New Day Outdoors Blog

Turkeys, turkeys, and more turkeys!

2011-05-10T14:59:00Z

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

2011-02-16T15:00:00Z

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

2010-11-17T13:25:00Z

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

2010-10-18T17:07:00Z

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

2010-09-27T15:32:00Z

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!

2010-09-22T13:03:00Z

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

2010-06-23T19:32:00Z

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.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#!/album.php?aid=2067915&id=1420696115&ref=pb

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!

2010-05-11T19:13:00Z

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

2010-04-26T13:25:00Z

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

http://www.vimeo.com/user792540/videos

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

2010-04-26T13:19:00Z

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.

Indiana Opener Head Chop

2010-04-21T19:40:00Z

Today marked the opener of the regular turkey season here in Indiana. I set out to the same farm that my youngest daughter, Sydney, shot her bird at Saturday evening. The morning started out very uneventful with not a single gobble as the sun came up. Shortly into the hunt a hen appeared. A while later, a long beard also, but 60 yards was all the closer he would get. He wanted nothing to do with my setup. Soon, three more hens and I could see a tom strutting across the ditch that divides the farm, right where Syd had killed her bird. Some more waiting and then at around 10:00 I noticed a Tom emerge from the timber out behind me, then another ... GAME ON! The two long beards made their way to my set up and began to flog the jake decoy. I took aim with my bow and let an arrow fly at the one's neck. I connected, but not well. As the bird stumbled at 5 yards from me, I launched another arrow and anchored him. His buddy decided to hang out and strut and gobble for 45 minutes after my shot. 4 jakes also showed up and the 5 birds put on an amazing display.

The video will be up in less than 48 hours.

Youth Season Successes for Team New Day!

2010-04-19T14:30:00Z

WOW ... what a weekend. I'm running on very little sleep right now, but this past weekend was the youth turkey season here in Indiana. So I relished the opportunity to get my two young daughters into the field for some early turkey hunting action.

Trevor and I headed to meet a friend from the NWTF on Saturday morning. Little did we know that the farmer was going to show up to work in the field as well that morning. With a hunt that got interrupted by trucks and tractors, we moved deep into the timber in hopes of catching birds hanging back in the woods. Sure enough we had some jakes come into the set up. However, due to the tight shooting conditions, we found that an 8 yard shot with her 20 ga. was just a little too close. A clean miss later, two jakes ran off to grow up for next year.

Saturday evening found Sydney and I hunting out of a ground blind on a new piece of property that I just acquired. We had not been set up 10 minutes when a hen showed up and hung out with us for about an hour. Sydney enjoyed the show that she put on. About 25 minutes after the hen left the field, I looked out and saw 6 long beards making their way across the field. I hit the call one time and it was all that it took to turn them our direction. They came the entire width of the field right into our set up. Two of the birds attacked the jake decoy and then Sydney took her time getting her cross bow settled in on the bigger of the two. She made a PERFECT shot on the bird and he did not go even 2 yards after being shot. Sydney was ecstatic, as was I. We managed to get the entire hunt on video and it will be on the website in the next day. Her bird was 23#, 9" beard, and 1 1/8" spurs.

Sunday morning found Trevor, myself, and my friend back at the same farm, hoping that our farmer would go to church rather than work. The winds had died down and it looked to be a picture perfect morning. The birds began gobbling about 45 minutes before shooting time and continued to gobble well after fly down. Upon fly down they all seemed to go other directions, however about 20 minutes after they all seemed to have moved way away, we had two working their way back our direction. Eventually, I saw them strutting and gobbling in an open spot behind the blind back in the timber. After a few more minutes they grew frustrated and decided to make their way to us. As we readied Trevor for what we knew would happen, the two long beards walked from behind the blind stopping long enough to gobble not 5 yards beside of us. They then strutted all the way into the decoys about 20 yards out in front of us. Trevor took aim and dropped one of the long beards with her 20 gauge. I ran out to secure the wounded bird and in the furry of thrashing (by both the bird and myself) I accidentally stepped on his tail, plucking EVERY last tail feather from the bird. We laughed about it and I will make the wall fan mount look right, but it made for an ugly "hero" photograph. Trevor was so happy with here first long beard and as Dad, I could not have been prouder of her. 20#, 10 1/2" beard, and 7/8" spurs. This hunt is all on video as well and will also be up on the website in the next day.

