DEEP WATER SPOON TRICKS - Part two

Author's note: This is the final part of yesterday's blog. I'll be out on the bay Thursday and will probably use some of the tactics detailed here.

I sometimes run two rods, with a live minnow on the second. Keep this presentation simple, such as a split shot and plain hook rig. The second rod needs to “fish itself” because you are going to pay a lot of attention to the spoon while you work it. Choose a large minnow as bait since it can attract more attention that a smaller size. Two and one half to three inches is best. Remember, we are not fishing for small perch. On the other hand, running too large a minnow can attract big walleyes or pike which can shut down perch activity.

Always pay attention to the information you are getting from your locator. Be quick to raise your bait to the level of fish that show up above your bait, but be slow to lower it to fish beneath the lure. When your bait is above fish, they can see it and may rise if you use the nervous twitch I mentioned. When they do not rise upward, they are not very active and may spook easily. Maintain the shake you have been using and lower the bait slowly to their level. Stop just inches above the fish, and hope the closer presentation will trigger a hit.

Above all, think about your presentations. Try new tactics like these. Experiment. Keep moving as you search for fish. Don’t let deep water deter you, as long as it remains safe to walk on. Put some effort into your fishing. You’ll get some new stories to tell around the campfire.

Copyright Ray Hansen, 2008

DEEP WATER SPOON TRICKS - Part one

DEEP WATER SPOON TRICKS
By: Ray Hansen

I’ve been chasing perch in deeper water than ever in the past few years - often fifty feet or more, and this is true from late winter through early fall. If you are spending most of your time in twenty feet of water or less for these popular panfish, consider the following deep water methods for late ice fishing.

Start with the right rod and line. A short but thin and stiff spinning rod about twenty-four inches in length, a matching ultra-light reel and four pound test clear monofilament line is about right for ten to fifteen inch perch.

For late ice outings, run a size 3 Swedish Pimple spoon with a single hook and a fresh minnow head as bait. Work the range from two to six feet off bottom, but occasionally let the spoon fall to bottom where it stirs up some silt. Aggressive jigging attracts fish, while the stationary lure makes an easier target for fish to hit, so how do you compromise between the two? Let your electronics tell you.

When fish are present on the screen, use just a simple twitch of the rod tip to make the lure shudder and quiver in place like a live, nervous creature. Watch the screen closely. You’ll see fish approach your lure, and when the marks on the screen merge you know the fish is probably eyeing your bait. Raise the lure slowly while feeling for some extra weight. With a sharp hook, you just need to snap your wrist upward and start reeling the instant you detect a bite.

Some anglers use a variation of the presentation I detailed above. They let the Swedish Pimple “free-fall” on a completely slack line toward bottom. In this way, the lure darts off to one side by several feet. The angler lets the lure go until it is laying on bottom somewhere off to one side of the hole.

With the lure lying in the silt, the angler shakes the rod tip while very slowly reeling the lure forward. This makes it kick up more silt in a slight “trail” along bottom that can appeal strongly to perch that forage on bloodworms from soft bottomed areas. Once the lure is hanging straight beneath the hole, bring it up about four feet off bottom and twitch it while watching your electronics.

Minnow heads work very well as bait, but what about the remainder of the minnow? I like to chum with minnow meat. Toss the headless minnow on the ice next to the hole and mash it with a metal skimmer. Push it into the water where it sinks to bottom leaving a scent trail on the way.

End of part one – check in tomorrow for part two

DEER SOUNDS

DEER SOUNDS
They Don’t Talk, but Communicate? You Bet!
By: Ray Hansen

Hunters, going back thousands of years, have understood that deer make sounds which are interpreted by other deer to mean various things. I’ve heard them many times. In this blog I’ll cite a few examples.

Hunting a remote part of Marquette County in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula with life-long friend Duane Deno of Gladstone, Michigan, we encountered three does while walking along a trail out of the woods about 11 a.m. on an October hunt. Two of the does ran off, but the third stood there gawking at us like were aliens (maybe we were to the deer)!

