Albia, Iowa 2013 Midwest Whitetail Summer Meeting

This year's Summer Meeting down in Albia was a good one. The show has made several adjustments over its few years of existence, but the biggest one last year was moving from state shows to regional shows. So now instead of having a Minnesota Pro Staff, there's a Great Lakes Pro Staff. This year instead of it being just Joe and I, we had Sam Palowski come with and experience some of the camaraderie. We were able to get in a 3D archery shoot, some film school, and some face time with the sponsors. It was a great trip and I even won a prize! Each Regional team was awarded a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place prize package for "best effort", which was determined by good footage, consistent updates, and high quality kills. I got 3rd place for the Great Lakes Team and so I won a Muddy Tree stand, $50 gift card to Cabelas, and a ScentMaster sweatshirt. So that was good, but now there's some real pressure on me to get a good kill on video this year. Before I knew that I was winning anything, I bought two used Muddy stands, one hang-on and one ladder. So I should be a little more set up than I was last year.

He's Alive!

Well, before I get way too far behind, I need to write about the Trophy Rocks and the mineral season. Although they'll still hit the rocks periodically, the biggest rush for salt is now passed. I was able to get a few pictures of some decent up and comers. As we expected, we eventually got pictures of Pencil in the shack field and on the oak ridge.

He is way behind. He will need a soybean miracle to catch up to his previous year's rack. We are realistically about 3-4 weeks behind last year's growth (which was exceptional) and about 2 weeks behind the average year.
The biggest surprise was the reappearance of The 6x5. I'm not surprised that he showed up, but he did when the entire lake bottom was flooded! At what point did he leave his wintering quarters and make his way south?

That buck is going to drive me nuts! He's already come and gone, so now the job is to move cameras until we relocate him on his summer food source. I was too much of a chicken last year, but not this year. I'll just put a wildview where I want to test my hunches. The date and time stamp were wrong on the 6x5 pictures. The daylight photo was actually taken on June 12, so it was at least 16 days off. So his last year's May 24th pictures were about as grown as he was this year about 2-3 weeks later. I have a feeling that he'll still find a way to pack it on, now just to find him!
We've got some other bucks coming in, but nothing we're on the edge of our seats about yet. There are two bucks coming in to the gravel pit that are both four years old this year. I have pictures of both of these guys since they were yearlings. So they have finally earned their place on the hitlist.