New Day Outdoors Productions, LLC
It's a New Day in the Outdoors
New Day Outdoors Blog
Turkeys, turkeys, and more turkeys!
I'm fully convinced that I am not a "blogger". I have all these great intentions but just arbitrarily typing random articles just must not be my thing. I've got to get better at this.
What a turkey season it has been.
In mid April, I made the journey to the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota with some friends. We were greeted by some of the worst weather imaginable. Snow and rain just don't mix well with turkey hunting. However, by day 3 the weather broke and we were able to get on birds. We killed 7 long beards in one day. It was a crazy day for sure. The next day, Andy killed his second bird filling our limit for the trip. 4 hunters and 8 mature long beards. It was an amazing trip with good friends and more turkeys than I've ever seen in my life.
As soon as we got back from South Dakota, the Indiana youth weekend opened. As usual, the Jr. Team of New Day Outdoors was kicking and screaming about getting out there after birds. The weekend found us in birds, but struggling to put one down. Sunday morning was Easter and we actually had to leave a strutter in the field as we went to Church. However, that afternoon saw Sydney taking a great tom with a Magnus Bullhead out of her crossbow all on video. That video can be seen on our Videography page.
When the general opener for Indiana rolled around a few days later, the skies cleared briefly and it gave Trevor a chance to get back after the birds. No too long into the hunt we were greeted by a pair of jakes who came just close enough. Trevor made a great shot on jake to end her season. That video is also on our Videography page.
My favorite hunt of the year had to be my hunt a few days later. Not because of the bird, but because my wife, Karan, decided to tag along with me. In over 16 years of marriage, she has never gone hunting with me and it was great having her along. Of course adding to the hunt was the exclamation point of running a Magnus Bullhead through a nice long beard's throat. All on video and found on the videography page.
With the family tagged out, my focus has shifted to getting friends out on birds. Saturday evening found me in the blind with my good buddy, Jim Anspach. It didn't take long for a long beard to sneak in on us and for Jim to end the hunt in the rain, per the norm when Jim goes hunting.
There is more turkey action to be had over the next couple weeks, so I'm hoping that I can add more photos, videos, and possibly remember to post in my blog.
Good luck and be safe out there!
Heading to the NWTF National Convention with Magnus Broadheads
I got a call from Mike Sohm of Magnus Broadheads asking me if I wanted to join him at the NWTF National Convention in Nashville, Tennessee from February 17 to 20th. I of course said "YES!".
Tomorrow I'm jumping on a plane to fly down to Nashville for four days of turkey fun.
I plan on posting a report with photos and video upon my return.
Derek
Tagged out in Indiana
Well a frustrating deer season in Indiana is over in terms of buck hunting for myself and the junior New Day Outdoors hunting crew. Overall, the season was very slow in terms of the numbers of deer seen, especially bucks. However, we took advantage of the opportunities that we we were given.
In the September youth season, Trevor Marie (age 11) shot her first antlered deer with a muzzleloader. A 5 point buck that she is very proud of. This hunt was captured on video and can be seen on our videography page.
Then after a very long and frustrating month of hunting in October, the month of November was a breath of fresh air. On November 6th, while hunting a hardwoods that I own, I was able to call in and shoot a nice 8 pointer. The hunt was self filmed and also can be seen on the videography page. While he wasn't exactly the buck that I had hoped for this year, I am proud of him.
With the opening of the firearms season on November 13th, Sydney and I set out to get her a deer, preferably a buck. Just over an hour into the hunt we saw a nice buck about 300 yards away. Calling to the buck as loud as I could, I was able to draw the buck to within shooting range for Sydney. Syd made a perfect shot on this nice 7 pointer, topping of an incredible season. Unfortunately there is no video footage of this hunt, as it just was not meant to be.
This season was one of frustration, but in the end it has been the most rewarding deer season ever for myself. I' m very proud of my girls as they are developing into quite the little hunters.
Mid October Deer Hunting in Indiana
Here we are half way through October here in Indiana. The general reports in the northern part of the state are that deer movement is very light, though some guys are bagging both does and bucks. Saturday evening, I killed a small doe that came in early into the hunt. Sadly, she was only the second deer that I've had in bow range in about 11 outings. It has been a tough start, but the pre-rut/chasing phase is only a week or so away, so things are going to heat up fast.
Video of my doe from Saturday evening is currently up on the videography page of the site.
My goal is to provide more frequent blog updates over the course of the deer seasons.
God Bless!
Derek Craig
Successful Youth Weekend
Well the 2010 youth deer hunting weekend in Indiana is in the bag. What a joy it is to spend time out in the field hunting with a youngster and it is even better when it is with your own kids.
