Barry Willis

Howdy Akrisoner, as is with all our provinces the game wardens have huge areas to cover. The one that showed up on scene was the closest and going into the bush he was armed with a semi automatic rifle, either a 308 or 30-06 and being a government hunter I was armed as well. We worked in tandem. Yes, it was a little terrifying, lots of places for him to hide and ambush us if he detected us as he would do what ever he needed to to avoid being arrested and going to jail for years. So after finding him, disarming and cuffing him and he was a cocky bugger too, we wanted to slap the crap out of him but we can't do that. he was placed in the back seat of the wardens SUV while we drove around looking for his partner which didn't take long. This is a huge area with no one around for miles during the week, that's why I love it so much. The game wardens and RCMP don't travel in pairs, or with a partner so two RCMP SUV's showed up as these characters were considered very dangerous and were taken to jail in seperate vehicles. Back to Cast - Away, at the time I was very disappointed to lose a camera, it's really my only form of entertainment, it took me a long time to save up enough money for it on my CPP. at least I got it back. Back to Crowman, hey Rick, I'm certainly in no rush to do it again, never slept a wink last night thinking how fast things could have went south. the thing that saved us is when we found him his rifle was leaning against a tree out of his reach as he gutted the white tail doe. The SWAT team was on our minds, if we felt the need. In retrospect I feel we should have let them deal with it. I'm not the adrenaline junkie I used to was LOL. I have found that as I get older I am losing the nerve to do a lot of things I never used to give any thought to. If you look close in the first picture I think you can see the mountain peaks, that's where I'm heading, and the second picture (an old one) all this took place at the bottom of the hill. Thank you all.

Thank you very much for that Terry, and so do I. The Game warden and the RCMP both told me I was very lucky the guy didn't see me before I saw him, considering his back ground as he likely would have shot me. But that was the least of my worries. I was prepared for that as I legally pack a 44 mag on my hip when I'm up there, and it was in my hand.

Thank you very much for that Terry, and so do I. The Game warden and the RCMP both told me I was very lucky the guy didn't see me before I saw him, considering his back ground as he likely would have shot me.

Something has been bugging the dickens out of me to go back up to the rocky mountain foot hills where my trail cam went missing, so I did first thing this morning. In my almost 70 years on this planet, one thing I have learnt is to go with my instincts. I knew there was a poacher prowling around in my stomping grounds from the tracks I'd previously found. Well this morning I found fresh tracks leading into the bush so I followed them and I caught him in the act, sneaking through the bush with a rifle. He didn't see me but I saw him. To try and make a long story short I beat it the Hell out of there as there is no phone service, once I had service I phoned the report a poacher no. about 40 minutes later a game warden showed up and I led him into the bush where the guy was and with the help of the game warden and my walkie talkies we caught him red handed gutting a white tail doe. We caught his buddy as well of course that was driving around so as not to create suspicion with a vehicle sitting on the side of the road. I told the warden about my camera gone missing and he asked me what brand it was and I told him, he reached into the back seat of the truck and brought out a trail cam and asked me, does this look familiar? Sure does I replied. So I got it back minus the SD card. The warden ran their ID. turned out the two guys had multiple warrants for poaching and fire arms offences, so the warden called the RCMP and they were cuffed and taken to the crow bar hotel where they belong. So all in all this was a very rewarding day, got my camera back and put two bad guys in jail. Thanks to those who took the time to read this, I know it's a long one, as usual Hahah.

A rather disappointing day yesterday after an hour and a half drive one way into the foot hills to swap SD cards in my trail cams. The one camera that has kept me awake at night where all the tracks were some one stole. Brand new camera, first time in the bush. Any way here are some from another cam. A very nice pic, at least to me, of a night time pic of a lovely cow moose, this is not a no glow camera and she wasn't very fond of it lighting up. A spruce grouse that caught the attention of a whitetail and a nice shot of a raven in flight.

I don't expect if this will apply to many of you folks in Ontario but thought I'd post it anyway. Out here in Calgary over the past few years (Fish and Wildlife estimate there are a little over a thousand coyotes here in the city) there have been several attacks on dogs, some on people, moms being threatened while going for a walk with their infant in a stroller, children being threatened by them right in their front yards and pets going missing from yards that aren't fenced properly. Coexisting with them is becoming more difficult as they are getting bolder every year. Quite often (too often) especially in rural areas a single coyote will come in and lure dogs out and away from the yard to where a pack is waiting in ambush and attack and kill the dog. And some people wonder why I shoot them - in their words - the poor things.

Wow, I've never seen batteries do that. Thank God your wife smelled the smoke. You and your wife are very lucky. I think I'll put the purchase of a lithium for my trolling motor etc. on the back burner.

