TALL TALES from Hunting and Fishing Ohio!

Got an Ohio hunting, fishing or otherwise outdoor story you're dying to tell? Tell it to Ohio's outdoor lovers here. Just e-mail us your story, and we'll put it online. Got a picture to go with it? Send it along to us too! Try to keep the story brief so we have room for everyone who wants to share their Tall Tales! E-Mail: outdoorohio@woh.rr.com

Brecksville native Ben Genco had a good day with his grandfather, Ralph on his Dad's boat when he hooked this beautiful walleye on Lake Erie! Ralph enjoys going fishing with his son, Dave, and grandsons Ben and Joe. Ralph prefers his vintage gear from his good fishing days in the 70's & 80's on Lake Erie, which he has passed down to his son and grandsons.

On April 22nd, 2008 I was able to get out to harvest a turkey. I have only been hunting turkeys for 4 years now. I came real close last year, but could not seal the deal. This year at 7:00 a.m. I finally got my turkey. It weighed 21 lbs., had a 91/2 inch beard with 1 inch spurs. I was very happy to be successful.
Chad Larsen
Chad is from Licking County, but he got his bird in Muskingum County.

Luke Wrasman (13) took this Turkey while participating in a youth hunt April 20th. The hunt was put on by the
Van Wert chapter of the NWTF. The bird was one of three that were called in by Cody Bell, event chairman.

I took my 12 yr. old nephew, Adam, out deer hunting his first time. We were sitting in a nice blind and a deer came up beside us. We couldn’t see it but it snorted and my nephew said WHAT was that. I had to laugh. It snorted again. Than it came out of the woods. He took a shot and got the doe. You would have thought it was a 10 point the way he was acting. But I was just as happy for him as he was. The hunt took place in Southern Ohio.
Jim Dowling, North Lawrence, Ohio

Darwin Cunningham bagged this nice doe on Saturday, December 1st, 2007. The deer emerged along with her yearling from an ajacent farm. He took aim with his single shot 20 gauge shotgun, and she went down right where she stood.

Darwin has now gotten three deer in the four years he's been hunting!
Darwin Cunningham, Fredericktown, Ohio

I was hunting some private ground in southern Ohio on Nov. 9th 2007. I was seeing the usual does and first year bucks, for the first couple of days hunting. The bucks were not chasing quite yet , they were just cruising looking for receptive does. This buck first came thru at 9:00am on the 9th of November, I passed on a shot at him because I did not think I could clear a branch between him and me. So at about 3:00pm he came back thru and I gave him a doe bleat and grunt with just a head look from him at about 100 yards. I was hoping if he did not find any does in the bedding area he was heading to that he would come back my way. At 5:00 PM that is just what he did, I readied myself for what was going to be a 17 yard shot . He came right up the saddle all the does had been exiting by me for the past two days and coming past a scrape that the younger bucks had made the day before. As he entered my shooting lane,I grunted to stop as I was already at full draw. I shot and my shot was true. I had just shot my first p&y buck in the same year I shot a p&y black bear in Canada. My buck scored 137 p&y gross and netted 136 P7Y pts. as a typical 8 pt.
Vince McDonald, Findlay, Ohio

Vince McDonald has been a busy hunter this year. He also picked up this nice looking coyote in Hancock County in January '08 while deer hunting.

Jeff Sines arrowed this beautiful 9-point buck in Hancock County while out with his friend, Vince, pictured above. The rack green-scored nearly 153 inches and is one of the largest trophies in Jeff's collection.

Jeff is the subject of Outdoor Ohio's Video Magazine for February. Be sure to check it out!

The editor of this website, yours truly, got a chance to join a pheasant hunt on private land December 9.

I'm happy to report that, although it had been quite a while and I needed some remedial learning, I did manage to bag my limit of birds.

The dog was great, the friendship was awesome, and the steaks after the hunt were magnificent!

Pictured: Jeff Hashbarger, Troy Hashbarger, Dwight Wilson, KC Allen and Dog, Rusty. Our guide and Rusty's owner was Craig Perkins (standing).

Two big does, two smaller does and a basket buck came my way. They stopped to play once, and then came closer. The buck got spooked by something and took off, but the does kept coming towards me. Just then I heard a twig snap behind me, I turned around, and behind me was this 13-point whopper! At 11:32am, just as this guy started to run, I shot at him. Once I could see through the smoke, I saw antlers running away from me, and thought I had missed.

I tracked the deer carefully, but saw no blood trail. Then I found the escape route, and decided to follow it - still no blood. Then - there he was, nestled down in some brush. I never located a blood trail, but it didn't matter - what a deer!! His field dressed weight was 170lbs. He had a 20" spread, and scored 152 60 days later!! I took him with my CVA Apollo .50 caliber inline muzzleloader, with a Simmons scope.

The proud owner of this doe is Knox County 13-year-old Darwin Cunningham. He harvested this deer on the evening of the youth season opener, Saturday, November 18th. He went out in the morning and didn't see anything, so returned in the evening and was successful!