Turkey Season Success at North Branch
As it often happens when you create prime habitat for trophy whitetails, you get prime habitat for wild turkeys. This last spring season, our hunters took advantage of our great turkey numbers, harvesting several mature gobblers.
While the weather was anything but perfect for the seasons, the birds cooperated. Taking his first turkey ever was 17 year-old Zach Mechum. A veteran of our Whitetail Challenge Hunts for the Disabled, Zach wanted a shot at turkey hunting and took a beautiful, mature bird at 12 yards with is 20-gauge. His biggest question was, “Which one?” as three gobblers came in to the decoys.
Also taking his first bird ever was 10 year-old Cole Johnson. Cole braved a long morning hunt from the blind with his Dad, Chris, before taking this nice Tom in the afternoon. Cole showed lots of poise and maturity by sticking out and being patient before being rewarded with this mature bird.
North Branch hosts MidIowa QDMA Food Plot Day
North Branch Whitetails is proud to be hosting the MidIowa QDMA Spring Food Plot Day. The North Branch Whitetails property has been a showcase for QDM practices over the last eight years and maintains a healthy and rocbust whitetail herd.
The event will be held on May 7th, beginning at 10:00 am with registration. Registration and a seminar on deer herd management will take place at Radakovich Cattle Company near Earlham, Iowa and will continue with on-site demonstrations on ground preparation, plot location and distribution and a Plot Master demonstration at the North Branch Whitetails property.
This is a great opportunity to learn first hand, the practices that have proven successful for North Branch and can have a dramatic impact on how you manage your own property.
To find out more or register, visit www.iowaqdma.com
Bucks of Tecomate’s Blaine Burley hunts late season muzzleloader at North Branch
Bucks of Tecomate Whitetail Nation TV Host Blaine Burley chose North Branch Whitetails to close out the filming season this year. This is Blaine’s third trip in four years to the North Branch property in the hopes of taking a Booner for inclusion in the new series featured on the Outdoor Channel. We’re proud that the popular new show has included us in their schedule of select venues for filming.
Ron Mason, owner of North Branch Whitetails says, “To have Blaine back hunting North Branch Whitetails is testament to the quality of our property and deer herd. We couldn’t be happier that Blaine is back, once again.”
Blaine will hunt right up to the closing of the Iowa deer season on January 10th. His strategy will be to hunt travel corridors from bedding areas to food sources—the woods in the mornings and one of our many food plots in the evenings. So far in the first two days of hunting, Blaine has seen quite a few deer and passed on some very nice bucks.
Blaine notes, “We’ve seen some great bucks that need just another year or two to mature into true monsters. In my fourth season of hunting North Branch, it’s truly evident that Ron’s QDM practices are paying huge dividends. We’re seeing lots of healthy deer and a perfect buck to doe ratio. Now it’s just a matter of putting in our time on stand and getting one of the many monsters we’ve seen trail cam pics of to show themselves and offer a shot.”
Stay tuned as we update our home page and blog during Blaine’s hunt through the close of the season!
Muzzle loader Hunters Score
Late muzzle loader season is always an exciting time at North Branch because of our abundance of food sources and cover. When all of the crops are out and the cold weather hits, the deer hit our food plots in large numbers. This year was no exception!
Jeff Stahlbaum and Righty
Jeff showing Righty's huge typical side
We have lots of trail cam photos of Righty for the last few years, with his distinctive non-typical left side antler. During his hunt on December 23rd, while watching two smaller bucks spar in one of our crop fields, Jeff saw this buck coming to get in on the action. Recognizing Righty immediately, he waited for the right opportunity and the rest is history. Not only is this buck a noteworthy trophy, he was huge, weighing in a over 265 lbs.
Jeff says, “During that evening hunt, I saw nine bucks and more than 30 deer coming in to feed. I spotted Righty bee-lining it down a hill side, interested in the two younger bucks that were fighting. Only when I recovered him, did I realize how big he really was. No ground shrinkage here!”
