Seasons closing, Hunting choices are getting limited

 For me two more seasons have now ended, duck season is done as well as deer season. 

Monday, I went out deer hunting and as has become the norm I saw nothing but squirrels and trees. Tuesday I was going to go duck hunting but ended up getting up late so I headed over to sit in my tree stand for one of the last times this year until this happened.

She weighed in at 127#'s and only went 10 yards from where I shot her. She came in with at least 8 or 9 other does and I took the first one big one that gave me a shot. 

Good way to end deer season.

Wednesday Cliff and I hunted a spot I've got in town. We got there with plenty of time to put out the 2 dozen decoys and set up a makeshift blind. Once we had that ready Cliff realized the cornstalk we put in the tube last year as a plug was still there. The bad news is with the rain and his buddy trying to jam more shells in the magazine the "plug" was no longer plugging. So we had to take the forearm cap of and pull the compression spacer out to get to the "plug" which was dissolved. We had to preform this with a knife, no light, in the rain, while watching for ducks and geese. It was as always when I take Cliff, take a kid hunting/fishing day, depending on the season. This sideshow finally ended up with a branch stuck in for the plug, and a whole cleaning session scheduled for today, after we install my stove. 

Back to the hunt...

The ducks and geese flew a little late but they finally did fly. We ended up way short of limit for a couple reasons, mainly spinner issues, gun jams, and generally just bad shooting. Now you can look at that list and figure out which way the finger points even though I would never point fingers. 👉

Yes we should've done better, but for a cold, wet, nasty day we had a pretty good time. We even left with some geese and the last duck of the year.

All I have left now is goose until the second week of Feb then yotes for a couple weeks. Then with the onset of March begins the garage and hunting gear clean up along with getting ready for fishing season.

Christmas Miracle

 The only Christmas Miracle this year was the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 

 

I hunted most of this week with nothing to show for my effort. I just got back from a goose hunt practice goose hunt. You know the kinda practice that entails me driving an hour, setting out all my decoys and laying in the snow hoping for a shot. Then when all the 300 geese get out and put down in 2 locations one to my right and one to my left at least 1000 yards away, pick everything up and head the hour back home and write this. 

That kinda practice.

Yeah they can't all be winners. But I wish I could win once a week, I don't think that's asking too much.

Anyway, I gotta work the next 2 days then duck and a late doe season starts for me on Monday. Hopefully my luck will change. 

 

I have realized the less that hits my cleaning table the more I spend on fishing lures. 😏 

Hope everyone had a Safe, Healthy and Merry Christmas.

 

Another week of saving ammo

 Well the day's I spent afield this week were kinda backwards, but they were hunted the only way I could. Let me explain the better days for deer were Monday, Tuesday and Thursday this week. Sean got Wednesday off and we planned our annual Swamp Stomp muzzle loader deer hunt at Mongo. Unfortunately it snowed all day, now I'm not saying that's a bad day for deer, however it is much better suited day for geese. So kinda crapped out on that one and then there was Tuesday which is the day I took Jake goose watching. It was suppose to be cloudy all day but soon after sunrise the sun came out and the geese sat. That would've been a good deer day, and speaking of deer days muzzle loader is over for me. I might try with my crossbow if I'm not goose hunting but as it looks right now goose and coyote are the only seasons left for me to hunt. 

Hunting seasons winding down.

Boy did I choose wrong

 This is going to be short and sweet sad.

Monday- Deer hunting in the morning, saw shooter doe 50 yards over on neighbors' property. Evening deer hunt- saw squirrels.

Tuesday- Deer hunting in the morning- saw squirrels, evening-pheasant hunt saw one 0 bagged.

Wednesday-Deer hunting in the morning- saw squirrels, Evening deer hunt- saw more squirrels.

Thursday-Deer hunting in the morning- super foggy, but only saw squirrels.

Should've gone duck hunting.

Busy week

Monday we had a storm cell moving in so I headed to the Fort for a quick goose hunt. It was also the first time I used my new gopro 8, the picture is alot better than I expected.

