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A few photos from my April
Hi all, been a while since I've posted on here but I couple guys have given me the nudge to share what I've been upto so I thought why not
I've only hunted sika this roar, no reds. In the first week of April I took to the hills for 4 days in search of a stag. I held the trigger on hinds and spikers and unfortunately that was all I saw but here are a couple pics
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The next week was a bit less of a mission and I spent another 4 days with some good lads crashing around the Kaimanwa bush. No deer were harmed but we had a good time.
The third week of April was when I went on a good solid mission for the peak of the sika roar. On the first evening after setting up my fly camp I went to check on the river flats and snapped a photo of this hind
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The next morning I bowled a 7 pt stag on the flats not far from where I saw this hind. The stag dropped on the spot and I thought I was in with a grin. When I went to retrieve it it spooked and I could find no blood trail :oh noes: I never found him :(
That same evening I was sidling high up in the headwaters of a creek and bumped into this guy
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A bit further down in this creek I came across a good pad and let out a roar. I waited about a half hour and with the wind swirling in all directions i thought there was no chance of a stag coming in ... what a rookie, as I put on my jacket what do I see but a rump disappearing into the scrub :P From day two onwards the trip went pretty down hill and I couldn't seem to get any stags to come in to my roars - they were all really cagey. Maybe something to do with all the other hunters I was bumping into...
After another 4 days hunting hard without much luck I made the call to walk out the next day. As I stalked my way back to my fly camp this hind stuck its head out a wee bit too far. With 1 hour of day light left of hunting for the trip I decided to take her.
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That evening it was backsteaks for tea which made a good break from Kaweka meals and soothed my pain at not having much luck with the stags. All in all it was tough hunt but i could think of worse things to be doing.
I'm going back into the scrub for another stint next week so here's hoping I can make the 2016 roar a bit more memorable
