Columnist Paula DelGiudice: Hunter enjoys super season

Paula DelGiudice

Thursday, Nov. 15, 2001 | 11:02 a.m.

Paula DelGiudice's outdoors notebook appears weekly. Reach her at desertdenizens@aol.com.

Some hunters wait a lifetime and never enjoy the kind of hunting season that Robert McKinnis of Henderson has enjoyed this fall.

McKinnis knew it would be an awesome season when he drew an archery antelope tag and then harvested an exceptional buck in Little Fish Lake Valley, Nye County. While having his antelope scored, McKinnis told Pope & Young scorer Mike Wickersham that he had a deer tag for Area 24 and wasn't going to shoot anything less than 30 inches wide.

After hunting a bit during the opening days of deer season, McKinnis put his serious deer hunting off until the waning days of the season. With only a few days left to hunt, one day he left town at 3 a.m., headed for what he calls "Secret Canyon."

After driving up the canyon with two of his friends -- one who traveled from Reno to hunt with him -- the crew's two pickups pulled over to the side of the road. One of McKinnis' friends spotted a huge buck an estimated 1,000 yards away. They put the spotting scope on him and were sure the buck was over 30 inches.

"I never would have fired a shot if I hadn't had a spotter to help," McKinnis said.

He shot one time and his friend told him he was shooting low. The second shot was also low. He hit the buck with the third shot, but it wasn't a fatal shot.

"We put a Daniel Boone on him and got within 400 yards where I was able to make the fatal shot," said McKinnis.

The buck measures 37 1/2 inches and has 10 points on one side and eight on the other.

"His antlers are very massive. I'm looking forward to having them scored," McKinnis said. "I've hunted for the better part of 40 years and this is the biggest buck I've ever shot. Some guys never see a buck this big in all their years of hunting, so I feel very fortunate."

With the morning sun beating down, McKinnis worried about getting the meat taken care of quickly. At 8:30 that morning, the hunting party was back in the trucks, McKinnis headed for home, the meat locker and taxidermist. His friends remained behind to hunt chukar in Meadow Valley. McKinnis joined them the next day for an excellent day of hunting chukar.

McKinnis is retired and "lives to hunt" in addition to taking care of his wheelchair-bound wife. McKinnis and his wife have been married for 37 years.

"I figure that maybe I'm being rewarded for working so hard to take care of my wife," McKinnis said.

The dream season couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

Oroville is 180 feet below full pool and about 40 feet below normal for the fall.

A local marina official blamed the low-water conditions on a lingering drought in the West, as well as increased irrigation allotments for reservoirs located below Oroville.

"That could make this a lot different tournament than the last time we were there," said California whiz-kid pro Aaron Martens, who won the previous BASSMASTER event on Oroville in 1999 with 32 pounds, 12 ounces. "It's probably going to change tactics for a lot of people. I've personally never seen it that low."

"I'm not sure, since the lake is so low, if drop-shotting (his winning technique in1999) will be as much of a factor. The low water is going to make guys think more and resort to some new things, which is good.

"But there will a lot of fish caught. The fishing will still be good. I really like this lake a lot. I absolutely love to fish for spotted bass, which is the dominant species in Oroville. And the lake itself is fairly clear with a lot of deep water, which allows me to fish the light-line and small-lure techniques that I prefer."

Another reason why the pros enjoy Oroville is that the reservoir is home to largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass. The spots are most abundant, while their cousin species grow considerably larger -- Oroville has produced largemouths up to 12 pounds and smallmouths up to six pounds.

At stake in this, the second tournament of the four-event Western Open circuit, are a $48,000 top prize and valuable points toward qualifying for the prestigious 2002 BASS Masters Classic.