Semi-Live Whitetail Hunting Videos

Herman Brothers Lake and Land Management has teamed up with the guys at Dominant Predator this year and are super excited to be able to post weekly deer hunting videos in a semi-live format. Thats right, starting Aug 31 and then every week all the way through hunting season we will be posting all of the edited footage from the previous weeks adventures.

With the semi-live format, this is not for just showcasing all of the highlights of the season, but rather is meant to be informative and educational first and entertainment second. The highs and lows, ups and downs, good shots and bad. Lots of 2.5 and 3.5 year old buck footage, doe harvests, field dressing, taxidermy tips, bow practicing tips, and hopefully the occasional bruiser on film and on the ground!

Here are some trailers and introductions to kick of the season, with the first episode airing Aug 31! These videos introduce the dominant predator team with some highlights of what they are capable of in the field and in the editing room.

DominantPredator.org from DP Production on Vimeo.

Here is a highlight of 3D bow shooting from the nest:


So there are some highlights and introductions. I can't wait for the first episode of hunting season which isnt just highlights and introductions, but rather will start the Semi-Live format. Already they have been piling up footage of bucks in velvet, hanging deer stands, food plots, etc which will be used in some of the weekly segments as well. They will be hunting lots of public land, typical ask for permission private land, some of their own managed land, and even occasionally some very intensively managed world class whitetail properties.

Not to mention some ice fishing trips, waterfowl hunting, upland game hunting, dove hunting and pretty much anything else going on outdoors for the next 5 months. I would have to say though that probably 90% whitetail deer! This will be fun, stay tuned!

Dock Building and Fishing Pictures

I spent Wednesday afternoon with the Steffas and Pastor Bill Brown family. We caught lots of fish.




So that day actually started at 3:30 am when I went and picked up Chef Todd to help me collect and deliver fish for Bass Pro Shops big display tank. We collected big smallmouth bass, walleye, bluegill and redear sunfish. No pictures of those fish, but you can simply go see them when the store opens!!!

Steve Ryan came down and did some fishing on Sunday morning. Here are a couple shots. They use photos like these for print ads and other promotional stuff for various fishing companies.



Diverted a creek into a wetland from farmers fields and put a new road into a farm. More pics of that to follow, just dont have time to sort thru and organize the pics together.



Started raining one evening and pretty much anytime it rains me and kids head straight out to play. Especially when mom isnt home!



Renovating an old pole barn into the sweetest little guest cabin overlooking a 5 acre lake. Today me, Allen, and Lee tore out and gutted everything and busted up some concrete for some plumbing.



Check out the view from the back of the cabin!


Been building a mega mega dock/deck combo. The pictures again are out of order, they go from today all the way back to monday.




Had about 60 people out to the lake on Sunday, lots and lots of fishing, swimming, and eating.


Some happy ladies eh? These gals were from Saturdays group, we had 80 people out to the lake for more fishing, swimming, and eating. Altogether I think we have hosted more than 2700 out at our lake this year in the months of May, June, July, and August. If I am wrong on that number its because I forgot a few groups. Lots of youth camps, church groups, family reunions, campers, and friends at the lake pretty much every weekend!



We actually are eating all of the muskies out of our 33 acre lake. I like muskies when they are less than 28 inches, but once they hit that 29 inch mark or bigger out they come and into the frying pan or onto the wall. This one hit the frying pan.


Took some brothers and their sons fishing on Friday. One bro from Tampa and one bro from Chicago. Pictures are in reverse order, but you get the picture....BTW, we ate great for lunch and they ate great for the weekend!








Back to the dock construction. This mega floating dock is 15x120 feet long and it is attached to a mega deck that is 20x120 feet long.




Back to the road construction:


Oh yeah, the Rocke Brothers Masonry has done a phenomenal job on our stone work for the outdoor kitchen for the hunting lodge:


The last two weeks have been on the go from 4 am to 10 pm, but I usually always get to sneak in a couple hours with Brook and the kids at some point each day. Summer is winding down and Mae's first day of kindergarten is tomorrow!

Friday I will be working on the mega dock in the morning, then installing an aeration system and some underwater green fish attracting lights in Abingdon. Saturday will be working just till noon to cap off a typical summertime 76 hr work week. In a few weeks (or maybe a couple months) I will be scaling back to 40 hrs/week, because by then I will be starting to build my own house for about 30 hrs per week on nights and Saturdays.

Saturdays Fishing Trip

Saturday morning I woke up a 4:15 am to get everything ready for the days fishing trip. So I go down in the dark to load the boat on the trailer and I couldn't find the boat. The last guys to use the boat apparently didnt pull it up onto the shore all the way. About 20 minutes later I found the boat tucked into the cattails on the other side of the lake. Special thanks to my dad and father in law and also to a nice stiff east wind for that adventure...

So it takes another 20 minutes to trolling motor the boat back to the boat ramp. I get er loaded up after finding the trailer stashed in the weeds down by the building and by the time I start loading fishing gear its already getting light out.

