would be willing to share with me.  Here 2 suggestions that I got.

• One guy suggested that we look for current breaks or slack water.  We should be able to find these pretty easy.  Sometime when the river comes around a corner there will be water on the inside of the bend that misses the main current.   We should be able to see as it should be a calm top to the water.  That is slack water.  A current break should be behind a tree or some kind of object like that.  Behind that object should be current break where the water current is not as fast.
• The second suggestion or technique is when you us an anchor to cast at a 90 degree angle instead of casting up river.  By casting at a 90 degree angle it will allow your jig, in this technique we are using a jig, to slowly trickle down river.  By having a lighter jig it will allow it to sink slowly and will end up behind the boat.  You then slowly jig it back to the boat.  By doing it this way it is suppose to cover more ground.  So if you have a big whole you are trying to fish you probably could cover a forth of it in one cast.  Doesn't mean that they will bite on the one cast but you can cover more ground.  

These techniques make perfect sense.  My next thing I need to learn is the channel of the river.  I do not want to ruin my prop or bottom out.  That would put a damper on trying to fish the river.  To try and learn the river I am going to email ND Game and Fish department and see if they have a map of the river, more importantly the main channel.  I will write a blog as soon as I get that info.

Vaughn M. Anderson
Rough Creek Productions

All good in the end Part 2

Final weekend came and I was jacked.  The rut is here, I had a great feeling about this.  My plan was to get my deer and then help Dusty.  Friday came with me seeing a nice buck.  The problem was that I was by myself and I couldn't get the video camera ready soon enough.  He took off with out a shot fired.

Lets jump to Saturday.  The goal here was for me to film Dusty.  He would get his deer that morning which would then free him up to film me, the joys of having a hunting show("Our World" for those of you who don't know.  www.roughcreekproductions.com) We got down to the spot that we wanted to hunt.  When we got down there we found out that it wasn't public land like we thought.  We were already running late, now we have to change things up really quick.  We decided to go to dad's stand.  When we got up there every move that we made was echoing.  Like that is going to bring deer in.  Once again we had to change things up.  We went back to our original spot but this time we went on private stuff that we did have permission on.  No deer came by.

Now we are heading back into town for some lunch.  On the way in, we spot this "okay" buck 50 yards off the road.  Dusty says "There's your mule deer buck." I said back to him "Yeah, but we don't have permission to hunt mule deer here."  So we continue on our way.  Dusty ends up calling dad, ends up we do have permission.  We head back that way.  We found a nice little dirt mound that we could sneak up to and get a great shot. The plan was perfect.  When we got there and looked over the hill, he was no where to be found.  Dusty and I started talking in our normal voices.  Then all of a sudden he gets up and starts walking threw the trees.  He doesn't give me a good shot and Dusty can't find him on the camera.  Finally he gets out of the trees.  Dusty is on him, now I can't find him in the scope.  The buck starts running faster and faster.  Needless to say I didn't take the shot.

That was disappointing.  Our heads were down a little bit, we knew though that the possibility of seeing another deer off the road was decent.  We were right! After about 5 miles of driving I spot a doe in this draw.  Dusty looked in the binoculars and didn't see a buck thought the doe was looking in the draw.  So we figured it ain't to far of a walk so lets check it out.  The buck was right below her.  The buck got up before we were ready.  He took off and never looked back.  Disappointment number 2.  I could not believe the bad luck we were having.

Lets jump to the next day which is also the last day of deer season.  Dusty was heading to the river bottom and dad and my nephew, Jase, was coming with me.  Dusty was going to sit all day long.  I was going to go on a big hike and have dad and Jase pick me up on the other side of these big draws.  I got dropped off and went over this first hill.  I sat down, right when I sat down this buck and 2 does get up and start running away.  I was contemplating weather I should go after them or not.  Normally I would but they were running in the direction I was not planning on going.  They made the choice for me as for some reason they came running back in my direction.  They stopped about 200 yards out there.  I got the camera setup, then I got my gun setup and the cross-hairs dialed in.  Went to pull the trigger, nothing.  The shell never went off.  What are the odds! No more buck, as I went to reload he took off.  I was furious.  Didn't understand why.