The weekend started off slow. Some nasty winds on Friday had the deer movement almost completely shut down on Saturday, or that is the excuse that I'm giving to explain the lack of activity that we saw that day. Sunday however was a different story. Sunday morning started off slow, with Sydney and I in a box blind over a transition area where the deer move from the corn into the woods. About an hour into the morning hunt, I spotted a young deer out about 60 yards between the woods and corn. I showed Sydney and told her to get ready so that when the deer continued our direction, we would have a shot. Then a large doe and another yearling stepped to join the first deer. As mom surveyed the situation, I helped Syd get ready for a shot. The group of deer began to make their way to our large shooting lane. They stopped with about 15 yards to go and the large doe went on full alert, then turned tail and ran. Confused, I looked around to try and figure out what happened. Just then, here go two foxes darting out of the woods right at the location that we were waiting on the deer to get to. A little frustrating, but we didn't let it dampen our experience. Syd had a great time and admitted that it was cool to see the foxes, a first for her.
Sunday evening found Trevor Marie and I in the same familiar box blind. Trevor focused on doing some school work and reading a book to pass the time. With about 15 minutes left in legal time, I noticed a deer moving through the corn, not 15 yards in front of us. Trevor got her gun up and I told her to wait until the deer exited the corn into our nice shooting lane. I was keeping an eye on the deer through the video monitor on the camera and also keeping an eye on Trevor to see that everything looked good. When she told me that she was on the deer, I told her to squeeze the trigger when she felt ready. BOOM went the muzzleloader and off ran the deer. Trevor told me that she thought she missed the deer. I couldn't tell, but watched the deer run into the woods and shortly after thought I heard a crash. We went back and looked at the video footage and it looked like a good sign. After some celebrating, we got down to check for blood and ended up tracking her deer a short 30 or so yards to find it piled up in a thicket. Trevor got her first antlered buck, a young 5 pointer. We were both ecstatic.
It was a late evening, so photos and video will have to wait.
Derek Craig
Duck Day is here!
What a long drawn out summer. This had to have been the busiest summer ever around the New Day camp. Fun, but I'm glad it is over and we are moving on to the best time of the year ... HUNTING SEASONS!
To kick things off, tomorrow, Sept. 23rd kicks off our 15th Annual Duck Day for area youth. This year, the 8th grade students from Angola Middle School and then on Friday, the 7th grade students from Hamilton and Fremont Middle Schools will be attending Duck Day out at Pokagon State Park in Angola. This event is hosted by our local Northeast Indiana Delta Waterfowl Chapter in collaboration with the Crystal DeHaan Family Foundation and other area sponsors. The event is the LARGEST youth Delta Waterfowl related event in the nation. Approximately 400 kids will be introduced to various aspects of waterfowl and wetlands conservation.
It is an exciting time of the year and blog entries will increase as well as photos and new videos.
Derek Craig
Dog Days of Summer
Summer is in full effect here in Indiana. Not much in the way of hunting going on, though a few fish have been caught.
Late June is the time of year that our local Delta Waterfowl Chapter gets together to round up Canada geese on area lakes for relocation. This year is we have been fortunate in being able to work with IDNR to have all the birds banded prior to their release. This past weekend, we captured, banded, and released 102 Canada geese in Northeastern Indiana. The following link is to my Facebook photo album of the relocation activities.
We will be relocating additional birds this coming weekend. It is a great time to share waterfowl conservation practices with youth and other lake residents.
Website Video Player Fixed!
I a few moments to play with the video player on the Videography section of the New Day Outdoors Productions website. There had been some problems in Internet Explorer that I was unaware. The video player should now be working in Internet Explorer as well as Fire Fox and Google Chrome. Personally, I am getting a security error in Internet Explorer, but regardless of what I click on the player works. I will continue to try to figure out what is with the error. I believe it is something in the Vimeo player, rather than the website security.
I hope you will take a moment to enjoy the many videos available on the website.
Derek
Website Video Player Problems
It has come to my attention that recently a problem has developed in viewing the videos while using Internet Explorer on the Videography section of the New Day Outdoors website. For whatever reason this is an Internet Explorer issue only. The player works fine in other web browsers like Google Chrome and Firefox.
I am leaving Wednesday for an out of state turkey hunt, so I cannot work on the problem at this time. In the mean time, if you do not have one of these other browsers, you can view all of our videos at the following website
Or you can go to youtube and type "newdayoutdoors" in the search window and it will pull up all of our videos.
Jim's First Turkey
On Sunday, I took my good friend Jim Anspach out turkey hunting in pursuit of his first wild turkey. The forecast was for nasty storms moving in by mid-morning, so we knew if we were going to get a bird, it had to be quick before we got soaked. The storms began to move in a lot sooner than we had expected and I was getting nervous as we could hear both the thunder of the skies and the thunder of turkeys all around us. Both were closing in and it was a race to see which would reach us first, the lightning or the turkeys. In the end, Jim shot a soaking wet 17# jake just as the rains began to come down. I jumped in the truck as the first close lightning bolt cracked. The video of this hunt can be seen on the videography section of the New Day Outdoors website.
