Dave Mansue — The Stake Out

When I hear the name Dave Mansue, I think Bassmaster open winner, guide on Table Rock Lake, retired detective and most importantly my friend. Although we have broken bread more than a few times we really hadn’t ever spoken about all the other aspects and accomplishments of his life until recently when he “made the bread” and I ate it. Here’s the story of that very special meal:

HPFC: So, most people think of New Jersey as an exceedingly urban place where there wouldn't be a lot of hunting. How did you get interested in hunting? And what were your early hunting experiences?

Dave Mansue: Where I grew up in New Jersey, which was Grover's Mill, New Jersey, where the Martians actually landed in the original War of the Worlds story, it was farmland. It was a natural thing for everybody to hunt and fish and just enjoy the outdoors. It wasn't anything like it is today. I started hunting at a very, very early age. Probably 11 or 12 years old, chasing rabbits, out in the fields and at that time there used to be a lot of pheasants around because of the farming practices, but that later changed. But yeah, I just loved it from day one. My Dad was not an outdoorsman but I had an uncle who used to take me fishing all the time and every now and then would take me hunting but most of the time I went hunting with close friends.

HPFC: Could you have ever conceived as a child that you would one day be on a ranch in West Texas chasing a nine hundred pound beast?

Dave Mansue: No, no, but I hunted with a number of police officers that I was friends with from different venues in New Jersey. We went to Idaho, Oregon, Montana and New Mexico hunting elk with a bow and had some fabulous hunts, but I never took one. So that drive was always there, you know, to actually take one. But later on in life I became very close friends with Denny Brauer, who also is known for his fishing, not his hunting, but he's an amazing hunter. He's hunted all over the world and has shot some amazing trophies that would make Johnny Morris envious. But through fishing with Denny, we talked a lot about elk hunting and I was able, last year, to join him on an elk hunt.

HPFC: How did the hunt go down?

Dave Mansue: Denny and I actually instruct at a kid's fishing camp, Pro Bass Camp run by Kurt Dove, which teaches young anglers how to fish and read the signs on the water and make adjustments. There's another instructor in the camp, Daniel Howard, who has a buddy, Casey. Casey and Daniel run True Grit Big Game Hunting, and they do aoudad, elk and a number of other species out in West Texas. Denny has hunted with them on several occasions and fortunately last year I was able to join him on this hunt. Daniel guided us through the hunt, which was just phenomenal. It was late September, the bulls were bugling and chasing the cows around. And for anybody who hasn't heard it, you really need to hear it. It's just a phenomenal sound. When those bulls are screaming and carrying on, it’s a sound you'll never forget. It’s just one of the beauties of nature as far as I'm concerned.

The first day of the hunt we were coming around on a dirt road and actually saw a great bull that I would have loved to have taken but unfortunately, the way he was running into the sun I couldn't see him through the scope and I never was able to get a clean shot. The worst thing you want to do is take a shot that you know is not going to take the animal out quickly. I never did take the shot, I just couldn't see him clearly but from what I could see, he was beautiful. Yep, I remember, he was absolutely gorgeous.

The second day, Denny ended up taking a great bull, just a fabulous bull, an older bull with a lot of diameter and a lot of character. And it was so funny because we were driving down the road and Daniel was looking at a lot of what he thought were dead yucca plants as they look like the back end of an elk, the colors are all the same. We're looking up on this ridge, with binoculars, and Daniel says, “I can't tell you how many times I thought one of those yucca plans was an elk.” I'm looking at it and I'm going I'm pretty sure that is an elk. Sure enough, it was a cow elk, standing there, looking at us and right behind her there was a tree, an old dead tree, and all of a sudden, I could see something moving behind that tree and it was just a gigantic bull. I'm like, “Oh my god, look what’s standing behind her and that tree,” and finally, he stepped out and Denny was able to get a clean shot on him. It was just fabulous the way the whole thing went down.

We hunted the third day and the fourth day and there were no opportunities, although every day we saw elk but there just weren't any opportunities to take one.

Then the night before the final day, Daniel's partner, Casey, came in. He had stopped at a Sportsman's Warehouse and purchased this elk decoy. It's basically just a screen that folds up, you can carry it in your pack, and it so happens he'd never used one before, but he saw it and thought it might be a neat deal to try. And on his way into camp, in a pasture, he saw five really nice bulls standing out there, so he said, you know, as soon as we get ready in the morning, we're going to head out to that pasture. It was just breaking daylight when we hit the ground. We walked about a mile and got to where he had seen the elk and they were gone; they just weren't there. Unfortunately, there was a road close by and there was a lot of traffic on the road. I guess the traffic must have chased them away. We looked off in the distance and we actually saw one of the bulls but he was a long, long way off. Casey and Daniel started calling to him and you could see he was interested; he turned a little bit. Then Casey put that decoy up and once that bull saw that decoy the whole game changed. It was just amazing how he reacted to that decoy. You could literally hear him coming across the ground, running towards us. The sound was like a horse coming across dry pavement and he got close enough where we got a good look at him. Casey said, “Look, you're not going to have to worry about taking him unless he comes across those two fences.” The bull elk was going to have to come across the far fence, then the road and then the second fence before he was on their property and I couldn’t take him until then. I told Casey that if he did get him across all that, and he comes across that second fence, I was going to go ahead and take him. Sure enough he got up to that second fence. They kept calling to him and calling to him and he was reacting to everything that we did. It was just amazing. When he got up to that first fence and leapt over it and then came across the road and approached the second fence, I had a feeling he was going to go over it. He was looking and looking and he comes up and finally, he just comes over it with no problem whatsoever.

