Kirt Darrner's Fishhook Strategy

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The still hunting post made me wonder if anybody has ever tried to use Darner's fishhook strategy for killing big bucks in thick stuff. When his book came out, long before his fall from grace, everyone was talking about using that fishhook strategy and how well it works.

I've never tried it and it doesn't seem like it should work. Anybody have experience with it. I'm guessing Elkassassin tried it on the NOMAD buck but I never heard how it worked.

Experience?
 
The still hunting post made me wonder if anybody has ever tried to use Darner's fishhook strategy for killing big bucks in thick stuff. When his book came out, long before his fall from grace, everyone was talking about using that fishhook strategy and how well it works.

I've never tried it and it doesn't seem like it should work. Anybody have experience with it. I'm guessing Elkassassin tried it on the NOMAD buck but I never heard how it worked.

Experience?
The still hunting post made me wonder if anybody has ever tried to use Darner's fishhook strategy for killing big bucks in thick stuff. When his book came out, long before his fall from grace, everyone was talking about using that fishhook strategy and how well it works.

I've never tried it and it doesn't seem like it should work. Anybody have experience with it. I'm guessing Elkassassin tried it on the NOMAD buck but I never heard how it worked.

Experience?
It works. My grandpa hunted like that in the thick PJ’s and taught it to me as a very little kid. He killed some studs back in the day and I still use it. I remember meeting Darner at a show in Colorado when I was 8 or so and thinking he was larger than life and living the dream. When I read the book(I’ve still got my signed copy) I remember thinking he stole my grandpas tricks to killing giant bucks.
 
The still hunting post made me wonder if anybody has ever tried to use Darner's fishhook strategy for killing big bucks in thick stuff. When his book came out, long before his fall from grace, everyone was talking about using that fishhook strategy and how well it works.

I've never tried it and it doesn't seem like it should work. Anybody have experience with it. I'm guessing Elkassassin tried it on the NOMAD buck but I never heard how it worked.

Experience?
Not exactly the fish hook but I've caught several bucks sneaking behind me just after I walked right past them. Most people don't look behind them as they still hunt and the bucks know it. Oh crap, now that my secret is out, the success rate is going to skyrocket despite taking scopes off muzzys.
 
So what exactly is the fishhook strategy? Can we establish that? I have a an extremely mediocre muley buck rifle tag in Co, my preferred method is to glass but if I don’t see anything try still hunting some timber maybe I can deploy it and see if it works
 
I don't remember the exact distances, but what you do is sneak through thick timber. Darner said it works best in PJ country.

After you go for maybe 100 yards or so in the thick stuff, you do a fishhook backwards and watch your back trail. The theory is that the big buck knows you are in his bedroom and he knows where you are headed. So he slips quietly out behind you thinking you won't be watching where you have already been. By hooking backwards you are supposed to increase your odds of seeing the buck as he slips away.

Yardage would vary depending upon thickness of cover and the situation.

I don't have a copy of either of Darner's books. But I have borrowed and read them. Some interesting stuff, but you have to wonder how much is fabricated. Still interesting to read.
 
I don't remember the exact distances, but what you do is sneak through thick timber. Darner said it works best in PJ country.

After you go for maybe 100 yards or so in the thick stuff, you do a fishhook backwards and watch your back trail. The theory is that the big buck knows you are in his bedroom and he knows where you are headed. So he slips quietly out behind you thinking you won't be watching where you have already been. By hooking backwards you are supposed to increase your odds of seeing the buck as he slips away.

Yardage would vary depending upon thickness of cover and the situation.

I don't have a copy of either of Darner's books. But I have borrowed and read them. Some interesting stuff, but you have to wonder how much is fabricated. Still interesting to read.
Thanks! Kind of started reading about this kirt guy, wild story about his success and then fall from grace. never thought of covering my tracks back, but I do have a sweet little BLR brush gun that I would love to tag a buck with in the timber
 
I've killed a few blacktails in that same scenario, though not the official fishhook pattern. It usually happens if someone is ahead of me and I will lag back watching his back trail. The buck will circle around behind him, not knowing I'm waiting for him to show. Surprise!
 
I've never killed a buck with the fish hook technique but have used it when the terrain dictates. I have killed a buck with the leap frog technique. My brother pushed a buck right to me when we used the leap frog technique mid day on our walk back to the truck.
 
I've used it on deer and elk, bow or with my .45-70 .


The action can be fast though! So, bow hasn't been very successful.



Keeping the wind right is very important for sure.



