Looking for the luck of the Irish

[bad arrow]

Nice country. No wonder Daniel Boone chose to live out the rest of his life in Missouri....Phil

[bretto]

Great pics. the Bald Eagle is fantastic.

bretto

[SEMO_HUNTER]

There is usually a pair or two of eagles that hang around the river here and I have even seen them right here behind our house at the edge of the pasture during winter.

I was using a rabbit squealer trying to call coyotes last winter just up from the edge of the river, and an eagle swooped down from nowhere and passed right over my head about 50 yards to my left. It almost made me pee my camo!   :(  

They are amazingly huge when seen at that close range with wings fully spanned out. It looked like a 747 coming right at me!  

[swp]

Chris,

I had gotten in front of a couple of canoers who had left just before me and had pulled into Barn Hollow campground about 1:00 to hunt up the hollow. When I got back they were just pulling in. They asked me if I had shot anything and I told them no. They said they had just passed a deer that had been shot and was on river right that was still alive but laying against a steep bank. I said how far back up river and they told me 5-10 minutes. I paddled back up the flat stretch and pulled my boat through a shoal to the next flat stretch and there she was laying against the bank, barely breathing. I only had my last archery tag with me and didn't want to use it on her so I didn't shoot her with my bow. Slit her throat, told her I was sorry, and gutted her out. She had been gut shot and the intestines had plugged the holes. I took her to my truck and put my muzzeloading tag on her (was hunting for a co-worker some meat and didn't really care if I shot one with the gun or not). Other than having a little of that red bile looking blood in her I couldn't see anywhere the bullet had tore open the intestines or stomach. She was a gift!!! No telling how far she had come and I wasn't going to just leave her there to go to waste.

Those eagles are amazing and you forget just how big they are until the take off flying.

[swp]

It is a shame that some people don't view treasures like the Eleven Point for what they are. They only care about what they can take out of it now for themselves with no concern about its future wellbeing. Pretty sad really.

When I got to the take out there were gigged suckers everywhere on the bank (pretty sure it was still in the blue ribbon trout area where there is no gigging allowed). Even if it was allowed you would think they could have thrown them away somewhere besides the bank. There was even a sign that said due to continued vandalism of this area it was under camera surveillance.

[Huntschool]

SWP:

sorry to hear about the problems...  The pics were great.  Thanks