"Quintessential" Lake Erie charter captain Bill Goble dies

Long-time area Lake Erie charter captain Bill Goble died Monday after a lingering illness.

Goble, 74, had skippered his charter fishing vessel “No Woes,” for more than 40 years on Lake Erie.

He operated out of the Chagrin River, specializing in sport fishing for walleye, yellow perch and steelhead.

Goble also ran a number of fishing- and fish-related businesses from his Eastlake base, including a commercial fish-cooking business.

Current and former area anglers of all stripes praised Goble, largely for his philanthropic approach to providing how-to and where-to angling information.

Norm Schultz, the retired head of the Cleveland-based Lake Erie Marine Trades Association and former Mentor resident, said Goble was “always generous” with fishing tips.

“I always thought of Bill as being the quintessential angler and even more importantly, he was always willing to share his favorite spot or what he was using to catch fish,” said Schultz, now of Tampa, Fla. “That’s not true for every charter captain.”

Mentor charter captain Jim Schonauer said Goble was “just one of the guys.”

“The charter captains in this part of the lake always have worked well together, and sometimes the guys from the Chagrin would come our way and sometimes we would go their way so we would exchange information,” Schonauer said. “Bill was one of us.”

Something of a dust-up occurred earlier this year related to Goble when the city of Eastlake decided not to press charges against him for allegedly “...catching fish recreationally but selling them in his restaurant,” said the city of Eastlake’s prosecutor, Judd Hawkins, in late September.
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Hawkins decision came following an investigation by the Ohio Division of Wildlife which turned its evidence over to the prosecutor.

“The investigation got the point where there might have been charges brought, but I decided to seek a resolution without the need of any criminal charges,” Hawkins said.

Goble had already determined not to renew his charter captain’s license when the matter was resolved.

Goble’s obituary appears in today’s (Dec. 5) News-Herald and can be accessed directly from: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/news-herald/obituary.aspx?n=william-m-goble-captain-bill&pid=161489351&fhid=5770.


- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischkorn@News-Herald.com
Twitter: @Fieldkorn

UPDATED with kill stats. A gun deer season that didn't go "bang"

Three counties, four trips, 20.5 hours, and 238 miles.

And zero deer. That’s not as in the number of deer shot; rather, in the number of deer not even seen.

Yep, zilch, naught, nadir, nil.

So is “zero” a positive number or a negative number? Since there are no Mayans or Babylonians around to argue “natural number” or “placeholder,” I’m going to chime in and say “negative.”

All for a very simple reason, too. That being, during the just-concluded statewide firearms deer-hunting season the number of deer that crossed my visual range was in the aforementioned placeholder status.

Of course the failure to see a deer was not of my choosing. Nor was it an integral part of my game plan prior to the season’s start a little more than one week ago.

Back then the idea was to cherry-pick the most likely locale where a deer would saunter by. This site was a grove of red oaks where I had placed a ground blind and augmented it with a game feeder filled with $40 worth of shelled corn.

When that idea didn’t pan out the next try was to occupy another ground blind. That station is anchored to a spot in a Lake County community where firearms are not permitted. Again, the results were the same, no deer seen.

A third go-round found me back where I was on opening day. Ah, once again, no deer. Which was a bit surprising and even a little more disappointing.

Especially given that a couple of hunting buddies had storm-trooped their way through the woods in an effort to dislodge a deer that wasn’t there.

By the time the season’s main spring was very nearly unwound Sunday even I was in familiar territory. As much to do with results as with the location.

As the last hour of the season faded into history a heavy mist hissed through the woodlot. The somberness of the woodlot only helped to stall the deer-activity meter from registering.

If I’m sounding disappointed, well, of course I am.

But if you also think that I’m complaining; really, not so much.

I’ve hunted deer enough to understand that every hunter is going to experience a dry stretch. It happens to the best of us.

And yet - as the Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset opined in his “Meditations on Hunting” - success every time out is not a desirable thing.

Neither, however, is a continual thread of unhappy failures as this course will surely lead to abandonment.

So sometime later this week I will occupy my archery hunting ground blind and not only hope but expect that deer will come within missile range of my crossbow.

And if that doesn’t work then I’ll be somewhere during the Dec. 15-16 statewide bonus firearms deer-hunting season.

Likewise, if THAT two-day opportunity fails to generate a deer I can look forward to January’s four-day muzzle-loading season. Plus knowing that the archery season doesn’t shutter the windows until Feb. 3.

