has deer hunting turned into "shooting" and bass fishing turned into "catching"....

How many people go deer hunting,climb into their stand or pop up blind with no knowledge of what kind of deer may be in the area? based on the conversations with deer hunting friends and watching outdoor TV shows,most people have cameras out that monitor the deer population where they are hunting and they know what to expect before they go hunting......typically they restrict their deer harvest to a certain age group and/or antler size...is this hunting or selective shooting?
similar situation with fishing....side scan has evolved into live or 360 scan and many fishermen now will not make a cast until they have spotted fish on their electronics.....are the days of dropping your trolling motor and fishing down a bank hoping you will catch somethig gone.....is it catching now instead of fishing?....

Sounds like a "trophy" experience instead of an "eating" experience.

As far as Deer are concerned it shows the long term end results of educated management principles.
Rather than go out and shoot the first thing you see that has any sort of antlers and never shooting does, we have learned through a great deal of theory put into practice about Buck/Doe ratios, Age to antler size, land carrying capacity, etc. This has helped increase the quality, and in some areas quantity, of the herd of available deer.

I mainly meat hunt now, I have 2 nice ones mounted and hung out in my shop. I only bow hunt so taking a certain animal is not a guaranteed thing. As for fishing, a lot of the time it is just to go and enjoy the lake. Launch the boat, drop the trolling motor and start casting. I have a few baited holes that I will freshen up and come back to later if the Bass are not biting.

A deer can't choose whether or not to eat a bullet. You can know exactly where the fish is, but they've still got a choice in the matter.

As far as hunting goes, on our ranch, we don't run Cameras. We shoot mature bucks and does. We still like to have the element of surprise. We typically know what we have and what our "trophies" are for our ranch and those our are targets.

Not if you're a snagger like that guy from California.

I’m not sure what you’re talking about. We have 9 cameras on our place that send pictures out via cell service.

Here is one pic from this morning.

sounds like what you are doing is "selective management shooting" ......not trying to be critical,I'm a hunter and have been my entire life but the point I'm trying to make is that the deer hunting we do now with planting food plots high fences,,selective harvesting of our deer herd is a little more sporting but not much different in principle than a rancher going out and selecting cows from his herd to take to the slaughter house....
as electonics get better,are we going down the same path with fishing?

I dispute the part where you say you aren’t trying to be critical. I believe it’s 100% critical.

That’s fine, if you don’t like it. That’s fine if you want to be critical. If I was you, I would just leave that part out.

As far as I’m concerned. I like the new stuff. We see deer every year that have never shown up on the cameras. I have livescope. It helps. But, I do not catch limits of 2 pound crappie every time. Actually, I have never caught a limit of 2 pound crappie.

hunting in Texas is the way it is due to about 98% of the state being private property. you have to pay for a lease or buy a ranch, then there are restrictions on how you can hunt due to area available so you get blind hunting instead of stalk hunts.

chasing mule deer and elk in the mts. where it is illegal to put out feed is hunting, sitting in a stand over a feeder is still a form of hunting but not in a traditional sense and your chances are increased substantially.

as for fishing, I have the latest greatest electronics (still learning them) and just go to fish, it's fun to watch the livescope and when I get better with it maybe it will help me catch, as for right now it is a bunch of expensive electronic stuff on my boat.
having nice electronics makes it easy to see what the bottom look like, give me an idea of where any fish may be but it is still my job to figure out what they want to eat and put it in front of them so they want it.
short of dynamite there is no guaranteed catching.

That's what I do. I am only a rack hunter. I would bring family and friends out later in the season that wanted deer meat to shoot does.

trying to keep my comments as an observation and seeking thoughts/opinions from other hunters and fishermen as to where we are headed...

like shooting a bear over rancid garbage

I deer hunted some when I was in my 20s back in Georgia. No cameras, no feeders, no salt licks...just tree stands. If you got a deer it was because it happened by heading for water or cover. As for fishing, I’ve done way more fishing than catching

The question is if you are going to shoot it on Nov 7th when he walks out

He would be dead opening morning at legal shooting light. Then I would hunt bobcats and anything else that moves for the rest of the season.