After a stare-down of about ten seconds, one of the does that ran off made a distinct “bleat” from about one-hundred yards away. The doe watching us immediately swiveled her head toward the sound, then bounded off to join the others. We figured that call meant “hey you… get over here!” And that is just what the doe did. Duane and I now imitate that call frequently, using commercial deer calls. Duane refers to it as the “I’m over here” call.

Recently, a company released a new call that imitates a “buck roar”. This vocalization is very rare. I’ve heard it only three times, twice on one day, and once on the following day. I was hunting an area of Illinois where only antlerless deer could be taken. After a few years of these restrictions, the deer population shifted so that it was well-balanced, meaning there were as many bucks as does. Under these circumstances, serious competition for breeding rights occurs, and fights can take place.

The first time I heard the sound, it was so loud that it startled me. My first impression was that someone who knew where I was hunting snuck out to the area and let loose with a fake roar they hoped would sound like a bear. I simply could not associate the sound with anything I’d ever heard a deer make. A while later, I heard it again, this time when a large buck charged at a smaller eight-point buck. I watched the bigger deer drive off the smaller one.

I suppose that sound meant “get out of here, or get killed”, or “stay away from the doe I’m chasing”. I heard that sound once again the following day, from the same stand, and have not heard it since. I’m not surprised about not hearing it again. As I mentioned, it is hard to find an area with the right herd dynamics that might cause bucks to roar in this way.

Most of the time when I hear deer making grunts or bleats, it is just one deer letting others know where it is. On several occasions I have had family groups consisting of a mature doe and several year-classes of small deer (mostly other does, but occasionally including a buck fawn as well) milling around a tree stand I’m in. On very quiet days, I have clearly heard them “mewing” as they browsed through the woods. They sounded a lot like cats, or certain birds.

Finally, I’ve watched deer making sounds on frosty mornings when I could see breath vapor coming out of their mouths. That is always interesting. Cold, clear and still mornings are best for this observation. One of these days I’m going to bring a video camera out to my stand and capture these events. Until then, I just listen to the way they sound, and try to imitate them when I’m calling.
Copyright Ray Hansen, 2008

TOUGH DRAGS

TOUGH DRAGS
By: Ray Hansen

As I write this piece I’m preparing to head out into the woods again tomorrow with a muzzleloader. By the time you read this I will have hiked out a mile or so in the frigid pre-dawn weather, picked a good spot, and have been sitting for a number of hours waiting for an eight-point buck to slip by in range (that is what I have tags for). And I’m going to love every second of it! The following paragraphs detail some challenges I’ve in the past getting deer out of the woods after the shot.

“I’m getting too old for this” I told myself as I pulled the big doe along using a rope attached to a shoulder harness. Dry, snowless ground made this part of the hunt a real challenge. Four or five steep ridges and a lot of flat ground stood between me and where I parked. On the steepest parts I could only manage ten feet at a time before resting. Even downhill sections were tough after a while. Several hours passed before I was able to load the large animal into my pickup. This deer was taken on a hunt in Illinois where walking in and dragging your deer out was the only option.

Of course getting the animal out of the woods is part of the hunt. I might gripe about it a little, but secretly, I’m glad I can still do it.

Sometimes the chore is made simpler with machinery. I keep an old 1981 Honda All-Terrain Vehicle in a friend’s shed here in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where I hunt each year. What a great piece of engineering! It always starts (with a pull rope), gets me out into the woods quickly, and does a workhorse of a job when pulling deer out of the swamp.

My friend Duane Deno of Gladstone, Michigan also keeps an old (1978) Honda handy when we hunt. It is a very small – 90 c.c. – machine, but therein lies its utility. It can get in and out of spots that larger ATV’s can’t access.

One year I arrowed a deer on a bow-hunt in which we had to cross a one-hundred yard stretch of flooded swamp using hip boots. The footing was treacherous, and we dreaded trying to drag the deer across that beaver-flooded, marshy pot-hole.

