tiger on camera!

Sunday funday!!!

https://fbcdn-video-a.akamaihd.net/cfs-ak-ash4/437698/473/951404795693_7941.mp4?oh=49b62ca17f59047feb6687d85591ef3d&oe=4F692400&__gda__=1332290560_9b1844d4ec28aaf1b78290e518a5bd75

Year round fishing and no trout stamp?

Some interesting questions will be rised during this years spring hearings. One of these topics will be to get rid of the salmon and trout stamp program and just roll these costs into one fishing license fee. They are also looking into having no closed gamefish season....... And not to mention a Sandhill Crane hunt.


What are your thoughts?

More info at the link below

http://dnr.wi.gov/news/DNRNews_article_Lookup.asp?id=2070

22 inch rainbow on good ole BEC!!!

Landed a nice Rainbow !22 inches and a chunk.

Also caught 7 Browns and 1 more Rainbow in one hour.

good ole BEC

Slammed the rapala ultra lite series minnow in rainbow pattern.

3-10-2012

Got out today for 2 hours and it was a total bust! Caught four 13 inch browns. Wind drove me nuts....... Guests had to have gotten to 40 mph. The high sun also didn't help but whatever I did find some nice spots to jump shot ducks this fall.
I started out fishing Trout creek in Iowa County. Years ago this was a great stream and now I can't say the same....... Very disappointing to see what has happened to this system. Where the creek use to have a great hard gravel bottom now is buried under slit and sand. This creek needs some major rehab to return to glory.
After that I just drove around to do some scouting. Found one new stream that might have some potential but we will see.

On a side note I did see a Fisher Cat! Third one I've seen in two years in Southwestern WI. Much like the Black Bears they also must be expanding their range. Sandhills cranes are starting to reappear in large numbers. Also saw a huge coyote and turkey, deer and 1 pheasant.

I hope I can get out and fish tomorrow night for and hour or two.

Outdoors WI-Mecan River Restoration

http://www.mptv.org/video/watch/?id=1282

Opening weekend report

Well it is finally here! I was able to head west on Saturday with my uncle, cousin, and two friends on Saturday. I split everyone up into teams of two so we could cover a lot of water and come up with a good pattern. I fished with my friend Tony and we targeted headwater streams to hopefully keep us out of the 25 mph winds!
The first couple pools the fish wanted NOTHING to do with the panther martins we offered. We made a quick change and switched to a brown trout ultra lite minnow (2.5 inches). That was the ticket! From that moment on things were on fire. Tony ended up that section with 22 Browns and Brookies and I had 33. Hoping everyone else found fish we drove up stream to pick up my cousin and uncle...... They fish with spinners about 90 percent of the time so I was worried that they were experiencing the same scenario that we did. I asked them "well what's the word?" they responded back "pretty good! I even caught the sweep!"..... Boy was I happy for them! I was my uncle's first time trout fishing this early and I was worried because he HATES the cold.
They ended up catching about 14 each with most of the luck coming from a beaver pond that was created over the late fall.

Well it's only 10:30 my uncle says "let's go fish some more." Hearing that come from his mouth was unreal...... He thinks 50 is too cold now here he is with 25 mile per hour winds and temperatures in the upper 20's wanting to fish more. I think it is safe to say he has officially caught the trout bug.

They wanted to go fish the Blue River another 25 minutes away and I warned them there will be 100 other fisherman there and they should stick with the smaller systems. They wanted to go chase some brooder Rainbows we saw during deer season below a bridge. Tony and I headed to check out a new stream much closer in Iowa County. I typically don't fish new water on opening day and frankly think it's a dumb idea to even try. But needless to say we did and I sure am glad! Brookie and big brown heaven in a small beautiful stream. On that section we stopped counting fish after about 20 per person. Caught a bunch of really nice browns and Brookies and had a couple bigger fish swipe at the lure. Average Brookie was 11-13 inches and the Browns were running 14-17.
The group that went to fish Blue River said there was a ton of guys out (go figure) and they each caught about 5 browns each.

All in all a great opener considering the weather!



