Bachman caught and released this 26.5-inch walleye on Saturday!
June 05, 2011
By Melissa Bachman
After an incredible weekend fishing with my family, it was time to wind down for a Sunday afternoon nap. Well that was the plan anyway, until things got a lot more interesting!
My parents live in central Minnesota and great fishing is literally minutes away from our home. It's one of my favorite places to go for the weekend and enjoy the outdoors. Growing up in the country, I was lucky enough to live on fabulous hunting ground and excellent fishing was only a bike ride away.
As you can imagine I took full advantage of both and this weekend was no different€¦
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In the Bachman household there are binoculars that have a permanent home next to our kitchen sink and picture window. These are not for bird watching, more like coyote patrol. It's become a habit for my dad to check over the property on a daily basis just looking for game. Well today, a big coyote happened to be strolling through nearly 700-yards out!
I'm not sure if coyotes communicate with each other, but if they do this one obviously missed the memo. Don't step foot near the Bachman's! My dad has been a hardcore predator hunter his entire life, in fact I grew up with him pulling my little brother and I in a sled behind him while he snow shoed across fields to call fox & coyotes!
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With this said, our reaction should not surprise you. In a fluid motion we ran downstairs, grabbed a couple .22-250's and started making our game plan as we scurried out of the house.
The wind was perfect, blowing right into our face and since my dad calls on our property all the time he knew the perfect ambush point. It was a high hill that would give us a wide-open view where the coyote was last seen. As we neared the top of the ambush point we belly crawled the rest of the way.
The grass was almost too high for my bipods so I pulled some away and got things situated. Literally within 20-seconds of setting up, my dad spotted the coyote once again and I settled the crosshairs right on the point of the shoulder.
With an easy squeeze of the trigger and my dad watching over my shoulder, the coyote piled up after a perfect 250-yard shot!! I was shaking like a leaf and grinning ear to ear!
This was one of the most spontaneous, fun stalks I had ever done and to do it with my dad behind our house made it even more special. There is no better accomplishment in the Bachman household that taking down a big coyote€¦especially one that was planning to live on our property and kill our fawns. We found a den only 20-yards away which explained why the coyote was still roaming around in the same area. Looks like we did our good deed for wildlife today and had a lot of fun in the process!!