When I lived in Texas, I was more excited to see what was on the game cam, than sitting in the blind.

The path deer hunting has taken over the last few years has kind of turned me off of the sport. I deer hunted from the time i was about 8 until i was in my 20's and killed plenty of nice free-range deer with my biggest being a 12 point. In my opinion, that is a pretty solid feat, but when every Tom, Dick, and Harry has a 97 point 300" deer that they paid $15k for on their wall, it starts to diminish the value of those real, wild deer that are truly a once in a lifetime trophy.

Nah, as long as there are olds, there will be a weak link in the fishing-electronics-to-catching-fish chain.

I have a very nice Lowrance unit on the front deck and another at the helm. They’re outstanding tools for measuring water temp, water depth and current time of day, but I don’t have a clue about how to use them to catch fish.

I am 71 years old so you can guess that I am old school in most things. I have not hunted deer in a number of years but, when I did, I never took a stand or hunted from a blind. I would recon the area a week or two before deer season, identify the feeding and bedding areas, mark out the trails that the deer took back and forth, and then position myself before first light in an ambush spot at ground level with good camo and scent control. I passed up anything that was not to my liking and often walked out without taking a shot. When I came across an animal that I liked, I took it and enjoyed the fact that it was a hunt where the animal had some chance of eluding me or outsmarting me.

Fishing has always been the same for me; I preferred migratory species rather than those that would hang around the same rock or brush piles or that could be baited. I have always been a river and ocean fisherman because the challenges are higher and I believe the quality of fish are better. Hunting down largemouth or smallmouth on a large meandering river is a bigger challenge than roaring out to the GPS marker at 70 mph.

But, that's me and the two sports are there for people to enjoy in a manner that best meets their needs. My old man just taught me that if you had to work hard for every animal or fish, you would be the better for it.

About the only time I will go hunting these days is to take my daughter. She hates to sit in a stand and look at a feeder. Instead we grab the rattling horns and hit the brush.

I understand and respect the concern. Different strokes for different folks I guess. I’ll admit I’m after the biggest buck I can find. That involves game cameras. I just back back from a 2k mile round trip to out cameras, check stands and sitting a few times. But it’s not all about the desire to only shoot the biggest deer. I can only hunt with a bow where I go. No feeders allowed, no high fences. Gun licenses are not available to non-residents and it’s mostly open country. The odds aren’t in my favor to get the biggest deer around. But, I like the challenge. Seeing family is half the reason I go and I love every minute of it. I wouldn’t see them as much if I didn’t go. It’s expensive in the first place and I want to get the most reward out of the experience. The thrill of the chase after a big mature deer and all of the thought, work and time that goes into it is just part of the experience. With all that said, I still know just being lucky to be there when he finally walks by is a big part of it. I don’t get mad when my plan doesn’t work out. That’s part of it. If I ever just expect to go sit once and kill that deer I wouldn’t enjoy it as much. In the end if I get one with big antlers that means he probably has the most meat as well so there’s that argument.. lol.

I never push that mindset on anyone and discourage my new hunting friends and old from being conditioned into thinking anything less than a Boone and Crockett deer is just settling. Every deer is a trophy. Just go after what makes you happy. Different folks different strokes...

LOL
sounds like the Cajun's we let come out once

Throughout the history of man each generation has used the latest and greatest technology to kill animals. Man used to chase animals on foot off of cliffs. Then he did it by horseback. Then he shot them with arrows, then bullets. Some trapped by string woven together by hand, next came steal traps. The list goes on and on but man has an instinct to harvest animals, and will continue to do so with the current resources.

Deep thoughts from HTP.

My hunting resume is pretty pathetic. I was on a lease in Strawn for 10yrs and this is what I capped.

1 - 9 Point
1 doe
2 bobcats
2 pigs

In Texas you can hunt just about anyway you want. Nobody is forcing you to hunt with game cameras, blinds, feeders and what not. Hunt how ever you enjoy. I don’t know why so many people think if your not stalking through the mountains and miserable your not hunting. It’s supposed to be fun.

I would like bass fishing to turn into shooting also.

I don’t care how long you boil those antlers for, their still too tough to eat.

Deer Camp Derek must’ve been epic.

