Jason Edney - Florida Fishing Trip!

This past weekend Britney (June 19-21) and I headed down to Jacksonville FL to attend the Southern Trophy Hunter's outdoor show. What a great way to pass the time between the seasons! Over the past few years Britney and I have became great friends with Jeff Lageman. Some people may recognize Jeff from his professional football career with the Jacksonville Jaguars or the NY Jets. After several years of playing football Jeff recently retired and decided to call Jacksonville home. Along with Jeff's success with football he has also created quite the name in the local fishing scene. Jeff teamed up with a couple of other local fishing fanatics and began a very sucessful radio show called The Outdoors Show (www.outdoorsshow.com). So when Jeff offered to take us fishing this summer, while we were down for the show, we jumped at the chance!

Well Jeff was kind enough to take Britney and I fishing on Thursday before the show on Fri, and try to get a jump on the fish. There was a little buzz between he and his good buddy Tom Lucas. They kept talking about the conditions were getting just right for the Tarpon to be in the area. Now I have caught a lot of fish through the years and I just thought this was going to be another one but alittle bigger. Thursday ended up being uneventful on the catching part BUT Tarpon were seen and that in turn fired our guides up even more. The best way I can describe the buzz is imagine November 10 and a cold front is blowing into the midwest. These guys were FIRED UP for something big to happen!

After working the show for three days it was back to fishing business. It didn't take long on Monday morning for things to get interesting. The first bait pod we pulled up on there were Tarpon feeding in it. Now for somebody that spends most of there time on the ground chasing critters this was amazing. The tarpon were destroying these bait fish. It looked like something out of Jaws! One of the first cast into the bait pod Britney was hooked up with our first tarpon! Jeff had explained to me about these fish being the "Greatest Athletes" in the ocean, it didn't take long to see he was correct! Britney's fish jumped multiple times, and just would not give up. Finally after approximately 30 minutes she got the fish to the boat.

Normally Jeff and Tom release the fish immediately not to stress them anymore than they have to but seeing this was our first we pulled the fish in for a few hero shots and she was released immediately following the photo session. After seeing the events that just unfolded I was hoping I wouldn't have to wait until next season to hook up with a tarpon. Guess what I didn't have to wait very long the next bait pod had more tarpon feeding. Again on the first or second cast I was hooked up with one of these giants! After another 30 min battle I had my own tarpon in the boat for the hero shots and the fish was released again unharmed! After my battle I was wondering how Britney got her fish in! I was whipped, my arms felt like jello, lower back was on fire, heck I could even feel it in my legs!

Not really ready to hook up again guess what on the next pod my bait was hammered and I was back to doing battle with the 3rd Tarpon of the day. To make matters worse this fish had a terrible attitude! He jumped, rolled, pulled line harder than either of the first two fish of the day. This fish took about 45 Min's to get landed. It seemed each time I would be getting close to getting him in he would turn and make anther 50yd run. Finally he was unhooked and released!

I would like to give a huge thanks to Jeff Lageman, Tom Lucas and the crew at the Outdoors Show for showing us what the fishing has to offer around the Jacksonville FL area. Tell you what Jeff I'll trade you all the 20lb turkeys you want for a 120lb tarpon!

Good Hunting!
Jason an Britney

John O'Dell - What To Do In The Offseason

One of my other passions besides hunting is fishing. On Father’s Day weekend we headed down to Cary, NC to visit family and we decided while we were there to do some bass fishing. Well to say that the trip was a success would be a huge understatement! Of course it is always great to spend time with family and to mix in some of the best bass fishing I have ever experienced wasn’t bad either. The weather was hot but the fishing was even hotter!! My dad, Jacob, and Madison caught their biggest bass ever which weighed 5, 5.5, and 6.5 lbs respectively. Of course Madison caught the biggest fish as usual. It is becoming harder to drag her away from the water than it was for me when I was her age. These are just a few of the pictures from our awesome family day at the lake.


