Wow it feels different posting in this forum. But anyway here is the recap our Bluesman and myselfs LBL hunting adventure.
We arrived at the LBL at around 10 PM on Wednesday. Being anxious as we were, we went out to try to get some coyotes to give up their hiding place. We rode around for the next couple of hours howling till I thought my eyes would pop out. Out of all of these places we never heard a coyote howl back. But we did get a feel for the way the land laid. This was the first time I had ever hunted the Kentucky side of the LBL. So we were hunting totally blind. At around midnight we gave up and went back into Cadiz and found a motel for the night.
Thursay morning we awoke to RAIN!!!
An on the ride out we had discussed that if it was raining we weren't going to hunt. But since it was just drizzling, we thought maybe we could get in a couple of stands before the major rain got here.
Well sometime what you think isn't what really happens. About the time we get a quarter of a mile from the truck the bottom dumps out. It starts raining pretty hard and continuous. But since we had walked all this way in here we were going to make a stand, especially since there was a tremendous amount of coyote sign in this place.
So we setup with JB(Bluesman) covering the downwind (at the moment) side, which was a powerline. He found himself a little small pine seedling to hide in and I stepped over into the woods to do the calling. I got lucky and found a nice big healthy cedar tree to crawl in under. The ground wasn't even wet under there.
The wind was circling around and around, one second it would be blowing left to right. Five minutes later its blowing in your face, then at your back. So after 20 minutes of that we called it quits.
We took the next couple of hours and just rode around looking for sign in the roads. Trying to get a idea of where to hunt when the rain stops. At about 10 in the morning we headed to drop off our tractor trailor load of hunting gear in the cabin. Still hoping to get in a few stands later on in the day. Well the rains never stopped and we ended up doing a lot of BS'ing with the rest of the guys.
Friday morning we awoke to cloudy skys and temps in the 40's. A nice day to coyote hunt but I would have preferred it to be a little colder. But after all of the rain yesterday I wasn't complaining.
At daylight we were at the same place we had ended the previous day. We made about 6 stands in there without calling in a thing. Now that was hard to believe but it happened. After a 20 minute sandwich break we decided to head out and look for some more ground to hunt. We made a few of more dry stands and then on stand number 11, we hit payday.
As we were driving down this gravel road we noticed an old logging road running down through the woods, along this ridge top. It was so faint we almost missed it. So we thought maybe since it was so unnoticable maybe it didn't get called that much.
We walked down this trail for about 300 yards and found it opened out onto a beautiful hardwood ridge that had several big hollows running into it. JB setup downwind about 30 yards from where I was calling from.
I start out with my KeeKee howler giving two long lonesome howls. I always set for a couple of minutes before I do anything else. After hearing nothing and 3 minutes passing I pulled out my go to call... The Arky Crack Pipe. That is one more great sounding call.
After twisting that rabbits toe for 10 minutes, I hear JB's gun go off and I look over my right shoulder and see a coyote take off running. Then crashing about 30 yards later. The .222 dropped the hammer on him.
The was a great looking coyote but he was disabled. He was missing a front leg, he had a nub on the right side.
This picture was taken after I decided change JB's board name from Bluesman to "Nubs". He either don't like his new name or this coyote smells bad.
Ater a few pictures we headed out to make a few more stand in this place. We called till right at dark with no more takers. All total we made 18 stands on Friday and needless to say we both were pooped and ready for nap.
Saturday was a totally different day and totally different weather. We awoke to 30 degrees and 20+ MPH winds. Daybreak rolled in and we were sitting in a beautiful creek bottom but the only taker we had was a big hawk.
On the third stand of the morning, we setup on a high rigde overlooking several deep hardwood hollows. With the wind howling like it was I had to use the loudest call I had. So after sending out a couple of howls I started in with my Arky Screaming Deamon. At about 18 minutes into the stand I see what I thought was a cat coming. But it turned out to be a really blonde colored coyote. He was stalking the call just like a cat would. He stopped behind some brush and I made a fatal mistake. Instead of just letting him come on in to me I lipsqeaked to him. Yes it got him moving again but also headed downwind. I had a shot at around a 100 yards but I got greedy and wanted to shoot him close in with the shotgun. When he dropped out of sight I got my gun raised and was just sitting there waiting on him to pop out. Well he did just that but not where I thought he would. That rascal had gotten downwind of my position and wasn't far from getting into my wind. So it was either shoot through the brush or don't get a shot. That's when the LBL curse got me again. I either just missed which is most likely what happened or I hit a limb. Either way the coyote got another chance at life.
That was all of the action for the 2006 LBL hunt, though we did make about 11 more stands that day. Hopefully I can get the curse lifted next year. Two years in a row, I am due on of these LBL coyotes.
It was a wonderful time and I hunted with an awesome partner. Can't wait to do it again next year.
Here are a couple of more pictures we took on the way home.
!
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