I had limit by 8 but got stuck in my blind because of all the geese in the field. I was waiting for them to eat and leave, when I got too cold I decided to get out and pack up. The funny thing is the geese didn't even care, I walked a couple hundred yards, got the wheeler, ran it into the spread, packed up and left. All with a hundred plus geese watching me and eating. 

Spot saved for another week. 👍

Tuesday I took the boat over to Big Turkey lake. The last time I hunted there after a snow I had a super hunt. This hunt did not disappoint, I could've had my first duck limit of the year but they caught me hunting by sound. By the time I knew they were there, they were on their way out.

Since Wednesday was going to be warmer I headed to Mongo at sunrise for pheasant clean up. I hunted with a couple guys I met while hunting. The had an older German short-hair named "Ralphie" which if you have ever seen "A Christmas Story", made me laugh out loud. We hunted hard until Ralphie got tired around 2pm then Ron and Tim took Ralphie home and I stayed out. I finally found a couple birds the first one was a complete whiff and the second I hit. After an extensive search I wasn't able to find the pheasant, I needed Ralphie.I decided to continue on with the hunt. I was finally able to find 3 more birds 1 went down, 1 was a complete whiff, and 1 got a way. 

I called it a day at 4pm.

At least I'll be eating pheasant this year. Next week is forecasted to be sunny all week so I might try to get out again and add one or two more to the freezer.

Wanted to give a special shout out to Ron, Tim and Ralphie, thanks for allowing me to tag along. I had a great time.

Turkey week

 First let me say, "Happy Thanksgiving" to everyone. I thought about going duck hunting today but decided to stay home. Holidays are a toss up, usually they fall on my days off and when they do they negate the reason I work when I work. Because everyone is off and usually out in the field, so I usually stay home. Anyway that's what's going on here today, I already made my turkey and turkey soup yesterday. So there's no cooking to be done just hangin' out and being lazy. 

 

Now, let's go back to last Saturday. As we all know I work on the weekends and when I get home I take off my boots, take a shower, go into the kitchen to get supper warmed up. While that's warming I always look out my kitchen window into my back yard. 

Well, this is what I saw....

 

Someone had burnt off all my underbrush and nearly caught my shed on fire, which truth be told would've been a good thing, I do need a new shed.

Back to Saturday, I was furious that someone would have the sack to not only go on my property, but to burn it off without even consulting me first. I was so mad I had a hard time getting to sleep, but I realized all the questions would have to wait until my week is over.

When Sunday came around I had to get ready for a hunt on Monday so I didn't have time to query any of my neighbors. 

After my hunt...

I headed over to my neighbor Bills to ascertain what had happened. He told me the guy across from me, not the one I had initially thought had done it, had started the fire to burn out leaves and a stump and for whatever reason just left. Well, I found out this guy is 3 sammiches short of a picnic anyway, and the fire just got out of control and he freaked out. The neighbor who I initially thought had set it was actually the one who called the fire department. Yes, apparently they had raked the leaves away from my shed and when they saw it was a loosing battle, had called the fire dept. When fire got to the property they had a pump truck watering down the shed and putting out the fire. It was going so good they had to go down to the road and get more water to finish putting it out.

So at the end of the day there was really no one sane to blame it just is. I only hope my black berry bushes come back in.

Tuesday I went to a local lake for a duck hunt, this was supposed to be the coldest day of the week with a chance of snow. Well, that forecast didn't disappoint, the day started at 27 degrees and after 8 the snow started. Unfortunately it didn't help the duck hunting but I did get one before I called it a day. I didn't get a pic because of the snow but if I had it would've looked something like this.

 Yesterday it rained all day so I stayed home and cooked, today well.... we already went over that. 

Happy Thanksgiving 😀 🍗 😴

wasted week

Monday too tired to go out and I forgot to set my alarm.

Tuesday went out saw 8 ducks and came home with nothing to clean.

Wednesday forgot to set alarm from getting up early on Tuesday, made boot and sock drying station.

Thursday tooo windy and warm to go out, can someone please send winter my way????

Good news goose is in next week 😌

Why is everyone happy with this heat????