With the wind chill in the-50s out west here, 51 degrees colder than our normal high I don't think we have to worry about ice anymore. Guys have actually been out ice fishing for over a month since our last cold spell. Sunday the temperature slowly got up to -8 over night and slowly made it up to -5 yesterday and the winds have been calm, no wind chill but still bitterly cold in the central and northern part of the province. Started snowing again yesterday and still is. Going down into the -20s today with a brisk wind out of the north, -30s with the wind chill. So I think it's going be a day of two before I get out.

You'll get no argument from me. I feel sorry for the fish. Great idea Misfish.

Happiest of birthdays Big Cliff.

Ya know it's cold when this happens. This is frost not snow.

They are located in Boston and Chinese owned. One of my friends ordered some things from there and the way he puts it - low cost, low quality, ya get what you pay for. Back to Doug re, Calgary airport. As you mentioned there are a lot of folks camping out there that have been hoping to catch their flight since last week. I live ten km from the airport, the last couple days the wind chill at the house here was in the low -50s. Not quite as bad today, mid -40s as the howling north wind, thank fully has subsided some what.

Awesome Rick, a whole different world there. I love it and am full of envy. Thanks very much for sharing.

Howdy Big Cliff, one can't go wrong with a lithium battery. Getting off topic, I've never trolled with my Argo but plan on doing so this year. Curious if you have used an outboard on yours? I do have a trolling motor but I am thinking of also trying my 2hp. Johnson on it. I can run my little Johnson on my Sportspal canoe (I know it won't be as efficient on the Argo) for eight and a half hours that's trolling and wide open on one tank of fuel and it only holds 9,10ths of a liter.

Thanks Gil, glad you liked them. I have a lot more mostly birds, white tail, moose sheep and grizzly's but wasn't sure of the rules as to how many I could post.

Was going through some old 35mm photos to day and came across these. Just a few of my favorites I was too lazy to scan them and put them on a sd card so I just took pics of them with the Canon digital, so they are not the greatest. I may have posted more than I should have. The first one I call hunting the high country (for big horn sheep) it was quite a hike and worse going down as gravity wanted to pull me faster than I wanted on the loose rocks and star an avalanche. The one of the badgers, it is hard to see but papa badger has three baby badgers under him to protect them. I hope yous enjoy them. Thank you.

I did not word my post correctly, there is sand in some lakes out here and others especially the reservoirs mud and clay bottom and you can take a boat and zig zag across the lake for twenty miles as the crow flies and no structure, the fish are there, cruising around it is just being in the right place at the right time. I still remember over fifty years ago, I went ice fishing on Georgian Bay and there was another guy fishing with something I had never seen before, it was a flasher, he showed me how it worked. I could not wait to get to town to buy one. I still have it (a Lowrance) it still works and I still use it at times. As well as being exciting to watch, one can learn a lot from under water cameras of feeding habits of different species of fish.

Good point from Terry and yourself misfish, but read this, depends on the fish finder. In my neck of the woods there is very little sand and no zebra muscles, just rock. But I am a firm believer in leaving the camera down and capturing the action and recording it. It is always cool to watch later.

What is the point of having an under water camera just to find structure, it makes no sense. A fish finder will do that or a hand held sonar where you clear the snow off the ice pour a little water on the ice and place the sonar on it. It will show the depth, structure and mark fish. I have been using an aqua view for twenty years, the fun and excitement comes from watching the fish. Never had a problem with tangling or anything else as you place it far enough away, and I certainly have never had a problem with it scaring fish. If in doubt check out the videos on Youtube.

They sure are fun to watch, but it can also be frustrating at times when you see that big one come cruising in and not take your bait When I got my first one I would get so excited that I would go through the motion of setting the hook before the fish had it in their mouth LOL. Congratulations on your Laker especially for your first and biggest. Very nice. Have fun with it as I am sure you will.

I put them plastic lawn chairs in my boat and Argo to give the cover some pitch kinda like a tee pee so that as the snow melts it just runs off.

I am wondering if in fact the tail is bushy, if he was swinging it, or wagging it, which does not seem likely but if so being at night the infared with the slow shutter speed may have distorted it and made it appear bushy. Spoke to Fish And Wildlife yesterday and they are concerned about if it is a wild pig, so I will be sending it off to them this morning as soon as I hear from them as to where to send it. It may be to a wildlife biologist. Should be interesting.

Great way to star the new year!

Seems kinda weird after all this time (maybe because I am older) that just last night it sunk in how lucky I am that he did not gore me to death. I always just looked at as being lucky to have something like that happen and get it on film. I always believed, and still do that he got tired of me coming into his living room and bothering him and wasnt going to put up with it any more. I know it had nothing to do with the rut as it ended weeks before this.

I agree, I know I lucked out! unfortunately mule deer are on a draw basis and I did not get drawn that year or he would have been in the freezer long before this happened. I could get so close to him the bow would have been a good choice as well. Lottery ticket never crossed my mind although it should have.