IdahoMike, it is lonely at the top... I'll say a prayer for your continued safety and success. This is a risky business.

All I'm saying is I'll certainly use him again, if I need him.

Hahaha lol. Get em Casey

He and Lucy are busy finding deer, ain't got time for foolishness.

Tell it like it is Casey.

Come other tracking dudes...stop the infighting. it is not attractive.

Choose and Run your tracks and let him choose and run his.
Im sure you all have your own reasons for choosing to go on one or not.

But lets not put down someone who is doing everyone a great service purely for the love of it and his dogs.

Yall gotta learn to just get along.

By the way..good job finding that one buck that he didnt track. Post some pics of it as we were all hoping to see it.

I dont understand all the drama over Mike. I look at it this way he's got a proven dog and he is usually available. Matter of fact had someone call me this morning wanting me to track for them, I had work obligations and gave them Mikes number. I track deer when I can. I dont put up huge numbers nor do I travel all over the state, I do it because I enjoy it. Mike is a good guy with a wealth of knowledge, even as a tracker I call him and ask him for advice. He is always there to help as well. Sounds like a bunch of 13 yo girls who gets mad because the popular guy didnt ask them to the dance.

I'm glad somebody said it. These guys charging $200+ to find a deer obviously don't like it that somebody is out here doing it for donations

If you guys want to be upfront about things and get it out in the open then here it is�...I�m not saying this to start a fight just to be upfront about why some of the other trackers are rubbed wrong.

I�ve been advertising this year that I would come out for free but I had a charge of $100 if I find the deer. I fully intend on charging a set fee eventually but since Otis is so young right now I don�t feel comfortable charging people to come out and search. He�s starting to actually get pretty dang good here toward the end of the season though and as a result I�ve already been given as much as $200 for finding someone�s buck as well as been handed $100 on a track where the deer wasn�t even recovered. This is all while I tell them that it�s free since we didn�t recover the deer or that they only owed me $100 and not any more. Most people are handing me a minimum of a $40-$60 tip even on the ones that go unrecovered. That�s peanuts compared to what I have been told has been given to other trackers. Now I may be honest to a fault but the upside of that is that you can be assured that its all the truth. There isn�t really any free tracking going on out there fellas. Every track ends with someone saying�.�I sure appreciate it! Here�s some money.� How much do most of you feel like is acceptable to pay someone for tracking your deer? When I posted a thread asking that very question a few months ago�.most of you said $100 is plenty fair or even cheap. So how much then do you think most people hand a tracker at the end?

So if every track you go to is going to hand you money�. then one way I see that someone could stuff their wallet with cash is to get their phone ringing with as many people as you can get to call it. Not just in one area but all over the state. Start lining the calls up and tell people that you can probably be there in just a little while, just hold tight. Stack the calls up 5, 6, or 7 deep and run like hell to show up at as many as you can. Keep the folks who are 2nd, 3rd or 4th in line on hold and waiting in case you can get to them. This isn�t unrealistic. I�m new and I�ve already had as many as 5 calls come in on one day just in the last week. I went on the couple that I could get to in a timely manner and I sent the other ones to other trackers. I think one of the calls I sent to another tracker was even recently posted in a thread thanking everyone for being able to find the 15 year old boys biggest deer ever.

What is pissing off the other trackers�.and its not just the ones you see posting�..is when they get phone calls from hunters late at night saying that they�ve been on hold with another tracker all day and now they say they can�t show up. All while the other tracker never bothers to network to get the hunter help in a timely manner. Its not really about helping the hunters when folks do this�its about lining up as many tracks as possible for the money. That�s why you see some of the other folks on here making comments. The hunter in Brantley had to try to find another tracker at 11:00 at night after he had been on hold all day and he was pissed. When someone has referred you 30+ tracks last year to help you get started and then you start holding tracks in their area just in case you can get to them instead of networking like the rest of us do�..it rubs folks the wrong way. I will say that Mike was nice enough to refer me a call to find someone�s lost dog. It's all good though.

I'm in the Verizon store getting a new phone,dropped mine in the water,they are doing file transfers so I can't use my phone,for about another hour,you can email me on my tablet.
lopezmj@comcast.net

LOL @ the jealousy!!!

I can tell by his post that Mike is a 'Dogman'.
All he wants to do is work his dog(s) and see them do well.
Although money changes hands, as it well should, that is NOT what it is about!!

Keep feeding em tracks, Mike!
I am loving it!!!

And fwiw, I have started a list of who to tell folks NOT to call just from some posts on here!

Mike and his wife drove from Birmingham to Catherine Al Sunday evening. To say I was impressed with Mike and Lucy would be terrible understatement. When we arrived at the shooting house where I shot, Mike let Lucy out of the truck while he got his gear ready. She did the normal walking around smelling and I asked his wife how she knew a hurt deer from a healthy one because where we were parked a spike had been eating there about 3 hours earlier, she gave me an explanation that they think hurt deer put off a scent from a gland between their hooves. When Mike was ready we started walking down the patch toward where I shot the buck. It was dark as crap but Mike asked me not to use my headlight as it would mess up Lucy's vision. Lucy had went on ahead of us when we started walking and I couldn't see her in the dark. When we got to my hat that I had hung on a limb to mark where the deer had went into the cutover I asked Mike where Lucy was thinking we would have to put her on the track. He then shows me his GPS and says I am pretty sure she is sitting by your deer 206 yards out there because she hasn't moved for 3 or 4 minute's now. There was not a speck of blood or hair in that patch that I could see but she had ranged ahead picked up the hurt deer track and trailed up thru the thickest mess imaginable in the time it took us to walk the 200 yards from the shooting house to my hat. I was simply amazed. I want to thank Mike, Lucy and his wife again!! To add to the money thing Mike told me this was #116 for Lucy this year. The way I see it even if you did 150 a season at $200 a deer by the time you put 25,000 miles on your truck eat out on the run and motel bills you aren't making any money. When I asked Mike how much I owed him he said all I ask for is a little gas money and if you want to give us a tip that's up to you!!! In my mind that's as close to free as you can get!!! I wouldn't of drove that 300 mile round trip messed up my nights sleep, wear and tear on my truck for less than $500. Thanks again Mike!!!

Good to hear he comes to the Catherine area, we will back at it Friday!

OK finished at Verizon,back on line,with a droid turbo 2,with water proof case!!

Guys,
Negative comments (even if true) will only hurt your business.
There's a couple of you on here that are doing yourself more harm than anyone else is.

X2!

Ridiculous .....its about time for another DRIVEBY !

Just to add to the money comment cnc made, I understand that money exchanges hands, but he's not getting rich off of his hobby when he's living in hotels, eating out every meal, and driving 4 hours one way for a track. He ran a track for me this weekend and I handed the money to his wife since she was chauffeuring him around the state, and he told her to give me half of it back because it was too much. I refused to take any back because I enjoyed watching Lucy work as much as actually recovering my deer. I've seen Lucy run 5 tracks the last 2 years, and Mike has been nothing short of professional and Lucy has performed like a pro herself. We don't have many options for experienced trackers up north, so we greatly appreciate Mike's willingness and ability to travel at will.

Mike was willing to travel a long way to my lease the other night. It was very obvious his main interest was helping me and not the $$$. I ended up calling it off cuz I just grazed the deer, but he was willing to try. He was nice and professional to speak with and my impression is that he is a knowledge tracker and general good guy.

It's weird that other trackers are running him down. There's no need for that crap.