Tuesday, December 13, 2011

RUSH OF THE FLUSH!!

Well Denali's leg is finally back to 100% after he twisted his leg pretty good in early October. He was very excited and worked very well pheasant hunting this past weekend. Dry, cold and windy conditions doesn't make for ideal upland hunting conditions but He managed to put up four birds (3 roosters and 1 hen).
Felt really good to get back into the fields and watch my young pup turn into a man. He worked the last bird of the day for a good 25 minutes and by the time he caught up to the hen it was totally buried in some of the thickest marsh grass I have ever seen and managed to get her up.

Winds were blowing at about 15 mph so making a good first shot was a must. Once those birds get up into that wind they are VERY tough to hit. I knocked down two roosters with my first two shots. We also saw one rooster run a crossed the road on the way down to Mt. Horeb.

I am shooting a Remington Wingmaster 870 this year and love it. By far the easiest pump shotgun I have ever swung! A very nice upland gun in my eyes.




Friday, December 9, 2011

Pheasant Hunting Tomorrow

I am hoping that the past couple of days the cold temps have froze over a nice section of thick marsh that normally always produces a limit of birds. Last year my dog Denali and I hit that spot three times in the late season and every single time we kicked up 3-6 roosters and got a limit 2/3 times (missed a couple one day). Going to hunt the Mazo Unit also if there isn't too many guys out there.

Picture of a hunt from a couple years ago in Southern Dane County.


Sunday, December 4, 2011

Good start and finish (first trout and last trout of 2011)

First trout of the year was a 24 inch Brown Trout

Last trout of the year was this 23 inch Rainbow



Would be nice to start and finish like this again.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

2011 Deer Season in review

Well the 2011 traditional 9 day deer hunt has closed. You still can harvest deer with a Muzzleloader until December 7th and Bow until January 8th. For rifle hunters there is a antler-less deer hunt which runs December 8th-11th.
This year we was another very successful deer hunt for us. We hunt in Northern Grant County with around 30 others from the area and 6 that make the trip every year from Mississippi. Total we shot around 27 deer in the group out of roughly 1,600 acres that we lease and hunt. This year the numbers seemed to be up slightly from last year (WI season numbers reflect that +3%)we averaged about 6 sightings per sit. Opening morning we always stand hunt until noon and stand hunt the final 2 hours of day light through the week. During the afternoon we plan and coordinate a number of very detailed drives which always produce. Some very nice bucks were taken this year (2 wall hangers) and we passed on many smaller bucks. We all love to eat vension and use that as our primary source of meat throughout the year. I harvested two does and a 11 pointer so supply enough meat for the family.

Another safe and successful season!
Now back to bird/small game and ice fishing.

Friday, November 11, 2011

7 days from Wisconsin deer season!

Well we are only 7 days away! Today during my lunch I headed over to the Dane County Sheriff facility for the annual Dane County Sheriff sight in. This year I am shooting a new rifle a 30.06 Remington 7600 pump rifle. Had a 1 inch grouping of three shots at 50 yards dead center so the gun is ready! Last weekend we finalized stand locations on the property in Grant County and I am very excited about my stand placement this year! I am located on a large saddle ridge that runs down into a deep wooded valley all mature hardwoods with corn and brushy edges on all sides. Tons of great trails and buck sign all over!

Wish everyone a successful and SAFE hunt!
Little one I shot during the October antler-less hunt.......... Not proud of this at all but sure will taste good!

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Wisconsin's aim to boost hunting and fishing participation. Step in the right direction?

MADISON, Wis. -- A bill designed to boost participation in hunting and fishing in Wisconsin by offering steep discounts to first-time license applicants has passed the Legislature's budget committee.

The Joint Finance Committee voted unanimously Wednesday to pass the measure. It now heads to the full Legislature for consideration.

The bill also creates a new task force to come up with ways to improve the recruitment of hunters, anglers and trappers.

Under the bill, license fees for first-time resident hunters would drop to $5. Depending on the type of license, those now cost between $7 and $24. Fees for non-resident hunters would also drop about 50 percent.

The measure also establishes a half-credit for high school students who complete a Department of Natural Resources hunter safety program.

To find out more on this, visit Channel 3000's Search page.

