Snake Island Success

FEATURE Daniel Mitchell

Snake Island Success

It was that time of year again. The hunting season had ended, and now it was time to look forward to the Blond Bay Hog Deer Ballot draw for 2023. Adam Graves and I had hunted on Snake Island in 2021 (I had been drawn as an emergency then) and it is now a tradition to catch up to watch the draw live on Facebook at one or the other’s home. November 23 was the night of the draw, and I’d organised to have dinner with Adam and his partner Meg and watch proceedings.

The anticipation didn’t last long. We had barely set up the big screen as they started to draw the names for Snake Island Period 1. My name was the fifth to come out of the bucket! I was quite shocked and had to replay it to make sure. To say I was stoked would be an understatement and Adam was as happy as I was.

Weeks passed as I gathered the details of the other Period 1 hunters to organise a group chat so we could share hunting plans, ideas for rickshaws, hunting locations and ways to and from the island. This had proved extremely helpful back in 2021.

I felt prepared as I had my gear from 2021 but added some pieces to my kit. I felt quite confident as I knew what I faced; since the draw, I’d trained most mornings by walking in the bush behind my home, getting some kilometres into my legs as I knew I’d be doing a lot of walking on the island.

John Natoli, his son Tom, and I were going to camp at The Gulf. John had organised a mate to take us all to the island and take us off after the hunt.

On Sunday, after the briefing had ended and with the tide coming in, we made our way to Snake Island; it took some time as the water was shallow in spots, but eventually we got within reach of the shore. Luckily, we had brought a raft to float our gear from the boat to dry land as the water was still waist-deep.

By early afternoon we were ashore and had set up camp. The weather was good, so we decided to visit our spots for the week and sit there until dark. I had a 5km slog to Cow Swamp and for John and Tom it was 6km to Rifle Range.

As I started walking with my rickshaw, memories of how tough the place was came flooding back. By 3pm I was where I wanted to set up. I had seen a hind feeding on the track, then a stag with 12-inch antlers feeding on Cow Swamp. That got my heart going as I knew then I was in for a good week.

I set my stand up below a tree and sat and glassed until dark. It didn’t take long, an hour or two, before hog deer started magically appearing out of the tall tussocks. Initially there was a group of four or five at 270m including two small stags, but as it got later I could not believe how many deer there were. Many were immature stags plus a lot of young ones that were chasing and playing. Not being able to shoot (legally the Period 1 hunt started the following day) I could just sit and observe and try to select deer that I would be willing to take. By nightfall I had seen several-dozen deer, including multiple mature stags, that I would definitely be having a go at.

I left my stand in the dark but as there was a full moon there was plenty of light for a peaceful walk back to camp. Along the way I walked within 5m of a small feeding stag and watched thousands of bats flying, which was cool.

Back at camp I was knackered. It had been a big day getting to the island, setting up and spending time checking out Cow Swamp. John and Tom had beaten me back to camp by five minutes. I was eager to know how they went as I had such a successful afternoon. They had had much the same experience, seeing plenty of deer and some handy stags. We got out the jet boils, cooked dehydrated meals and then went to bed in anticipation of a big day to come.

The alarm went off and my hunting day had commenced. At my stand the wind was perfect and looked like staying that way all day. That was one less thing to worry about.

Through the day I caught occasional glimpses of deer as they passed between tussocks but it wasn’t until the afternoon that they started to come out into the open. The stags were smarter though, only showing themselves in the open for seconds at a time. By 6.30pm I’d seen about a dozen deer, but nothing I’d consider shooting. Then a mature stag emerged at 270m and I thought, “yep he’s definitely a taker”. My motto was, “if it’s good enough to take on the Friday, I’ll take it on the Monday”.

As it was windy, I made the decision to close the gap, which was hard as there were other deer in between us. I pretty much raced from tussock group to tussock group, bumping deer on the way, until I got to 120m. Despite the disturbance, he was still feeding with a hind, unaware of my presence. I lifted the rifle on to my shooting sticks and put a bullet straight into his engine room, dropping him on the spot. This was a good result as there is nothing worse than having one run back into the tall tussocks.

I was over the moon as I had somehow done it again, taking another mature stag off Snake Island. Making it to the deer, I was amazed once again how small these deer are, and this one was in great condition. I raced back to my ladder-stand, packed it up and wheeled it across to the deer so that I could carry him out. After a few photos the journey back to camp started. It was tough going on my own but the rickshaw made it so much easier. It would have been a long night otherwise.

I got back to camp just before dark and the guys were pretty stoked to see a deer on the deck, and a good one too. We hung the deer off my stand to cool, ready to be caped in the morning. I definitely earned my dehydrated meal that night.

The morning came and there was no rush to go out as the deer don’t seem to move in the morning. The caping was easy as John had done thousands in the past. With that done and the cape salted and placed in the shade I mentioned that I’d seen some good deer and an absolute cracker at Cow Swamp if John was interested. John was keen so I tagged along.

By 4pm we hadn’t seen a deer, then at 6pm small groups emerged but nothing like on Sunday. I was concerned that nothing might show, but we waited and at 7.30pm we glimpsed a stag. It wasn’t until 8pm this animal appeared once again, but on a mission and walking at a fast pace between tussocks. John decided he would go after him but as he got closer the deer vanished and didn’t reappear. We waited until dark, but nothing came out, so we headed back to camp.

The next morning, Wednesday, John was keen to go back to Rifle Range as they had photos of mature stags there from Sunday evening. The weather was starting to turn and Thursday and Friday were forecast to be windy. If I wanted to tag along, I was more than welcome.

I was keen to see what Rifle Range was like and when we arrived, I was shocked as it was completely under water. That didn’t seem to faze the deer though as a mature stag was feeding on lilies right in front of us. We got within 15m of the animal as he dunked his head under the surface to pull the plants out by their roots and chew them down. This guy made his way off at 6.30pm but then several other stags came out to feed. As it got later a promising stag showed himself across the flat about 250m away, but he disappeared pretty quickly. Having passed on several stags at this point, John made the decision that he’d try for this one, although he’d shot some great hog deer in the past.

John raced around the other side, hoping that the stag was still among the tussocks, but it had disappeared and with that we walked back to camp, having organised the boat for mid-afternoon the following day, Thursday.

On Thursday morning we looked on the beach for cast antlers without success and then took everything to The Gulf for the pick-up. The tide wasn’t in our favour this time, so it was a 500m walk across the sand and then a wade to the boat. We finally had everything on the boat and David did a great job navigating out on the low tide. We finally got back to Port Welshpool in time for me to race the deer to the checking station. To say that I was relieved to get there would be an understatement as I knew that once that was done, I could make the six-hour trip home to arrive just before midnight.

The stag weighed 30kg and his antlers were 15 inches on one side and 14.5 inches on the other, which had a broken tip. This didn’t quite beat my first Snake Island stag but was still a great achievement and done while in awesome company.

Snake island is definitely an experience most won’t ever do, but having done it twice, I recommend entering the ballot as it’s a challenge like nothing else and really tests your hunting ability and survival skills because of its remoteness. Just having the experience there is unbelievable. A big thanks to Matty Wright who helped me pick another good hunting spot.