COOSEFAN

Howdy folks. Sorry for the long delay in posting and for the equally long delay in responding to emails and PM's here. Not only was I without a computer and internet for a long time, I also had a mishap with my phone which meant being without a phone for a long time as well. I lost my entire contact list in my phone so if I haven't already talked to you recently and you've had my number, please text me with your name so I can enter it, thanks! Ok now, here's a short and condensed version of our hunt with Mike Schnable aka "Deuce Bigelow". He's working on a much more in depth article but here's my thoughts and details of the hunt. Mike lives in Maryland and just happened to know Clark Guy, the lucky recipient of a previous Super Raffle elk tag. We had helped Clark kill his bull which was that giant velvet bull from a few years ago. Mike was wanting to improve his odds at getting an elk tag out west and Clark told Mike where to apply and told him to buy tickets for the AZBGSR here in AZ. Mike did just that and amazingly he won our Super Raffle elk tag...with 1 ticket in the bucket!!! Clark couldn't beleive it and thankfully told him to call us immediately and the hunt was booked! I've been very fortunate with the folks I've shared hunts with, I don't know if it's because we have a small outfit or because we get mostly referrals or what, but I've thoroughly enjoyed and feel very fortunate to consistently hunt with great people every year. Knock on wood, but I've never hunted with someone that I felt didn't deserve the tag or the trophy they took! That has made my job much more enjoyable and rewarding, but I gotta say, I've never met someone who I felt was more deserving of a tag than Mike! Mike had a life changing experience that i'm sure none of us can relate to, we were all there watching in disbelief on our TV's, but Mike was in the Twin Towers on 9-11. He was only a few floors below when the 2nd plane hit and previously had a front row seat to the horror taking place with the first building. I'm not wanting to dwell on this, just illustrating how Mike had his life turned upside down with something so tragic. Mike rebuilt his life through what sounds like a ton of effort and determination and to say Mike is a very deserving recipient of our special elk tag, that would be a huge understatement!!! Mike couldn't believe he'd won the tag but indeed, with Clark's advice and I'm sure some devine intervention, his 1 raffle ticket was picked! Mike hunted with us at the end of August and after the general elk tags in October last year. He spent 30 days out here chasing bulls in the pre-rut and the middle to end of the rut with us. We had a blast hunting with Mike and had immediately become good friends. Our goal was to kill a 400" class bull with a bow and several stalks were made on bulls that would come close to that mark but with Mikes determination he held off and passed some bulls any of us would have taken on any other hunt! It was tough hunting but we had a blast and enjoyed a ton of new memories made while chasing big bulls! Mike had a baby on the way and our hunts with him would have to wait until the last 3 weeks of his hunt in 2010. We knew we'd be watching some great bulls at that time and felt confident we could pull it off in the last inning of his hunt and the long wait was hard on Mike! We were sending him pics of the bulls and that didn't help matters much, Mike was chompin' at the bit! Finally the bulls were finishing up on their growth and Mike was flying out for his hunt! We had several shooter bulls picked out but with the heavy rains arriving the same time Mike arrived it made the hunt very tough! The elk had no reason to stay in smaller areas now that water was available everywhere and the big bulls made their move. We hunted hard every day, getting only 3 hours of sleep at night and sometimes a few hours midday but we were determined to hold out. Some great bulls were passed up and even a couple in the 380-390" range that would have been fairly easy archery kills! Mike was trying his hardest to hold out even though he knew that with a full moon, hot temperatures and scattered bulls we had our work cut out for us! We were hunting a huge 6x6, that we named "King Henry the 4th", in some flat cedar country but could never get a shot at him. We spent several days trying to figure out his pattern and only had one opportunity at him but it was too low light for the situation because the bull had 6 other bulls surrounding him. We were so close and time was winding down on his hunt! From the beginning, I had a bull that I would get pics of just a few times every year. I had named the bull "Deuce Jr." several years ago because he was smaller than another bull that had a double G2. Last year and this year he really put on the inches and was now bigger than the other double G2 bull so he outgrew his "Jr." label. I thought the bull was one of