Monday, October 24, 2011

Sunday Squirrel Hunting

Went out early Sunday Morning with my Cousin Martin looking for squirrels and possibly a turkey. This is my cousin Martin's first year hunting so I figured the best way to teach someone how to hunt is by starting with bushy tails. Most of us learned how to hunt by still hunting and two stepping the woods for squirrels. Doesn't matter what you are hunting if you learn the basics of animal movements how to read the woods and understand bedding areas, feeding areas and travel corridors you will be successful. The section of woods we were hunting today is a large deep valley with mature hardwoods. This area is loaded with squirrels,rabbits/pheasants on the edges turkey and deer. Martin was getting the hang of things and walking at a good pace and taking a seat on a log or boulder and waiting a good 20-30 minutes before walking another 30 yards. Needless to say he is learning pretty fast! He got his limit of nice squirrels in about 2 hours of walking. Martin is still using a 12 gauge for now, but I am going to have him switch to a .22 here soon. I just want him to have some early success so he won't get too frustrated.
This trip was also a deer scouting trip for me and I found a new place to hang a stand. Deer sign everywhere! We also saw about 6-7 deer during the morning. The turkeys were only heard and not seen.

This weekend I will either pheasant or turkey hunt with the other option chasing some Coho's on the Lake Michigan Tribs.


Tuesday, October 18, 2011

DNR Surveying people who stopped trout fishing

The Wisconsin DNR has started surveying trout anglers that recent gave up the sport. The DNR is mailing out 800+ surveys to people who at one time were considered "Avid" trout fisherman or someone who purchased a trout stamp every year from 2004-2008. I am looking forward to seeing what the results say.

Read the Article


Sunday, October 16, 2011

Weekend Deer hunting

Well hunting season has officially started for me. This weekend I spent some time hunting for deer during the first gun deer hunt in Wisconsin this fall. This hunt is a antler-less only deer hunt. I went up and hunted in Richland County with two friends on about 450 acres of private hardwoods.
Saw a ton of wildlife sitting in the stand Saturday morning and also had two deer come right in before shooting light. Heard my buddy shoot from his stand about 300 yards away so I get down and start still hunting towards him. About 70 yards from my stand I jump 5 deer and I got one........... Of course it was the smallest one in the group.
Another friend of mine was out turkey hunting and got one in the afternoon and another friend shot one with his bow while deer hunting.

I couldn't hunt on Sunday, but the report back was both guys saw about 6-7 deer. Both were bow hunting today and the deer stayed out of range.






Can't wait for opening morning in November!! This was last years opener. I shot a big doe and basically helped recover and drag these bucks out the rest of the day. I have shot a deer 5 years in a row now (only been deer hunting for 5 years), but I haven't shot a buck since my first deer which was a big 8 pointer. Hopefully this year I can bag another buck!

Now it's time to turn to Turkeys, Pheasants and small game!

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

More than 50% of Wisconsin anglers caught a Muskie this year?

So much for the fish of 10,000 casts?


Now that the inland trout season as ended I focus my attention on hunting and fishing for Walleyes, Salmon, Pike and Muskies. I came a crossed this article saying that the fish of 10,000 casts has now become the fish of 3,000.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Great last trout fishing trip

Headed out to my new personal favorite trout stream today. This is the little unmarked stream that runs through my friends hunting property. Fishing was very good today catching a ton of brook and brown trout. Most of the fish were 13-18 inches, but I ended the season stopping at a bridge on Black Earth Creek on the way home and caught a 22 inch Rainbow. Trout were just slamming Rapalas today and even small trout I was reeling in. I had a HUGE brown at least 25+ inches try to inhale the small brook trout pictured below. I had a video of the Big rainbow and a nice 18 inch brown from today I have to figure out how to post those.


Oh yeah and I had to take a trip to the ER! While unhooking the big Rainbow she got a treble hook nice and deep in my left hand! That is always fun.






