When the film of Mike Lake’s breaking the 200-inch whitetail threshold comes to a theater near you, don’t sit down with a big bucket of popcorn. Get the small one.
The 18-year police officer from Newark, Ohio, knew of the deer he shot for only a couple of months. He’d seen it only once, the first day he wandered into a new piece of ground, and he never expected a buck of that caliber would possess the resolve not to seek greener, less traveled pastures.
Then again, second-guessing a cud-chewer is often a losing proposition.
Mike’s short and successful 2025 season began when a non-hunting buddy bought some farmland in Fairfield County last April. Of course he asked Mike if he’d like to hunt it.
“Like most people would’ve done, I said yes,” he said. “My friend told me the previous owner had shot a 180-incher off the place in 2024, but I was skeptical. Sure, it was possible. But even if the man had, the odds of me seeing anything like that the first year were astronomical.
“It just doesn’t happen, right?” he asked.
Wrong.
Since Mike had other places to hunt, he didn’t even think about the new ground until late July. More out of sense of duty than excitement over unwrapping a new gift, he decided he should put out a couple of trail cameras just to see what they might reveal. A visit would also allow him to become acquainted with the lay of the land.
The 45-year-old wound up jumping an enormous buck out of its bed during the middle-of-the-day stroll. And just in case he might’ve forgotten that real life image, the first photo captured by one of the cameras was the same deer, indicating it had not cashed in its frequent flyer miles and moved to the next farm or county.
“Even though it was still around, I thought it would surely leave after it shed its velvet. A lot of bucks do that,” said the seasoned hunter with four whitetails surpassing the 170-inch mark under his belt. “But, no, it stayed right there.”
With Ohio’s Sept. 27th bow opener looming, Mike’s thoughts turned to stand placement and the routes he would take to reach them. He wound up gaining permission from the adjacent landowner to traverse the neighboring property so he could access two setups without spooking deer en route.
At 87 degrees, Sept. 27 was hot enough to keep many hunters on their sofas, but a rare northeast wind lulled Mike outdoors. The only opening-day activity he witnessed, however, was combines hoovering soybeans. He didn’t bother returning the next day.
Monday evening, however, he drove the 40 minutes from his home in Newark and was sitting in one of the hang-on stands by 4:00, watching a thick draw. Bean fields were to his north, south and east. Farther to the east was the neighbor’s small pond, which he knew the buck visited at least occasionally.
Nearly three and a half hours after Mike climbed into position, he saw the familiar buck making its way to the small 1-acre bean field. Barely one minute later, he launched an arrow at the unsuspecting whitetail standing 45 yards from his tree.
The U.S. Marine veteran routinely practices shooting beyond that range.
After sitting for 20 minutes, Mike went home. He returned two and a half hours later with his son and a friend to take up the trail. There wasn’t much of one, at first, but the sign increased.
Shortly after they found the arrow, Mike’s son spotted the deer in a creek.
The 20-pointer is Mike’s career-best whitetail. Toby and Lori Hughes scored it for Buckmasters, arriving at 202 6/8 inches as a mainframe 6x5. The abnormal points account for more than 37 inches of its score.
“I don’t feel like the story’s super exciting,” he said of the hunt. “But I was super excited!”
NOTE: Mike self-films his hunts for Whitetail Edge. His footage should appear on the company’s website and possibly Youtube by next summer.