Summer Vacation 2017

I was able to get a 2 week vacation this year and by the end of it realized I needed a 3 week. I always thought 1 week was too short and that a 2 week would be perfect. It seems you just never have enough time on vacation, it just goes too quickly.
I had a first and a second this year. The first was seeing a black bear while going through Wisconsin. The second was seeing a black bear just as I got through Ft. Francis in Canada. I haven't ever seen a bear on the way home before, so that was pretty cool.
When I found out the whole family was camping the first week, I made plans to go to Rick's cabin in Canada for the first week.
I've only gone across the border twice by myself and only once post 9/11. That being said apparently if you drive for 16 hours and consume a couple Monsters you may be a bit.... wired. That's the only reason they needed to toss me at the border. I'm still waiting for my "I got tossed at the border" hat.
So I finally got across the border and made it to the cabin around 9:30pm. I had something to eat before I left Rick and Beth's. All I had to do was get my gear in the cabin and get ready for the next day.
After I got done playing whack a skeeter for the first hour. I was sitting on the couch enjoying a beverage and watching a movie when something slammed against the window facing the lake. I gotta say it scared the crap out of me. I looked out to see the bird feeder swinging wildly on it's hanger. I continued to watch the movie when I heard a thud on the same window, when I got up to look this is what I saw.

Yep a flying squirrel, they showed up around 10-10:30 every nite

 So the next morning when I got up and got around to start fishing and this guy was waiting on his breakfast.

 Rick didn't want me to feed the chipmunk













 So I told him to bring me peanuts every morning. 😈

and he did.........







This is what I woke up to the first morning.

boy this is going to be a rough vacation

I started everyday in the mid am hunting for my "slotter".  Once I caught him and was assured brunch, I would start fishing for fun.

First Rainy Lake Muskie

























 I wasn't ready for a fish this big so I didn't have anything ready....no net, pliers, tape, nor camera. I wish I was able to get a pic of me holding this guy; these pics just don't do him justice.
He was BIG.

Slow to go but he made it.

 This King shad was one of the four main lures I used to catch many of the fish on this trip.

 I can't believe these guys ate this king shad. As it turns out there were many fish that ate this lure this week, including that muskie

This was my second biggest walleye at 21" on the last day off Kirby's point.

 Everything ate the King shad

This guy was also off Kirby's point

 I did get some top water action when I was up with both the smallies and pike.

 See all the line? I cast my lure into a small pocket that had some wood in the water. I hooked up with this smally, set the hook and popped the line. That was a brand new lure so I got on the trolling motor and got over where the fish hit. I saw the fish swimming around with the lure, saw the line trailing behind him and was able to grab it and get my lure back.

The pike and a couple smallies were hitting this topwater lure, it's kinda a hybrid spinnerbait

 Then there were all the fish that ate my jig/paddle tail combo

I caught some great smallies on this trip....

this is how I caught and culled my slotters

 and a lot of walleye.

this is the biggest bass of the trip

  The weather was really good, only had one partial day of rain which we fished through.
 There was one day I couldn't make it out to fish all day. I did get out in the morning but by mid afternoon it was blowing pretty hard into the bay.

Rick and I finished putting the paneling on a wall in the cabin, and when we were done with that I caught this guy.

You might notice I was pretty happy with him. I ran all the way up the dock and asked Rick to take the pic.
That's the last time I go fishing without my camera at the ready. One would think I would have learned my lesson by now.

The rest of the days looked like this:

  I took a couple hours out of one of the days to go over to tunnel bay.

As I was using the ceiling to navigate through the tunnel I was just hoping that I wouldn't grab a hold of anything furry.

So...... getting over to tunnel bay was the best part about tunnel bay. I thought I would really be able to catch some monsters over there. With the access being fairly limited it looked as though I was the only one to fish this lake all year. Once I got to the other side and started fishing I heard a faint, "hi". I thought I was hearing things because I didn't see another boat when I first entered the lake. Then I heard it again, "hi" I looked around and saw a couple kids in a paddle boat just starting to go back through the tunnel. With my hopes dashed of this being a "virgin" lake I started casting the wind blown shore.

This was one of my "go to" lures of the trip (not the perch)

Someone put alot of work into cutting a hole through this rock, under the railroad tracks to a body of water that grows some of the smallest fish.  I bet they were disappointed when they started catching fish there too. 😭

My two biggest walleye were caught in "awesome bay", I'm going to call it that because it was an awesome place to fish. I caught most of my fish on this trip there.