Friday, September 23, 2011

Caught two 20 inch trout today after work (Pictures)

Landed a 20 inch brown and a 21 inch rainbow today after work. Ran home changed really quick grabbed my trout rod (with a rainbow trout Rapala flat rap) and out the door.
Pretty nice living so close to a world class trout stream.
Only got pictures of the Rainbow since I didn't bring my camera and I was forced to keep this big rainbow. The thing inhaled the Rapala and was bleeding pretty bad.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Monday, September 12, 2011

Monday, September 5, 2011

Labor day trout fishing

Fished Vernon and Crawford counties today with my cousin Martin. We targeted the Gays Mills area looking for Brooks and Browns on a truly perfect day high of 68 and sunny. Although it is not the ideal trout trout fishing weather the area surrounding Gays Mills is utterly beautiful! We caught a good number of trout with a bunch of average sized fish. My cousin got his second inland sweep today and I ended the day with the biggest trout with a 18 inch brown torut. About 60 percent of the fish were caught on night crawlers with the rest on spinners. I got some really nice pictures but my laptop is currently down so it might be awhile until I get the pictures uploaded.
The air was very cool this morning and some of the trees are starting to change colors. This means only a couple weeks left in Wisconsin's inland trout season. Salmon and migratory trout are starting to stage on the Great Lakes tributaries. So get out now why you still can!
I need to fish Crawford County more really a world class area to fish. I have Sauk, Iowa, Dane, Grant and a part of Richland county pretty much covered. Now it is time to explore that area even more next year.

Monday, August 22, 2011

Trout fishing report 8-20-2011

Whenever I see a forecast for a high of 72 with rain in August I will go trout fishing! My cousin Martin wanted to go with so we hit the road at around 4:45 am. Driving West the weather got worse and we ran into a couple pretty decent sized thunderstorms. I wanted to check out at least 3 new streams, but because of the rain I figured they might be blown out so we headed down to Big Spring Creek for a bit until the weather settled a bit. We did very well on Big Spring catching a good number of fish including having my Cousin Martin catching his first inland sweep (brown, brook, bow.
We decided to check out a small stream that is not listed that runs through a friends property in Northern Grant County. I have never seen it before, but he swears it is full of nice trout (he is not a fisherman at all) We pull up to his driveway and head down the valley until we reach the water. I look over at my cousin and say "JACKPOT" the stream just looks amazing and is full of brookies with some browns mixed in. We didn't catch and monster, but we did see a huge Brown and Brookie swipe at the Panther Martins. We kept 3 each ranging from 12-14 inches and headed out. Dropped off a 12 pack of Capital Brewery Fest and got to talking with my buddy and he said anytime we wanna head back there to go for it. Just gotta give him a call during the bow season so he knows we are down near the stream. I have hunted here with him and his Dad for many years and never even knew this stream was back there.
I have a feeling some monster Browns will run up this gem to spawn in the fall since it runs into a well know large stream about 2 miles away. Would not shock me if we caught a tiger in here either with the mix of Brookies and Browns.




Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Artic Grayling coming back to Michigan?










I found this article very interesting. I love seeing Native animals coming back to the areas which they belong. I would be pretty surprised to see Grayling once again swimming in the waters of our Eastern neighbors but you never know!

Can we bring the Grayling back?

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Feels good to get back to trout fishing!!!!!!

Alarm went off this morning at 4:45 am............... Wake up and all I can hear is pouring rain and Thunder. It has been awhile since I last trout fished and landed a MONSTER RAINBOW (Which I know I still have to post the photo). The heat has been killing me and I wanted to fish so terribly bad. So I said screw it, I am committed now packed up and headed west.
It was raining so hard I had to pull over twice on hwy 14 near Mazo and at one point there was about 2 feet of water completely covering the road. I stopped at two streams I normally fish (small, rocky and clear)which normally produces some monster browns starting in August-September. I was shocked to see them totally blown out, I have never seen these streams even slightly murky before even after a big rain.
Heading North about 15 minutes and found clear water which still has a small stain. Had to sit in the truck until about 7:10 for the storms to stop. And once they did the fishing blew up!
I stopped counting fish after 30 and 90% of them were decent fish 13+ inches. I even got the slam catching a Brown, Brook and Rainbow on back-to-back-to-back casts which was a first for me. Fish were found in fast water actively feeding on pretty much anything, but they really liked floating rapala's today.
Caught two really nice browns that I will have to measure the mark on the rod this afternoon. I would guess they both are between 17-20 inches.
Brook Trout are really starting to show fall spawning colors and the rainbow was one of the most acrobatic fish I have ever seen.





