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Texas Cast and Blast Summer Vacation

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    Texas Cast and Blast Summer Vacation

    Last summer, Karla and I took a fantastic trip to Coeur d'Alene, ID to fly fish and play golf. CDA was awesome and I encourage anybody looking for that type of trip to look into it. This summer the early plan was to head to Bozeman, MT to replicate the trip in a new area with golf and fly fishing. Well, I opened my big mouth and suggested we do a Texas Cast and Blast trip instead since Karla has been wanting to shoot a black buck.

    Typically we head for cooler weather during our summer vacation, so this was going to be a big change of pace. Since moving to San Antonio, we have not taken a trip to the Texas Coast. I booked two days with Eric Knipling of South Texas Fly Fishing going out of Rockport. The plan was to fly fish unless we didn't have favorable conditions and then we would use light tackle.

    The weather turned out great and we got on fish, but couldn't quite get to them with the low tide. We waited them out, watching red after red tailing in the water. We spent the morning with light tackle as it presented us the best opportunity to get on the fish.

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    We ended up catching a couple of reds and a black drum.

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    We headed off to Paradise Key to have them cook us up our fresh catch.

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    On day two, the focus was on fly fishing but unfortunately our guide has motor issues and we only spent a few minutes fishing before we made the decision to come in instead of getting stuck on the water. I was pretty bummed not to get to fly fish down there so I am already looking at trying to plan my next trip. I did stop by Roy's in Corpus to buy me a new fly fish setup on the way home so not all was lost in my attempt to add another hobby to my list.

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    #2
    Part 2 was the blast part. I looked at a lot of places for us to do the exotic hunt and ended up finding CrossRiver Outfitters out of Karnes City. After a couple of quick text with RJ, the hunt was booked. This was a 5 star experience all the way around. I will let the pictures do most of the talking.

    The lodge was fantastic and one of the best setups I have seen in a long time. The ranch was a great mixture of brush and very well taken care of.

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    Karla headed to the gun range to check the rifle. There is also a sweet skeet range as well. It was nice to shoot inside an air conditioned gun room!

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    We sat in a blind a few hours the 1st evening. After that we used the electric buggy, bad *** custom Jeep, or spot and stalk. We saw a ton of great animals but RJ kept working to Karla to get a on a few of the big black bucks he wanted Karla to shoot.

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    RJ brought in Chef Andrew to cook for us. I will tell you if you have never had a chef cook for you on a hunt it is so awesome. Once you come in from each hunt, a bad *** meal is sat in front of you. Chef Andrew has incredible talent and an all around cool guy. His food is outstanding.

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    Comment


      #3
      After getting the slip a few times, RJ found one of the big bucks he wanted Karla to shoot. We stalked up to the edge of a field, but it was over 300 yards over the buck. The buck was with about 15 does and a herd of Axis was also feeding in the field. We backed out and snuck around to the side to cut the distance. RJ got Karla setup on sticks and she hammered him. He was just under 20" and a fantastic trophy.

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      For D~Mo...

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      We couldn't be more happy with CrossRiver Exotics and RJ. Everything was 5 star and he has some great animals, including some incredible Axis. I am looking forward to our next trip there.

      Comment


        #4
        We made the quick drive up to New Braunfels to Double Nickel Taxidermy to drop off the black buck and then over to Granzin's to handle the processing. Of course while at Granzin's we had to do some shopping. I convinced Karla, since we had all of our hunting stuff loaded up, we should head to the lease to shoot some pigs and hang out to extend our vacation.

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        While I did not get the cool weather, we had a great time on our Texas Cast and Blast summer vacation.

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          #5
          Sounds like fun. Congrats to Karla on a great BB.

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            #6
            Man what a report!

            Great pics and recap, looked like an awesome trip!

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              #7
              Heck of a Blackbuck! Congrats to Karla on a fine trophy.


              Food looks amazing! And I hardly recognized you behind those Sun glasses. You've really slimmed down Heath!

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                #8
                What a fantastic experience!!!! Pics.....awesome. Always enjoy food pics as well. Enjoy your new hobby.

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                  #9
                  Really really cool

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                    #10
                    Man you live right. Thanks for sharing the pics and write up. That was a heck of a vacation.


                    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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                      #11
                      Great vacation and great memories! Thanks for sharing the adventure!

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                        #12
                        Outstanding trip and thank you for sharing Sir.

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                          #13
                          Awesome trip! Blackbuck is my wife and my favorite mount in the house!! Thanks for taking us along!!

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                            #14
                            Frick'n outstanding...4th of July Thread of the day right here!!

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                              #15
                              Congratulations guys! That’s one of the coolest Blackbucks I’ve seen, nice shot Karla.

                              Great photography skills Heath, those meals with dessert looked delicious and well presented.


                              Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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