As we head into July Dave and I will soon be getting some great velvet pictures on our Reconyx cameras of deer we know well such as “Young Stud” and “Crabby” two deer which should easily gross B&C! Hopefully we have some surprises waiting that we have not seen yet so stay tuned as I will be posting our pictures throughout the late summer and into fall.

We are also gearing up for our mule deer/elk trip to Pack-n-horns Outfitters in New Mexico coming up in September. Time can’t go fast enough so until then Dave and I will be shooting every chance we get with our PSE bows.

John O'Dell - Spring 2009 Update

Well it’s been a busy spring so far. Dave and I were lucky enough to be invited to go down to sunny South Florida in late March to hunt Osceola turkeys with our good friend Scott Crippen who owns White’s Tackle in Fort Pierce FL. Having hunted with Scott in the past I knew that Dave and I were going to have a fun time in FL and we were in for a great hunt! Well the hunt was very successful with Dave and I both harvesting great turkeys and capturing some good video along with some great memories. My Osceola was actually my best one so far. We are already planning to head back down south next spring for some more Osceola hunting with Scott. For more details on the hunt check out the March section of the journal page.

Following our turkey hunt in South FL I took the family on our annual pilgrimage to the Sunshine State for spring break in Mid April. We were headed to beautiful Fort Myers Beach. We really look forward to this trip every year as Suzy, the kids, and I get to spend lots of time together looking for shells, swimming in the ocean/pool by the ocean, and fishing off the beach. This year was one to remember for great fishing as Madison caught her first ever slot snook at 28.5” and Jacob caught his first snook ever which we released right after this photo was taken. We caught 14 snook total as well as many other species of fish including a giant sting ray. We saw lots of dolphins and just had a great time relaxing and hanging out together on the beach.

May has finally arrived and Dave have just returned from a trip to hunt with our good friend James Coppedge of Pack-n-horns Outfitters in New Mexico. He and Curt Richey had a great turkey hunt with James and most importantly they saw and filmed lots of mule deer and elk. They also found some nice sheds. Dave and I both have NM tags for mule deer and elk this year to hunt with James so to say that we are pumped for this fall is a huge understatement!

On May 2nd I was finally able to do some more turkey hunting and Dave had done his homework. He took me to one of our favorite farms and long story shot even though the toms were pretty henned up I was able to harvest a giant gobbler that was just less than 28 lbs and had 1.5” spurs. The giant gobbler was a true movie star and made for a very memorable hunt. I have been extremely fortunate this year in that I have only turkey hunted two mornings and I have been able to take two turkeys with 1.5” or better spurs!
In two weeks we are headed to Central FL for a hunt to spot and stalk wild hogs with our PSE’s for an upcoming episode of Bow Madness. Rick Malik, Dave Reisner, and I will be hunting with our good friend Bobby Mathews. The ranch that we will be hunting is truly incredible and we are all looking forward to the hunt.

Until next time safe hunting and take care!

John

Mark & Terry Drury - Commercials & Radio Ints

Hey Everybody,

Hope all is well! Hopefully those turkeys are working better for you guys then they have been for us. It has been a tough couple of weeks in our Missouri Turkey Camp. Rainy, windy weather has really cramped our style this spring! We have managed to get a few birds along the way, but it has been pretty tough!

Well, we wanted to send out an update and let everyone know what we have been up to the last month or so. When turkey season rolls around it always seems as though we end up shooting a couple of commercial spots for our sponsors during this time as well. It is really good timing because everyday in Missouri the season ends at 1 pm so we can shoot for the remainder of the day. We had a Mossy Oak spot, an Energizer spot and a few misc. items for Scent Blocker and Bow Madness to shoot.

