i was planning on hunting until saturday but after friday mornings hunt the rain set in. i had my girlfriend with me so it was also kind of her vacation for the week and i wanted to keep it all relaxing. we scouted/hunted most of blackwater nwr. we hunted from daybreak to noon each day and then from 3 to dark. if i remember correctly there were eight hunters in our camp at taylors island and only one guy got sika, but he managed to bag a yearling hind and a nice 6 point stag two days later. i believe that group was on state land and not blackwater nwr like me. they were marching 30mins to an hour through knee deep water to hang their stands.
I saw one other sika stag harvested while there. i pulled into area R which is not marsh but woodland and a fella had a spike in the back of his truck (they do travel through the woods but find safety in the marsh) but its wasn't a yearling.
the young from this spring have about 2 inch spikes this one had about 7 inch spikes. the full grown ones aren't quite as small as i had thought before i saw them. the stags especially are pretty nice size.
success rate is pretty low on public because its pounded hard by hunters, and when i say hard i mean harder than i've ever seen anywhere. that marsh is like a spa for hunters lol
perfect example: i was driving down the road before daybreak parallel to a large parcel of private ground on my way to one of blackwater refuges "hunt areas" it was swampy forest with boot deep water through it and all along this posted land the sika were standing along the road in groups of two or three every hundred yards. they have signs that mark the corners of the hunt areas and as soon as it turned public ground there was nothing anywhere. they know they're less likely to be shot at on private. plus only so much land on the refuge is open to hunting and there are massive marshes where they know they will never see a human. blackwaters slim pickings and i probably didnt go far enough in the swamps but the local hunters just told me its a big game of chance and i was doing alright picking locations.
oldtimr, i heard them everywhere! it was amazing waking up to bugles in the morning and really just seeing them along the roads on the way to hunt is pure gold and i'm going back for the rest of my life i think
i only saw a few hinds while i was hunting but they are spooky and i had my whitetail eyes on haha was just walking down a trail and looked to my left and there one was at five yards behind some grasses she stood about waist high on me well she hopped off through the marsh like a giant cottontail kersploosh she sank her whole body into waist deep water and continued hopping off through the marsh then. but the whole time she was making like a cow elk sound like "meuh" or "muh"
a guy had a regular cow elk call with him and he showed it to me but it didnt sound anything like what i heard. perhaps their alarmed kind of vocalization is different than what he was trying to replicate. im sure i havent heard all their sounds. but yeah just bugles everywhere but im not a very good caller, id probably scare one off if i was trying to sound like it. its very distinct and honestly i dont think any of the "bugle" calls i saw blown on by hunters while i was down there did it any justice. if i could find a call that really sounded good though (like a sika call not a re-purposed predator call or something lol)
Bocajnala, it took me 2-3 days to get my bearings. so if you wanted to hunt blackwater areas E and A were pretty well all marsh and i saw the least hunting pressure in these areas because of a lack of man made trails. in both areas one could get far back in the marsh away from people and hopefully close to the sika. these are the areas im going to hunt when i get some waders and a climbing stand. i didnt have either and i was just soaking wet up to my knees until i got back to camp. if youre doing public and really want a chance at a diy sika i would devote a week if possible.
ive never been hunting them before so i dont know much but hopefully the little bit i did learn can be helpful.
im gonna give it a week every year forever i think i really loved the hunt. odds being low just makes it more of a trophy
that being said you can just walk in and hang a stand pretty well over any trails and have just as much of a chance as any other guy on any day. i heard a lot of people refer to hunting them as "the lottery" haha that had me laughing but it does kind of describe the hunting there.
but we paid 70$ for a week of tent camping at taylors island family campground. if not a week its 16 a night. they also rent campers for 50$ a night so a much better deal than a
hotel either way. gas is under 3.00 some places down there now which helped out some.
but yeah man i say go for it. if i had the gas money id be going back down this weekend haha id kind of like to live down there for a whole deer season. i drove 300 miles down from garrett county. but it was worth it. even though i was unsuccessful i kept reassuring myself that i was already lucky for having the opportunity to chase them around. state lands probably alot less pressure because you generally need a boat.
It's an amazingly affordable trip (I'm 23) that i would recommend to anyone.
average wind speed is 15 mph so walls would have been nice..... couldnt sleep too well through the wind.
dorchester countys population is low and prices are good on everything.
plus theres a popeyes chicken in cambridge
we dont have those in the mountains of maryland and i stop every time i see one.
cambridge is a small "city" on rt50 pretty much just fast foods and walmart.... mostly just residential off of 50.
but we caught a bushel of crabs
id never caught any before and it was great
actually i've lived in maryland all my life (born in cumberland) and have never crossed the bay bridge until last week. i liked it but it was a tough hunt, i was happy to see the mountains again. one thing u aint gotta look over your shoulder for bears hahahaha one
i went hunting today here at home and a blackie stomped at us from the thick brush. couldnt see her but i know my wood noises. move along i guess she was saying.
if you went down from pa youll feel kind of outta place hunting there. me and you probably have about the same terrain on our home stomping grounds. i know we got the same bears haha