our higher scoring bulls but like years past, he would dissappear for long periods of time. I could never figure out where he went and once he dissappeared this year I felt we would be wasting time hunting him. I placed a camera about 5 miles from where I'd gotten his pic last and in an area that I thought was his hidin' spot. While chasing "King Henry" for several days I kept thinking about "Deuce" but had not gone to check my cam yet. On the 7th day in the morning we gave up on Mr. King Henry but because of heavy cloud cover all night blocking out the moon and a cool morning we had good late morning activity still with the elk. We decided to take advantage of the morning and run over to check my cam to see if "Deuce" indeed moved down into that spot. We glassed our way into the spot seeing nothing and our hopes were about done for the morning. My cam wasn't locked so as we approached my cam I said out loud "Yes, nobody stole it"!, but just then, as I looked over the top of my cam, Manny and I both said at the same time "DEUCE"!!!! Manny was behind me and saw him at the same time and immediately recognized him! Deuce was walking straight away at a fast pace, Manny grabbed the video camera as Mike grabbed his rifle! This bull was big enough and the we were late enough in the hunt that the bow didn't even get a second thought! The chase was on! We followed the bull for what seemed like forever in an open draw. He seemed to know we were behind him but just maintained a steady walk which we were dang near running to keep up with! Several times Mike took a knee or a branch on a tree and I would bugle at him or cow call or even yell "HEY BULL", but he would never turn for a clean shot! Mike was using a 300wsm so a Texas heart shot would've done the trick I'm sure, especially because we were only 150 yards in open country, but Mike wanted a good broadside or quartering shot. I tried everything to turn the bull but he was heading straight into the thick, flat, elk swallowing cedars! The tension was mounting as we were wearing out and breathing heavy with the long, fast stalk, and I knew that once the bull made it into the trees we would need a ton of luck to relocate him! There was a big group of cows and small bulls paralleling us on the ridge and out in front of Deuce, so following this bulls tracks would be impossible! Just as Deuce hit the treeline Mike took a knee and had the crosshairs on Deuce in hopes he would slow down or stop before entering.......but nope, he seemed to know what we wanted and when he turned slighty to go into the trees he did it too fast! Now I'm frantic and running up the opposite slope of the draw. I was glassing through the herd of cows and small bulls trying to relocate Deuce. I kept ranging the yardage and running forward trying to cover as much country as quickly as I could! I noticed the draw we had been following came to a head further up and if Deuce had stayed low in the trees he could reappear up there! We moved fast and just as we got in veiw of where the draw flattens out I see Deuce walking slowy out of the draw!!! The roller coaster of emotions from the previous 15-20 minutes caused me to quietly stare at Deuce as he walked up the draw but then I came back to reality and realized we had relocated him and needed to shoot fast! I motioned for Manny and Mike to hurry because he was ahead of us and quickly they both seen him and had a clear window. The shot was 175 yards and for the very first time in this whole adventure Deuce decided to stop, turn almost broadside and look back.......BOOM...WHOP....."HE'S DOWN"!!!!!!! I couldn't see the bull when the shot went because I was running out of the way so Mike had plenty of room to shoot. Manny gave me hand signals that they had the shot and he caught it all on tape! I heard the hit and saw Manny's reaction so I knew it was good. It was an extremely emotional event shared by us at that moment. It was my favorite bull and the one I didn't think we would get. I was glad that Manny was there and couldn't have done it without him but I really wished my brother Matt was there. Matt had put in a bunch of time away from family and work for this hunt and deserved to be there but instead he had to settle for a phone call! Pops, Chrissy, Gary, Monty and Matt all dropped what they were doing at home and work and drove up there to see the bull. Because of the heat we snapped some quick pics and had every last bit of the bull in the truck in record time! The afternoon rains came which made it nice and cool for us as we boned out and got the meat on ice just as the boys rolled in to see the velvet beast! We had a great time around the fire that night, reflecting back on a long, tough but insanely awesome hunt with family and friends! Thanks if you read through my very long story, I've been away too long and it feels good to be back on here sharin' my adventures with you all! Thanks! JIM>

