End of Seasons
Let’s call it the end of the seasons. I fished the river twice this past week; once with Don and once by myself. The weather was great, but fishing was poor. Don and I came in with three saugers and one walleye and when I went by myself I kept two saugers. Frustrated, I put the boat away; end of the open water season.
Today was the end of the deer season. We had two weeks of incredibly nice weather. Our group ended up with four deer; could have had more, but we’ll leave them for next year.
On Thursday, Don and I took another ride down through the forest area. We didn’t see any deer in the forest, but did see a few ruffed grouse and got three. On our travels, we came upon an old fire tower with the trees growing up through the base and a dilapidated old cabin that we guessed was used by those manning the tower during fire season. That was kinda neat; it was a good day.
An Old Fire Tower
The Old Cabin
The Ruffed Grouse that kept me company by the deer stand
A little more deer hunting
I’m convinced that it is easier to get a deer with a rifle than with a camera. Saturday afternoon I had a beautiful eight point buck within ten yards of the deer stand. He came up from the blind side and was there when I first saw him. I made a slight move and he bounced off a few yards and then walked away with his tail standing straight up. It was a kodak moment that got botched. Sunday morning a nice doe stood broadside in the trail; first one side; then the other. The darn auto focus didn’t seem to work when I tried to use the zoom feature. I guess I’m not cut out to be a wildlife photographer.
Wally got a nice fork horn on Saturday morning. We are now four for four.
On Saturday after lunch, Wally, Nolan and I fished the river for a little over an hour. We caught about a dozen walleyes and saugers. We kept three small saugers and two nice walleyes; released the rest that were all small.
Wally with Nolan and Aviana
A nice doe
Timber Wolf
Thursday, Don and I took a ride in the forest area; not necessarily looking for something to shoot, but to see what we might see. We stopped three or four times to take short walks on some trails. One time I was standing on the road waiting for Don to come back and I saw something on the road. I didn’t have my gun with a scope, just my .410 bird gun and I just assumed it was a deer; but when we drove up to that spot, there were no deer tracks just wolf tracks. Then, several miles down the road, about 100 yards in front of the vehicle, out steps this big black timber wolf. Of course, he didn’t stand around long enough to pose for a picture, but we did get a good look at him. We did see three deer and four ruffed grouse for the day.
Deer season is going good. Gerry got a nice fork horn on Sunday morning. I got a doe and a bonus deer for the table on Saturday afternoon. Wally saw some deer over the weekend, but nothing that tempted him to shoot. Terry was not in the right place at the right time and didn’t see any.
Wally, Terry and I fished Saturday during the day for a couple hours and only caught one little sauger and a little walleye. Monday evening I fished for a couple hours and caught two little saugers; nothing to keep. Wednesday, I was seriously thinking of putting the boat away for the season, but gave the river another try. I fished late afternoon and caught five walleyes; kept three from 15″ to 18″ and released a 19″ & 26″. Surprise, surprise.
Two, two and two
It has taken until November, but finally some time and a couple nice days to take a walk in the woods and look for a grouse. I did that Thursday morning and got two. Finished the day by fishing near the airport for a short time before dark. It was a bit chilly at 35 degrees and I wasn’t too encouraged, getting only a couple of perch bites the first hour, but then in fifteen minutes I caught two nice walleyes and two saugers. We may have a deer season bite on the river after all.
A kind of neat sight, is to get a somewhat close-up look at the Tundra Swans that stop on their migration south. They like the rice paddies south of town.
Two ruffed grouse
Two nice November walleyes
Tundra Swans making a stop on their way south
