John O'Dell - Spring Break

So I had to take a break from turkey hunting to take the family on our annual trip to Fort Myers Beach FL for spring break. My kids school spring break was late this year due to Easter being so late. Even though I was going to miss a few days in the spring woods I was really looking forward to this trip as we always have a blast on the beach looking for shells, swimming in the ocean, just relaxing on the beach, and fishing.

This year in particular was a great year for fishing! Jacob was up early with me every morning by 5:00AM to hit the beach. He had two goals for the trip this year. 1) He wanted to catch a big redfish and 2) he wanted to catch a shark. Early in the trip he was rewarded for waking up early by catching a big Fort Myers Beach redfish. Also by trips end we had hooked and lost several sharks (one giant that almost spooled our line off the reel) and on the second to last day lady luck shinned our way and he caught a nice bonnet head shark. Not to be outdone by little brother Madison got in on the great fishing action as well and caught the biggest speckled sea trout of the trip and the only pompano.

All in all it was a very relaxing trip for the whole family and I can’t wait to do it all again next spring!

Later this month Dave and I are headed to Saskatchewan for Bow Madness to hunt with Black Bear Island Lodge www.blackbearisland.com for my first ever spring bear adventure so stay tuned to the DOD journal to see how we do!

John O'Dell - Less Then 1 Month Away

I hope everyone’s summer is going well. Dave and I are less than a month away and counting for our first hunt of the fall. We will be in New Mexico hunting elk, mule deer, and black bears with James Coppedge of Pack-n-Horns outfitters www.packnhorns.com for Bow Madness TV Season 3. We have both been shooting our PSE’s a lot in anticipation of another great hunt with James!

We have also been collecting pictures of some nice bucks in velvet that will be on the hit list for this fall. I have attached a couple of the good bucks we have captured on our Reconyx cameras so far this year. Hopefully these pictures will lead to some up close encounters with these deer when the season gets started!

Also Dave and I will be at the Bass Pro Fall Classic this weekend. My schedule is listed below so if you are in the area feel free to stop by and say hello.

I will be in Memphis TN Friday August 7th 5:00PM – 9:00PM. I will be in St. Charles MO Saturday August 8th 12:00noon – 5:00PM and on Sunday August 9th I will be in Columbia MO from 12:00noon – 5:00PM.

Dave will be at Bolingbrook, IL at 8 pm on August 7th. Portage, IN at 4PM on August 8th and Gurnee, IL at 4PM on August 9th.

My next blog will be when Dave and I get back from NM so until then enjoy the rest of the summer!
John and Dave