You've got an awesome attitude Mr. Smith! It's always encouraging to see hunters being respectful especially in a world where the opposite seems more common You deserve a giant and I hope you get em! Best of luck! JIM>

Well folks, the 2010 season is underway! We just completed our first hunt of the year and we started the season off with a "BANG".....literally! We've been helping Mike Schnable with his coveted statewide raffle tag which was good for an entire year in 2009-2010 and we made the most of the tag! Mike hit it off with us right from the start and we shared some amazing moments during his hunt. We hunted for 37 days total and passed up some giant bulls ultimately taking one of our favorite giants named "Deuce"! This bull scores an amazing 415" with dried velvet and without velvet will gross score around 410-412"! This is our 7th 400" class bull in 4 seasons and 8th overall and we hope to maintain our reputation of 2 400" class giants per season! We have some great hunters hunting with us this year on some great hunts so our expectations are high! Stay tuned to see what else the 2010 season has to offer! For a full story about the hunt and more pictures please follow the link below...... http://forums.coueswhitetail.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=20343 View the full article

Great job on the archery bear! One of my greatest accomplishments was a spot n' stalk archery bear, I'll never forget it! Congrats on your accomplishment! JIM>

As long as I keep posting candid pics of him doing his "solo line dance" his hat size should stay the same....well, at least I would think! LOL!

Who's to say it wasn't quartered and packed out maybe? Maybe the arrow was in the guts and left behind? Were the leg bones there?

If ya look close you'll notice that it's actually 2 red cups! Gotta give it to him, although it was scary witnessing "Solo Line Dancing", the boy can move! LOL!

Wow! I'm so jealous of you guys but I'm happy as heck for ya too! That's one of my favorite places in the world! My nephew has the early hunt and my brother and friends have the archery hunt, I'll tell them to try and leave a few for you guys! In the spirit of gettin' ya pumped up, here's some of my favorite pics from my hunt there! I got super lucky but If I had the money I would've hired Duwane as well, you all are in for an amazing hunt I'm sure! I already had photobucket up so here's a bunch! Congrats again guys!!!

A side note, you may notice an ear tag in Deuce's right ear. He's had that for as long as I've watched em' and was a neat charateristic when identifying him in pictures. AZGFD has the details about the tag and we are anxiously waiting to hear what info they have about him! Hopefully they can tell us where he was captured and how long ago, how big he was and any other info! I'll keep ya all posted if they get back to us with anything cool! Also, he does score around 415" as is, and for those of you wonderin' about the extra G2 measurement, I figured the G2 tines as having a common base so I did not measure that base twice and I took the 2nd mass measurement above the extra on the beam. I was very conservative and am certain he would score at least 410-412" without velvet. He was done growing and had very little fluid in the velvet, all the tines were tipped out as well. couple measurements that I remember.... Beams average 56" 4ths average 24" 3rds: right 24" / left 21.5"

Manny, did you take all those empty donut boxes out of the truck before droppin' it off? If not, make sure you're not wearin' your uniform when you pick it up! LOL!!!

HA! I thought for sure when I saw the title to this thread that it was possibly a sighting of me with that trailer in front of MY new house! It is my trailer but that ain't my house, Pops let somebody borrow it and that must be their new place I'm guessing. I was hoping it was me and I had some hunters living in my new neighborhood, oh well, so far none of my neighbors hunt that I know of. JIM>

I'll leave my clients out of the contest but my nephew Tyler, who is a member, has his first bull tag this year and count him in!!!

LMAO!