I was ready to quit though something told me I needed to pray, so I did.  After the prayer I felt better.  I kept on walking and getting upset again that I wasn't seeing anything.  Finally I decided I had enough.  I called dad on the cell phone and said "I'm not walking anymore.  Come back to the spot and pick me up."  He said "Okay.  It will take us a little bit to get there though."  He was on top of the other draw watching for deer.  I waited for a little bit when dad calls me back saying that there is a buck on top of this hill between us.  That got me pumped again.  I started walking to the hill just jacked.  Got to the top, looked around, no buck in sight.  I was upset again.

Finally I got to the last hill.  I was walking up it, dead tired, when dad meets up with me and says "I have this buck spotted over this hill.  Lets go take a closer look."  I said "Okay but I am tired."  When we got to the top of the hill we saw that the buck was laying down not paying any attention to us.  So we moved a little closer.  I got the camera setup again, this time I was able to fire a shot.  Smoked him.  Finally the worked paid off.

While Jase, dad and I were packing it up I got to thinking "God, why did I have to go through all this work for this deer."  Then he told me "Look around you."  I looked around, there was my nephew and my dad.  Growing up my dad took me hunting with him all the time.  Today we don't get a whole lot of opportunities to hunt together.  So God turned all the bad things into something even better.  The buck's horns was smaller then the one I could have gotten in the morning.  But because I got to share it with my dad, as he is watching me shoot, and my nephew this buck's horns grew.  That made this buck huge.

I have always had a heart for helping others through hunting.  Because of this I want to help others through hunting and the word of God.  So I am looking at starting a ministry to preach the word of God through hunting.  If you know someone that wants to hunt but can't either because they don't have someone to take them out or they are disabled, give me a call or email, 701.905.9048 or vaughna@roughcreekproductions.com.  If there is a will there is a way.  God will help us.  Through him all things are possible.

All good in the end Part 1

Man oh man was this rifle season a treat.  It seemed like anything that could go wrong did go wrong.  I will paraphrase the first 2 weekends for you.

Opening weekend was like this.  Mine, Dusty's, and John's guns were off.  Took us a while to site them in.  Dusty had to go to his backup gun cause his wouldn't get dialed in.  John was running late and so was my camera man(Justin Werven).  Justin was late cause he was waiting for my suburban.  It never got fixed in time so he was late for nothing.  We only got to hunt for an hour and a half that day.  When we got home we found out that dads 4-wheeler was leaking gas.  We brought it in to the garage and didn't notice anything really wrong. 

Saturday morning was a treat.  We went back out with the 4-wheelers.  I went for a walk and only saw one deer.  Quick note on that deer, Friday night Justin told me that God wanted me to go back to the same spot the night before.  God had something there for me.  I was excited about it.  You trust in God, that is what he taught me with that deer.  Right before I saw that deer some guys got out of their vehicle and started blasting away at this deer, I think never did see the deer they were shooting at.  After those shots I was thinking now God can't show me anything.  Well the very next hill I went over was this one deer, a buck.  I would have shot him but he ran off.  I doubted God, he told me there was something there.  When I saw that buck, it was like God saying "I told you I would show you something, believe in me."  Lesson learned.

After that I caught up with Dusty and John, they didn't see much either.  So I hoped on with Dusty while John was driving dads 4-wheeler.  We were going and I looked behind us and no John.  Drive back found out that the carry rack fell off, screws came loose.  We jimmy rigged it back on.  I drove that 4-wheeler now just in case something else happens.  Wouldn't you guess it did, going up a hill the rack falls of again.  This time we are just leaving it off, over that hill is the truck.  While going down that hill to the truck the 4-wheeler runs out of gas, it was completely full that morning.  It lost all of its fuel, luckily I was able to coast to the truck.  Now we had to get it in the truck.  We turned the gas nob to the reserve tank and got it started.  Dusty drove it up the ramps, squeezed the brake(which I forgot to mention wasn't working the best) and ran into the front of the pickup box denting it.  The dent was pushed far enough in to where it was rubbing on the cab which later caused paint to come off.

Sunday and weekend number 2 wasn't that bad just no deer.

Best Time of Year

ND deer rifle season always gets me excited.  Opening day in my family is like a holiday.  No one works and everyone gets together at my parents’ house.  If we don't get a deer on opening weekend we are kind of bummed. 

Why is that? We should know that the best part of the deer season is coming, not only for rifle but for bow as well.  This year I get to hunt it with a muzzleloader (hopefully with a Thompson Center that my brother is going to buy) as well.  My dad always says, "If I am going to take any days off during rifle season it will be the last 4 days."

