Thread: Back into it part 2

This trip was planned for the first week of the school holidays but work got in the way again and then the second weekend of the school holidays but I ended up working right through so I could take the Friday off before labour weekend.
I really needed this trip I had been wanting to get up the lake for months and getting photos sent from mates trips while I was at work was torture!
The lake was pretty high with all the jetty's underwater and being Friday we had the lake to ourselves bar one old trout fisherman.





I had packed for 4 days and planned to walk in away from the more pressured areas....I knew I was going to struggle but boy did I struggle!




We turned a short walk into a long and arduous one and I was fair rooted when we finally made the hut.
At least there was plenty of sign about, the hut book showed a trout fisherman 3 days previous and a hunter almost a month before so I was optimistic about our chances of finding a deer out on the flats.


We cooked a feed and had a few games of Uno keeping our voices down while we waited for evening.



As the shadows disappeared and dusk approached we put our boots on and quietly slipped out the door and stalked out to the river's edge to walk down peering into the flats between gaps in the scrub while having quick glances at the hut clearing as it came into view and as I did some movement caught my eye.
A stag was trotting out onto the hut clearing.
We saw each other at the same time He froze we froze, dropped down "you shoot it Dad" whispered my Son and I took the shot off my pack.
He was standing perfect front on with his head held high trying to work out what we were, I centered on his chest and touched off.
The trigger broke slightly before I expected it to( the bugger of having rifles with different weight triggers) and the Stag bolted!
Oh no! Did I pull the shot off into a shoulder missing the vitals?
Thankfully no he ran 50 odd yards and piled up.

Now you hope to shoot a deer on the first evening on the hut clearing but don't really expect that to happen so now I had 4days worth of food and gear and a whole clean shot stag to carry out.
Now if the walk in was a struggle the walk out was going to be even better!.



Love it when a plan comes together and it was a long time coming but worth the wait to get back to my "happy place".

The look on your boy's face in that first picture is priceless!

Good of him to let the old boy shoot a deer to keep his eye in as well ��

Greetings All,
Also good to see someone triumph over the things that often foil our hunting.
Regards Grandpamac.

Buitifully country you got up there,enjoy yr venison.

Awesome.
Looks like a great spot.

Great stuff VC
It certainly is a happy place alright.

Great to see you getting back into it !!
Looking forward to future missions !!

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

Great trip to enjoy & to get out there with your boy. Deer on the hut clearing, that’s a real bonus.

Great comeback!

I spent some time in there in the '60's and '70's (I remember the Gowan Bridge store having hand-operated petrol pumps with big glass bottles on top). The hut seems a tad flasher than I remember! It is good to see a family trip still producing the goods!

Originally Posted by gundoc

I spent some time in there in the '60's and '70's (I remember the Gowan Bridge store having hand-operated petrol pumps with big glass bottles on top). The hut seems a tad flasher than I remember! It is good to see a family trip still producing the goods!

If you recognise the flats the hut was removed around 2002 due to the likelyhood of it being taken by flood and the new one built about a km further upstream well away from the river.

Nice one mate, I will be heading into that place this Friday as we have Marlborough anniversary. Pleased you had some success after a long hiatus.

enjoy your venison....

Cool trip and a bonus deer on the hut clearing , that's gotta be good. The venison will taste good.

Yes it's quicker and easier to walk up the river in places rather than tackling those sidles

Originally Posted by Backcountry Bob

Yes it's quicker and easier to walk up the river in places rather than tackling those sidles

Yes the river was quite high tho, didn't want to risk crossing it anywhere with my Son.