In this episode, Gem Ceasar talks about hunting through a lens. Gem shares his passion for filming and hunting, and how he found a way to merge these. To share his enthusiasm, Gem decided to document his entire hunting season through a lens every year. He also dives into the challenges the kids face when trying to get outdoors and what he’s done to try and mitigate these challenges through his lens.
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LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE:
Hunting Through The Lens – Gem Ceasar
We’re heading down to Louisiana. We’re going to meet up with Gem Ceasar. He is a nineteen-year-old passionate whitetail hunter as you know that you can kill multiple bucks and does in Louisiana. Every year, Gem tries his best to fill his tags. More than that, at age nineteen, he’s got to handle a lot of things that some people struggle with such as hunting for food. We get the bone, how to prepare and how to be on your game every time you get in the tree stand. He understands the white-tailed deer and he’s going to share some of his secrets with us. Gem, it was a pleasure having you on the show and I can’t wait to share you with my guest.
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We’re heading down south and a good friend of mine, Gem Ceasar has got home from work and we’re catching up. We’re going to talk about a bunch of things. One, we’re going to talk about the hunting tradition and how Gem got started in hunting whitetails.
It started out from a spectator’s view. I watched a lot of Outdoor Channel coming up. My family wasn’t into hunting. They really weren’t an outdoors type of family. I picked up on it through myself so it’s not deep in the family. It’s how I came about and I ran with it from there. Once I came to the appropriate age, to do it for myself, I got my license and stuff. I started off from there and I just been hunting ever since.
Why do you like to hunt? Kids of your age, they’re doing anything but hunting. Recruitment in that age class is low. Let’s give the readers some insights on why you like to hunt and what they should be talking to other young kids.
I find hunting relaxing. I get to know myself better and form a better relationship with God. When I go out hunting, the majority of the time, I’m free talking to God and it’s an outer element for me. Another thing is it’s a great pastime and you can learn so much about yourself and your willpower to get something done. If you’re determined to kill a certain buck or a certain animal, you got to learn your own limitations to what it’s going to take for you to get it. There’s a lot of self-pleasure that I get from it.
Are you shooting a crossbow or compound? What do you like to hunt with?
I’ve been shooting a compound for the past years. I decided to take things up a notch and try out traditional archery gear. I’m taking a traditional approach.
Do you mean the stick and a string?
Yes.
Are you making your own arrows and knapping your own arrowheads?
No. I haven’t gotten that deep into it. I use an artificial brand, the Easton Traditional Arrows. It’s a carbon arrow with a traditional look. It’s the traditional dip on the outside. It gives you that old type look with the big old Zwickey broadhead on there. That’s as far into it as I go. I have a Southwest Archery Tigershark longbow. It’s 62 inches and 45 pounds and that’s what I use right now. I haven’t gone as far as the servings and stuff.
Some people build their own bows and they do the servings and the fletching. Nothing in their bow is store bought. They are traditional archers. They could be living 100 years ago and still be using the same gear.
I find that amazing. It’s cool and I hope that I end up one day wanting to digest in that and go into it as deep as a lot of traditional archers. It makes a harvest mean a whole lot more than it already does. Being you, build your set up from ground up into a performing work of art.
That’s what it is. At that level it’s an art form, it’s a lost art form and there’s plenty of bowers out there. I’ve known a couple of people and they’re unbelievable archers. They’re not going to shoot is 50, 60 and 80 yards and 20, 30 and 10 yards. It’s up close and personal. When you make a harvest, when you make a kill and when you put a buck or doe down with your own gear, it’s something special. It’s like fly fishing, you tie your own flies. Some of the guns, if you don’t catch it out on your own flies, that’s neat. More than anything, it’s connection. Your thoughts?
It’s the deep connections and it’s personal once you go that far into it. I couldn’t say better than you said. It is a deep connection between the work you put into something and to see it provides for you. I don’t think there’s a better feeling that in the world.
With recruitment in the hunting world and the outdoor world, we have a serious problem getting kids involved. What do you say to the kids at school on their way to go to church, way to work or wherever they’re at, when they asked you about hunting?
The biggest question is, “Do you eat what you kill?” The answer is yes. A lot of kids here in Louisiana want to get outdoors and want to be involved in recreational sports such as hunting. Being that environment that they grew up in, they don’t have that outdoor substance. Their families aren’t from outdoor heritage or anything like that, so they can’t get a first-hand experience. A lot of it happens whenever they become mature enough to have their own vehicle and all source of income to be able to support that habit. For the most part, a lot of young guys and even the girls around here, they want to get involved in hunting. It’s just that most of them do not have any type of foundation for it.