Texas hunting is just a different type of hunting, I don't know of many people that have leases that can stalk hunt, some have assigned blind areas. the private property and pressure says cameras, feeders, blinds etc. are pretty much how you have to do it in most cases. west Tx. not so much but for whitetail/E. Tx. you don't have many areas where you can safely stalk with a .308.
have to work with what ya got and what the law says you can do, this to me dictates how we hunt now.

colorado I used to spend all summer fishing high country lakes and watching for deer and elk sign, come fall and guide a camp I had a good idea of where to start at least. no feeders, no blinds, all stalk/sit hunting. different accessibility and different laws. spent 3 months at a time in the mts. guiding hunts, just a different style and accessibility, my favorites were my archery and black powder hunters, they were all pure stalk up close hunters and a lot of fun.

technology has made fishing easier from a finding fish standpoint, catching is always going to be relevant to the fisherman.
same with hunting, scopes now will range and auto adjust out to 1,200 yds. (I had a burris eliminator II 16x that would) and we have rounds that will drop a 1,000 # elk in its tracks instead of blood trailing for 5 miles at night (no fun by the way).

modern times it is all relevant to what the law says we can do, what we can afford to do and how good we are at taking either. jmo

Mines pretty weak too .
Couple pigs
A nutria (I think)
And a yote
Elements have never been right to harvest a deer
And still no dove 😢😢😢

patience padawan!

True but they sure look good in my trophy room!

i watched a bobcat
on mushrooms

chase a butterfly for 45 minutes

I don't deer hunt in Texas because of most of the things mentioned above. Mainly the cost to harvest a deer. To me a deer was worth $40.00 for the meat. To pay big bucks to be told where to sit and what to shoot never appealed to me.

That said now I put out corn in my back yard and have 8 or 9 deer appear every afternoon and really enjoy just watching them from 30 yards away.

But fishing has never been easier! If you have an understanding of what fish do as we go through the seasons, catching them is very, very simple now.

With the electronics, trolling motors, rods, reels and lures at our disposal catching a limit of crappie or bass is pretty simple anymore.

Pretty kool. Were your mushrooms tea of did you fry them up?

Where did the bobcat get the mushrooms

I'm bow hunting this year from 2 stands that I will hand corn , no feeder no cameras. I just don't have the drive this year to jack with feeders and cameras. I know there will be nice bucks chasing during rut. I like you am looking forward to the surprises. All I'll have to do all season is make a drive by with corn every few days and wake up early and go sit. I may hunt 3 times a week all season and never sling an arrow, but I'll see a lot of wildlife. It will take a monster for me to kill one this year. Last year I killed more coyotes and hogs with my bow than ever and passed on a lot of decent but not trophy bucks. I'll kill one doe for meat.

Yes I would. This brow tine king showed up 3 years on camera and never when I was sitting there.

they were all over that pasture

Being originally from Missouri, where baiting is illegal, I don't find quite the same amount of satisfaction when I kill a deer at one of our feeders on our 2500 acre Texas lease. I haven't lived in Missouri in nearly 40 years, but I did enjoy scouting feeding areas, staging areas, and funnel points in order to find a strategic spot to set up my stand location. Hunting was a lot more fun. Challenging. Now it's more like harvesting. If I could talk my lease members into it I'd say lets remove all of the feeders and elevated box blinds and actually hunt. I would be exiled though. Ha.

Hunting is different in different parts of the country. For instance, most states do not allow one to hunt over bait. Some states require feeders to be removed a month before the season starts. Some states have much shorter Gun seasons, so it’s critical to pattern the deer.
As far as fishing goes, I’ll just say this. No matter how many electronics you have on your boat. If you don’t present the right bait at the right time, you will come home empty handed.

I don't even see any deer on a lot of my outings. When I do, they are usually too far or behind a tree something.

What cracks me up is the guys in the Rocky Mountains that will say that baiting is “cheating” but then turn around and sit on an irrigated alfalfa in their truck right on the side of the highway. I am guilty of doing it, but I also really don’t care how someone hunts as long as it’s legal.

A pet deer snuck up on me at about 25 mph and I have a 3 inch long deer antler scar on my buttcheek. He got renamed Jerky.