Using some “Yooper” ingenuity however, Duane and I devised a solution. He rode his machine back into the woods to the last of the high ground before it dropped into the swamp. Using several odd lengths of rope we scrounged, we managed to create a piece long enough to span the worst part of the waterway. I am not exaggerating when I say the rope we pieced together was all of three hundred feet long. Tying one end to the Honda and the other end to the deer, he took off, skidding the doe across the water like it was water-skiing. We’ve had many good laughs about that incident over the years, and it will always be a good story to tell around the campfire.
Copyright Ray Hansen, 2008

COYOTES IN THE COLD

Author's Note: We have had another mild blizzard here in the Upper Peninsula. The snowfall was not excessive, but the blowing created a lot of drifting. I got stuck up in Rock, Michigan near the Delta County/Marquette County line, but I'm back today. I've been hearing coyotes howling in the woods near me recently, and that prompted today's blog. I hope you enjoy reading it.

COYOTES IN THE COLD
Slim Pickings in January Alters Behavior
By: Ray Hansen

I’ve encountered coyotes in the wild for many years in settings from suburbia to the Sylvania Wilderness Area in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. One of the most informative meetings we’ve had however, was while I ice-fished Mallard Lake in Bloomingdale, Illinois just west of Chicago. I believe I observed two adult coyotes teaching two juveniles how to forage for food when times are tough. This is what I saw:

January always brings some lean times for scavengers like coyotes. Most rodents are hidden deep in brush cover, birds are present only in small numbers, roadkill is rare, vegetation is scarce, and food in general is hard to find.

I had the lake to myself on this day, and my intention was to catch bluegills and crappies. I augered a series of holes in deep water not far off shore in the lake’s northwest corner. Before long I was catching small ‘gills and releasing them back into the water.

I noticed a coyote slip out of the brushy shoreline cover to the east and walk across the ice while keeping an eye on me. Another canine joined it shortly thereafter. Later they both re-entered the heavier cover along shore and I lost track of them.

Before long I watched as the two reappeared, this time with two smaller coyotes in tow. They positioned themselves at four locations – like compass points – surrounding me at a distance of about one-hundred yards away. Slowly, step by step, they converged on me from the four different directions. This seemed like a classic hunting strategy, but I really found it hard to believe they were targeting me. I think perhaps these brush-wolves had previously found small fish lying on the ice where other anglers had tossed them. They just wanted to see if I was leaving any for them.

The largest coyote approached closest. He (I’m assuming this was a male) stopped about thirty yards away, standing on a sand / gravel shoreline. There, he made what seemed to be at least a mildly aggressive maneuver by pawing and kicking sand and small rocks out onto the ice toward me like a dog will sometimes do.

At that point I stood up and banged my auger on the ice once, causing the coyotes to slink away. I stayed another couple hours, and caught glimpses of the animals at times, but they made no further close approaches.

Seems to me the adults were showing the young ones how a small pack should close in on potential prey. Of course that is just my interpretation. I did not feel threatened by their actions. I didn’t leave them any fish either. I do not think showing coyotes that humans can provide feeding opportunities is a good idea. Some people learn the hard way that leaving dog food in their backyards for coyotes simply teaches them that feeding opportunities exist where dogs are found. They’ll eat the dog food alright, and have the dog (or cat) for dessert. Local newspapers carry stories about snatched pets every year – especially during the toughest part of winter.
Copyright Ray Hansen, 2008

TACKLING DEEP WATER PERCH

Author's note: Ice fishing season is just starting here on the north end of the Great Lakes in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The action id still in shallow water, but I can tell you from experience that winter anglers will hit deep spots as soon as the ice out there becomes safe. Here are some tactics for perch found deeper.

TACKLING DEEP WATER PERCH
Great Lakes Water Clarity Moves Fish Deeper
By: Ray Hansen

The improvement in water clarity on many bodies of water in the past ten years or so has been nothing short of amazing. Non-native invasive species such as zebra mussels that filter sediment from the water have dramatically changed their chosen habitat. Lake Michigan for example commonly has places where the bottom can be seen in fifteen feet and deeper – especially along the northernmost parts of this Great Lake.

Whereas many fishermen chasing salmon and other species that commonly suspend at some mid-point in the water column have noticed fish hold deeper, perch anglers have really seen the difference. Since they typically find these fish close to bottom, they quickly noticed dramatic changes. Catching these popular panfish in depths to seventy-five feet is now common. The same patterns can be seen through the ice.