Since it was spose to be damn hot on Monday I decided to do my house stuff. Which this week consisted of shopping, running to get my deer and delivering to my landowner. As I was going over a paved road and onto a dirt road all of a sudden my car was making alot more noise than usual. I pulled over and got under the car to see what had broken now. My muffler had rusted off right behind the catalytic converter and dropped onto the dirt road. As I'm trying to figure out what I need to do to make it home, a truck was rollin' down the dirt road with a cloud of dust enough to cover a semi. As he got closer he started to slow down, I looked a little closer and it was my long lost minion, you know... this guy.

Well, we hung out for a couple minutes and shot the shit about his hunting season. I "fixed" the issue and continued on to my landowner's, who wasn't home so I headed home. After an hour or so of workin' on my muffler it is sounding better than it has in years, under 20$ to "fix" the issue. 

Tuesday was a little cooler in the morning so I got out and watched 4 ducks, then I went home. Wednesday was cool also it was also a fairly cloudy day, so I stayed out til after noon. Glad I stayed because I actually got to, not only shoot at a duck but bring one home with me.

Today was the coolest of all 3 days however it also brought the fog, which was really thick at times. I worked a couple singles but nothing wanted to come in.

Off to the right you couldn't even see 50 yards it was also slick calm most of the day. For the most part slick calm is something you just don't want to see. 

I can only hope next week yields better results.

I tried to hold out

 I did... I really did try to hold out but I just couldn't pass this deer again, it's like he wanted to die. Monday I was in my stand and had a yearling doe start down the trail from my right to left. While I was watching her I kept an eye on where she came from, and sure enough out pops a buck. Well, this buck was taking the same track the doe was until he stopped... Then he just ran for no apparent reason all the way to the left of me. He knew something was wrong just not sure what it was, until I slid the bolt behind his front shoulder. He only made it 25-30 yards before he went down, the good thing is now the pressures off and I can start concentrating on duck and goose season. 

I forgot my camera and took this one with my phone, if you look you can see the exit hole in shoulder.

Tuesday I went back down to Fort Wayne for a little duck hunt before getting my tires rotated and balanced, then after that I had an appointment to get my brake controller connected. I looked and looked and could not find the plug in for the supposed plug and play controller. It only took the professional about 15-20 minutes to find it and cost me 15$, best 15$ I spent this week. Oh yeah, I didn't see a bird on Tuesday.

Wednesday I went over to Loon lake for my second first outing with the boat. This day went much better then last week, I actually made it across the lake to my spot and was able to put this guy in the boat.

When I got home I trimmed my hedges and bushes and mowed my lawn, hopefully for the last time this year. Then I headed over to Jake's house for some grill pizza's and steak, good friends and good eats. I'll probably head out during muzzleloader season to try for a doe. The other thing is I am really going to try to let the smaller deer pass next year and take a bigger one. I realize I say that every year but I am going to put more faith in the power of Halloween and the first week or two of November next year.

Spendin' dolla' bills yo

 So I decided to turn my heat on Monday, since I got home from vacation I didn't have my heat or AC on. When I tried to turn on my furnace it was a no go, long story short 160 bucks for the part and now I have heat in the house. 

Other than that, Monday and Tuesday I went deer hunting, waiting for some geese to show back up on one of my properties. They never did come back so Wednesday I decided to go to Big Turkey for my first duck and goose hunt of the year. 

Let's back up a little... a couple weeks ago when I was starting to get ready for season I charged my duck boat battery. When I did I noticed that it only had a 3% charge, since I hadn't charged it all summer I didn't think too much of it. When I decided to go on Wednesday I put the battery on the charger again, this time it had a 6% charge, now I'm getting a little worried. Wednesday morning I got to the launch dropped the boat in got all my gear in it and started off to my spot. In my head I was thinking, "worst case scenario if the battery dies I'll be paddling back in". When I got to the "in" part, the battery died, I didn't make it 10 yards from the launch. This was the third time this year I had to paddle in, (Jason and that torture kayak, Corey and his big boat, now my duck boat) and I do not want to do that again.