It’s a long road, this deer hunting thing. And I fully understand that at some point the highway will level out and all the potholes will be paved over.

Until then, well, maybe I’ll just slow down and try to enjoy the view.

After a fast start on opening day, the kill total for the state’s just-concluded seven-day firearms deer-hunting season sputtered some.

When compared with 2011’s final seven-day gun deer hunt, the total number of animals killed was off 3.7 percent for the just-concluded 2012 hunt version.

In all, says the Ohio Division of Wildlife, 86,964 animals were shot for the season sandwiched between Nov. 26 to Dec., 2, inclusive. In 2011, Ohio’s hunters killed 90,282 deer for the one-week hunt.

Here is the list of deer checked by hunters during the just-concluded 2012 deer-gun hunting season. The 2011 numbers are in parentheses with figures supplied by the Ohio Division of Wildlife:

Adams: 1,554 (1,727); Allen: 393 (293); Ashland: 1,240 (1,096); Ashtabula: 2,052 (1,777); Athens: 1,983 (2,059); Auglaize: 362 (192); Belmont: 2,127 (2,431); Brown: 1,094 (1,229); Butler: 350 (345); Carroll: 2,062 (2,252); Champaign: 487 (554); Clark: 226 (276); Clermont: 835 (980); Clinton: 348 (373); Columbiana: 1,686 (1,738); Coshocton: 3,119 (3,690); Crawford: 543 (441); Cuyahoga: 30 (37); Darke: 312 (223); Defiance: 882 (725); Delaware: 620 (594); Erie: 171 (137); Fairfield: 1,040 (1,152); Fayette: 111 (104); Franklin: 176 (170); Fulton: 413 (302); Gallia: 1,747 (1,844); Geauga: 598 (623); Greene: 318 (287); Guernsey: 2,620 (2,982); Hamilton: 244 (298); Hancock: 558 (402); Hardin: 512 (354); Harrison: 2,370 (2,772); Henry: 347 (279); Highland: 1,347 (1,432); Hocking: 1,966 (2,184); Holmes: 1,837 (2,013); Huron: 1,006 (925); Jackson: 1,439 (1,515); Jefferson: 1,830 (2,044); Knox: 2,159 (2,480); * Lake: 207 (185); Lawrence: 1,286 (1,574); Licking: 2,271 (2,678); Logan: 755 (760); Lorain: 764 (739); Lucas: 158 (129); Madison: 141 (167); Mahoning: 664 (563); Marion: 410 (320); Medina: 596 (556); Meigs: 1,764 (1,974); Mercer: 318 (203); Miami: 241 (194); Monroe: 1,695 (1,960); Montgomery: 162 (144); Morgan: 1,712 (1,804); Morrow: 844 (851); Muskingum: 2,927 (3,223); Noble: 1,647 (2,028); Ottawa: 86 (81); Paulding: 551 (416); Perry: 1,726 (1,832); Pickaway: 500 (466); Pike: 973 (1,077); Portage: 608 (644); Preble: 323 (267); Putnam: 327 (238); Richland: 1,418 (1,714); Ross: 1,512 (1,723); Sandusky: 224 (195); Scioto: 1,138 (1,224); Seneca: 803 (603); Shelby: 456 (305); Stark: 833 (661); Summit: 163 (151); Trumbull: 1,237 (1,060); Tuscarawas: 2,860 (3,180); Union: 352 (354); Van Wert: 290 (194); Vinton: 1,583 (1,577); Warren: 406 (412); Washington: 2,163 (2,225); Wayne: 784 (644); Williams: 906 (787); Wood: 254 (208); Wyandot: 812 (661). Total: 86,964 (90,282).

*Lake County - Note than figures for Lake County would include any deer taken in Mentor during that community’s first-ever archery deer hunt.

 - Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischkorn@News-Herald.com
Twitter: @Fieldkorn

Chester Township boys develop web site for hunters/anglers

Dean and David Giarrizzo are working to merge the aged outdoors sports of hunting and fishing with the new wave of social media.

Dean, 23, and of Chester Township, and David, 25, formerly of Chester Township but now living in Nashville, have electronically built what they call their “tag-n-brag” web site.

This multipurpose site is designed as a two-way conduit so that hunters and anglers can exchange their outdoors adventures and questions with others, including those businesses that cater to hunting and fishing, says Dean.