Sunday..... I need to get a 20 incher......... My first trout last year was a long 24 inch Brown. And the football 18.5 in brown I caught Saturday just didn't cut the mustard for me. I need a 20 I kept saying.
I get up and fish Western Dane County on a stretch of stream I've caught dozens of 20 inch class fish before. Typically I fish near springs or upper headwaters in the early season near consistent water temps. Just a couple degrees can turn fish on or off this early in the season. I fished the lower section having some luck in the past this early just 3 years ago I caught a 22 inch Brown opening weekend here.I fished the entire section and caught 5 browns and one 19 inch Brown...... Damn it I thought for sure he would bust the 20 mark when I saw him hit. No 20 incher for me this opening weekend but a great time fishing with family and friends and enjoying this beautiful state we live in.

Pictures coming shorty camera died taking pictures of the 19.

Stream conditions update

Checked 4 streams today in Western Dane County and I'm happy to say that conditions have improved! 3 or the 4 stream only had a slight stain but fishable. We are under a winter storm watch for Friday with 4-8 inches of snow forecasted. I am happy to hear snow and not another dousing of rain that would threaten the opener.

It will be very interesting to see how active the fish will be since we have been under a very active weather pattern this week.

Streams are high and dirty

All streams in Iowa and Western Dane county that I checked are high and muddy. The success of opening weekend all depends on the weather Friday. If we get a good rain on Friday 90 percent of the streams and rivers will be high and dirty. Let's hope for a little snow or for this system to miss us.


They are calling currently calling for a windy opening day with winds gusting to 25 mph.

Weather worth watching for opener

Looks like southern Wisconsin will miss the major snowstorm forecasted for the Central and Northern part of the state. Lacrosse, Vernon and counties to the north are still expected to get some snow and southern counties get mostly rain. Friday will have yet another system move in with more potential rain which would melt the snow pack on the west and north facing bluffs...... This has the potential to really mess things up. Saturday is forecasted currently to have windy conditions with snow showers early with a high of 32 but falling temps during the day to drop into the mid 20's.

I will be keeping a close eye out and will post stream conditions for Dane and Iowa counties with the weather turns.

ice fishing pictures from last weekend

Last ice fishing trip of the season

Well we wanted to get out ice fishing one more time this season........ So four of us drove up to Lake Puckaway in Central Wisconsin looking for some pike. This lake holds the Wisconsin state record northern at 38 pounds! This large shallow lake which is apart of the fox river systems supports great size and numbers of game fish. Pike and walleyes are the most common but it also produces a good catfish and bass fishery. We set up at 8:30-5:30 for a all day fishing trip and the action was good. We had flags all day but only landed 4 pike (27,28,28,30) and one large bass. We were running huge shinners in the middle of the lake in about 4.5 feet of water. We also experienced a good amount of drops which is uncommon for us since we use light line and smaller hooks. We believe the drops were from catfish of large perch. Martin had a big one on which broke his line and he also had a bite off.

I have some pictures I will add soon as well.

New Rapala Ultra Lite Series

Check out these great new lures coming from Rapala. I had to pick a couple up today when I saw them. They look like a hybrid of the x-rap and husky jerk and comes in 1.5/2.5 inch baits. Great patterns offered I picked up brown trout and rainbow trout patterns today. Nice heavy lure in a small package should allow for great casting.

They also have a shad rap style in smaller sizes and lipless crank baits. Great presentation to change things up!

The brown trout pattern looks like a sure thing!

Check them out here

http://www.rapala.com/Ultra-Light-Minnow/Ultra%20Light%20Minnow,default,pd.html

Winter in review

Well it has been over a month since my last post. Things got insanely busy at work which limited my time drastically. Over the past month we have finally got out ice fishing for pike and bass mainly. Action has been steady with some nice fish caught on tip ups fishing in 8-12 feet of water around green weeds. We haven't fished for panfish much this winter because of the late ice. Typically we like to target panfish during the early ice period but once the ice did form the fish were already in mid-winter patterns.
Hunting was very good with the warm temperatures! Rabbits, pheasants, grouse, turkey, deer and other animals should be in good supply next year!


And the great news is trout season starts in just 16 days!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

Wisconsin DNR updating Beaver Program is good news for trout streams.

Getting it's first modifications in 20 years.

Updating the program

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.