Anyway, when I knew I wasn't going on the water my mind started racing to come up with a back up. Fortunately I had just been to town and saw one of my properties had some corn down. So I called and audible got my phone out and shot the owner a text, while I was putting my gear away and changing clothes I got the reply I needed. 

"Yeah sure go ahead", that's all I needed I threw 8 decoys in the truck and off to the Fort I went. I got there really late and even as I was setting up the ducks and geese were flying, I was getting a little worried. 

I started feeling better when I dropped 2 geese out of the 3 pack that came in.... it was my first time out this year don't judge. Then the ducks started to work, I was a little limited on the direction I wanted to shoot as to keep my shots away from houses. I managed to scratch out a couple of them while passing on half a dozen or so that actually landed in front of my decoys. Anyway I finally got to get out for some waterfowl and boy did it feel good. Goose is now closed until the 21st of Nov. but when it comes back in it stays in 'til the second week in Feb. Fortunately duck stays in, so I'll still be able to get out to do some more duck hunting. From the looks of it I'll be back down in Fort Wayne next week to get my truck worked on, so I'll squeeze another hunt in while I'm down there. Oh.... what about the pic? Here ya go.

I tried to get some video but I started too late and shot too poorly to post anything. Ok, I really didn't shoot too poorly, 4 birds for 7 shots. I didn't think that was too bad.

By the way when I got home I took out that 2 year old battery and dropped 90 bucks for another one.

Super tired of spending money like I got it.

two week update

 News flash the Quantum reel I am missing has.... not been found, still on the hunt. 

On to other news the past two weeks have been very busy for me. I have been doing quite a bit of deer hunting and when I am not in a deer stand I have been getting my truck and new decoy trailer ready for the upcoming season. I must say it turned out quite well, I am now able to haul all my decoys that may be needed for any hunting situation. Super stoked to start my waterfowl season on Monday, I already have a field that has 100 or so birds visiting twice a day. 

My last day for a deer is this morning, at least for a while I get rolling on the waterfowl season.

I have been passing on quite a few deer, all 2 year old does and fawns, I have seen a couple bucks but they haven't offered a shot. 

Well, I gotta go get ready to get out this morning so wish me luck, and I'll let'cha know how it goes today, next week.

Of all the things I miss.....

 I miss my Quantum Monster 7.1:1 musky reel the most. I've been driving myself crazy, I know I brought this reel on vacation but cannot find it since I got home. I've gone through my car (yes I cleaned it), my duffel, both fishing bags at least 3 times and still have been unable to locate my reel. The sickening part is, I have never even used this reel. I brought it to run some of my faster lures and don't even think I put line on it yet. Now not only have I lost a brand new reel, if I can't locate it, I'll have to buy another triple digit reel. I'm just sick.

 

Now that I got that out, let's catch up a little.

I just got back from vacation a week ago and it feels like I already need another (8 months and counting). Vacation is always great and it was super to get home and be around the fam for a couple weeks. 

 

Rick and "Ricky"

Kylee with her turkey "Ricky"

The old homestead... Ky's old house (the fam is moving to AZ)

 

The fishing.... well the fishing was a little lacking this year. The first week I stayed with Rick and Beth in the Falls and fished the American side of Rainy. I fished alone, because Rick wouldn't fish "the Southern Canadian" side of the lake. The first day I caught a couple smallies and some pike. 

 Day one on Rainy was a doozy, the big motor got me across the lake, but I had to use the trolling motor to get back to the landing. Turns out the starter fuse had blown and the big motor wouldn't fire. No worries I still had a good time and plenty of charge in the trolling batteries.

 I was able to kill 36 chubs and catch 4 walleye, one of them was a 14" keeper. This is one of the shorts that I released. The walleye wanted the jig on the bottom, not moving, if it was moving they wouldn't take it.

This pike made it to the table

I did have one super day on the water, Saturday started out windy so I went to Golden portage for half the day. When I came back out into black bay, the whole lake had slicked out. 

Let the smallie fest begin.

 

 

 

 

The next day was super windy so I only fished for a couple hours. I had a super hard time just finding a place to drift with the wind. It seemed the wind just kept switching directions.