I would encourage every adult hunter out there to take your child or a child you know hunting.

Derek Craig

Gearing Up For Turkey Seasons

2010-04-01T18:56:00Z

Well the snows have finally melted and the days are starting to get longer. The desire to go chase turkeys in the spring woods is running through my veins. In recent weeks, I have been shooting the bow a lot and getting the Magnus Broadheads tuned in for some head lopping turkey action. I can not recommend the Magnus products enough, especially the 125 grain Bullheads. I took a turkey last year using these heads and the results were fantastic. These broadheads fly great on the Victory V1 arrows that Magnus recommends. You do have to spend some extra time tuning your bow, especially on the newer speed bows that are out these days. Fortunately, I'm running an older (i.e. slower) Mathews Outback, so tunning is rather forgiving.

Lately I have been doing some re-edits on some of my older video work. If you look on the videography page you will find a re-edit of my 2009 archery hunt. I was contacted by Dave Smith Decoys about using my video on their website, so I did this re-edit for them. If you have not checked out Dave Smith's turkey decoys, they are the Cadillac of turkey decoys and worth every penny in my opinion for holding birds in the decoys and drawing in that wise ol' long beard that has seen his share of Wal-mart foam dekes.

I also did a 2010 promo video that is on the videography page. Just editing this video, got me all excited to hit the turkey woods. Great memories from the 2009 season.

With seasons fast approaching, I will be posting more blog updates at a more frequent rate, so stay tuned.

God Bless!

Derek Craig

2009-2010 Goose Season is a Wrap

2010-02-15T19:32:00Z

Well today marks the official end of the Indiana 2009-2010 Canada goose seasons. Part of me is sad, because I love to hunt them so much, but part of me is grateful as it has been not only fun, but exhausting. Overall, what an amazing year of hunting with outstanding friends. Our waterfowl seasons started off very slow and were very unproductive for much of the fall. However, once the corn finally came down in mid December it was Game On. We ended the year on Saturday evening with a great hunt. In the end, we took 66 birds in the special February season and over 150 birds combined through the entire 2009-2010 season.

Time to get ready for spring turkeys!

The last photo of the season.

Blizzard Hunt

2010-02-10T15:35:00Z

Four of us went out yesterday in a blizzard to hunt geese here in northeast Indiana. I had every intention of simply running the video camera on this hunt. However, shortly after getting set up, I realized that my expensive camera and audio equipment was quickly getting soaked from the massive amounts of snow. So I packed up all the video gear and pulled out the shot gun for some gunning fun with friends. We ended up with 17 birds, 3 shy of our limit. We had a great day overall, even if I didn't accomplish my primary objective of the day ... video.

Left to right: myself, Mike Friend, Andy Gardner, and Pete Decker.

Mid February Goose Season

2010-02-08T19:00:00Z

Well, the February goose season is in full swing here in Indiana. Myself and good friend Pete Decker had a couple great hunts earlier last week during the opening two days, bagging 20 birds. Then Friday, we followed up the earlier hunts with a great hunt. Andy Gardner joined in the fun and helped us bag 15 birds that afternoon.

Snow is in the forecast for tomorrow and the three of us are going to hit the fields again. I believe that we are going to video the hunt, so hopefully I will be posting up some major goose hunting footage in a couple days, so stay tuned!

Photo from Friday.

It's a New Day in the Outdoors

2010-02-03T19:48:46Z

Welcome to the Blog for New Day Outdoors Productions. This blog site will be used to track hunting and other outdoor related news and events. It will also serve as a conduit to the latest videos and field photography work of New Day Outdoors.

I am not sure where this journey will take myself or my small production company, but it is sure to be a wild ride along the way. There is no map for this road. There will seldom be pavement on the journey. The bumps will be the most exciting parts so hang on!

Derek Craig

"It's a New Day in the Outdoors"