Dad, Luke(MossyOak) and I arrived Saturday lunch time and dropped into the local to let the owner know we had arrived. A little chat and then we headed out to the hut on the property where Dad was going to stay and Luke and were going to backpack out from.
Dad got his camp set up and Luke and I threw our sleeping bags down in the hut for the night. The plan was to have dinner at the pub then early to bed for a 6:00am departure with the packs on. We were going to hunt our way through the prime time and then during the middle of the day put some distance behind, find a camp and settle in for a couple nights.
Well the first part worked out with us getting away early. We put up a deer early in the walk and were seeing plenty of fresh sign. We had hoped to stay close to the creek as we only had limited water supply with us.
The further we got in it soon became apparent that staying with the creek was not going to be an option as it was just too choked with dogwood and blackberries.
We consulted the gps maps but were not convinced we would be able to locate a good area close to water so we decided to head half way back and camp at a good spot we found earlier. Not as far in as we had hoped but still in some prime country. I was pretty keen to pitch my new Henry Shires Tarp Tent for its first outing.
We spent the rest of the arvo chasing the shade as temps were about 27C. I was kept company by this little bloke as I relaxed on his log
About 5:00pm We headed off in different directions to have a sit for a while. It was pretty quite until about 40min before dark when noise below me let me know deer were coming. Next minute about 60 yards below a massive head and antlers pokes out the dogwood. At that range I estimated him to be around the 27-28" mark if not more, then he was gone. Suddenly there is a dark bodied stag angling up towards me at about 30m but not the big boy. A spike about 12-14". He came across at about 30m, just a bit too far out for me and moving a bit too quick. Still I was pretty stoked.
I made it back to camp in the dark with Luke not far behind. he had not seen much but found promising areas. I decided that I would hunt the morning then break camp and head back to the hut and spend the next day there with Dad. Luke was going to hunt the morning back to the hut, spend the arvo there then hunt the evening back to camp.
Next morning we left in the dark and heard deer moving off the open ground. Didnt see much but marked some good spots for the evening sit. I broke camp and headed back to the hut. Spent the afternoon chasing trout in the little creek. Stalking up stream and flicking lightly weighted worms up stream. Got several hook ups including a horse (for a small creek) of about 1/2 a pound. Managed to land four all up including these two. The little fellow engulfed a whole worm.
It was great to release these little ones and watch them swim off in the gin clear water. Stalking the pools was a great bit of fun.
Didnt see any deer on the evening hunt but could here a couple moving about. This morning i was out of camp about 5:40am and worked up a valley behind the hut. Snuck around a corner and came face to face with two hinds at 20-25m. There was no shot as they were face on to me. Tried to sneak in closer but they had none of that and headed off. Still a great way to spend the morning.
All in all the new property holds a lot of promise and i know it wont be long before i am back there again. That big stag and my trad gear have some unresolved business