My biggest was 25"

this was my third biggest at 19"

 I caught both of these fish on that lure from the pic at tunnel bay, it was one of the all-stars of the trip.

There were a pair of Loons that kept me company in awesome bay

This years all stars

As with everything all good things must come to an end and this week was no different. I had an awesome week and the weather was perfect. The fishing was great and Rick made it up for most of the week which I really enjoyed. Rick would say the fishing was horrible (by his and Canadian standards he would be right) but for me it was awesome. I ate walleye every day, took a nap most days and caught a lot of fish; many of them were huge.

Thanks Rick, I had an outstanding time.

By the way.... remember that lure I got back after the line broke? I was using it on my last day in the last minutes before heading in for the night and had a smally hit it and broke my line. I was just a couple cabins down from Kirby's and lost that lure. I docked the boat and briefly saw the fish with the lure securely attached to him swim away. So if you can catch that fish and get that lure don't use it anymore it's cursed and will only make you cry.

Next it was back to the states and spending some time with Mom and Dad. For the second year in a row when I got to the house no one was home. I just don't get retired people, do what they want when they want even when their son comes home to visit.

Anyway once I broke into the house, and man what a beautiful house, I waited for the fam to get home. Turns out Dad was shooting and Mom was out playing mahjong. When they got home we started to make plans for the week.
Wednesday Dad and I went to Gander to look around for some deals. I found a camo knife set that was the first in the cart. Dad pushed that cart around for the next hour as we found crap to fill it up with. Then we paid for said crap (no exchange and no returns) and loaded it into the van and headed home. Once we got home and I started unloading the crap my heart sank as I noticed the camo I had selected was pink.  Neither Dad nor I noticed that it was not green camo but pink. I tried to sell them to my Mom but that didn't work.  I had Jason wrap them up for Dad for Father's Day..... that didn't work either. So I hit every Gander on the way home and finally found one that had them and would exchange them.  Oh Happy Day

Thursday we went up to Reg's cabin and fished the latter half of the day. Dad and Reg caught a couple walleye, crappie and pike.
I caught this largie, a keeper pike and a perch.

caught a nice bass at Reg's lake

 Thanks Reg, I had a great time.

I think we had the get together on Friday, everyone showed up. I had some lures for my Uncle Dave and since I wasn't sure if we were going to be able to make it out on the big lake. I gave him the lures I got for him. That's when he mentioned going out on Sunday morning weather providing.

Saturday Corey had the walleye tourny he fishes every year. The last time we fished it was 4? years ago we weighed a fish but didn't place. This year we fought hard all day to catch fish trolling stickbaits, then finally started dragging bait and put some fish in the boat. The biggest (a 16incher) came with only minutes left to make it to the weigh-in, after we measured it we knew it wouldn't place. So we packed in our gear and headed to the landing. It was another great day of fishing and we had a really good time.

Thanks Corey, maybe next years our year.
Shout out to Addy for cutting my hair..... Thank you.

After I got back to the house we went over to Diana and Jay's for Father's Day supper. They live right next door to Mom and Dad it was the first time I was in their new house. They also have a beautiful house then when we were done eating they came over to get the tour of Mom and Dad's house. Mom and Dad just moved into the house themselves not too long before I got there. Dad and I actually had to put the futon together so I had someplace to sleep.

 Sunday morning the lake was calm and the wind was from offshore so I called Dave and he said, "it was on". So I made it down to his boat and got it set up to fish before he and his son Peter along with Pete's two kids showed up. Once they got there it was game on. We steamed out onto Lake Superior and started setting lines. Dave had been out the day before and got into some silver so we headed to where they were catching 'em. It took a while but we finally had a rigger fire. Dave grabbed the pole and gave it to Isaiah to reel in.

Isaiah and Lilly with the first laker

 The next to go was a board line we figured that would be a Coho, but it was fighting really weird. I couldn't feel any head shake.

Yep I caught a stick

Then we had another board line fire and that turned out to be another laker.

Then when we were pulling lines Dave popped the rigger and was letting it drift up, when he got slammed by yet another laker. So that gave us 3 lakers and a stick for the day, not too bad.