Thanks for the reply's folks! I'm finally back online and it's been very frustrating, to say the least, being without internet and not being able to share the story and photos of this hunt! I've got tons of photos that I'm loading up right now and will share em' soon! Thanks again, JIM>

WoW Amanda! I was all excited to be home and I finally got my internet hooked up just in time to find out this happened to you! Very glad to see you are still kickin'!!! Prayers have already been sent for a fast recovery and it's great to see you are being taken care of! JIM>

I forgot to mention, in the spirit of upholding our reputation for crazy or interesting bull names, this bull's last name is "Bigelow"! I'm sure most of ya will get it! So, we can now add Deuce Bigelow to the list of our other bulls such as Ron Burgandy, Wilbur, Wrongway, Ocho, Velvet Elvis, CB, Skeeter, etc.!

Hey guys and gals, I've been offline for a long time now because I had to move into a new house recently and I still don't have internet in the new house! I hate typing on my phone but here I am, I just wanted to get on here and say thank you very much for all the great reply's!! I'm a die-hard CWT.com fanatic and it's because of the amazing group of people here that make up our membership! I wanted CWT.com to be the first to have the pics of this bull and I appreciate Amanda and Gino for helping to make that happen!b This hunt with Mike Schnable was awesome but was very tough. It took 37 days total of hunting to finally get a shot at a true 400"+ bull! Our goal was to take a bull with a bow and Mike passed up many bulls between 370-395" during those 37 days! These past 2 weeks were very tough, the rains and full moon made it very difficult and we were running out of time as Mike could only hunt till the 4th of Aug. The bull we finally took is one that has been on my wish list for the last few years. His name was "Deuce Jr." and he would only show up on a couple cam pics every year then would disappear. Last Wednesday was the first time I'd seen him in person and it was only because I had guessed correctly where I thought he had moved to after the rains hit. We had a roller coaster of a stalk which took about a mile where we lost em' and then relocated em' before finally getting a good shot. Mike had passed up several marginal shots at this bull at close range and made a great shot in the end at 175 yards! When I get my internet hooked up I'll post up a ton of great photos and a full write up of the hunt. For the record, Deuce Jr. was at one time smaller than a bull I named Double Deuce, this year he was bigger so we decided he grew out of the "Jr." phase and is now just "Deuce". I gotta thank my family and friends for donating their time, energy, and talent on this hunt, I'm truly blessed to have such a great group of people around me, you all know who you are, thank you! JIM. (Now my thumbs hurt, gotta get the internt hooked up dangit!)

Great thread Ernesto and great suggestions! As long as you follow each of Ernesto's suggestions, you will have dramatically reduced the chances of something bad happening. I guarantee, the more you travel at night, alone, or go party in town you are asking for problems! I'm more afraid to hunt and travel in my own country than I am in Mexico. You just have to be smart about it and follow the rules, written and unwritten! All the people that I know who have had bad experiences were people doing something they shouldn't have been doing.

Whatchugot against the Maxxis 31 bro? I love mine and after shooting Mathews for many years it still feels weird for me to say that I love my Hoyt....but it's a fact.

As soon as I saw that I could tell it was a marketing strategy, the dude had on a flashy Hoyt shirt and that bow looked brand spankin' new! All said and done, they probably didn't pay much more than a couple hundred bucks for all that advertising! Very smart! I doubt it was the archery shop that did that, that guy would've had on the archery shop's name on his shirt instead of just Hoyt.