How would they get it?
Hunting is very relaxing and you get to know yourself better and form a better relationship with God. Share on XPeople are friendly here. How it happened to me was, my dad was a pastor. He wasn’t into fishing or hunting or anything like that, but I was. He had friends who were into it and I was blessed enough to be able to let a friend of his take me out on my first hunting trip. That’s how I became exposed to it. From that little encounter, that changed my whole world and I stuck with it. It kept it rolling and here I am.
Where are you?
I’m nineteen and chasing a dream. I haven’t made it to the top of my goals, but I am achieving those here and there. I’m achieving my short-term goals and I will meet my long-term goals, eventually. I’m making motion.
Let’s talk about some of your short-term goals and then some longer term goals because who knows, the readers can maybe help make a map.
For short-term goals, I’d like to be able to capture the entire hunting season on film and document the whole season from October 1st, when bow season starts to February 28th, when it ends. I want to have footage that shows the entire experience of being a public land bowhunter here Louisiana. That way, people who want to get into it, who’s been thinking and pondering about it for a while, they’ll be able to get a first-hand experience on what it’s like being a bowhunter on public land in Louisiana. It doesn’t necessarily have to be public land just being a bowhunter in general. That’s my goal to document the whole entire season on camera.
That’s aggressive because one, you need a camera and two, you need a cameraman because somebody’s got to take a picture and take the film of you hunting. Somebody’s got to get you around all these places. You said October to February, how many days during a typical deer season do you hunt?
Roughly, I’d probably have a seven-day hunt. I’m working around my school schedule and whatever fest is going around and stuff like that, that’s where I get a seven-day hunt. That’s also split between duck season. I’d say, seven is a good number.
In Louisiana, you can take multiple bucks and does. What’s the bag limit?
You can take six does and two bucks for the entire season.
That’s a lot of venison.
Our bag limit is on the high-end compared to other States.
Do you run deer with dogs in Louisiana?
There are people who do it, but it’s becoming almost extinct. The people who run deer with deer dog, you don’t hear or see that often, but it is still around here. I’ve never done it personally and I don’t know anyone who does it, but it is much alive here. It is just that not many people do it.
To me, Louisiana is one big swamp. I’ve been the Shreveport and even with the river around there. There are a lot of swan and wet stuff. That’s my only knowledge of Louisiana. Everybody doesn’t get all wound up. You’re hunting ridges and you’re hunting oak islands, but there’s a lot of water. How do you hunt whitetails in that country?
It’s the terrain and it depends on how far north and south you go. The further south of Louisiana you go, the more chances that you’re going to need a boat to get to your hunting stand. The further north, everything is accessible by feet. If you go around the moors in the Delta, it’s 100% guaranteed that you’re going to need a boat to get to those islands. Up north, you’ll feel hilly terrain and there’s no need for a boat unless you’re hunting off the river. The majority of it, you don’t need a boat if you hunt up north.
What about food plots? Do people put in food plots? The thickets or jungles to me, I don’t know how you cut that stuff up and move the trees away and not grow agricultural products to eat or to sell rather than just have a food plot.
They are pretty common. They are difficult to keep up due to the dense population of trees. We have here, all the local shrubs and whatnot. It’s not mandatory that you do need a food plot. We have an abundance of natural habitat and natural food for the deer. To me, a food plot is not needed. If you have the luxury of having your own private land and you want to plant clover, any brassica, turnips, wheat or something like that, I’m all for it. The majority of Louisiana doesn’t need it because the soil here is rich and fertile so there’s a lot of food on the ground for the deer.
Tell me about the setup of your top five stand? What do they look like?
A little childhood encounter with hunting can change the world for a kid. Share on XMy number one go-to so far that I’ve always resorted was, cut oaks. I hunt public land here in Louisiana 100% of the time. Cut overs are by far some of the best hunting you can get. When they’re fresh, I typically do not hunt them. I like to wait a year or two after because it’s a bedding area for the deer. Once they cut all those trees down, it allows everything from the ground up begin to grow. It’s almost like a sanctuary estuary for the deer. I found that the majority of my bucks come from cut oaks.
Is that because they’re bedding in there and they have to get out of there to find their food? Explain a little bit about the cut oak with me.
Yes, it’s because of the bedding area. It’s thick that no one wants to walk through a cut oak because it’s difficult. You have tree stumps, logs falling everywhere and the terrain is bad. It makes it difficult for a guy to want to walk through that. On top of that, if he does and had a chance to harvest something, you have to drag that back over. The deer loves the cut over if they a good bit of security from it and depends on how much pressure it is. If there’s a lot of pressure on the deer, it tends to bed down a lot longer than they usually do. For the rifle season, almost everyone in Louisiana’s hunting so the deer turn the bed down longer. I find that where they’re bedding at, whenever they do decide to come out and everybody’s leaving right before dark or at night, you might catch that old bruiser making a path. I’m checking the scraper, go and get some food, getting a bite to eat before the night. I find that effective.