Using lightweight lures to tempt fickle biters in shallower water still works on occasion, but much of the time you’ll have to get much deeper – especially on huge bodies of water where schools of smelt or alewives provide forage.

Using compact lures that are “heavy for their size” is the best approach to catching deep-water dwellers. Lures that have enough weight to zip down to bottom in fifty or more feet let you get your bait back in front of fish faster than a presentation that sinks slowly.

One of my favorite deep-water perch rigs is an eighteen-inch ice rod coupled with a tiny spinning reel and spooled with four-pound test monofilament line. I attach a size 2 or 3 “Swedish Pimple” spoon (Bay de Noc Tackle Company), using a very small, thin wire snap (not a snap swivel) to clip my lure to the line. The snap allows maximum lure action while jigging it to attract bites.

Use the small treble hook this lure is packaged with, and load each hook point with two or three “spikes” (maggots) as bait. This means you’ll be hooking six to nine spikes on the lure. Remember to remove a few old spikes frequently, replacing them with fresh bait. The maggots exude a milky fluid into the surrounding water when fresh, which attracts and holds perch in your spot.

The rest is simple. Let the lure plunge to bottom by opening the reel’s bail, and when it stops sinking you know it is resting on the lake’s floor. Next reel in a little line so that the lure hangs two or three feet up from the rocks, sand, or mud. As always, run a locator constantly while fishing. That shows you what level fish are holding at, and indicates when fish are approaching your lure.

Two different actions may attract fish: “shaking”, or “ripping”. Shaking is done by simply shaking the rod tip to make the Pimple “dance in place for five to ten seconds, then pausing to watch for a hit. The sequence is: shake – pause – shake – pause, until you get bit.

“Ripping “means to start just off bottom, rip the spoon upward one to three feet, then allowing it to settle back into place. Again, pause to watch for a bite. This lure is a proven perch killer, and it is especially effective when you need to work great depths.
Copyright Ray Hansen, 2008

PRIME TIME WALLEYES AND THE SEARCH FOR PERCH - PART TWO

PRIME TIME WALLEYES AND THE SEARCH FOR PERCH - PART TWO
By: Ray Hansen

START ON THE FLATS

My search for perch normally starts on the deeper flats near the place I found walleyes. I do not start fishing blindly however. The first thing to do is start searching for a likely spot. This is done by drilling holes and looking for perch with your locator. Team up with a friend to make this process faster. One person augers a couple holes, while the other runs the locator.
You should keep moving in a “leapfrog” fashion as you cover the area. Look for smaller, individual marks one to three feet off bottom, or a kind of “bumpy bottom” signal on the screen. Of course, some anglers use cameras to speed this process. The trick is to spend time searching instead of simply “fishing and wishing”.

USE SEARCH LURES

Since most of the perch action takes place during the day and in deeper water, I use compact and slightly heavy lures to “zip” my bait to bottom quickly. I like a size 2 or 3 Swedish Pimple spoon for this approach because it gets you back in the “strike zone” as quickly as possible.

My friend Duane Deno who fishes Little Bay De Noc in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula throughout the winter, uses this tactic as well as working the smallest Jigging Rapala lures in deep water. It is very similar to the walleye tactics I mentioned, just on a smaller scale.

THE OLD “DOUBLE BAIT” TRICK

One of the deadliest live baits for perch is the “wiggler” which is a larvae type perch can’t resist. The problem with using this bait however is that they come off the hook so easily. If you get a bite in forty feet of water, but miss the fish, you might as well reel in immediately and put another wiggler on your hook. This wastes a lot of time. Perch move frequently and you have to work them as fast as you can while they are holding on your spot.

There is an approach that can help overcome this problem. Use a Swedish Pimple with a small treble hook as an example to see how this works. Load two of the hook points with at least two “spikes” (maggots) on each one. On the remaining hook point, put one spike on “sideways” first, then impale a wiggler. The spikes are a lot tougher and much harder to pull off. Even if you lose the wiggler, you still have bait down there working for you.