Thanks Dave, keep those grand kids fishing.

When I got back home it was time to start packing up and getting ready to head out. I was on my way over to Jason's when Mom called to let me know Chris was at the house. So I turned around and headed back to the new house to see him and his kids. Then back over to Jason's before I had to go to bed and get some sleep before the trip back to IN. Anyway, when I got up the next morning, Mom did a walk through to make sure I wasn't forgetting anything and then it was time to hit the road.

So let me just say THANKS to everyone for letting me impose for the couple weeks I was home. I really enjoyed seeing everyone and spending time with you. And if I missed you this year start planning for next year, if I have my way it will be the same two weeks. Hopefully in the same order of events so until then, take care, lotsa love, and be safe.

Seans first Spring bird

 Well my minion got a hold of me last week and wanted to try for a turkey this year. Since I already had mine, I thought I could spare the time to call one in for him. So he and I went to the only place I have to turkey hunt and that would be those 5 magic acres from a couple years back. We got out on property a little late (per normal) and headed into the woods to sit and listen for at least half the day. After I got the decoys set out and set up the kill command area it was time to call and listen. All the video was taken with my RCA little wonders cam instead of my good cam so it's not the best at distance, but you get the idea.

Once the sun started coming up we heard a gobble to our left. Not in our woods but in the woods just across a field from us- that was good. The other gobble came from our right, way far right- that was bad. This gobble came from across the road and a creek. With the two birds talking I concentrated on the bird to our left.
Well after an hour of calling, the bird to our left found love and shut up. The bird on the right however was thundering every time I called which meant he was close and could hear me. I still thought he was across the creek and the road from us. I decided to get up go to the car drive down and see if I could see the bird. If I knew where he was it would be easier to get set up to cut him off. So I went out to the car and it wouldn't start, so I pulled up my big girl panties and walked down to see if I could see the bird.

Well I didn't see the bird so I went back to where we were sitting and continued to call every 10 minutes or so.
I was sitting there trying to figure out our next play. I started thinking the turkey gobbling was closer than I thought and he saw me get up and out of the woods. When I looked over to the left and saw 3 birds coming into the decoys. They didn't gobble, or strut I think they had been whooped by the big boy on the block.
 I didn't edit any of these videos so bear with them.
You should turn your volume up a little.

MMMMMmmm Turkey!!!!

Spring Turkey Season 2017

This year felt a little like last year just without all the rain. I hunted hard all 3 days from a half hour before sunrise to 1pm which is when we have to leave the field.
 The first day was decent with mostly sunshine, so the birds talked a little in the morning. Then shut up the rest of the day, which is normal on public.
The second day had some rain which wasn't too bad, but the wind was really kicking. I didn't hear a single bird all day. I did see 6 meandering through a field. I didn't have my binoculars with me so I couldn't get a good look.
The third day I really thought it was going to happen. I set up in a field I saw a strutter in the day before, so I knew he was around. When the sun popped up I had 3 turkey's talking, I had 1 really close to me another was not that far and the third was way to my right across the road. He was actually the turkey I hunted the first day and to tell you the truth last year. So I knew he was there and pretty much what he was all about.
Well I stayed put and listened to my 2 birds fly down, meet up, and follow a hen (I assume) directly away from me. That all took about 2 and a half hours.

 So once I realized where they were and where they were going I packed up my gear and headed out to cut em off. I got to the truck and headed up the road. When I got to were I thought I was in front of them, I got out of the truck shut the door and headed to the other si...... that was a turkey putting. Yep I had stopped parked and got out no more than 30 yards from where the turkey's were. So I got back in my truck and drove down a little further and hoped they would keep coming. I parked grabbed my gear and headed down to the furthest field in an attempt to get ahead of these birds. On the way I picked up my binoculars and glassed down the first field. I was right, the birds were all the way at the end, still in the field. So I got down to were I spooked them set out a couple decoys and called....and waited....and called.....and waited. Now if the birds were still on the way I should've heard or seen them in the hour that I gave them.
When they didn't show I got up and looked down the field and they were gone. So I packed up my gear and headed off to the truck. I went to the field in between where I was in the morning and where I had just been. I was still hopeful to get ahead of these birds. On my way into the field I was rounding a corner to the opening of the field and spotted a turkey contently feeding across my end. I glassed the bird and saw it was a hen, I got pretty excited because she might be with the birds I was hunting so I waited at the ready for the Tom to show. Well when he as a no show and she walked into the woods I made my way to the back corner of the field and into the woods to set up. I decided to give it an hour before I started back to the big field where I heard the Tom across the road this morning.
Well that spot didn't pan out, so once again I packed up my gear and headed to the truck.
I was going to head back and try to get on the Tom I had heard in the morning.