Jeff Brennan and Super Freak
Jeff showing Super Freak's unusual rack
During several doe hunts, spotted Super Freak coming into the turnips. We have lots of trail cam photos of this guy and he had everyone’s attention. It looked like he had never shed his velvet, but once Jeff had him on the ground, he saw that Freak’s antlers were actually covered with hair! While Jeff has never been one to obsess on a single buck, he wanted Super Freak and hunted the turnip field many evenings before this brute showed himself again during late muzzle loader.
“This buck got my attention from the very first time he started showing up on our trail cams. When I first laid eyes on him during doe season, I couldn’t believe how big he was. The trail cam photos just didn’t show his actual size. Once late muzzle loader opened, I only had one buck in mind.
Hunter Success at North Branch
Jeff Stahlbaum and Crusher
On the evening of November 4th, Jeff took this nice buck. Once he started tracking, and not locating the arrowed buck, he backed out, resuming the next morning. While his shot was right on, the deer managed to cross the North Branch River. Losing the blood trail, Jeff put out a call for help in recovering his buck. Jeff Brennan, our resident guide and friend Dan Poulson finally located the buck.
“Thanks for the help today and for memories I will never forget!! I hope the events of today will last in your memories and stories as well. Incredible!!”
North Branch Food Plot Philosophy
When Ron Mason came to me over 6 years ago, he told me of his very unique property, near Des Moines. He described a piece of hunting heaven, surrounded by crop ground and quarry’s. It had great habitat, the potential of great genetics, but was missing some quality. Ron asked for my assistance in balancing the nutrition on his property to help maximize the genetic potential and make a great property even better.
North Banch is a very diverse property, with crop ground, large mature timbers, concealed draws, and smack dab in the middle is 22 acres of the nastiest cattails you would ever see, the true sanctuary of this property. Around these cattails are two large crop fields, high ravines with mature timber that feed into more crop ground. The pattern was that deer would funnel out of the cattails and the timber ravines into the crop ground. Until harvest. Once the crops were out, the food source on the property became limited, forcing the deer to move outside of the property.
How do we plant enough nutritional food sources to allow the deer to maintain the cattail sanctuary as home base and stay within the North Branch property? Whenever you have crop ground leading up to timber, I have found there to almost always be a 15 to 20 yd buffer. This was instantly a great spot for fall food plots, Turnips, Radish, and Canola. In addition to being an attractant, the brassica mix is the most nutritional food source the deer will have throughout the winter months. We periodically do a nutrition test on the forage and found that in late December, the turnip forage is still running a 18% protein and 2% Calcium. This is huge for deer that have been rutting all November.
Unfortunately with a property this size, a few buffer strips was not going to cut it. After some consideration we decided to selectively plant a variety of fields with soybeans and leave those beans un-harvested. Again, the beans leave a great source of protein that helps keep the weight on in the winter months. We strategically place a few fields with perennial mixes like Clover, Alfalfa, Chicory and Small Burnett. When all said and done, in late December you could easily find food sources on all sides of those cattails.
The trend over the last 6 yrs has been very positive. Ron has managed his doe population through his youth hunts and depredation. He has controlled his buck harvest by taking a limited number of mature animals each year. By implementing these QDMA philosophies, the deer are now staying on the property due to good management and nutrition. It’s a philosophy for the patient and disciplined, it sure pays off.
Terry J. Sedivec
President
Mid Iowa QDMA
BOD, TIP
Welcome!
August 10, 2010: Welcome to our new North Branch Whitetails Blog. Check back here often, as we will be adding the latest information on crop and food plot plantings, weather conditions, big buck sightings and more!
Most recently, we have just planted our turnip and sugar beet fields and food plots located around the property. Some are larger fields adjacent to the row crops, others are smaller plots strategically located in the timbered areas along travel corridors. We’ve had quite a growing season here in Iowa with LOTS of rain and heat to really kick off the new plots.
This year we have already booked a few hunts with past clients who could not wait to return for another chance at a North Branch monster. Feel free to give me a call for more information or to book a hunt!
Ron Mason