Baymen Guide Services

Archive for October, 2011

Pouring rain at 3:30am this morning. Headed for our rendezvous by 4:00am to meet and paddle the swamp/marsh and get the decoys out for opening day. It rained hard all morning, and the flights were slow. But it was still great to be in a duck blind again to kick off the fall season. Duck is on the menu tonight for dinner.

To book your next  outdoors adventure, give us a call or shoot us an e-mail. Baymen offers puddle duck hunts for two people max. Baymen also offer sea duck hunts for four people max; guided and semi-guided bow deer hunts for up to four people max; and rabbit hunts over our hound, Daisy-Mae, for two people max. Keep Baymen in mind for your fresh and saltwater fishing as well for striped bass, blues, fluke, trout and largemouth bass. Fly, light tackle, and bait trips are available.

Baymen Guide Service, Inc. – Fully guided fishing, hunting and fowling on the Massachusetts coast!

Capt. Dave, The Baymen

www.baymencharters.com (781) 9334-2838 FB David Bitters

*Gift Certificates Always Available

BOW HUNTING UPDATE

Baymen currently has four ground blinds set up in prime deer areas, chosen from our list of 23 possible stands for this season. We have a fifth ground blind we will be keeping mobile for now. Trail cams are showing fair to good movement of does, and very few bucks at the moment. The bucks are still very secretive and are not chasing the does as of today. That will all change within two weeks as we head into the fall rut. In past years, by October 31, bucks were running crazing. By the end of the first week of November, they are in a doe chasing frenzy and we see a lot of deer movement.

Choosing ground blind placement is always agonizing. Most hunters can only hunt 2-3 days at a time, so we do everything possible to be on the hottest stands to maximize opportunities. Truth be told, I could pick any ten of our deer stands, ground or tree, and all ten would produce deer if we could sit on stand every day. But the reality is we have to try and make it happen in 2-3 sittings, from pre-dawn until 11:00am (our hunting time-frames). With that in mind, we have chosen this season’s top stands very, very carefully with a lot of thought, data and scouting.

Two of our stands have clumped droppings, indicating two big bucks in the area. More bucks will be moving in out and around our areas as the rut starts. Three of our stands have about five does traveling through the area. Two of the stands have two sets of fawns traveling with does. One doe has a single fawn traveling with her. All of the stands we have in place are showing deer sign. We have also photographed deer on the trail cams at each stand we have chosen for this season. All of our stands have actual or mock scrapes set up with doe estrous.

Two of our stands are on the edge of swamps and will offer very close, fast shooting, 10-15 yards max. Two other stands are in hardwoods and can offer shots from 10-30 yards max. We have the option to shoot through camo netting with fixed broadheads only. We have shot a ton of arrows through this netting and it does not affect arrow speed or accuracy. We can also shoot through open windows with the camo netting taken down. But one small movement and the deer will be gone. The camo netting covers a lot of movement, but there should be near zero movement in the blind at all times regardless.

SCENT CONTROL

Scent-free is absolutely mandatory. Shower the morning of your hunt with scent-free soap and shampoo. Use only scent-free deodorant. Also, wash all of your clothing, including your hunting clothes, in scent-free detergent. Lastly, spray down everything with scent killer the morning of your hunt, including everything inside your vehicle before getting in to drive: floor, seat, head rest, steering wheel, arm rest, door rest, door handles, break and gas peddles (very few people do this). Remember to wear knee-high rubber boots on your hunt that are also sprayed down. Spray down your hands and then wear gloves when going to and from your stand. Hands touch everything and can leave your scent on branches. A hand that has not been sprayed and is not covered can leave your scent behind for three weeks. Deer live by their noses. Gear, scouting, and making the shot are all secondary. Getting close to deer in the first place is the number one priority.

The number two priority is making sure you can make a quick, clean, kill. Practice shooting your bow every single day from a sitting position (for ground blinds), with the broadheads you will be hunting with. Save out three arrows with broadheads and shoot these only once. These will be your hunting arrows for the season. It goes without saying, a broadside heart shot is the goal on all deer.

LIGHTS

Don’t use white flashlights. Use green or red only. These will not spook deer and will not affect your night vision.

CALLING

The Baymen use grunts, rattling, and fawn bleats. They all work, some of the time. Use them sparingly. A deer will peg you the second you call and will hone in on you, to perfection. If you are scent-free, in camo, in a blind, and don’t move, a deer may come within your range.

This is just a few of our notes on bow hunting for deer. Call or e-mail with any questions. Prior-planning, scouting, and blind placement is done. Opening day is October 17th and we are ready and waiting. Here’s to hoping you fill your freezer with the best tasting meat on earth.