“We launched the web site last December, but it’s taken us a while to develop it,” Dean said. “What we want is to be the ‘go-to’ place where sportsmen can get information, tips, weather reports as well as post photos and even videos of our contributors’ trophies and fishing/hunting trips.”

Vital, says Dean, is that from the very beginning the page and its links were not designed solely for those hunters who shoot a record-book white-tail anymore than it is for an angler to file a clip of a once-in-a-lifetime catch.

“We want to encourage everyone to know that every fish they catch and everything they shoot is cool and can be posted,” Dean said. “That’s why we built the web site the way we did.”

The pair also is cooking the idea of filing an electronic monthly e-newsletter, selecting an random a responding hunter or angler for an in-depth interview.

“That interview won’t be the person who shot the biggest buck or catch the biggest walleye, either,” Dean says. “We want to showcase the average sportsmen and involve whole families and kids, too.”

What’s more, says Dean also, is that everyone who submits a photograph for the web site is automatically entered into a contest for an $100 Bass Pro Shops’ gift card.

“That’s any photo,” Dean says. “We even have a handful of photos from guys who went on safari to Africa.”

Dean said also that he and his brother received a great deal of support and aid from their father and uncle, each of whom is a hunter and an angler in his own right.

“Our father and uncle got us out into the woods at an early age and that’s when we got hooked on hunting and fishing,” Dean said.

Capitalizing on the rapid acceleration of both electronic devices and the Internet’s social media portals, Dean and David have developed an “app” related to their website activities.

This app will be free to download onto various kinds of electronic gizmos, Dean says.

“Everybody is moving toward mobile (communications) though hunters and anglers are a little more slow about doing it,” Dean said. “But someday everyone is going to have a smartphone or similar device, and we want to begin building a huge audience.”

As for the bottom line, profit margin, Dean says it is the brothers’ goal to attract advertisers.

“If we can build on attracting hunters and fishermen then we should be able to attract advertisers,” Dean said.

Oh, and also launch an outdoors clothing line with the “tag-n-brag” monicker embellished on the garments.

“Hopefully that will happen in another month or two,” Dean said. “People that we’ve talked to like our ‘tag-n-brag’ name and title.”

Eventually the brothers want to move their project forward enough so that it will evolve to include an Internet-based outdoors show, Dean says.

“Yes, that’s what we’d like to do,” he said.

To view the Giarrizzo brothers’ Internet-launched web site, visit www.tag-n-brag.com.

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischkorn@News-Herald,.com
Twitter: @Fieldkorn

From the Outdoors' X-Files: Is there a black panther in Guernsey County?

Next time someone tells Steve Myers that Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster and E.T. are all alive, well and residing in Ohio the Ashtabula County man will nod his head “yes.”

Or at least "maybe."

Myers spent the opener of Ohio’s firearms deer-hunting season checking out the hills, valleys and ravines of northwest Guernsey County. On the Sunday before the opener Myers was talking with the owner of an adjoining piece of property.

As Myers put it, the elderly man asked if the deer hunter had come across a black panther, as if such encounters are commonplace in southeast Ohio.

Not wanting to embarrass or insult the elderly gentleman - after all, Myers intended to use a portion of opening day hunting the man’s property - he graciously said “no” without rolling his eyes.

However, Myers became a believer while on a Sunday stroll he came upon - you guessed it - a black panther.

“I wasn’t but maybe 40 yards from it,” Myers said. “The animal was didn’t pay any attention to me, it was hunting.”

Myers described the animal as perhaps weighing around 50 or more pounds, deep-rich black and lean.

“It was very healthy-looking,” Myers said.

Yet while the probability of a black panther roaming the aged hills of southeast Ohio is remote, it is still possible.

Especially since similar reports of a black panther have made their rounds elsewhere in the region.

“I have not heard of anything in Guernsey County but we have taken reports of a black panther in Washington County and another one in Belmont County,” said Tom Donnelly, acting supervisor for the Ohio Division of Wildlife’s District Four (southeast Ohio) Office in Athens.

While Donnelly says he’s not doubting that a large, silky-black panther really exists in his neck of the woods, there just isn’t any hard evidence to confirm such sightings

Particularly  in this day and age when hunters use trail cameras with almost reckless abandon, says Donnelly, who also once served as the state wildlife officer assigned Ashtabula County.

“You can hardly walk in the woods anymore without having your picture taken by a trail camera,” Donnelly said.