So I got to the parking spot a little before noon I grabbed my shotgun and off I went. When I first glassed him strutting like a stud in the field I knew it was on and that he was my only play. When I got to the 1 on the map that's were I stopped to see where he was and devise a game plan. It was 12:21 when I started the second leg of the stalk. When I saw him in the field he was working down that way and I knew if I wanted to fill my tag I would have to put the sneak on him. I just didn't have the time to drop a couple decoys and coax him up to see me, which I am sure he would've done... he was lookin' for love. I had to go back across the field follow the treeline and then cut back towards the Tom to get within range. When I got to the KZ-(kill zone... oops gave it away) I figured it was about 40 yards.I waited until he picked his head up out of strut, I put the red dot on his neck and squeezed the trigger. He just dropped without a flop I was amazed, I was ready with a follow-up but it was not needed. It was awesome I just put the sneak on a Boss Tom and made a clean kill from around 40 yards with 15 minutes to spare.
I would have much rather called him and had him strutting on video and taken him at 15 yards but I just didn't have the time.
Anyway..... he weighed in at 25 pounds had a 10 3/8's inch beard and 1 1/8 inch spurs, he was at least a 3 year old Boss.

Weight 25#, beard 10 3/8", spurs 1 1/8"

Almost a limb hanger

he can ride in my truck

The one thing I figured out this year is I have to buy at least 2 more pair of lucky underwear.

3 days in the same skivvies is just toooooo long.

Start of 2017 Fishing season

Mike and I went up yesterday to Lake Michigan to try our luck.
Good news and Bad news: I had luck and Mike didn't, well I shouldn't say that, he did snag a decent sized shad (trash) that is now seagull/coyote food on shore. He did try all day and didn't give up though. We had a pretty good day, the sun was out but it was pretty gusty all day. I caught both my fish on a red eye shad in red sexy shad color. We even stopped at Bass Pro and Mike bought the same thing I was using, still no luck. Well I guess just being with me and netting my fish should be enough to give him that warm fuzzy feeling. 😀

Well that and I let him keep the fish...... I wonder what he told his wife?

Time to put the 2016 season to bed

Yep it's at the end of another year. And this is how my next to last coyote hunt ended.

I just couldn't understand why my feet were getting wet and how the sticks were able to penetrate my boots. The good news was the weather was nice and I only hunted on them this way from noon on. Then the best news was I went to Rural King and got a pair for 18$.



I hit the sale at Rural King just right I got a pair of boots and an Under Armor beanie for 30 bucks which is just an unbelievable price. It was so good I went back the next day and got another pair of boots and another UA beanie.
Well enough small talk here's the stats from this year:

   2016  Hunting Season Breakdown

 Species    |  Days Afield  |  Number of Critters Taken

  Turkey                  6                           1

  Deer                      8                           0

  Dove                     3                          14

  Rabbit                   0                           0

  Pheasant                1                           1

                               Coon                Did not hunt/no fur market                          

  Coyote/Fox           3                           0

         Waterfowl            33             22 ducks/29 geese

Total                      54                          67

Well I can say I doubled my duck count but went down on the geese. I spent more time afield for deer and turkey and didn't capitalize on either, but it was still a good time. I got out a couple more days than last year and brought home more game.
I don't know... I think I had a pretty well rounded year this year and hope 2017 will yield about the same.
This summer is going to be kinda depressing, I'm selling my boat and won't have another until next spring. I am going to be working more this summer to help pay off some bills and save for the next boat. I am going to try and get out and do some fishing just not sure how much or where.
Anyway Turkey season is next and I have already put in for the draw at Mississinewa. I don't think I'll get it (I got drawn last year) but there's always hope. If I do need a spot Mike has mentioned that he's got tons of turkeys. So who knows, maybe this year I'll go shoot one of them dumb private prop. turkey's.
Anyway hope your year went as good as mine.
Stay safe and enjoy what life gives you because it can just as easily be taken away.