As you've already seen, I caught a fish that was for me a fish of a lifetime! My buddy Scott and I headed down to Mexico to scout some ranches, visit with our friends that live down there and try to get some fishing in while we were there. We looked at a ranch on the way down and weren't too impressed so we went straight to our buddy Robert's house in San Carlos. Instead of describing what his house and the view was like, I'll just post some pics of the view from the patio, it says it all! While down there we noticed all the Spiny Tailed Iguana's on the walls and Scott couldn't help himself, Robert and I laughed our butts off watching him chase those things around until he finally caught one! The first day we were on a 28ft boat owned by our friend Todd. We trolled all day in search of billfish or Dorado's. First thing in the morning we had a Sailfish on and by the time I got the rod in hand and the drag set he jumped once and spit the lure out. I was looking at the reel when he jumped so I didn't even get to see him. That evening I again hooked up with a gorgeous Sailfish that gave me about 4 minutes of excitement before gaining slack and throwing the lure. That was my first time even seing a billfish of any kind and he was going ballistic, flipping, folding and dancing on the water, absolutely gorgeous fish! The 2nd day I went with Robert on his 26ft boat and Scott went with Todd on his boat. Our plan was to spread out and hopefully find a weed paddy or any schools of baitfish and meet up at Tortuga Island around noon. The wind and swells were bad and it was rough all day, especially in those smaller boats. Robert and I made it to Tortuga but Scott and Todd never showed up. Tortuga is around 50 miles west of San Carlos and about 25 miles east of the Baja Peninsula and the town of Santa Rosalio. We fished around Torutga for several hours. I caught several small Yellowtail, a rock bass and had a giant Yellowtail on for about 10 minutes that was obviously bigger and stronger than the equipment I was using! He had me pinned in the corner of the boat with the drag set as hard as it would go and was still taking line! I was thumbing the spool to slow it down but he soon got me in the rocks and broke me off!! What a bummer!! Robert landed 2 of those big Yellowtails that weighed around 35 lbs and 1 Grouper which was probably around the same size. With the waves getting worse we decided to head West to the town of Santa Rosalio and stay the night there. Santa Rosalio was a completely different town than San Carlos. The people there were just as nice but it seemed older and dirty. You definitely don't want to go play in the ocean anywhere near this town!!! We took half of the Grouper to a very nice little restaurant and they cooked it for us in a garlic and butter sauce and with fresh warm tortillas, rice and beans it was amazing!!! We got a small hotel room and then headed out at 4:00am the next morning to make our way back the 75 miles to San Carlos, with hopefully smaller waves! The sea was worse! It was manageable still but was slow going most of the way. We stopped at Tortuga but didn't catch anything. We noticed that the winds had seemingly blown the green water north and the water was now a gorgeous blue color which is much better for fishing! We saw tons of Dolphins, Whales, and Flying fish on the drive back in this blue water! It was after driving for several hours that Robert glanced out past me to the port side and yelled "Marlin"!!!! He yelled at me to grab the wheel, and don't lose sight of the fish! I could see, only 20 yards of the side of the boat a shark-like fin paralleling us going the same speed as the boat! We were slowly moving and the fish was just feeding along the surface very slowly with only his tail out of the water. At one point I could see his whole body as clear as if he was in an aquarium and it was breathtaking to say the least! He looked as big as the boat, his electric blue stripes were amazingly brilliant and seemed to pulsate as if he were powered by a battery! Robert was re-tying a rod for me to put a live Cabito on a hook and was still yelling at me to "NOT LOSE SIGHT OF THE FISH"!!! Just then, as I was trying my hardest to not lose sight of him, he dove down out of sight!!! I screamed "I lost em'", and started veering left and right to locate him. Thankfully I got lucky and stayed the same course as the fish as he then reappeared on my starboard side. " I GOT EM", I yelled and Robert was still re-rigging but could see his tail also and was relieved but again he yelled, "DON'T LOSE EM' AGAIN", and just then he dove and dissappeared!!!! dang!!! This happened for about 15 minutes back and forth and each time it seemed like a miracle that I stayed the same course as the fish and relocated him each time. Finally, Robert was rigged up and ready, I was alongside the fish again and Robert cast the bait perfectly about 20 yards ahead of the fish. I let go of the wheel and went back to Robert and we watched as the bait floated past the Marlin's mouth without getting bit! Robert knew exactly what was wrong, he pulled the bait out, I ran back up to the wheel and stayed on the fish. Robert knew the bait wasn't