Todd Woodall
New member
Well Jeff and I made our annual trek down to my old stomping grounds for a day hunt on Monday. We always have a good time down in Central Texas, but this time was a little more special for me. My Dad was hunting with us this time and that is something I haven’t done for far too long. Dad started taking me with him at a young age and I have messed up more hunts for him than I could possibly remember. We continued to hunt together until I struck out on my own. We have had good intentions to get together and hunt for some time, but life often gets in the way and we just haven’t been able to hook up for several years. Last year Dad quit the grind of selling cars and went back to building cabinets full time. This also frees him up to do a lot more hunting and fishing, and I haven’t seen him happier in years! Today would be no exception!
I left the house at 2:53 am Monday morning after a sleepless night. I met Jeff at his house and we headed for the farm lands of Central Texas. We got to my Parents house around 6 am and made a plan for the day. The day was perfect! Highs of around 50, 10 mph winds, and an overcast sky all day! The winds would swap from NE to SE around noon so we laid out a schedule of places to hit according to the wind direction. The first spot looked as good as it gets, but we drew a blank. Oh, well we often joke about it being good luck not to call anything on the first spot, as we have had several days that went dry after a kill right off the bat. Probably a Predator hunters prayer, but it makes us feel better none the less.
The next spot was a few miles down the back roads to my meamaw’s (Grandmother) place. This place was truly “Grandma’s 40 acres” for me growing up. It was the first place I ever predator hunted. I saw a lot of “firsts” on this place. Lets see I saw my first coyote called in, watched my dad send an arrow between a bobcats ears on my first day hunt, called my first solo coyote double during the day, called and killed my first solo Bobcat, needless to say this place holds a lot of memories that make me who I am today. With the wind we really didn’t have the “perfect” setup, but we knew there were predators in there so we had to try. Over the years I have called about every spot you can think of on the place. Problem is a lot of times you walk through coyotes to get to the “best spots”. We stood in the same spot we always do and discussed what to do. We have often thought “heck right here aint bad” but we have always opted for something better. With the wind this day we decided “right here” was the best spot we had.
We overlooked a triangle shaped field on the far southwest corner on the place. The wind was out of the NE, and the vast majority of the cover was upwind. There is a very thick waterway between two fields with a nasty draw about 400 yards down the water way. We had a heavily treed fence line to the left with a plowed field beyond it, a 300 yard shot to the top of the hill, and the waterway to the right with a plowed field beyond it. Of course the nasty creek was 400 yards out in front. It was kind of a funnel for coyotes to come to and most would have to cross two plowed fields to get downwind.
We set my dad on the heavily treed fence line with the shotgun about 20 yards from the decoy, and Jeff and I on the waterway fence line with the rifle and the best looking view of the whole setup. We cranked up the FoxPro and everyone was scanning the fence lines for movement. I caught movement behind my dad about 3 minutes in! It was a coyote on the horizon going right to left about 200 yards out. As I watched him I caught a flash of fur from behind a tree. There was a coyote about 20 yards behind my day and almost downwind! I zoomed up to get em both in the frame while the coyote was playing cat an mouse with the decoy. By this time my Dad heard the coyote behind him but couldn’t move to get a shot. He looked over his left shoulder and froze waiting on the coyote to make a mistake.
You can see the coyote's back half to the right, behind the tree. The coyote could have easily moved 20 yards left and caught his wind, but had seen the decoy and wanted a better look. He would turn to leave, then turn back an circle a couple yards right. He did that a few times and finally committed for a better look and crossed the fence and tree line into the field.
He paused for a second and headed further right to the heart of the field. My Dad was waiting for him to commit to the decoy, and Jeff was waiting for my dad to shoot. The coyote checked up in the plowed field.
Jeff’s right shooting stick kicked out right about the time he was going to shoot. The coyote caught the movement and turned to run.
Dad shot and put a solid body shot on him at 40 yards, then missed the second just behind. Jeff managed to get one in him too before he made it out of the field.
The coyote ran past the tree line and 200 yds back over the hill towards cover on the other side. We called about 10 more minutes and had no more takers. With the way he made it out we were all kind of skeptical on the hits. Jeff walked out into the field and found him just over the crest! He was one tough bugger with a solid body hit with the shotgun and a rifle shot through the lungs. Kudos for both Dad and Jeff for good shots on this one. While Jeff dragged him back Dad said I don’t know who killed him, but I’ll give Jeff half! Here is Dad and Jeff with the coyote.