I too have 1 of his Autographed books. He used to come to the Golden Spike RMEF banquet in Ogden.


Robb
 
I don't remember the exact distances, but what you do is sneak through thick timber. Darner said it works best in PJ country.

After you go for maybe 100 yards or so in the thick stuff, you do a fishhook backwards and watch your back trail. The theory is that the big buck knows you are in his bedroom and he knows where you are headed. So he slips quietly out behind you thinking you won't be watching where you have already been. By hooking backwards you are supposed to increase your odds of seeing the buck as he slips away.

Yardage would vary depending upon thickness of cover and the situation.

I don't have a copy of either of Darner's books. But I have borrowed and read them. Some interesting stuff, but you have to wonder how much is fabricated. Still interesting to read.
Works on elk too.
 
Salt of the earth is Kirt, I bumped into him at a musky, senior laden, stale garage sale in Hotchkiss, Colo back about the time Reagan kicked jimmy Carters Azz, anyhoo it appeared he loved at the time a smoking deal on second hand china/ kitchen ware as well as the occasional book muley head. Kirt was truly before his time, he brought the spotlight and he also spotlighted quality glass and pioneered longe range banging with his 7mm topped/Redfield scope combo, while most were shooting grandmas .30-40 krag. Just imagine he Re - wrote the record book with out a Flatty, Mt Ops, scoped muzz, thermal, sFw, drones, trail cameras, online mapping, rzr 1000 turbo, muzzle break, silencers, fish finder, Vape cartridges, Eastmans MRS, bucked up energy or anything with the Fire Bull printed on it.
 
Spotlights and j hooks must be in the next E- book edition…. But seriously You know the “fish hook” is the real deal when the the Holy Grail Muley Doctrine as translated by Rich LaRocco makes its way on the cooking forum on MM earlier this year. Sunny side or poached might be a good mm Poll.

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From vantage points, I've seen bucks circle back on people, so it could definitely work. I've never done it myself. I always tell myself, like when reading this post, that I will do it, but I always seem to forget during the hunt.
 
Darner pioneered the "fish hook" method a little too successfully on monster mule deer at yard sales and rummage sales.

Felonies and Boone and Crockett frauds aside, I believe he might have actually shot one half decent muley in his notorious career? If memory serves me right it's the only mule deer grip and grin photo of him in the field without taxidermy. Can't recall and frankly tossed his books in the garbage long ago.

Many old timers utilized the "fish hook" method and I have personally used it with limited success on deer and elk over the years. Even had it work on muleys in open sage basins that seem to disappear and want to hold tight. Old technique pre-dating Darner so call it what you will.

Thanks for mentioning LaRocco, Smokepolejohnson. For those of you who don't know, LaRocco is the guy who ghost wrote for Darner before realizing Darner wasn't what he claimed to be - and then outed Darner as a fraud. I grew up idolizing Darner so was pretty d@mned sad to learn that the rumors in NM and CO I'd heard over the years were true. I wish he was the real deal, but the facts led me to believe otherwise.
 
Darner wasn’t a spot lighter. He just extended the hunting season a little bit depending on the state.
He was shooting monster deer long before most guys thought of it.In fact, he has a couple serious big deer from Mexico also long before Anyone thought to go down there.
He made his money from his books and personal appearances. Unlike his buddies who were running guided hunts on the winter ranges
Long before any of us knew what a winter range was.
 
"Rewrote the record book".... easy to do when all you have to do is change the name where it says "killed by__".!!! Great book but he is a liar, fraud, etc.
 
Doyle May Have Learned a Thing or Two From Darner?

Niehuis later wrote an outline for an autobiographical book that he proposed to write and sell. Here are excerpts dealing with his meeting with Moss, who was working at the time for Darner's Hunter Information Service in Montrose, Colorado:

"I leave to go to Montrose .... I go directly to the office of Tom Gilmore, Sheriff of Montrose County. I meet Tom, make known my purpose of being in Montrose. ... I am warned again that Kirt Darner and possibly Doyle Moss might be dangerous, and to avoid being trapped in a remote place by either one. ... I learn Doyle Moss has been on my trail making three long distance calls in one day wanting to know where I am staying, what kind of car I am driving, description, etc. ... So ... I go undercover, register under a false name and hide my car. The next morning I case the Darner Hunters Information Service ... but make no contact. Instead I go to the sheriff's office again and learn Bob Cox there is an investigator. Cox is known to me. ... I go the Stockman's Cafe ... and ... phone Doyle Moss to meet me there. I decide to take a chance, meet him in a place of my choosing, not his.

