Deer of the Year

Perseverance pays off with 180-inch Red River giant

The skies were threatening with thunder rumbling in the distance the mid-November morning David Long first spotted the huge Red River Parish buck, which later green scored in the 180s.

“I was sitting in my box stand overlooking a shooting lane where I had a tripod feeder set up,” Long said. “I saw three does hurry across the lane at about 100 yards.

“I looked to the edge of the lane and there he stood.”[…]

Inshore Fishing

Delacroix trout smackdown continues

It was drizzling when I stepped out of my truck at Sweetwater Marina early Monday (Dec. 5), the first signs of a front that was barreling through the state. I just shook my head, wriggled into my rain suit and headed to meet the two guys I’d be fishing with that morning.

I had told Scott Walker that I didn’t want to waste a day out of the office because I was slammed, and he had promised me it wouldn’t take long to fill our limits of speckled trout.

His confidence was more than braggadocio: I was back at the dock barely more than two hours later, loading up an ice chest full of speckled trout and heading back to the office.[…]

Deer of the Year

Giles Island produces another monster buck

Ricky Rogillio saw that huge buck the first time during an early season bow hunt, when he took a client to Giles Island Hunting Club. It was monstrous, with two drop tines dripping from the left main beam.

“I saw videos of it, and I knew I wanted to come back,” the Walker hunter said. “I worried it wouldn’t be there when I got back.”

He left the island last Wednesday (Nov. 30) with the 175-inch rack cooling in the back of his truck.[…]

Hog Hunting

Hog blast on the Delta

My buddy Randy Levingston and I, used the recent cold, windy weather to stalk up some hogs down at the Delta. Three big ones came out on Randy right before dark. He put an arrow in the largest one and the fun began.[…]

Bass Fishing

Yellow Magic

Sixty-year-old Texan Butch Ray can relate to the buzz heard for months this year around Toledo Bend and on Southwest Louisiana waters about a high-end topwater bait with a beautiful body and a seductive sound.[…]