Capt. David Bitters, The Baymen

www.baymencharters.com

(781) 934-2838

The Baymen’s Favorite New BIG Largemouth Bass lure – The Chipmunk!

The Baymen have been busy prepping for the fall and winter fishing & hunting. We are in the process of finalizing our fall deer stands (4th revision – a very stressful and time-consuming process of daily scouting, tracking, and guesswork based on personal observation, trail cam data, history, gut feeling). We are also finalizing our final duck blind locations, hauling out gear we have not seen since last January, updating, repairing, replacing. The rabbit hound needs daily runs to get back into hunting condition (as well as the hunter), and we still have fall freshwater fishing while keeping one foot in the salt.

Today, we boated 12 largemouth bass in a favorite pond on Massachusetts south shore, tuned our bows and practiced shooting through camo netting, organized the puddle duck blocks (blacks, mallards, woodies, teal), organized the sea duck blocks (eider, scoter, old squaw) and organized the goose blocks (Canada’s and brant). We ran the dog, did some deer and duck scouting, worked on our Advertising/Marketing/PR, and basically enjoyed a day off. Tomorrow, we get down to serious business as hunting seasons are about to bust wide open for the fall. We trust you are all enjoying this lazy fall weather as we are. But we are looking forward to the cooler weather, restless bucks, and whistling wings at dawn. Stick with us. The great fall outdoor adventures are about to begin.

Capt. Dave, The Baymen

www.baymencharters.com (781) 934-2838

FISHING * HUNTING * FOWLING

The Massachusetts Coast

*Call for bookings or more information about any of our outdoor guided fall and winter adventures*

I have Wednesday, October 19th open, for a guided puddle duck hunt. 1-2 people.

Call or e-mail for more information or to book this date. Time frame: Pre-dawn until 11:00am.

Capt. Dave

Baymen Guide Service, Inc. (781) 934-2838 www.baymencharters.com

Just a teaser to let you all know that Baymen Guide Service, Inc. will be running our early booking promo starting November 1st! Each year, we offer our customers huge discounts on charters for the upcoming season, if they book under the November Promo. Trust me, we will make this November’s Promotion a very sweet deal for early bookers…

Stay posted: BIG savings coming your way.

Capt. David Bitters

www.baymencharters.com (781) 934-2838 FB David Bitters

Baymen offers many fall and winter guided outdoor adventures for the sportsmen:

* Bow hunts for deer

*Puddle duck hunts

*Sea duck hunts

*Rabbit hunts with our hound

*Clamming trips

*Fly Tying Classes

*Freshwater fly and light tackle trips

*Fall Bay Tours

*Also booking for Spring Striper Blitz 2012

Give us a call at Baymen for more information about any of our Guide Services and outdoor adventures on the Massachusetts Coast!

Capt. David Bitters, The Baymen

Baymen Guide Service, Inc. www.baymencharters.com (781) 934-2838

Celebrating Fall and dreaming of opening day….

Capt. David Bitters, The Baymen

www.baymencharters.com FB David Bitters (781) 934-2838

Friday, I ran double charters on the bay and logged 18 hours. The morning trip was lovely on the bay but fishing was on the slow side. On board, I had repeat client, Roger Grenier, and his friend, Jim Devine. They worked the bay hard with fly and light tackle and pulled out six fish total, two of them keepers. We called it a decent day on the bay.

The evening trip started out with SW winds cranking at 20 knots+ with whitecaps across the bay. Not fun. NOAA was calling for diminishing winds to 5 knots by sunset, and they were on the money. On board for the evening trip, I had four anglers: Repeat customer, Russ Pelham and his daughter, Kelly, and Mark Cleveland with his son, Matt.

As we headed out, it was snotty chop and we took a good pounding, Then, we found our first pod of top-water striped bass,, the winds laid down almost flat, and from there out it was a perfect evening on the bay. A couple of pods of top-water bass were chasing bait on the flats and we set numerous drifts and did well. Total catch by sunset was 25 striped bass, all on light tackle.

Tight Lines!

Capt. David Bitters, The Baymen

www.baymencharters.com (781) 934-2838 FB David Bitters

*GUIDED FISHING & HUNTING ON THE MASSACHUSETTS COAST*

- Now Booking Fall Bow Hunts, Waterfowl, Rabbits

- ALSO BOOKING FOR Spring Stripers for May/June 2012 – Prime Dates Go Fast…!

*Call for more information about any of our Guided Outdoor Adventures*