"Doyle Moss comes in. I recognize him because of his behavior and call him by name. ... We talk it over .... Doyle is a young man, 26 years of age. ... Although I already know it, I asked for his Social Security number. ... I ask the questions to get answers and verify what I have already learned. Doyle gives me more of his background and interest in Darner. He wants to show me some mounted heads, one with a bullet hole in the antler. ... Also, Doyle wants to show me where he lives, in a trailer house furnished by Darner. And he announces he has quit Darner.

"I decide to chance it. We go to his trailer and enter it. The front of the trailer is very barren of furniture. Interestingly, the walls are covered with photographs, paintings and sketches of Rocky Mountain Mule Deer. The amount and quality of the art surrounding a single subject is quite unusual. There are no other furnishings in the front room. This facet of his personality leads me to believe his driving interesting [is] hunting and hero worship of Kirt Darner. ... As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he does not have an ash tray in sight. ... I look his trailer over, including the bedroom which only has blankets on the floor. No bed on the floor. Every sign I read verifies his professing to be a Mormon. He serves me some lemonade.

"We step outside and at the truck I show him the pictures of Naylor and his buck. There is no question in his mind that is is the same buck that is on the cover of Darner's new book. Again I am told that Rich LaRocco wrote the book for Kirt Darner. ... Doyle again asks me for one of the photographs of Dean Naylor. I tell him I cannot spare one, but will make him one."




After Niehuis returned home, he sent Moss and me 8x10 copies of four photographs along with a note saying that they showed Dean Naylor and the buck he had just shot in 1948. The pictures were clear enough to show that the buck's antlers were the same antlers photographed with Housholder in 1957. The picture shown above even shows the unique bean-shaped bone deposit on the base of the right antler. Jim Zumbo photographed Darner with the same rack during the winter of 1980-1981, and this picture was used to illustrate Zumbo's article about Darner in the April 1981 issue of Outdoor Life magazine. That photo also is detailed enough to show the same bean-shaped deposit and other unique features. I was the senior editor for Outdoor Life in 1980 and 1981, and the first time I had heard of Darner was when Zumbo had proposed that piece. Later I learned that one of the Naylor pictures also had appeared in a 1951 hunting annual.

I photographed this same trophy with Darner during the winter of 1982-1983, and Darner selected one of those pictures for the cover of How to Find Giant Bucks that was published in 1983. Darner said that buck was one of his most prized trophies because he had seen the deer a year before he claimed to have shot it in 1977. He said he had just shot another great buck in the fall of 1976, and as it thrashed around on the ground in the last throes of life, a giant non-typical stepped out of the cover. He supposedly returned the following October and outsmarted the giant. He had told me this story several times, and the details had been so consistent that I was convinced Darner had shot the deer.

Interestingly, shortly before I had received the Housholder photo, Darner had requested my slides that I had made of him with his various trophies, and that is the last I have seen of them. Fortunately, Zumbo still had his slides when Reneau contacted him in the Boone and Crockett Club's investigation of the matter

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Interesting write-up Bess. I'm old enough I thought I had some background in the Darner story. But much of that is news to me.

Thanks for sharing.
 
Darner pioneered the "fish hook" method a little too successfully on monster mule deer at yard sales and rummage sales.

Felonies and Boone and Crockett frauds aside, I believe he might have actually shot one half decent muley in his notorious career? If memory serves me right it's the only mule deer grip and grin photo of him in the field without taxidermy. Can't recall and frankly tossed his books in the garbage long ago.

Many old timers utilized the "fish hook" method and I have personally used it with limited success on deer and elk over the years. Even had it work on muleys in open sage basins that seem to disappear and want to hold tight. Old technique pre-dating Darner so call it what you will.

Thanks for mentioning LaRocco, Smokepolejohnson. For those of you who don't know, LaRocco is the guy who ghost wrote for Darner before realizing Darner wasn't what he claimed to be - and then outed Darner as a fraud. I grew up idolizing Darner so was pretty d@mned sad to learn that the rumors in NM and CO I'd heard over the years were true. I wish he was the real deal, but the facts led me to believe otherwise.
LaRocco told a great story for several episodes then quit...leaving everyone hanging....WTF was that all about??
 
Me and my Mrs at the time and him and his Mrs became pretty good friends.


We never did hunt together but I learned a lot about the Holy Cross Wilderness and the Hunter-Fryingpan Wilderness in Colo from him.


Robb

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