This past September, I shot a nice estimated 200 pound Maine “Foggy Mountain” black bear (a boar) with my crossbow from a ground blind. It was my 76th birthday.

It was a solo hunt as are most of my hunts. On my 75th birthday, the year previous,  I shot a nice  black bear from a tree stand with my 7mm Rem Mag. 

As I age, I have discovered that by dangling an adventure-like carrot in front of me, then I use that adventure as my health and exercise goal. 

Note: This past week in January, local hospitals were filling with possible heart attack patients from shoveling in very cold and snow conditions. 

If out in cold weather and exerting yourself, shoveling snow for example, many doctors suggest hydrating, stretching and

maybe take a baby aspirin to thin blood before heading out to shovel. 

I carry baby aspirin on my person as a rule of thumb just in case. 

It seems that I purposely become adventuresome just to maintain my body and mind health.  Maybe find non hunting adventures as I further age as well to stay healthy as well.

I like to eat what I hunt and love to chef my own food. I started a cookbook but have yet to publish it. Maybe this year. We shall see….

Adventure Awaits…

See my first article on this repair.

February Antler Repair? I Ran Across A YouTube To Fix A Broken Antler Brow Tine

This is my first attempt at a brow tine repair. Came out ok. Need to paint/stain more but the JB Weld KwickWood® putty worked.

Note: I used my new GoPro Hero 13 Black to film and edit the above video.

Below is the right side brow tine fix. Not bad for my first try. I can play with paints and other stains but hey, it looks ok for me. 

Practice on other antlers, can improve my skill. Need to buy paint/stain/urethane for correcting brow color if I want a pro job. But I am happy with it as it is for now. It was as a fun repair winter lesson.

Stay Warm

A buck that I harvested 5 years ago in Texas had a broken brow tine seen below. I never had it repaired.

Too cold to do much at 0ºF outside.  Sounds like a great cold weather project for me to try. Maybe you have an antler that needs repair too.  

Below, what the brow tine should look like.

I found a few YouTube’s to fix a broken antler with epoxy putty. You can look it up as well. You can use a taxidermist putty or wood repair putty. One fellow used polyurethane dark walnut stain once the putty was hard and dry. He wiped it on and off as needed to get the color correct.

Look for my article and how my repair comes out.

Soon…

Computer and cell phone savvy hunters and fisherman will find the GoPro Hero 13 jam packed with video and photo capability.

I went on youtube and found intro videos like this one below that begins with opening the box and provides recommended settings and connectivity links to your phone. It even has touch screen. I like it thus far.

The best way to learn my Hero 13 and my iPhone 15 app is to use the camera and try the many settings but before I begin, get the attachments kit below. I ordered the kit from Amazon. Due here tomorrow. 

More Soon…

Doing some research on my upcoming Alaskan fishing trip in early June, I found the following information.

https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=halibut.printerfriendly

To best catch halibut, fisherman often send bundles of fish chum to the bottom (100 to 300 ft) after anchoring. Then fish around the ball of chum. The scent will draw halibut from long distances. Some chum made up with more oily scent makes a difference.

Experienced halibut sport fisherman prefer eating smaller halibut up to 50 pounds and let the larger ones (usually female) go. The thicker older larger “barn door” fish are harder to cook thru correctly and can dry out the fish during cooking. We shall see…

That said, If I hook an 80 lb. halibut, am I going to throw it back? Probably not. But the rules state one of the two halibut per day you can keep must be smaller than 32 inches thus keeping sizes and gender under some measure of harvest control.

Male halibut are much smaller usually less than 3 feet in length. Large Females can spawn upwards of seven million eggs. 

Fun Halibut Facts

• Size
  Length to over 8 feet, weight to over 500 lb
• Lifespan
  55 years (males and females)
• Distribution/Range
  California to the Bering Sea, west to the Sea of Japan
• Remarks
  Both eyes on the right (upper side), with rare exceptions
• Other Names
  Large halibut are called “barn doors,” small halibut are “chickens.”

Author Note: My strength and upper body, arm and hand exercise routine just finished week one. I can already feel the success. Fore arm and hand strength is terrific for a start. Only two of my Alaska fishing boat trips will be for halibut. The other two focus on salmon and a fly-in for brown bear photography and salmon. 

Good Fishing!