We had a good day of calling with a lot of other footage and stills.
But this is my favorite still of the day!
Sorry Dad caught you Cheesing!
Yall take care,
Todd
I left the house at 2:53 am Monday morning after a sleepless night. I met Jeff at his house and we headed for the farm lands of Central Texas. We got to my Parents house around 6 am and made a plan for the day. The day was perfect! Highs of around 50, 10 mph winds, and an overcast sky all day! The winds would swap from NE to SE around noon so we laid out a schedule of places to hit according to the wind direction. The first spot looked as good as it gets, but we drew a blank. Oh, well we often joke about it being good luck not to call anything on the first spot, as we have had several days that went dry after a kill right off the bat. Probably a Predator hunters prayer, but it makes us feel better none the less.
The next spot was a few miles down the back roads to my meamaw’s (Grandmother) place. This place was truly “Grandma’s 40 acres” for me growing up. It was the first place I ever predator hunted. I saw a lot of “firsts” on this place. Lets see I saw my first coyote called in, watched my dad send an arrow between a bobcats ears on my first day hunt, called my first solo coyote double during the day, called and killed my first solo Bobcat, needless to say this place holds a lot of memories that make me who I am today. With the wind we really didn’t have the “perfect” setup, but we knew there were predators in there so we had to try. Over the years I have called about every spot you can think of on the place. Problem is a lot of times you walk through coyotes to get to the “best spots”. We stood in the same spot we always do and discussed what to do. We have often thought “heck right here aint bad” but we have always opted for something better. With the wind this day we decided “right here” was the best spot we had.
We overlooked a triangle shaped field on the far southwest corner on the place. The wind was out of the NE, and the vast majority of the cover was upwind. There is a very thick waterway between two fields with a nasty draw about 400 yards down the water way. We had a heavily treed fence line to the left with a plowed field beyond it, a 300 yard shot to the top of the hill, and the waterway to the right with a plowed field beyond it. Of course the nasty creek was 400 yards out in front. It was kind of a funnel for coyotes to come to and most would have to cross two plowed fields to get downwind.
We set my dad on the heavily treed fence line with the shotgun about 20 yards from the decoy, and Jeff and I on the waterway fence line with the rifle and the best looking view of the whole setup. We cranked up the FoxPro and everyone was scanning the fence lines for movement. I caught movement behind my dad about 3 minutes in! It was a coyote on the horizon going right to left about 200 yards out. As I watched him I caught a flash of fur from behind a tree. There was a coyote about 20 yards behind my day and almost downwind! I zoomed up to get em both in the frame while the coyote was playing cat an mouse with the decoy. By this time my Dad heard the coyote behind him but couldn’t move to get a shot. He looked over his left shoulder and froze waiting on the coyote to make a mistake.
You can see the coyote's back half to the right, behind the tree. The coyote could have easily moved 20 yards left and caught his wind, but had seen the decoy and wanted a better look. He would turn to leave, then turn back an circle a couple yards right. He did that a few times and finally committed for a better look and crossed the fence and tree line into the field.
He paused for a second and headed further right to the heart of the field. My Dad was waiting for him to commit to the decoy, and Jeff was waiting for my dad to shoot. The coyote checked up in the plowed field.
Jeff’s right shooting stick kicked out right about the time he was going to shoot. The coyote caught the movement and turned to run.
Dad shot and put a solid body shot on him at 40 yards, then missed the second just behind. Jeff managed to get one in him too before he made it out of the field.
The coyote ran past the tree line and 200 yds back over the hill towards cover on the other side. We called about 10 more minutes and had no more takers. With the way he made it out we were all kind of skeptical on the hits. Jeff walked out into the field and found him just over the crest! He was one tough bugger with a solid body hit with the shotgun and a rifle shot through the lungs. Kudos for both Dad and Jeff for good shots on this one. While Jeff dragged him back Dad said I don’t know who killed him, but I’ll give Jeff half! Here is Dad and Jeff with the coyote.
We had a good day of calling with a lot of other footage and stills.
But this is my favorite still of the day!
Sorry Dad caught you Cheesing!
Yall take care,
Todd
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