Deer Scouting and Timber Rattlers

This past weekend a friend and I went to my deer hunting grounds to set ups deer stands for the coming season. It is something I do every June. Set stands, trim shooting lanes, and open visibility in these thick southern woods. We relocated a few stands and trimmed some others. At one location, we were busy trimming lanes in a pine forest. When my friend, said in a matter of fact way. "look over there." I stopped my activity and said, "where?" thinking he had seen a deer and scanning the woods for the white tail bounding through the woods. "There is a snake." he said very calmly. I appreciated his calmness at this moment. Freaking out at a moment like that can cause some real problems when snakes are involved.

I looked and immediately noticed a Timber Rattler not more than seven (7) feet away coiled up next to a small log. Just laying there, not rattling, just watching us. "That is a timber rattler." one of us said, "be still, I will move behind him." The rattler was obviously focused on Chad, and I moved behind the snake, unsheathed my .22 pistol that I carry for just such opportunities as this, and moved in.

Approaching the snake from behind I moved to with in a few inches and shot the snake in the head with my "shotshell" .22. This is the ideal ammunition for this situation, the little #12 shot will offer a broad pattern covering a few inches, but more than sufficient for the snake. A follow up shot confirmed his demise. We then removed his head for extra security and now his skin is stretched and drying in my shop.

For a Timber rattler he was huge, tape measured to exactly 48 inches with 10 rattlers. - Note to self. Wear chaps when approaching this sand in early season. - This is the second Timber Rattler we have taken in these same woods, with the other measuring 46 inches with 8 rattles.

I will say though, this is one of the prettiest snakes in the woods, with is coloration and shape. I am glad I had the .22, but I was surprised he never rattled at us.

Chiggers and the Joy of summertime

My family and I visited my father-in-law over father's day weekend. We went to his cabin and spent some time fishing his pond, and riding his golf cart around, it was a great time with all five of my children, all of them caught some fish. The bream fishing was slow and we drowned more crickets than we should have but we had a great time. Lesson learned, when taking five children fishing, don't even think about fishing yourself. I was constantly either untangling lines, re-baiting hooks, removing fish from hooks, or untangling lines.

There are many reasons I do not like the summer woods, chiggers, mosquitoes, spider webs, humidity and mostly TICKS. I hate ticks, especially the small deer ticks that you cannot ever see! Of all of the things in nature, ticks give me the ibby-jeebies more than anything else. Luckily we did not get any ticks last weekend, but we made up for it in chiggers. When we got home and discovered that all of us are covered up with chiggers! If you are not familiar with chiggers you have not spent much time in the summer woods in the south. Locals refer to them as "red bugs" all I know is that they itch! My youngest son is covered up in areas that should not be covered up! His sisters are also covered up. My wife spent almost an hour last night "painting" them. The local remedy is to use fingernail polish and paint it over the chiggers to smother them so they will die, in the process we scratch, and scratch.

This is the greatest threat to the blackberry harvest, the blackberry's are almost ready, and the standard around here is 3 chiggers for every berry! We have to cover ourselves with deet to prevent the invasion, for some reason chiggers love blackberry patches, and so do we, we don haz-mat suits with our long sleeves, and long pants, spray every inch of our clothes and our hands, and pick berry's, seldom are we totally successful in eliminating the chiggers but the sacrifice for ripe blackberry's is usually worth it.

Pier Fishing at Pawley's Island, SC

Memorial day weekend we had the opportunity to go to Pawley's Island for a few days. For those of you not familiar with Pawley's island, it is a barrier island between Charleston and Myrtle Beach. The island is residential and a very uncrowded beach. It is our favorite place to vacation on the SC coast.

This time we took with us some frineds, David and Micki Ewens and their two girls, it was a great weekend.

We stay at Pawley's Pier Village which gives me access to the private pier for fishing. Most of the locals take up the end of the long pier searching for King Fish - which in the 9 years I have been going there have never seen a hook up. But there must be some since they are always out there - bait in the water, waiting.

I take my converted walking golf cart and haul all my gear to the pier for a day of fishing. People used to laugh at my set up, but now they just know it is me. - It sure beats trying to carry all this stuff, and I have a total of $1.25 in it! ($1.00 for cart from a yard sale, and some old PVC and a crate, .25 for zip ties)

Playing through!

David and I with the Pier Rig! (click on Pic for larger view)

This was one of the best fishing weekends I have had there ever. I like to use shrimp for bait, fresh shrimp is the best I believe. While my bait is in the water, i often cast or vertical jig a "got-cha" plug. It is a simple 2 inch piece of painted lead with two sets of treble hooks on it. It is a great jig for vertical jigging.

In three days of fishing, we caught and landed: Two rays (Skates) one over 60lbs and one over 40 lbs. both of these were caught on light tackle, the 40+ was caught on 10lb test and the 60 + was caught on 25lb test. What a fight. When I hooked the bigger one, it took me almost 20 minutes to land. It felt like I was pulling a car hood through the water -with flapping wings!

We also caught: Bonnet head sharks, Black tip sharks, Sea trout, Spanish mackerel, Blue fish, and whiting. The black Tip shark was over 35 inches and he was baked with butter and Old Bay fish seasoning. Man was it good! We also tasted the Mackerel, and whiting.


All in all we caught over 30 fish most of the Blues were transferred to bait for the kingfisher men while the others were released.


lesson learned: I was trying to show my children the teeth on the blue fish and how to be careful when he latched into my thumb! I told David "get the pliers! in a rather emphatic manner. He strolled over to the tackle box stopping to converse with those watching, and , after I asked him not to tarry much longer, he then strolled back pilers in hand, all the while the angry blue fish is sinking his teeth deeper into my thumb. - Later that same fish ended up as bait in my crab trap! I have real nice semi-circle puncture marks on my thumb indicating the upper and lower teeth. - I hope the kids got the point!


Many others were catching flounder, black drum, and sea bass. The water was fairly clear and the wind was howling mostly from the north east. When it turned to the east, the fishing slowed and we did not catch anything on our shrimp, but still picked up some on the jigs.


More Pictures will follow as soon as I get them downloaded.