It has been a successful deer hunting season. There have been five of us hunting; Gerry & Wally; Terry from Bemidji, brother-in-law, Bob, from Colorado and myself. We’ve gotten nine deer; four bucks, four does and a button buck. The weekends were the most productive with seven of the nine deer gotten on the weekends. In between, it was pretty quiet; not much going on. Bob got a nice doe on opening day and Gerry got a buck on day two. On day eight, Wally and I got eight point bucks less than an hour apart.

Wally & Arvid with their eight-point bucks

We are having very nice weather for early November, but that’s going to change. The deer season opener this coming weekend has a forecast for rain/snow and cold temperatures.

After finishing some yard chores this morning, I thought that a couple hours on the river would be in order before the weather changes. Fishing reports have been mixed; some good and others not so good. I would say that the two hours I fished was not bad. I caught and released three walleyes in the slot; a 20″, 26″ & 27″;  kept two nice walleyes and a sauger; enough for a meal. I also caught and released a 50″ sturgeon. That fish put up quite a fight; maybe twenty, twenty-five minutes and when it was over I quit and headed for home. They were all nice fish.

There is a fish that is native to our waters and is caught with some regularity in the fall and it’s a Mooneye. It is sometimes difficult to tell the difference between a Tullibee, a Whitefish and Mooneye. I’m told that if it has teeth, it’s a Mooneye. The Mooneye has large eyes and a small mouth which makes it hard to get a hook in them; they just peck away at a minnow and run.

A 50″ inch sturgeon

A 27″ walleye

Mooneye

My friend, Chuck, is back in Minnesota for a visit with family and friends. He fished with his brother for a few days around the Ottertail area before making his way north to visit his sister and then to our place. We got in two days of fishing; Thursday, a very nice sunny day and Friday, a day of light rain. Fishing on the river wasn’t great, but good enough to keep us happy. We fished the middle of the river in 18-19 feet of water in the middle of the day, then fished the shoreline in 11-12 feet an hour of so before dark. We caught numerous little fish each time out and enough eaters for two nice lunches and a limit for him to go home with. We caught five nice walleyes in the slot that were from 19″ to 23″, but no big fish. We also caught three sturgeon from 30″-36″. Once we each had one on at the same time; that proved to be interesting and it was suprising that the line tangle was no worse than it was.

Chuck with a nice 23″ walleye; big fish for the two days

It’s MEA weekend and the area has fishermen and bird hunters all over the place. It’s the busiest that I’ve seen the river in a long time.

On Friday, Willard and I went for a ride and a walk in the woods. The weather was good and it’s a great time of the year to be out in the woods. There doesn’t seem to be that many grouse; we only saw three and got two of them. We talked to a couple other parties and that seems to be what they were doing, also.

We got back to Willard’s late in the afternoon; added a little clothing and went fishing for a couple hours. Willard and I caught and kept three nice walleye and released a number of little ones. I had fished the river Thursday evening up by Hattie’s and brought nothing home. That’s not very good for this time of the year and I haven’t observed anybody else catching much of anything the past couple of days either.

Willard with a nice 19″ walleye

Two ruffed grouse

Fall colors in the forest; Tamarack ready to drop their needles

Last Saturday, Terry and Bev came up for the day. Diane and Bev spent the day at the church bazaar while Terry and I did some work out by the deer stands. Later in the afternoon Terry and I fished the river for about three hours. We fished five different locations at various depths and caught fish every place we stopped. We must have caught thirty or more;  walleye, sauger, perch and a northern; a little bit of everything, but nothing big enough to keep.

Sunday, I fished for a little over an hour before dark, thinking that a couple fish for a fresh meal would be nice. Like the evening before, the action was steady and I did catch a nice 17″ walleye and a small sauger to bring home.

On Tuesday, after a trip to Bemidji to take care of some Senior Center business, I fished for a while before dark. I started out fishing the middle of the river in nineteen feet and caught several small walleyes and sauger; then moved near shore in about eleven feet of water. I caught and released two walleyes, 19″ and 21-1/2″, kept three nice eaters and a couple small perch. It appears that a few nicer fish have moved up river; fishing was good.

An October evening on the Rainy

A nice 19″ Walleye

Not long after I posted the report yesterday I was at meeting and got the word that in the past few days the walleyes have moved from eighteen feet of water outside the Gap into the Gap and Four-Mile Bay. Fishing is supposed to be good in that area. It looks like the fish are on their way up the river. This morning the ground is white with a good frost and that won’t hurt the fishing.

It’s the time of the year to pick Low Bush Cranberries and twice this past week I’ve been out with friends to gather a few. The word is that this is a good year and I’ll vouch for that; it’s the best I’ve ever seen. They are a real treat once made into muffins, sauce, etc.

Low Bush Cranberries

We old fogies sometimes wonder about these next generations, but what would we do without them? A couple of weeks ago I sat down to write a post, low and behold, I had no access to the server that my fishing report resided on. Nor could anybody else access the report. Well, thanks to Jonathan and a friend of his, we are almost back to where we were and who knows what the cause of the problem was.

Fall fishing has been slow to heat up. We haven’t had a good frost yet and the water temperature has not cooled off. Some shiner minnows have showed up in the river, but there is not much current to draw the fish in. The report I was going to post a couple weeks ago was when Willard and I went out one afternoon. We caught a few small saugers; a couple nice walleyes and I caught a 55 inch sturgeon. It was quite a fish and took nearly thirty minutes to land it.

I have been out once since then and fished near town. I caught a half dozen small saugers; a large perch, a small sturgeon, and two nice walleyes 16″ and a 24-1/2″. All the reports I’ve heard since have not been very good.

A 55″ Sturgeon (The chart would have it at about 40 lbs. and 28 years old)

Willard with a nice Fall walleye

With a follow up at the clinic in Bemidji this week, it created a nice opportunity to take the trailer and stay at the Lake Bemidji State Park for a couple of days. We went down on Wednesday and after Terry was done working we took his boat to a little lake north of Bemidji for an evening of bluegill fishing. The weather was great and so was the fishing. We must have caught over fifty bluegills plus a couple of rock bass and a bullhead. All but a half dozen of the bluegills were between eight and ten inches. We did mostly the catch and release thing; keeping a limit for a nice meal. It was like Terry said; “that was the best bluegill fishing I’ve had in many years”. Also, the follow up report at the clinic was great too.

Terry with a nice Bluegill

We did a double more than once

A Nice Bluegill

We have been having great weather lately in northern Minnesota. There has been plenty of sunshine with good temperatures;  don’t need to use the air conditioner. Depending on where and how you’ve been fishing, the fishing has been pretty good. Even the river has fish, but most of them are small. I fished a couple of times last week and caught a lot of small walleye and sauger and one that was 21″, nothing to bring home. The river current has slowed considerably; now a 1/2 oz. jig or sinker will do what was taking 1-1/2 oz. a few weeks ago. The sturgeon are getting active and it’s pretty easy to catch one if you want to.  We are in the season to harvest a sturgeon if a person wants to. The season ends September 30th and a special tag is required to take one. Only those between 45 & 50 inches can be taken. I’ve never taken one, but I might do it one of these day; they are great smoked.

August sunset on the Rainy River

We are taking a bit of a break from fishing activities and devoting some time to the garden and blueberry season. The blueberries this year are not what we were expecting nor as good as last year. This past week Diane and I went twice with Don and Sue into Canada to what is called the “Split Rock” area northeast of here. We each picked about a five quart pail and got plenty of exercise in the process. Maybe we are just getting old and don’t pick very fast any more.

Nice blueberries, but not that many