Author: Emily Courtney “Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.”   – Henry David Thoreau Most of my childhood fishing experiences took place in a 10 foot aluminum boat with my grandpa at the stern, myself at the bow, both with a fishing rig of some kind in hand, the details of which I can’t recall or maybe never knew. Most of these voyages took place on the mighty Pearl River, a fairly significant waterway that winds through

We’re continuing our pro-staff introductions with a post written by pro-staffer T.J. Esfeller.  The following is the story of how he harvested a late season trophy in Alabama just a few weeks ago.  T.J. would tell you that he just got lucky, but luck is simply preparation meeting opportunity.  This is a prime example of that, with a little persistence thrown in. Author: T.J. Esfeller My deer season began on October 25th in the hill country of Texas. I was invited to hunt a 16

Here is Part 2 from our pro staffer Lance about the Wheelin’ Sportsmen hunt he helped with back in December.  If you haven’t read Part 1, check out the previous post!  Enjoy! Author: Lance Howard When I arrived for the second day of the event, Travis asked me to accompany a boy named Jaybee to film his afternoon hunt. His grandparents, Jack and Peggy, would also be tagging along. The first obvious thing I noticed about Jaybee was that he was in a wheelchair. I started talking

Author: Emily Courtney “Year’s end is neither an end nor a beginning, but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us.”       -Hal Borland The only difference between December 31st and January 1st is the date. It’s an arbitrary marker; nothing really changes. We make new plans, new goals, new budgets, but for the most part, it’s all in the context of the same life circumstances. We don’t really start over. When midnight struck on New Year’s Eve, we didn’

Author: Emily Courtney If you’re lucky enough to have persimmons on your property, you know how beneficial they can be for attracting wildlife. When fruiting, they’re magnets for all kinds of critters, especially whitetails. Very few native trees offer soft mast during the fall, making persimmons a highly sought after commodity in early bow season. If you have them and haven’t noticed them getting this kind of attention, they may need a little micro-managing to give them a bo

Author: Emily Courtney Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of being invited on hunts with friends and colleagues to many different properties throughout the southeast. Most of which have been clubs, camps, or farms that I had either never been to before or was only slightly familiar with.   On several of these occasions, this lack of familiarity has left me wandering through the woods in the pre-daylight hours trying to follow directions to find my way to my assigned stand

Author: Emily Courtney One fall afternoon many years ago, my dad and I were walking to our stand for an afternoon hunt on my grandpa’s farm in south Mississippi.  He stopped and pointed at a deer track on the ground, looked up and smiled, and said, “You know, I remember the very first time I saw one of these.”  He launched into a story I had actually heard a time or two before, but I let him tell it anyway.  When my grandpa bought the 140 acres in the early 60’s, there wasn’t