Went to my lease this last week and did'nt see much. A buddy and I decided to head over to St Vincent Island Tuesday to scout for our quota hunt on the 21st. He has hunted the place a few times and said that there will be less people on the far side of the island and we should be able to get a doe tag guaranteed on that side. I've got to say that it was like landing at Jurrasic Park. We pulled the boat up to the backside of the island and the moment we got on the beach there were tracks everywhere. We brought our bikes and figured we would ride on the trails and mark a few spots on the gps so we could have plenty of spots for the 5 of us that will be going. There were tracks right at the waters edge all the way up the beach. We walked over to the camp area and picked out our spot to tie up 1st thing when we get there. Found a bunch of cut oak and some lighter knot for the pit so we gathered it up and stashed it in some bush. Things were looking good so far.
About that time I realized that you could'nt take 2 steps without stepping on a fresh track. We decided to go for a ride and find some spots a few miles back where there should be less pressure when it gets going. The rut should be around that time so I'm pretty pumped at this point. The place is ate up with tracks everywhere and not a sign of a person anywhere. We figured we could cover a lot of ground with the bikes so it seemed like a good idea. The 1st mile got rough trying to ride through all the sugar sand and that was when I realized I had become an :crip .
It got to the point that we would ride for maybe a 1/4 mile and I would have to walk the bike for a while then try it again. We ended up going 10-12 miles or so round trip. There was not 1 spot that you could not see fresh tracks everywhere. In all we found 6 different FRESH scrapes and even rode up on a doe working a scrape. :rockon The size and amount of the tracks was trully amazing to say the least.
St. Vincent is the place with the Sambar deer and I wanted to put in for that but did'nt and regret it now. The size of their tracks is amazing. We came across a fresh Sambar scrape that was huge. It was about 1/2 the size of my truck and the licking branch was at least 9' off the ground!!!! :eek I took a pic of my buddy that stands 6'2 standing in the scrape and the branch is at least 3' over his head. I'll get the pics of the trip up shortly.
My buddy told me it was a great hunt and now I can't wait to get out there. The camping is primitive and there will definitly be some serious walking and riding involved but I'm sure it's going to be a blast. The spots we picked out are between 3 and 4 1/2 miles back so it's gonna be work to get out there and back. I'm definitely gonna have to get a game cart and want to figure out how to hook it up to the bike. Thought I would go back to camp everyday for lunch but now realize my old body can't make that trip twice in 1 day and my :ahole can't take that skinny seat another time. LOL Gonna find a WIDER and SOFTER seat before I go for sure.
We're allowed 1 deer and as many pigs as we can get so hopefully I can put a little more meat in the freezer along with getting a few good pics of some Sambar. If anyone has any advice on the island or the whole primitive camping/riding/walking thing please let me hear it. I haven't been tent camping in probably 25 years and am really looking forward to it but if I know me I'll forget something. It's also gonna be a challenge getting everything the 5 of us bring in the 2 boats going. :rock_on
SVI is one of those hunts that separates men from the boys. Never been but I want to try it. Be careful navigating the boat to and from the island, I hear the rip currents can be horrible there and a loaded down boat makes it dangerous
Oyster bars can be a little tricky also. We had 2 boats come out of the channel with us and were following them towards the island until we hit a bar. We idled over a little and found an unmarked channel that was 9' deep and ran up to 200 yds from the shore. We anchored about 50 yds from shore in 1' of water at low tide. When we came out at 5:30 it was high tide and about 3' deep. We were lucky cuz there was only about a 2' chop going over but my buddy says that it can get a little rough going over some times. We're thinking about maybe hiring a pontoon to take us over and it would probably have more room to carry all the gear and bikes.
Got some of the pics uploaded from the island.
Not sure these will come out.
Sambar scrape