What the agency will do, Donnelly says, is log Myer’s sighting along with the ones from Washington and Belmont counties.

Some speculation runs that such an animal may be either an escapee from a private owner’s animal compound or perhaps deliberately released as Ohio begins a new chapter on regulating the possession of exotic wildlife.


- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischkorn@News-Herald.com
Twiter: @Fieldkorn

Warner gets reduced charges in exchange for testimony against former Wildlife bosses

David Warner, the legally embattled former field supervisor for the Ohio Division of Wildlife’s District Five (southwest Ohio) office, has dodged two serious felony bullets.

In exchange, Warner pleaded no contest to two misdemeanors. He likewise agreed to make restitution to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Wildlife for wages he did not earn.

Warner also agreed to other terms spelled out by Brown County Prosecutor Jessica Little.

Among them: To provide what-is-called truthful testimony in the felony cases involving former Wildlife Division chief David Graham and the former supervisor for the agency’s District Five office, Todd Haines.

The plea agreement was arranged Wednesday in Brown County Common Pleas Court and before its judge, Judge Scott T. Gusweiler.

Warner - and former state wildlife officer Matthew Roberts - were both indicted in July for theft in office, a fifth degree felony, and tampering with records, a third degree felony. Warner also was charged with dereliction of duty, a Third Degree misdemeanor.

The Wildlife Division fired Warner Sept. 21 while Roberts was discharged seven days later, Sept. 28.

Each of the charges stem from the pair’s alleged activity of hunting while on duty, and for allegedly turning in bogus time slips that supposedly showed they were on duty when they were allegedly hunting with former state wildlife officer Allan Wright, who had been assigned to Brown County.

A fifth degree felony is punishable by a jail term of six to 12 months, a maximum fine of $2,500 or both. A third degree felony is punishable by a jail term of one to five years, a maximum fine of $10,000 or both.

Also, a third degree misdemeanor is punishable by a jail term of not more than 60 days, a maximum fine of $500 or both.

By accepting the terms of the plea agreement, Warner, at least, will avoid these serious potential punishments.

Instead, Warner agreed to plead no contest to obstruction of official business, as well as unauthorized use of property.

While both are misdemeanors punishable by fines, jail time, or both, it is probable that Warner will face neither, says Little.

Little says that it is her recommendation that Warner serve community control, though a pre-sentencing evaluation must first occur.

However, there are two conditions that Warner must complete, says Little.

“He must make restitution to the DNR,” Little said. “And he also must testify truthfully on the matters against David Graham and Todd Haines.”

Graham is the former Wildlife Division chief and Haines is the former supervisor of the agency’s District Five office.

Both were indicted along with other agency officials back in April, 2010 for their alleged role in a matter involving former state wildlife officer Allan Wright.

In that situation, Graham, Haines and the other indicted top Wildlife Division officials are alleged to have improperly disciplined Wright for allowing a South Carolina wildlife officer to use the former’s home address in order to obtain an Ohio resident hunting license.

State charges were eventually dropped against Wright who in January pleaded guilty to four misdemeanor charges in the federal court system for violating the Lacey Act, an important wildlife law enforcement tool of the federal government.

Graham, Haines and the other current or former still-indicted Wildlife Division officials have appealed their situation on a technical legal point before the Ohio State Supreme Court. The court has yet to rule on their appeal.

As for Little, she says she is looking forward “to getting some of these cases resolved.”

“I feel satisfied with the (Warner) results and I also feel satisfied to have his truthful testimony in the case of the conduct of his superiors,” Little said.

Another hearing for Warner before the Brown County Common Pleas Court system is scheduled for 12:30 p.m., Jan. 16.

In regards to Roberts, his next court date is set for Feb. 19. In October, Roberts rejected a reduced sentence.

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischkorn@News-Herald.com
Twitter: @Fieldkorn

Will Ohio's adult deer hunters do as well their youthful counterparts?

If on Monday the state’s adult deer hunters can take as good an aim as their children then Ohio’s deer herd better take cover.

During the Nov. 17 and 18 statewide youth-only firearms deer-hunting season, the participating young guns checked in 9,178 deer. This kill represents a 5.7 percent increase from 2011 when 8,681 white-tail deer were logged in as being harvested.

What’s more, the youth hunter deer kill total is the highest since 2009 when 9,269 animals were shot.

Youth hunters have checked in at least 8,300 deer every year since 2005, says the Ohio Division of Wildlife.

