Back to the grind

SnowmanMo

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A week of fishing and feasting in beautiful Alaska did a lot to recharge my batteries. Caught a few 27-44in Lingcod, a few keeper chicken halibut for the grill along with some Pacific cod.

image000001 (18) by Jason Mosler, on Flickr

image000001 (19) by Jason Mosler, on Flickr

With triple digits finally rearing their heads in Az, it was time to get back to it. Kathy and Andrew were Jonesing just about as bad as I was to get back on the fur. As hard as it is to suffer that kind of heat, it makes our coyotes a bit more predictable. Our recent cooler weather seemed to have the coyotes a bit off their game. They weren't really responding as well to prey calls but they weren't responding as well to pup calls either. So we thought that the increased, more seasonal temps might get them back on their game.

Out the door at O'dark thirty to beat the sunrise and get as many stands as we could before it got too hot. We decided to hit the fringe edges of a few farm fields. Our first calls were echoing just as the sun broke the horizon. It was already getting warm. Started off with a howl and while I was letting it soak a bit, I rolled some rodent squeaks just to give the coyotes something to home in on. No sooner does our fist howl go out and I get a howl in response. It sounded a ways off to our north. After running a few more howls, some pup distress and some bird calls, we pulled up and rolled north, hoping to close the distance to our howler.

Stand #2, Andrew broke off to our left, to cover ahead of us on his side of the berm. Kathy and I took up position, with her flanking the call and me on the camera behind her. I ran the same call sequence that we had done on the first stand since we had gotten a response. Threw out a howl and right into some rodent squeaks. Nada. Howl #2, nada. Howl #3 and we see this coyote almost magically appear. She was keeping the brush between her and the call.
kathy stand by Jason Mosler, on Flickr

She had started to move off to our right when the 3rd howl got her to pop up on a slight rise. Kathy didn't hesitate. She casually dropped behind her 7mm-08 bolt gun and DRILLS the coyote. It made a great meat report. Turned out that this coyote was an older female with some well worn teeth. She was a bit dark as well. Kathy has really gotten that 7mm-08 dialed in.

image000001 (20) by Jason Mosler, on Flickr

image000001 (21) by Jason Mosler, on Flickr

image000001 (22) by Jason Mosler, on Flickr

We finished up our hunt when the temps hit 90, which was before 10am. Seemed like a good time to go get breakfast. We called in 3 coyotes, Andrew missed one, we didn't get a shot at the other and Kathy tagged that female. All in all not a bad morning. Pretty nice to get back on the fur after vacation.
 
I love your aerial photo setup diagrams. Could you add an arrow to show the wind direction? BTW, which way was the wind blowing on that stand?
 
Originally Posted By: HellgateI love your aerial photo setup diagrams. Could you add an arrow to show the wind direction? BTW, which way was the wind blowing on that stand?

Great question. In that case, it had started from our right to our left, but it started shifting while we were on stand to where it was coming in from about our 4-5 o'clock. So our initial plan was to watch the 9 o'clock as that seems to be where they first approach and take a look from. But with the shift, we called an audible and set up to watch a bit further out in front of us. In fact, I initially had Kathy set up more directly in front of me. But as I set the call and felt the shift I shifted her over to my right. After the stand, she said that she would never have seen the coyote if she had stayed in her original position.

That is one of those "intuitive" parts of our sport that keeps it interesting.
 
Originally Posted By: Pa. MickGreat way to enjoy time outdoors ! Fishing & predator hunting !

So true. It was nice to get away and recharge. I would have loved to have gotten in some Northern predator hunting, but fishing is very relaxing.
 
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