This year we have a brand new sponsor in Energizer Night Strike Lights and Energizer Lithium Batteries. We are very excited to be teamed up with them and they have a pretty spectacular product hitting the shelves this summer around the end of July. They asked us to shoot a commercial for them to air inside our show. It was a big deal for us and we wanted to make sure and produce it right so we rented a production truck from a local company out of St. Louis and two of the editors drove it up to the farm to get ready for the shoot!

Once they showed up we knew that the weather probably wasn't going to cooperate with our plans of shooting it on Monday and Tuesday so we set up Sunday afternoon and got ready to shoot once the sun went down. We ended up getting 3 trucks stuck, a trailer and we broke the winch on our Bad Boy Buggie (after the buggy pulled one of the trucks out luckily!). It was so muddy on the property we were shooting on! We were fortunate that Coon Dog, Aaron Bennett and the production crew of Colin Hartin, Mike Johnson and Matt Drury were there to help get everything ready.

This shoot was so different for us because we had to film a night scene, but yet light it well enough that you could see the product being showcased. It was neat to see our production crew do their thing and we were very proud of how hard all the guys worked to make it go smoothly! Now it is time for the post production house (Media Grabbers) to put the final touches on it and really make it shine.

Outside of that we also just got done shooting a Reconyx commercial in our studio with good friends Greg Miller and Dan Perez. Jeff Simpson from Fence Post Media came in to shoot the green screens of these guys. Jeff's company does great work and we are looking forward to seeing the finished product on this spot as well!

We have also put up a link to a radio spots that we have done on the American Outdoorsman show (You need itunes to listen). Check it out!

Safe hunting out there! -Mark & Terry Drury

Steve "Coon Dog" Coon - NWTF 2009

The 2009 turkey season started a little early for Chris Comstock and myself. We decided to travel to Nashville Tennessee for the 33rd annual National Wild Turkey Convention and Sports Show on February 19th-22nd.

It’s terrible to admit, but this was the first NWTF Show that Chris and I had ever attended and with both of us being longtime members of the NWTF and as much as we’re both ate up about turkey hunting it’s really a shame that this was our first.


I can tell you after this trip….it’s not going to be our last! The show was held at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center and let me tell you it was a magnificent place.

After setting up the Flambeau booth with Tad Brown and Joe Shults’ booth (who is my new Team partner), it was time to walk around a little and see the sights. The most impressive to me was all the awesome turkey mounts that just got your blood boiling. They were so real, you could just close your eyes and when you open them back up you were looking for the safety!

As Friday rolled around it was time to work the show, the crowd was unbelievable. I even heard several people say that it was one of the biggest crowds they could remember for the first day of the convention. So with everybody checking out the new Flambeau Hen Decoys and the new Cherry Bomb Slate Calls…..I believe there is going to be some turkey breast in the freezer.

What was so cool about working the booths is how many people came up to you and commented on how great our hunting videos were and how they enjoyed seeing us on them…so that made you feel really proud to be a part of the Drury Team!

Speaking about being part of the Drury Team, on Saturday Mark had set up an autograph session with some of the other Drury Team Members that attended and let me tell you we were busy!

Also on Saturday Chris and I attended the Grand National Calling Contest and if you ever want to hear real turkey sounds coming from a human you need to attend. So Mark…this spring you better be on your toes, I think Chris picked up some pointers ☺

Another good thing about the show was you were able to meet with some of the other hunters that are in the industry and what was most important to me was that I was able to really thank Toxey Haas for the award that I won last year from Mossy Oak.


So if you ever thought about going to the convention, make plans now because you will not be sorry. It’s an experience you will never forget!!!

So from Chris and Coon Dog see ya and have a safe Turkey Season!!

Mark & Terry Drury - We're Back In The Studio!

Hey everybody! We wanted to give all of our fans a quick update on some of the extracurricular things that we have been up to over the last 6 months or so.