And these young hunters are safer than their adult counterparts as well.

As to why Ohio’s young hunters (and they could not be more than 17 years old) did so well a number of factors came into play, says Allen Lea, wildlife biologist with the Wildlife Division’s District Three (Northeast Ohio) Office in Akron.

“The weather was nice and so the kids didn’t want to quit and go home early,” Lea said.

That’s good for reason Number One. As for reason Number Two, Lea says the fact that 90 percent of the state’s standing crop is now harvested, reducing the once elephant eye-high stalks to just stubble.

“That certainly plays into the harvest because there are now fewer places for the deer to hide,” Lea said.

Lea says also that in spite of an excellent first-split archery season deer harvest and the exceptional youth gun season take, there is no need for adult gun hunters to fret they won’t see any animals come Monday.

“Obviously, whenever you increase the harvest in one category you can impact the harvest in another category, but if the weather is nice I would not be at all surprised that next week’s gun harvest is also up,” Lea said. “The fact remains that we still have a healthy deer herd.”

When it comes to being safe, Ohio’s youthful deer hunters stood head and shoulders above their adult counterparts, says Matt Ortman, the Wildlife Division’s hunter education coordinator.
Ortman says that no hunting accidents - called “incidents” in the parlance of wildlife law enforcement - were record during the youth-only gun deer season.

That’s not the case for the general firearms deer-hunting season, however.

Typically the state sees nine hunting incidents with one or two of them being fatalities, Ortman says.

In select Northeast Ohio counties during the youth-only season, the two-day kill (with their respective 2011 figures in parentheses) was: Ashtabula County - 166 (162), Cuyahoga County - 1 (1); Erie County - 24 (24); Geauga County - 65 (67); Huron County - 136 (92); Lake County - 19 (7); Lorain County - 63 (77); Medina County - 74 (56); Sandusky County - 27 (25); Trumbull County - 109 (97).

OHIO, GOOD; WISCONSIN, BETTER - If Ohio’s firearms deer-hunting season harvest figures are impressive - 137,016 animals registered last year - just look what Wisconsin’s deer hunters did during that state’s first two days of its still on-going nine-day firearms deer-hunting season.
Wisconsin deer hunters killed a reported 134,772 animals.

Yep, almost identical what it took Ohio’s gun deer hunters to do during the state’s regular seven-day firearms season plus the so-called two-day “bonus” weekend firearms season.

Wisconsin’s first two-day kill was up 19 percent from that observed last year, that state’s Natural Resources Department says.

“Deer hunting in Wisconsin is a fall, family tradition cherished by over 600,000 hunters,” said Tom
Hauge, director of wildlife management for the Wisconsin Natural Resources Department.

“These preliminary numbers are just a small part of the event we know as ‘opening weekend.’ I suspect for every deer reported there are 10 great deer camp stories out there.”

Last year, in all, Wisconsin’s firearms deer hunters shot 257,511 animals while the state’s archery deer hunters killed another 90,200 deer.

Wisconsin typically ranks second in the nation in the number of white-tail deer killed every hunting season, only behind Texas which sees an average of around 583,000 animals harvested annually.


- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischkorn@News-Herald.com
Twitter: @Fieldkorn

UPDATED with harvest figures: Bev bags her buck; no bones about it

RAVENNA ARSENAL - The buck stopped there for Bev, not more than 75 yards from her stand and not more than 25 yards from where the 7-point deer was first shot.

Visibly shaking and a tinge bewildered, Bev stood over her buck for a long moment, clearly uncertain that, yes, she had done it her way.

A little background and backup, if you don’t mind.

Bev, my wife, had been urged to enter the Ohio Division of Wildlife’s annual lottery to participate in the Ravenna Arsenal women’s deer hunt.

The odds of being selected for this hunt are way better than for the general Ravenna gun hunt. Try one-in-four odds for the women’s hunt and compared to the one-in-53 odds for the general drawing in which men can apply.

In all, 352 women applied this year to participate with 90 applicants being selected; among them being, Bev.

Though a female who is lucky enough to earn a draw can take a male as her partner, rank does have its privileges. For starters, as the primary hunter - or huntress in this case - Bev could shoot any deer, including a buck.

I was limited to shooting an antlerless deer only, as were all of the other participating males.

We all met in the wee hours of last Saturday morning at the Ohio National Guard’s sprawling 21,683-acre installation hard-pressed to the north shore of West Branch Reservoir in Portage County.