Off to a clients lake in Fulton County for the day to take some ladies from Chicago fishing. It didn't much matter that I got off to a late start, because when I got to the property the ladies were still sleeping and I wasnt about to have them woken up. (although the cool overcast morning would of been dynamite fishing).

Let me just say that Chicago girls spending time at a farm in fulton county is just kinda entertaining. They finally woke up about 10:15 am for our morning fishing trip and we made it out on the lake just a hair before noon. Before making it out on the water I laughed (internally of course) about stories and drama of mosquito bites, spiders, mice, camping, mud, etc.

So 3 of the ladies have never really fished before and one of them, Mary has been fishing several times. She too thoroughly enjoyed helping her 3 friends experience the great outdoors, we enjoyed a few behind the scenes laughs about the days adventures. The highlight of the day was when Mary was teasing one of the girls by putting a freshly caught fish just a bit too close for comfort and watching her reaction. Well that was all fine and dandy until the fish flopped off the hook and onto the girls lap. The next 30 seconds was complete chaos that just about capsized our boat and left both the fish and the girl laying on the floor of the boat both gasping for breath.

The fish, which was a really nice redear sunfish, managed to stick its dorsal fin into her leg at some point during the commotion and the blood running down the leg didnt help the frantic situation any. Five minutes later and Samantha was back to fishing again, and she managed to catch more fish than any of the other ladies for the rest of the trip. During those 5 minutes of therapy there was a moment when I though she would never fish again.

Anyhow despite the heat and late start the girls picked up on fishing much faster than I ever thought possible and we managed to catch some really nice fish! We filled up a 5 gallon bucket full of crappies, redears, bluegills, and catfish and we released another 5 gallon bucket full of fish as well throughout the day. We actually let all of the really big bluegill and redears go and just kept the crappies and a few of the hook swallowers for eating.

This group picture below took about 5 minutes to accomplish. The girls didnt really like touching fish, so we didnt get many pictures while out in the boat, but we had to have a group picture and some documentation of this day for the girls. Altogether I think they had a great time experiencing a different lifestyle outdoors in Fulton County!

Ladies, next year you are getting up much earlier to go fishing!

Perfect Pond Rope Swing

Its like 87 degrees outside and we are all commenting how nice it feels compared to the latest heatwave! Anyhow, today was beautiful and we installed a rope swing.

Let me just say that installing a rope swing isnt just a simple task like installing a dock. It is however very fun to figure out, and I am always up for a new challenge. After installing a handful of pretty good rope swings, I believe we have finally got er down to a science and have now perfected the art of putting in the perfect pond rope swing. (Yes Jeff, self proclaimed rope swing installer experts!)

Here are a handful of pics from today. Last week we set the steel beams into the big concrete footings. Lots of steel underground in the concrete. Now the concrete is hard enough to set the rest of the swing in place.


We stood the center pole up with some do it yourself engineering and our Kubota mini-excavator. The hill is too steep and the asphalt road leading back to the property is too fragile for a big crane. We used our electrofishing boat as a platform to hold the ends of the poles out in the water and the mini excavator to set the poles on the shore end. Then we winched the poles up in place.


We poured a big footing up at the top of the hill and attached the wire with a turnbuckle to keep the poles supported at the perfect rope swinging angle. Took till lunch time to get all the poles set, than after lunch we built a jump platform 13 feet off the water and put a set of ladder stairs leading up to the platform.


The boys got home from work and were able to cool off by testing out their new rope swing right in their front yard!



I was just using my camera phone, so pics arent great and timing isnt easy with the delay after pushing the take a picture button, but you can see this rope swing really gets them boys out and up!


Let me just say that this property sitting on top of a hill with a house and a 2 acre pond surrounded by bunches of magnificent big trees is about as cool as they come. (thats before the new dock and rope swing) Thomas Kinkade could paint a dozen different nature scenes from this property, its just awesome. I am used to reclaimed strip mine scrub ground, but this timber over in Woodford County is unspoiled and just awesome.

Mae Catches a Big Catfish

Mae and Noah get pretty excited about catching this fish! Mae caught the fish all by herself, even casted the pole. By the time I got there with my phone video she had it almost landed!



My kids obviously fish alot, and are learning everything about fish and fishing at a rapid and heart warming pace. But even so I still only take them out fishing for about 10-15 minutes max.

That is the biggest mistake people make when trying to teach their kids to fish or hunt. They take them out for 3-4 hrs or more and expect them to stay entertained. It just doesnt work that way and kids just lose interest.

I take my kids for 10-15 minutes fishing, we catch a couple fish and then we go throw rocks, catch frogs, and swim. Same with hunting, already I take them for very short 'deer' hunting trips through the woods or in the living room. They love it and are counting down the years already to be able to go real hunting with Dad!

They live and breath this stuff and I am doing the best I can to keep them always wanting to catch some fish and get outside! Keep them looking forward to the next trip before the last trip is even over!!