We thought that because the wind was blowing from the left to the right he was going to go to our right. As it turns out he goes to our left. We had to adjust the decoy, the tripod that I had my rifle on, and everything else, quickly. That bull came within about 60 yards and gave me the perfect broadside shot. I was able to take him out cleanly, just an amazing shot.

HPFC: What's the feeling like after all those hunts that weren’t successful, weren’t invigorating but to finally get the good shot, have the opportunity and to make it pay off?

Dave Mansue: You know, there's so much exhilaration. There's so much relief. There's so much excitement because you've just witnessed this whole interaction with this bull. If it weren't rutting season, you would never get that, and it's just so exciting to watch the whole thing go down.

Daniel, the ex-NFL football player, 6’3”, 285 pounds, was about a hundred yards away and I swear to you, I no sooner fired that shot and he was next to me, jerking me up off the ground hugging me. He was just so excited about the whole thing, watching it go down.

Me personally, I have the utmost respect for the animal itself, and once he was down, all the effort that I put into it over the years, was realized at that moment. It's just a special feeling to think that it's a creature created by God and he's going to end up, on my wall and he’s going to feed my family. Just the beauty, in my mind, of the whole hunt, with friends, the way it all went down, it's really hard to explain. But it's something that really fills your heart.

HPFC: You've done so many impressive things, such as play baseball at a high level, you had a decorated career as a police officer, you won a Bassmaster Open: Can you rank them or are they all distinguishable?

Dave Mansue: I think they all have a distinct place, but they're all right up there together. You can't say one is overwhelmingly better than the other, all of them are amazing. In my mind, when I won that Open, it was just an unbelievable moment in my life. It's something that I'll just never forget. I have so many memories from a 30-year career in law enforcement, there's just not enough time in the day to tell you all about them. But you know, this ranks right up there, I was with two great friends and how many people can say that they've hunted with Denny Brauer?

HPFC: And now Denny Brauer can say he has hunted with you (we both laughed).

Dave Mansue: Yes, he's a legend in himself and we had a legendary hunt and it was just amazing, the whole experience.

HPFC: What's the prep work to get ready to get all that meat and how much meat did you get out of it?

Dave Mansue: In the end, once it’s on the ground, the work begins. We ended up dressing the animal and taking it to a butcher. I ended up with about 370 pounds of meat. It's just phenomenal meat.

HPFC: What are your three or four favorite ways to prepare the elk?

Dave Mansue: I loved the burger. Elk burgers are absolutely phenomenal. The backstrap, you can do so many things with it, like tonight for guests. We prepared a Steak Diane using backstrap, which I thought came out pretty good and I hope that they liked it as well. I also have another cut out of the ham steaks where I marinate the meat and then grill it and slice real thin, against the grain and put it over rice or mashed potatoes or something like that. You can use it in tacos, too. It's awesome in tacos.

HPFC: How much freezer space do you have to clear out before you can go on another hunt?

Dave Mansue: Well, we're almost through it believe it or not. I have friends that take quite a bit of it.

HPFC: Tell us about the appetizer we had tonight.

Dave Mansue: Many people, when dressing the animal, will take a lot of the meat, the shoulders, the shanks and things like that and just grind them up for hamburger. What we like to do is, I'll take the shanks whole and put them in a brasier and cook them for six or seven hours. We add beer and some spices and things of that nature, and the meat turns out super tender. It's amazing because you couldn't do it any other way, it's nothing but muscle and tendons in their shank.

For tonight’s appetizer we braised those shanks for about seven or eight hours and then took them off and shredded them, put them in a blender and roughed them up a little bit, not too fine. Then we add some garlic, basil, oregano, lemon zest and several different spices and put in some ricotta and make homemade ravioli. Then from the braising liquids I make the sauce that goes over the top of the ravioli, add some tomatoes, a little bit of garlic and vinegar and it really comes out well.

HPFC: So, what's the next hunt after this one?

Dave Mansue: It just so happens this November, Denny and I are actually going on a second hunt. We're really excited about that. On last year’s hunt it was extremely hot, the first three days it was over a hundred degrees, this November it should be a whole lot cooler and the animals should be moving around more throughout the day. It should be a lot of fun, it's a desert highland and to see how the elk flourish is really amazing.

• Check out Dave’s website for fishing tips or to contact him for a guide trip on Table Rock Lake.

• If you want to hunt where Dave and Denny went, check out True Grit Big Game Hunting.

• Stay tuned for Dave’s delicious Steak Diane recipe!