Chris Ginn Creative Outdoors

I made a trip to Ross Barnett Reservoir in Jackson, Mississippi this past weekend to try out some early bass fishing around the millions of lily pad stems that cover the lake’s shallow flats.

Kenny Churchill has proven his mettle on Ross Barnett through past bass tournament wins and top finishes, and he showed me exactly how to dissect the hundreds of acres of pad fields to find the few spots where bass stack up during February and March.

Check out the March issue of Mississippi Sportsman magazine to get the full scoop, but I’ll give you one hint. Churchill’s lily pad stem pattern doesn’t have much to do with the pad stems.

A buddy of mine makes a muzzleloader hunt at Bogue Chitto Refuge every January during the special primitive weapon days, so I recently got me a Thompson Center Triumph so I could join him on this trip.

I sighted it in last weekend dead on at 50 yards shooting two 50-grain Triple 7 pellets and a 250 grain TC Shockwave sabot. It only took me three shots after I figured out I didn’t have my scope tightened down.

Today, I went up to my buddy’s house to shoot it at 100 and 150 yards. At 100 yards it was dead on. That means there was no drop from 50 to 100 yards. We backed up to 150, and it was two inches low.

On the next shot, I used my Bushnell DOA reticle and pulled my aim up to the 150 yard marker, and it was maybe a half inch just to the left of the bullseye.

The Thompson Center Triumph is a flat-shooting muzzleloader, and I LOVE IT.

I’ve heard that it takes a lot of shooting to discover what combination of powder and bullet your muzzleloader likes to shoot. And a lot of folks are hung up on shooting 150 grains of powder rather than 100.

Well, it looks like my first combination was the perfect one for this Triumph, and as for 150 grains… dead deer with my shoulder remaining in its socket… what’s not to like about that?

I don’t know how incredible veteran deer hunters will find this, but I just discovered this trail cam pic that was captured two miles down the road from where I shot the deer pictured below.

After careful examination, I’ve determined that this is, without a shadow of a doubt, the same deer. The dead give away is the flattened brow tine on his right and the small bump brow tine on his left.

I’ve matched it up with the rack, and it’s a perfect match.

Almost 24 hours and two miles later, I got him. Imagine that…

While shifting for the 437th time in my extremely uncomfortable ladder stand, I looked to my left and I saw this dude walking out on the food plot like he owned the joint. Three hours of waiting climaxed in only 15 seconds as I only had time to lift my .270 and find him in the scope.

He wasn’t going to stop, so I gave him one of those “beeerrp” sounds that you see hunters doing on TV to get deer to stop, and dang if he didn’t freeze at the sound.

A shoulder shot dropped him right where he stood.

While we were cleaning him at a friend’s hunting club, the guy in charge told me he thought this buck was a 1.5-year-old that looked like it had good potential. However, after pulling the jawbone, we determined him to be 2.5 years old.

“He would have been a good 1.5-year-old, but he’s a poor 2.5-year-old, so you did the right thing in shooting him,” he later told me.

1.5, 2.5… I don’t really care. Sausage… now THAT’s something I care about.

If anyone wants to book a charter to fish for Redfish in Biloxi Marsh, a charter captain friend of mine, Captain John Falterman with Therapy Charters, is offering a special of $450 for three people.

That’s one person free off his normal rates. He is also booking for PRIME fishing times right now, and he will honor the price thru January if you book a date and hold with a credit card.

That means you can book now and fish when the redfish or trout fishing is hot!

Also it gives you prime dates that Captain John typically books at upcoming fishing and outdoor shows.

You can call 504.915.0693 or visit Therapy Charters to book your trip today!

The video above is one I shot with Captain John last year. I’ve fished with him several times, and he is a superb charter captain. He’s also especially good with kids.

Belated Bucks - If you hunt North Louisiana and you think your best days for this season are behind you, you couldn’t be more wrong.

In the northwest corner of Louisiana, Red River bass fishing guide Russ McVey sits in a box stand overlooking a pipeline with his daughter Madison about to run out of iPod battery. They hope a buck trying to recover from the rut wants to grab a few …

By Chris Ginn

Closing the Gap - Use this strategy to catch bass at all stages of their winter doldrums.

A huge gap exists between amateurs and professionals in most sports. …

By Chris Ginn

I definitely ended 2011 the right way. Brent Smith, 2nd from right, invited me to tag along with him, his dad Lenard Smith and his two rabbit hunting buddies Ben Moak and Lavon Magee (from left to right).

We had to abandon our first spot because some other beagles got mixed up with Smiths’ beagles and wound up hunting out by the airport near Franklinton. The cover was extremely thick, but Ice Man, Law Man, Boss Man, Hawk, Sugar and Ruby scared us up three rabbits.

Look for the story in the February issue of Louisiana Sportsman magazine…

Anybody but me would have already killed two or three deer off this plot. Me? As much as they are hitting it, I haven’t seen a thing.

I’m getting tired of not seeing any deer, so I thought I would shake things up today and hunt 9:00 to 1:00. We’ll see…

I wish my brain worked well enough to think of something like this. I guess it’s possible a buck would see the antlers banging around, but it definitely looks like something I’ve got to try.