A sea of orange waved inside the massive building used for the required pre-hunt orientation. This meeting was just one leg of a process that included many other stops.

Every vehicle, every hunter, was required to pass through a well-oiled security operation that included an inspection of our firearms (no muzzle-loaders, no handguns, no archery tackle, no trees stands, not ground blinds, among other “nos.”)

As for the meting, that was to go over the hunt’s rules, regulations, protocols as well as to receive our exclusive unit assignments.

Bev’s and mine pre-selected area was Unit 42-A and which covered about 150 acres, one of the reserve’s larger hunting blocks. Other units are carved out in smaller chunks, down to 40 acres or so.

The assembled crowd was attentive to the addresses presented by a pair of officials.

Not surprising was that the hunters and huntresses were behaving themselves in the eyes of the camp’s Fort Ohio Environmental Supervisor, Tim Morgan.

Earlier in the week Morgan had responded to a telephone inquiry about the women’s hunt, to which he enthusiastically gave two thumbs up.

“Women are more relaxed hunters than are the men and we se far fewer problems with this hunt than with some of the other hunts and we never seem to encounter anyone becoming lost,” Morgan said.

“They are more cautious, aren’t as aggressive and are more careful in what they do. The women’s hunt is a lot less stressful for me.”

As it is for the battalion of volunteer “hunt escorts.”

These individuals spend their Saturdays checking vehicles for contraband (“You’d be surprised what we find,” said one inspector), directing traffic, registering the hunters, along with conducting a multitude of other behind-the-scenes chores.

Perhaps the most visible hunt escorts, however, are the ones assigned to each of the hunt unit’s designated parking areas.

These guys - and we didn’t see any female parking lot hunt escorts - help the assigned hunt pair best pick where to set up operations for the approximately eight- to nine-hour hunt.

Fortuitous for Bev and me was that our hunt escort field marshal was Ray Gorby.

“My suggestion,” said Gorby after we had exchanged parking lot pleasantries, “would be to walk down the road to the bottom of the hill where there’s an old trail on the left.”

The other option, said Gorby, was to walk about one-half that distance down the hill and opposite a large yawn in a high fence across an access road.

It is here, Gorby said, that deer often exit our unit and enter the one opposite.

“Just look for the well-worn deer paths,” Gorby said.

This Bev and I did, plunging through a heavy screen of detested multiflora rose patches. On the other side of the thorn-encrusted barrier was an multiflora rose-free alcove that stood on the lip of a hill.

“Good enough,” I quietly mouthed an affirmative response to Bev.

Each of us were quipped with a folding camp chair, a backpack crammed with an assorted stash of hunting essentials.

At that point Bev and I plopped ourselves down for however long it would take. Which didn’t take all that much time, actually.

An hour or so after beginning we were done. Make that, Bev was done.

A single Lightfield sabot round fired from a 16-gauge rifled-barreled Ithaca Model 37 Deerslayer was all that was required.

Transfixed by what she had just accomplished all by her lonesome, Bev’s mind had begun to reel in the requirements that go along with killing a deer. And that included field dressing the buck herself.

Bev was even determined to drag the animal out solo, too, employing a borrowed plastic toboggan my older brother, Rich, had picked up at a garage sale. Can’t asked for a better deer drag.

Once the field-dressing chore was completed Bev’s heart rate had retreated to some level of normalcy.

 We decided at that point to continue with the  hunt, hoping that a doe would saunter by for my shotgun’s sake.

However, every now and then Bev would look at the buck and toboggan, an act that elicited me to ensure her that the buck was thoroughly dead and was down for the count.

When the end of the hunt arrived no more deer had crossed our paths, Bev’s 7-point buck being the only unlucky-for-it animal to show up.

On the short drag back the access road Bev was rather quiet. No doubt she was processing everything that had presented itself, soaking up every detailed morsel of sight and sound.

Then again, I suspect her thoughts carried even further down the road, that being, what to do with the set of antlers.

As for my thoughts, I couldn’t get past the mental image of a neck roast bubbling away in a crockpot.
Oh, and one more thing: Savoring a really serious case of pride.

As for how the troupe of arsenal hunters did overall, a total of 244 permitted public and military hunters shot 55 deer.

Another 26 deer - all antlerless - were killed by the program's 103 volunteer hunt escorts, each of whom were allowed to participate in the hunt.


- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischkorn@News-Herald.com.
Twitter: @Fieldkorn