Finally a decent buck!

We have been seeing a lot of bucks on our trail camera the past week. To be exact, our camera has probably had encounters with six to seven different bucks. Of course, they were all six point or smaller deer but it was exciting to see them out there. I took a couple days off checking the camera and finally got out this morning to visit it again. What I found on the way to the camera was enough to get my blood rushing. In just a 200 yard walk, I found 5 scrapes a really nice rub! Well, I am not sure if this guy is guilty , but he certainly is an improvement on what we have been seeing. Just one day before the season opener in this spot, you can bet that I am thrilled. I doubt I will ever see him during daylight in the suburbs, but one can hope!

1 Week to go...

With September slowly coming to a close and the season approaching, there's more anticipation floating in the air amongst the team members than ever. Between the new HD cameras, the acres of food plots just waiting to be sat over and the opportunities to hunt with different members of the team, to say we're exciting would be an understatement. Only 6 days to go until the Northern Zone Early Archery season opens in NY. Matt, John, Sean, Josh, Drew and I will all be hitting the woods in pairs with cameras rolling this coming weekend. The weather may play a key factor in success as it does so often in early season hunts. Check back next week to see how we opened up the season in the Journal.Matt and I will be running a short video journal throughout the season as well so take a look at that under the Journal section.

Good luck to everyone out there in your 2009 quests.

The Waiting Period...

Well, Turkey Season ends at the end of May leaving four entire months to get ready for deer season. The food plots go in the ground in early May and late July over a few weekends. So what is it that we do the rest of the time? As most outdoor enthusiasts, we love fishing and there’s nothing more exiting to kill the time between hunting seasons then getting out after some big water wolfs. With Sean on crutches until the end of June, I spent some time on the water with my dad and Josh fishing for Pike. My first day out, I landed two 10 lb Northern Pike on the St. Lawrence River. While we usually are very successful in quantity of Pike on the St. Lawrence, we don’t typically hit any over 6-7 lbs so it was exciting that day to catch 12 different Pike along with two 10 lb monsters. Once Sean was off his crutches, he was out on the water chasing the Muskie’s in the St. Lawrence, Grasse and Little Rivers. As you can see from the pictures, he’s done quite well for himself handling his Musky pole this summer landing two fish over 30 lb’s and numerous other mentionable Muskie’s as well. We don’t only love Hunting, we love the Outdoors in general and fishing has been a part of our life style since long before any of us were old enough to hunt. It’s been a great summer and with only 4 weeks to go until the Northern New York Bow Season opener, we’re ready to put the poles down and pick up the bows and get after those whitetails we dream about while we’re out on the water fishing all summer long.

May 14th

May 14th and the rewards of our preseason efforts are evident. Team Venatic members have knocked down four birds since opening day, and with the seemingly low turkey population, that is something to brag about. Teams of John/Matt successfully closed the deal on two mature toms while Sean/Drew came up big with two Jake's in the same day. We have logged several hours in the woods since those birds fell and come out with some pretty good footage. Keep an eye out, this weekend we have two cameras rolling and I can speak for everyone on the team when I guarentee a bird.

-Matt

Finally...

Well today is April 30th and that means tomorrow is opening day of the NYS Turkey Season. While the rain and wind filled forecast for Friday foreshadows some difficult hunting, expectations and anticipation is higher than ever. With our increased involvement in hunting as a team, filming, and overall awareness of the sport, we are extremely excited to get to hunting. On top of that, several birds have been roosted and scouted over the past few weeks and Clede had the opportunity to pattern a few long beards at his farm this past weekend.

I will be hunting with my Dad for the first couple days on our farm in Gouverneur, NY while Clede hits up his farm in Lisbon with his Dad and friends. We will be joining up on Sunday to chase birds with bows on my farm where we have access to over 1200 acres of land for turkey season. The potential surely is there, only one question remains; Can we close the deal? I'm confident in saying that come Monday, the hunting journal will have a few new additions.

Good luck to everyone in NYS.
-Matt

The Beginning of a New Era

Well it's all starting to come together. We've changed our name from North Country Hunting to Venatic Outdoors, we've purchased new camera equipment and increased our huntable acreage in New York by nearly 100 acres to reach almost 2000 acres for spring Turkey hunting and 1000 acres for New York's Whitetail season. The new logo's have been produced and team members are beeing added as we speak. We have nothing but great expectations as we roll into the spring turkey season here in New York with hopes at harvesting as many Gobblers as we can on film this year with both firarms and archery tackle.

To top off the entire ordeal, we have been selected as Pro Staff Members for www.myoutdoorzone.com 's Team Maniac in conjuction with Aftershock Archery. We're very excited to be shooting the new Maniac broadhead produced by Aftershock Archery this year as we believe it will blow through every cage we shoot it at. Also, I'll be shooting the Gobbler expandable at those big thunder chickens this spring and can not wait to see it stop those gobbles.

Matt, Josh and I have been putting in long hours on our properties so far this spring finding new stand sites, scouting the birds and preparing our food plots for the up coming seasons. We're also excited to be using some new Frigid Forage blends for our food plots this year as well as some good looking Antler King products. Be sure to check out our Management Journals to see our results.

-Clede

End of the Season

Well the end of the New York deer season is soon coming to a close and as usual for us, it has been an exciting season. Over the last two years, we have been very successful as a team. Clede managed to take a couple beautiful bucks during those two years and we were incredibly successful during the turkey season. This year was no exception as several beautiful doe's fell at the hands of all of us on the team. In addition, five bucks were taken that ranged from a 3.5 year old 7 pointer to a 2.5 year old 9 pointer and even a beautiful 10 pointer. Three of these bucks were harvest on Matt's property which has seen heavy management over the last three years. The biggest buck fell on Clede's property which experienced its first year of serious deer management. We can only look forward to the years to come.

While there is still a few days left of the season we have already started preparations for the next year. Matt spent last weekend at his camp clearing new areas for food plots. We have already begun to discuss shed hunting and plans for turkey season. Expect to see a lot of coverage in May this year as we always knock down several birds and typically get them on video. It won't be long until we load our first promotional video onto the web.

-Matt