Meredith Frowick, of Tyler, took her best buck to date hunting in Rusk County with her husband, Cameron. The 10 pointer scored 131. (Cameron Frowick/Courtesy)

Cameron Frowick has a very busy life. The 28-year-old Tyler resident owns his own business and when he does not have to work, there is a good chance he is on the lake fishing or in the woods hunting or preparing for hunting.

His preparations have paid off with a deer season where he took a pair of trophy East Texas bucks within a week of each other, and then guided his wife, Meredith, to a 130-inch deer. All of that came before Thanksgiving, allowing him to make a quick trip to deer hunt in Kansas and plenty of time to duck hunt before starting to bass fish.

His first buck of the year ended a yearslong quest for a 6 1/2-year-old Rusk County buck that was wounded by a neighbor hunting with an arrow last season and nicked by Frowick during archery season this year before he finally took it opening week.

“I had more than 65 hunts in on that deer,” Frowick said of the buck he had named TJ.

The buck lived its entire life on an 800-acre farm owned by Frowick’s grandfather, Marshall Treadwell. He started collecting pictures of the buck as a 9-point, 2 1/2-year-old and continued following its travels through this year.

“Me or my grandfather would go to the farm and make sure the trough he was going to would have protein or something in there 365 days a year. I run 20 cameras to define core area of this deer. I knew every year from when it was 3 1/2 to 6 1/2 when it would leave its summer area and move to its fall area,” Frowick said.

He especially had the deer patterned using one trail, but this year the buck abandoned that route from August until the start of archery season in October. Unfortunately for Frowick that is when the rains came, causing the Sabine River to rise and flood the property.

“I hung a set just for him, but with all the rain I had to wade to this spot in the bottom area. I waded probably 15 times. It was a lot of work,” the hunter said.

There was enough high ground that the buck held in the bottom and Frowick got a shot at him with a bow, but the arrow clipped a limb and grazed across the top of the deer’s neck as it ducked the arrow.

While he stayed after the buck, he would not get another chance for a shot until switching to a rifle early in the gun season. Frowick had moved to a ground blind with sight lines down two faint roads. He got a glance of the buck as it chased a doe across one of the lanes.

“He came running a doe, I mean he was hot on a doe with tongue hanging out of mouth. I knew it was him, but couldn’t tell much about him. I didn’t have time to get my hand on my rifle,” Frowick recalled.

Thinking he had missed another chance at the buck, he was surprised again when he saw the doe walk out into the second. Although the two openings are a hundred yards apart, it took the deer only seconds to get there.

This time he quickly grabbed his rifle and was forced to make a quick shot at the running buck.

With his grandfather’s help, Frowick began to track the deer, but with water still on the ground it was not easy. He eventually found a faint trail and discovered the deer only 30 yards from where he had shot it.

The buck was a 10-main frame, with a kicker on each G2. It scored an impressive 142.

Less than a week later, Frowick got a ping on his phone from a small wood lot he had been watching in Smith County. The message was from one of his cameras on the tract and showed the big 10-point he had been watching since last season was back.

He first spotted the buck last year after he had already tagged out on the less than 20-acre plot with an 8-pointer. From that point on, Frowick would haul feed into the site weekly throughout the spring and summer hoping to keep the deer close. For a while, he was not sure the plan was working.

“I didn’t get a picture of him until mid-October, and I was like man I could tell he had gotten bigger. He had one kicker and had gained a lot of mass and tine length,” Frowick said.

Waiting for the right conditions, Frowick got the ping on his phone about 3:30. He raced to the property and got set up.

“He walked out a little before 5. He had his nose on the ground picking up acorns. I shot him at about 40 yards,” he said of the buck that had 22-inch long main beams and scored 151 4/8.

Frowick’s East Texas deer season did not end until his wife, Meredith, took her best deer on the Rusk County farm just a week later. Hunting together, they first spotted the 10-pointer as it checked out doe on the neighbor’s property. Eventually the deer approached the fence between the two properties.

“We were both saying please hop the fence,” Frowick said.

It did and began trotting across an open field toward the trees when Frowick stopped the 5 1/2-year-old buck with his grunt call. His wife immediately took the shot, dropping the 10-point, 131-inch buck where it stood.

Now looking forward to some duck hunting and upcoming bass tournaments, Frowick is already planning for next year.

“The 2019 season is open. I am already putting out corn and protein, and patterning deer to see what deer are showing up,” he said.