Friday, July 29, 2011

Elk being reintroduced to Jackson County?

Plans to reintroduce Elk into the 68000 acres Black River State Forest were put on hold since 2001. Now talks are starting up again and it appears the central part of the state will get it's own Elk Herd.
Plans are to bring in 50-60 additional Elk from Alberta and split the animals (Clam Lake Herd and Black River Herd).
Jackson County is located in the Central Forest and has a large amount of suitable land for this native species to thrive again. I deer hunt in the area and I absolutely love this idea!! Here is a article from the Lacrosse Tribute. I also posted some information about the Clam Lake Elk Herd.



Black River Elk


Clam Lake Herd

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Wisconsin Cougar Killed in Car Crash in Connecticut?




"HARTFORD, Conn. -- Wisconsin wildlife officials said DNA tests show a cougar that roamed Minnesota and Wisconsin was killed in a car crash in Connecticut last month.

The cougar apparently had walked halfway across the country from South Dakota.

Connecticut environmental officials said Tuesday the roughly 2,000-mile journey was one of the longest ever recorded for a land mammal. They said the animal originated in the Black Hills region of South Dakota and was tracked by DNA from its hair and droppings as it passed through Minnesota and Wisconsin in 2009 and 2010.

It was the first confirmed wild mountain lion in Connecticut in more than 100 years.

The lean, 140-pound male was killed by a car in the New Haven suburb of Milford on June 11.

Tests determined the cat was likely the same one that had been seen earlier in Greenwich, about 30 miles from New York City.

The cougar would have traveled 1,055 miles in a straight line, a new record for movement of a known cougar. However, biologists believe it walked roughly 2,000 miles, traveling through Canada and down through New York into Connecticut."


----Channel3000.com


Pretty interesting how little we really know about the movements of Cougars separating and looking for new territories. Who really knows how many of these large predators are roaming the state at any given time.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Madison Chain water temps!!!!!

WOW

Lake Mendota - 80.8 (Main basin)
Lake Monona - 79.7
Monona Bay - 84.0

yikes.
I haven't been fishing much at all this summer do to the damn temps. Gonna start fishing for some Mississippi Catfish with a family friend soon hopefully.

Don't worry I will be posting my Big Rainbow picture soon.



Check out the temps here: infosyahara.org/watertemp

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Wait til you see the size of this rainbow...........

Well I didn't make it out this weekend since the storms were totally pounding the area I was planning on fishing.
I did make it out for a quick trip today and wait until you see the size of the rainbow I caught. I have never caught a rainbow out of this creek before and they haven't been stocked there in several years.

Let's just say the fish will be on the wall. Got one good picture that I will post here in the next couple days.


Other than that............... I haven't been trout fishing in some time. Muskies have been on my mind catching some smaller fish (22-28) at night and we have been having some MONSTERS rise and follow. Water temps are now too high for muskies so I will have to wait until fall again to chase them.

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Trout fishing in the morning






Getting up very early tomorrow morning and hitting some small cold spring creeks tucked away in Southwestern Wisconsin.
After trout fishing in the morning I will most likely take a quick nap and possibly do some water warm fishing later in the afternoon.

Keep an eye out for a report with pictures tomorrow.

Friday, July 1, 2011

New puppy pictures (nothing better than a lab puppy)




Thus far little Kato has been a great dog. Making very little fuss at night in his kennel, couldn't care less about loud noises (even a T-Storm) and is taking to potty training very well. I will start his formal training program in about 3 weeks. I let my dogs just be puppies for awhile and let their confidence build up before training them.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Another hunting buddy

My wife and I just picked up another black lab puppy. We have a 2 year old black lab named Denali who has been just a great dog! Awesome house pet and an animal in the field.
Last night we picked up a new bundle of joy a 7 week old black lab pup name Kato (Indian word meaning lake). First night went pretty well, Denali seemed like he was starting to warm up to the little guy. He also slept pretty well only waking up a couple of times whining.
I just love this breed with their outgoing personalities and temperament. Denali just loves other dogs, cats and people and we are going to socialize Kato the same way. Going to introduce him to water this weekend and see how he reacts.

Here are some hunting pictures of Denali and I last year.




I will post some pictures of the little guy tomorrow when I get them uploaded to my computer.