Several years ago I was deer hunting along the Masistee river in the Manistee National forest in Michigan . I had a canoe that I would take from my campsite to where I was hunting .
I had been hunting for a few days when I was headed back to my camp site around 11:00 AM , I saw something moving across the river . I couldn't quite make out what it was so I paddled closer to it . To my surprise it was a huge buck , looked to be at least a twenty eight inch spread and about fourteen points with two huge drop tines .
My problem now was that it is illegal to shoot a deer in Michigan that is swimming . I thought of a neat idea , I will tie a rope to its antlers and let it tow me to shore and when it climbed out of the water I will have my longbow ready and shoot it . Yea that would work . So I tied on to his antlers and tied the other end of the rope to the front of the canoe .
Off we went towards the shore , he was headed straight to a nice sandy little beach area . How good could this get , not a branch or brush to interfere with the shot . I could hardly believe it could be so easy .
Suddenly I could see that he was touching the bottom because I saw that his head was coming out of the water . I stood up in the middle of the canoe , knocked an arrow , got a good stance and just as he climbed out of the water he was off like a shot . The canoe shot forward flipping me out and into the water landing almost on my head . I struggled to get upright but by the time I got my wits about me I saw the deer run into the woods with my canoe in tow .
Well that really spoiled my hunt for that week and I walked the river bank back to my camp site . I decided to pack up and go home and try this area next year .
Its now a year later and I am back at the same area that I was hunting the year before . Found a nice natural blind , sat there for a few hours .
Then I heard the strangest noise coming . Sounded like a big trash can or something . I looked and there was that same deer from last year still tied to the canoe . I took my longbow and made a perfect shot . Got the deer and my canoe back . I felt so lucky