Juvenile Loony Bird

 The last day on Rainy was rather non-eventful. As a whole the fishing was and I'm using the word loosely... slow. I think the lake had just turned over and put all the fish in a tight lipped holding pattern. If I were there today I'm sure the fishing would be alot better.

After I left the falls on Tues I headed to Cloquet to stay with Mom, Dad and see the rest of the family.

Wednesday my brother Jason invited me to go kayak fishing with him on Bear Lake. What I didn't know at the time of accepting the invite and only realized a couple hours in was.... This was less about fishing and more about how long I could survive this medieval torture device Jason called "an inflatable kayak". Wow what a terrible way to treat someone who qualifies for AARP. 

 That being said we did manage to catch the biggest small fish in the lake.

 

Jacee did catch a really nice largemouth.

All good things must end... Finally Jason had had enough of torturing me and called it a day. I had to have him tow me in though... my motor was broken.

he did make me lunch that I ate on the way in.

On Thursday we went to Duluth to do some shopping then headed to Superior for beer and stopped to look at buying some trees. After finding out how much trees are we headed to the shack to get some free trees. Then it was back to dig in the old gravel pit AKA Mom and Dads backyard. We dug 3 holes for trees and sunk 9 fence posts to stop the deer from eating the leaves. It wasn't even a couple hours later that Mom got this picture.

This doe was pretty upset that someone had cordoned off her lunch. Dad has to take care of the new trees we don't want to have to pull dead trees and replant next year.

Then I got to do the hang some stuff in the house part of the vacation. I hung a clock, a wire tree thing and then this not so attractive straight from the swamp type of cattail thing with a long triangular potting type thing, that doesn't go with anything else in the house. My mom has really good taste... normally, but this thing ouff-da I don't know. We'll see after we revisit the, "ok time to hang stuff" part of the vacation next year. I hope she's able to tie things together.

Saturday and Sunday I went fishing with Dave and Isaiah. Saturday we did catch a whitefish it's the first whitefish taken on the boat, unfortunately that was all we caught. We did have a really good time. 

Thanks Dave

To finish off the vacation ritual I still had to go fishing with Corey. So, when Dave and I finished fishing on Sunday I texted Corey that I was on my way. Corey was out at Prairie lake at Renee's cabin... Hi Nae it was great to see you and Tom this year, hopefully next year we will be at the cabin, Lotsa Love.... well since I was only at the cabin once last year I gave Corey a call to get the number. When he answered I told him my predicament and he said that he wasn't even at the cabin but he was at home. So I did a 180, turned on my gps and headed to his house to go fishing. Well by the time I got there it was around 4ish and would've been earlier if he would've answered my text when I sent it.... but whatever... Anyway once I got to the house we chucked our gear in the boat, added another fisher person, Addy, and headed over to Caribou lake to try our luck. Well, Addy caught the money fish, a 3" perch, I know Addy I still owe you a dollar. Then Addy and Corey got hung up in some very healthy weeds.

  I caught some bass

And for the second time on this trip the the big motor failed to start, and for the second time on this trip I had to row in. By the way I gotta say Addy, not every situation has to be solved by calling mom and/or the Coast Guard.😂 We did neither and we're still here to write about the memory of the night we had to paddle in. 😘

All in all I had a really good vacation this year. Thanks to everyone I hope you had just as good of a time as I did. I'm already counting down the days until I get to see you. 

 

When I got home, it was try to get back into the swing of things. Thursday was opening deer and turkey so I was in the woods for the first half of the day.

couple deer

I got in my stand Thursday and had 8 or so turkeys fly down at daybreak. So, Monday I sat on the ground for the first hour and was able to shoot my fall bird. Then I got into the stand and tried for a deer. I could've shot a small doe but held off for something bigger.

Mondays fall turkey

Yesterday when I was done I had a deer blow on my way out. So, I took this morning off to give the woods a break. I needed to do some laundry, winterize the boat and get this blog back on track anyway. I'll be heading out in the morning to try and get a deer, I've been seeing them but have only seen 2 shooters and they didn't come close enough for a shot.