swimming good enough so he grabbed a fresh bait and again was ready. After another couple minutes we were again drifting with the giant just off the rear port side and Robert casted way ahead of the fish. I ran down again ready to grab the rod and watched as the now frantically swimming fresh bait neared the monster's mouth........WHAM!!!! The rod was on freespool with line flying off it as Robert handed me the rod and said "Hit em'!" I set the drag, leaned back, slid into the side of the boat and watched as the monster made the drag scream! I could see the line rising and knew I was getting ready to see my first ever Marlin go airborne! He was amazing, constantly going crazy and seemed to be in the air more than under water! This went on for what seemed like hours, I was shaking, my arms were burning and I couldn't have been more excited! I sat down on the ice chest and set the rod on the gunnel of the boat then laid down on the rod with my arms dangling. I was worn out and needed a break and the fish at this time was straight down and broadside with a strong steady pull. Twice during this fight he spooled me past the knot where the monofilament is tied to the spectra backing and to have a knot between me and that monster was scary to say the least! Each time I got that knot back on the reel I felt better! With multiple runs and nonstop acrobatics it seemed that I was finally getting a handle on em' at about the 40-45 min. mark. He was straight down again and slightly taking line from me but then he just stopped. I took advantage of the moment and started winching him up, a foot or two at a time. Finally I could see the leader, Robert ran back, grabbed and wrapped it and pulled up then got ahold of his bill! I ran to the side of him and the fish was motionless. We planned to have me hold him while Robert took the pics from the front of the boat then I could release him, but it appeared the fish had died or was too worn out. Robert held him low in the water and said he's not gonna make it, he was gill hooked and bleeding which is a sure sign they won't make it so we now had to get him on the boat!!! Robert jumped up on the gunnel, lifted as high as he could, and I leaned over to grab the tail and then we both fell over backwards into the boat with the monster! What a gorgeous critter! I couldn't beleive the shear size of everything, his tail, his eyes, the overall girth around his shoulders, it was simply an amazing fish! I felt bad he didn't make it but I knew we were going to make the most of him. We immediately filleted him and had him on ice only a couple minutes after taking a couple pics. I then had a local in town smoke all the meat and even after giving more than half of the meat to the local guy, I still brought home a bunch! The smoked meat tastes like HoneyBaked Chicken with a Tuna texture, it's awesome!!! I can't thank Robert enough! That guy know's fish like no other, there is no way I could've got that bait in that fish's mouth or even knew what to do. It was serious teamwork that got that fish caught and it is just as much his fish as it is mine and again, I can't thank him enough! Robert even took a bunch of pictures while I was fighting the fish and says there's some good ones of him jumping, I'll hopefully get them soon and share with you all. We were late getting back to San Carlos and learned that Scott had gone out with some other friends who caught a similar Striped Marlin that same day, plus he got to catch a 80 lb Sailfish as well! We got the meat taken care of and then headed to the "Soggy Peso" to have a cerveza and relax. We didn't have a tape measure on the boat but the inside of the gunnels is 8 ft. and based off a conservative guess in length and using a weight chart my Striped Marlin is somwhere around 200lbs! Striped Marlins are usually around 100 lbs and don't get as big as the other types of Marlin, so this one is a true beast of a fish! Absolutely amazing experience, it's a good thing I'm too busy with hunting because I could get serious about that saltwater fishing, man it's addicting!!! Thanks if you took the time to read through my whole experience, I appreciate it! JIM>

Hey David, I'm trying to find out if my brother still has the stock from my last project, it was rem 700 synthetic. I'll let ya know when he calls me back, he's a Mullins so you know how that is

WOW! Another outstanding adventure you had! Congrats on a great spot n stalk archery bear, that's a huge accomplishment! Thanks for all the great pics and for the story, it brings back some awesome memories from when I did a drop camp up there for moose, there's no experience like it! JIM>

Thanks for all the reply's everyone! I know I was very lucky but I'll take luck any chance I can get it!!! Ever since I was a little kid I've always wanted to catch a fish as big as me but never thought that would happen, I'm still amazed at my luck! It's time to go live with the elk and hang up the poles but I guarantee I'll be sittin' in the woods dreaming about giant Marlin for a little while at least! Thanks for letting me share the excitement of my experience with you all JIM> I will bring some of the smoked fish next time, It's good stuff!