What about your second stand or third stand?
My second to third, get in the hardwood and get in the thick stuff. I guarantee and I’ll put my name on it that you will have a better chance of finding a big buck in the covered thick stuff. A lot of shrubs and a lot of briars, they like to bed down in that type of stuff. Not many people go in that as another thing. The pressure is going to be low and thick stuff. That being said, I like to get into real taste and real nitty-gritty type of situation.
Are you using hang-ons, climbers or ladder stands?
For the majority of my hunting, I always did use a climber. That’s the number one go-to stand here in Louisiana. I guarantee you that every hunter in Louisiana has a tree climber or treat lounge. I resorted to using a hang-on stand due to my hunting with the traditional bow. The comers have rails around them for protection. It makes it difficult to shoot a traditional bow out of that. You have a way better chance of a deer busting you in that than with the hang on. The suitability is a lot better and you can take sitting shot. If the deer was coming in antsy and you don’t want to stand up to get the shot off on them and luck on it, it helps you with that situation.
What’s your one big thing about hunting? It might be, “I make sure that I’m not smoking my truck. I make sure I took a shower with no scent or wind.”
My biggest thing is I am trying not to sweat during the early season. I take my time walking through the woods, try not to get too much BO out and stay low profile. I take my time and pace myself because even during the colder months, you still have that chance of the temperature being in the 70s? You have your jacket and you have all your gear on you and begin to sweat. Whenever you start to take those layers off, that’s freeing the body odor a lot more. If you prevent that by taking your time, spraying off with scent blocker, taking your time to the stand, don’t rush and try not to get a sweat worked up, it keeps the scent down. That’s my biggest thing.
If your stand is 0.25 mile away, how long does it take you to get there in the dark?
I can answer that spot on because my family is about a 0.25 mile. If not, 0.75 mile. It’ll take me 55 minutes at that pace to walk and that’s the same pace throughout the whole trail. You’ll learn to strategize. Once you figure out how long it takes you, you can judge the early need to wake up in the morning before you get to WMA. That time, it takes you to get to the stand so we can give you an estimate about what time to be in the stand.
If you’re hunting WMA, can you leave your stand up overnight?
Yes, you can but you have to have your name tag on it and if I’m not mistaken, your license numbers. I never leave my stands in the woods, but you can leave them. You just have to have some information on it. Like my phone number just in case something was to happen, or if a warden would have come on, a logging company or something to be able to call you so you can come and move your stand out of the woods.
You know where you’re going and it’s dark. You got to carry the stand, you bow, your lunch, to the stand then you got to put the stand up quietly then you’re going to get in the stand before sun up? Is that right?
Yes.
How do you do that?
The trick is waking up as early as possible because the gate to WMA that I hunt, opens up at 4:00 AM. You’d want to be there whenever those gates open up. Get there at the time, get all your stuff packed, get comfortable and situated with your stand on your back so that you can make that wall. You can make that trip to the stand. Once you get there, you will still have enough time because they rise from about 6:30 to 7:00, if I’m not mistaken. You have enough time to relax, let your breath, let your body go down and let your heart rate catch up with you. If you try to do everything fast pace, it can result in a lot of body odor and a lot of noise that didn’t need to be made early in the morning because you’re trying to rush and get your stand up. It is all about time management. It’s the biggest thing. If you wake up early enough in the morning, you can sacrifice yourself a lot of rushing and a lot of effort. It makes the hunt go by much better.
Gem’s got some great insight and all of us don’t have to wait till the gate opens. Even in hunting public land, you just go to the parking area and go hunting. Hopefully, there’s not 2 or 3 cars ahead of you. Other than that, he’s got more control, but he goes through a tremendous amount of work in the stand. You get the stand set up, it’s not sunrise, how long are you going to sit in that stand?
If I got a good night’s sleep, I will stay all day. I will pull in an all-day sit. No doubt.
That’s hard.
It is. Once you trained yourself to what you become accustomed to sitting all day, it becomes second nature. You’re in there early in the morning and before you know it, it’s already dark. Time for you to get down.
Honestly, have you ever fallen asleep in your stand? It’s noontime, you just had your lunch, the sun’s warming you up and you’re asleep.
Yes, I have fallen asleep.
I’m guilty.