Last summer we were privileged to be asked to shoot a Bad Boy Buggie commercial with our good friend David Blanton. The guys at Triple Horse Productions out of Georgia did a phenomenal job as they do on all of the commercials that they are apart of. The shoot went well and the commercial turned out great! We've had a bunch of positive feedback from it and you can currently catch it airing on the Outdoor Channel. Here are a few of the pictures from the shoot.



This past fall we combined to have our best deer season personally in 20 years! We feel very fortunate and particularly blessed to be able to have that type of a season on what is our 20th year in the industry with Drury Outdoors. Stay tuned in the coming months to see the new DVD releases as well as the television shows on the Outdoor Channel. If you would like to see more info on the harvests click over on our journal to read up on each one.

In January we headed to the ATA and SHOT shows in Indy and Orlando. At the ATA show we were humbled to win the 2008 NIKON Monarch Award presented for excellence in TV and Video Production! We would like to thank everyone at NIKON for presenting us with this award and feel very gracious and honored.


February has rolled around and we are as busy as ever! This week a production crew from the Outdoor Channel has been sent to shoot an episode for a new show titled "ICONS" premiering in the 3rd quarter of 2009. The show will highlight several of the "Icons" in the Outdoor Industry and we were asked to be apart of one of the shows. The production crew came to our hometown and interviewed our parents as well as our siblings and other family members. It was neat to go to our old stomping grounds and visit the "40 Acre Club" where it all began for us! Here is a pic of our folks being interviewed. It was a very neat experience.

In closing, we just want to share a few pictures that were emailed to us from a loyal/die-hard Drury Outdoors Fan! Corey Stigers of Illinois has a tattoo that would make John Frank proud! He not only has a Mossy Oak tattoo, but he now has a Drury Outdoors tattoo on his other arm to match it! We met Corey at the ATA Show in Indy this year and he told us that he was going to get the tattoo done....and he lived up to his word! Thank you Corey for your extreme devotion to Drury Outdoors we hope our productions live up to all of our fans standards for many more years to come!


Safe Hunting! -Mark & Terry Drury

Bonnie McFerrin - Happy New Year!

I can't believe we are already in the month of January! Time flies when you are working, raising kids & hunting! Mike and I were able to hunt our home ground & he took a beautiful 148" deer with his bow.




Shortly after he arrowed his south Texas buck we traveled to Iowa for our first hunt in the big buck state! We won a Drury Outdoors contest, and were given the opportunity to hunt with Mark on one of his farms. Upon our arrival in Iowa a big, nasty, rainy cold front blew in and it really messed up the deer movement! We hunted hard all week and saw several nice whitetails, but never could seal the deal on a buck. We enjoyed visiting with Mark, Tracy, Taylor and Stephen Parker! Mark & Stephen both arrowed a couple of beautiful bucks while we were there and it was such a treat for us to witness their wonderful accomplishments & celebrate with them! There was never a dull moment hanging out with that group of hunters and as always we learned a lot! One thing I learned about myself is that I can endure really cold temps, but when rain, snow & wind enter into the mix I become somewhat of a wimp! We had dinner with Rick & Julie one evening while we were in Iowa & she gave me a valuable tip...it's called a down filled body suit-next time I hunt Iowa I will have one ready to go! Anyhow, we returned to Houston and to the family, but within two days Mike was back on a flight to Iowa to try and put a buck on the ground. He was able to seal the deal on a beautiful 8 point whitetail and appreciated Mark running the camera for his hunt!





Thanksgiving rolled around & we found ourselves back in south Texas celebrating with family & hunting with the kids. MaKenna shot her first buck with a bow! To say that Mike was proud would be an understatement! He always enjoys hunting one on one with the kids and spending quality time in the outdoors with them. He told me it reminded him of filming me-hope that's a good thing!






After Christmas we will spend a week down at the ranch & ring in the New Year- it's absolutely my favorite time of year! Once again the kids will be up to bat-it's Georgia-Kate's turn to try & get a buck on the ground! From our family to yours...Happy New Year! -God Bless!!