Why, you may ask.  THE RUT IS IN FULL FORCE!!  It is getting to the end of the rifle season and I am just jacked.   On Friday, I get to try to fill that Mule Deer buck tag.  When I find the does, the buck won’t be too far off.

If I get my deer on Friday, then I get to hunt with my brother (Dusty) the next 2 days in a treestand, sitting from sun up to sun down, putting down some Dominate Buck Lure and some doe estrus.  Then watching the bucks run around with their heads up high, tongues hanging out searching for that hot doe.  Smaller bucks will be getting run off.  Let’s not forget the joy of watching 2 dominant bucks fighting.

Really, it just doesn't get any better than this.  How could it!  Oh wait, it does get better.  I get to hunt one week with my rifle, one week with a muzzleloader (hopefully I’ll get my buck the first weekend) and another with my bow.  Can I just say "AWESOME!"

So why get down when you don't fill your tag the first weekend, the best hunting days are coming. 

Justin Werven's Tech Tip on Bow Slings

Selecting a bow sling (wrist strap) is a relatively easy process. There are many options out there for width, length, style and color. Pick one that fits you bow and wrist and is a style and color you like. Installing a bow sling is simple but if done improperly it will affect your accuracy. A bow sling is installed together with a stabilizer. It provides a "catch" for an archer's hand so they do not drop the bow after taking a shot. Bow slings should be installed loosely so they do not add unneeded torque when the shot is fired.

Check out Rough Creek Productions Tech Tip feature of Episode 2 and 3 of Our World for detailed instructions on installing your bow sling properly. Also check out Straight N' Arrow Bow Slings in our webstore or at www.snaarchey.com for a durable and unique bow sling.

Lack of Deer

It has been a while since I made a post.  Well hopefully I can start doing them on a regular basis.  This blog is going to be about the deer numbers in North Dakota.  Last weekend Dusty, John and I all went back to the badlands to do some deer hunting. Dusty and John have whitetail buck tags.  I have a mule deer buck tag. We started off a little late on Friday.  We finally got to our spots.  Dusty and John sat together in the river bottoms and then Justin and I went into the hills.  We didn't see anything and Dusty and John saw 3 does.  That seemed to be the theme for the weekend.  Hardly saw any deer.

So what is causing these low numbers?  Well I believe there are 3 factors.

1. Mother Nature--The last few winters have been absolutely crazy.  In 2009, ND had 85.4 inches of snow.  2010 wasn't quite as much, 70.3.  Those are the 3rd and 4th most in the history of North Dakota. (http://www.kxnet.com/getArticle.asp?ArticleId=699536) With that much snow it is hard for the deer to find food.  Then the spring will be wet from all the snow and make even tougher when they give birth.

2. Moutain Lions--North Dakota has never had this many mountain lions.  I don't know how many are out there but you use to never get a picture of a mountain lion on a trail camera.  These days you get numerous and not just one cat in a picture many cats.  They say that a mountain lion can take down 1 deer a week.  That is outrageous!!  So one grown mountain lion eats 52 deer a year.  1 CAT EATS 52 A YEAR!  So far this year there have been 9 cats killed in North Dakota's Badlands.  Just those 9 cats had the potential of killing 468 deer this year.  I had a buddy that went out hunting in the badlands and he said that he saw 4 mountain lions in a 3 mile radius.  He saw more mountain lions than deer.  There are so many cats in the Badlands that they are now moving to eastern North Dakota.  They spotted a few south of Devils Lake.  A lot of mountain lions out there eating deer.

3.  Traffic--This one is mainly for western North Dakota.  With the oil traffic in western North Dakota there have been numerous deer/vehicle collisions.  I tried to find numbers for this but us unsuccessful.  Some oil trucks speed up to hit animals on the road.  I have a friend that saw a group of antelope on the highway.  He then looked down the road and saw an oil truck coming towards them.  That trucker actually speed up to hit them.  I was told it looked like a bowling alley, antelope flying everywhere.  This makes me sick.  Yes, a lot of them are accidents, though there those young drivers that think it is cool to hit animals with their semi-truck.  They think why not it won't hurt the truck.  Makes me sick!  I do my best not to hit a pheasant.

This is just what I think has contributed to the low deer numbers.  I have seen first hand how low these numbers are.  I love walking the Badlands!! I hate walking them and not seeing anything!

Thanks for ready our blog.  Give any feedback that you would like.

Vaughn M. Anderson
Rough Creek Proudctions