I try hard not to. It’s weird how I do it. First of all, I’m scared to death to try to sleep in a tree stand especially a hang-on stand. When I catch myself falling asleep, it’s maybe five seconds burst of my eyes being closed before reflexes kick in. It makes me flinch because I’m about to fall out of the stand. I don’t sleep long but there are periods whenever I do lean back on the tree and I may give myself a little five-minute nap.
You have a safety harness, right?
Yes.
I have a safety harness, I take a ratchet strap, I’m sitting in a double ladder stand and then I ratchet across my legs. I don’t know why I do that but it’s just comforting because I can’t move.
It’s an ultimate lifesaver right there.
If the tree fell over, I go with the tree. When I fall asleep and when your head jerks up, there’s none of that because I know I’m locked in.
You have that sense of security.
This is what I hate. I had my lunch and do this. I had some hot chocolate, tea or whatever, the sun hits me and I’m like a squirrel or raccoon into the nest and everything’s good. I’m nodding off and then I jump back up and go, “What if Mr. wonderful walked by? I would have never seen him.”
You are right about that. It goes to my head a lot. I always sit down and think, “Gem, how many deers do you think have passed on you?” You never know. It could have been a Pope and Young buck that passed on you during that little 5-minute or 10-minute nap that you were sleeping. I boost myself up by saying, “It wasn’t meant for me to get him because if it was, I would have been up. If another hunter saw that deer, hopefully he’s not sleeping.”
Especially during the rut, everybody gets in the tree early and gets up too late. There’s a lot of movement between 10:00 and 2:00, 9:00 and 3:00. There’s a lot of buck movement at midday. I’ve got a picture from my friend’s farm. It was 2:00 in the afternoon, windy day, 70 degrees and he’s waltzing through the food plot, a mature smoking hot buck. You can do whatever you want to do but how many of us get up early, get there and nothing’s happening. You’re texting somebody, “You got to go here. I’m going to get out of here and I’ll come back at 3:00. I’ll go to a different stand, but I got four hours here, I’m going to take care of some business or I’m bored.” You come back and the trail camera shows you what you missed. Think about that, and I’m going to try this out this rut. I’m going to get my stand 8:30-ish or 9:00-ish and stay until 3:00 or 4:00-ish and see what happens. I’ll get an all-day set and not dawn to dusk. I’ll get to the stand at 9:00 and out by 3:00 and see what happens.
It’s like a mid-day hunt. It’s not a lot of pressure and you don’t have to wake up too early in the morning. You can get to the stand, chilled-out, relaxed and you get up early at 3:00 so you don’t have to worry about it much. You wake up whenever you want and get to the stand. Hopefully, you get lucky and you catch one of that mid-day cruiser coming by and you fill a tag that day.
My buddy’s picture, I’m going, “What was he’s doing 2:00 in the afternoon.” I could care less but if somebody has been in the stand, he would have died. Readers, chime in at [email protected]. Send me a note saying, “Here’s what I saw this year.” I’d like to get some information on that because we’re hurting ourselves more than we know by, “I got to go and do this. I’ll come back early in the morning or late afternoon. Maybe, there’s a lot of bucks that waltzing on by.” You’ll never say.
Relax. If you do things fast-paced, it can result in a lot of body odor and noises that ruin your hunt. Share on XThere’s always that possibility. You’ll never know what’s walking around when you’re not there.
That’s why I started an all-day sit. I said, “I’m going to be up there from dawn to dusk.” I’ve had some good days. I’ve had some, “What am I doing and sitting here for?” it is nice because you are alone and you get some prayer time. You think about it and with technology now, you can catch up on a lot of emails. This has been fun, Gem. I want to see your pictures when you put one down and then let’s stay in touch. You’re welcome on the show anytime.
Thank you. It was a blessing and an honor to be part of the podcast, Bruce.
On behalf of the shows readers across North America, Gem Ceasar, thank you for being a guest.
Thank you for having me.
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We’re heading up to Northeastern Iowa and we’re going to visit with Sarah Eglseder. Sarah is an EMT and a student. She’s doing a lot of things to the community. Plus, she happens to hunt whitetails. This journey into the whitetail hunt started a few years ago. She’s late in the game, but she just enjoys it. She’s going to share some of her secrets of how she hunts down those big Iowa bucks. More important than that, she’s going to share the secret of supporting her husband and we’re going to take a dive into coon hunting with dogs at night. It’s something that let her fire and let her passion on running dogs on a full moonlight. I’ve never done it and it’s a lot of fun. Sarah’s get some great tips for women. If you want to be a Pro Staffer, she’s all around so get some great tips.