FINAL THOUGHTS

After you have a lengthy line of holes drilled, it can pay to go back to your starting point to re-check for active fish. Perch move a lot, and you might find some fresh action.

Lean toward orange! This color is frequently the best choice for perch.

The higher off bottom the marks on your locator show, the better. Those perch are more actively roaming and feeding. In a related observation, if you are going to run a stationary rod with a live minnow on it while jigging a second rod, use a large minnow and set it about six feet off bottom. Perch passing below your bait are more likely to see it.
And finally, keep a confident attitude! Move until you find fish and move again when the bite slows. You’ll work harder, but you’ll catch more fish.
Copyright Ray Hansen, 2008

PRIME TIME WALLEYES AND THE SEARCH FOR PERCH - PART ONE

PRIME TIME WALLEYES AND THE SEARCH FOR PERCH
By: Ray Hansen

I like getting out well before sunrise on winter fishing trips when I’m fishing a lake that holds both walleyes and perch. I usually have a specific target for walleyes, but perch are more scattered and require more searching. In this article I’ll pass along some details about a plan I use to catch both species.

WALLEYES ON STRUCTURE

If walleyes are found in a lake, you can usually count on a “sunrise bite” at daybreak. In most cases this feeding spree occurs on well-defined structure such as drop-offs, river mouths, rock piles, on and near fish cribs, or other distinct bottom features. Accordingly, you should have some target selected and be set up there before the sun comes up.

ATTRACT SOME ATTENTION

If you fire up your locator and it shows larger marks up off bottom, you probably have some actively feeding fish on your spot. You can work a jigging spoon such as a Swedish Pimple tipped with a minnow head, a thin slice of minnow meat, or the tail of a shiner or fat-head to entice a bite. If I intend to use a whole live minnow, I normally rig a split shot and plain hook. A spoon is “flashier” than other rigs, and can be given more action through rod manipulation. I use only pieces of minnows on them since an entire minnow throws off the spoon’s action too much.

As an alternative, run a lure like the Jigging Rapala which has a horizontal orientation as opposed to the spoon’s more vertical shape. On certain mornings walleyes will respond better to one than the other. With two anglers, run both lures to find out if a preference exists.


RATTLE IN SOME ACTION

The early morning bite is almost always “short but sweet” and as the sun gets higher, the fish become less active. You can sometimes extend this bite for an extra half-hour or so by using a noisy lure with a sharp ripping motion at five minute intervals on your spot. I have a second rod set up with a one-quarter ounce Lewis Rat-L-Trap lure for this purpose. Lower it to bottom, rip it sharply upward about three feet for several cycles, then reel it in and watch your locator. If your actions pull in any fish, you’ll see them. Jig your spoon rig with a softer action to see if you can tempt another “biter” or two. After that, it’s time to look for some perch.

End of part one - check in tomorrow for part two
Copyright Ray Hansen, 2008

THE LAST DAY - Final Installment

Final installment of “The Last Day” series

11:54 a.m.: A lone doe with one fawn walks out of the woods northeast of my stand, cuts south after passing my spot and enters the woods behind me. When I left the woods later today, I discovered a spot where these two deer had bedded down. I’ll detail this find in a note later in this journal entry.

Anyway, the pair entered an area around a stand I call “Powerline #1”. Here, two giant poplar trees with trunks bigger than you could encircle your arms around fell some years ago during a microburst wind storm.

As they collapsed, their huge branches and dense, heavy trunks smashed and ripped out an opening in otherwise heavy forest cover. They literally ripped down other large trees like skyscrapers falling onto smaller buildings.

Several years ago I discovered this place and hung a treestand in a huge cedar at the edge of the opening. I then used a chainsaw to cut the fallen poplars, which had been arching above the ground by resting on big branches that supported them like legs. Once flattened, an opening big enough to hunt was created east of the cedar I put my stand in.

12:56 p.m.: I hear a deep, single grunt from the woods behind me – just where the doe and fawn went earlier. I suspect a buck has responded to my calling and rattling and was circling downwind of the spot I called from (the Owl Stand) to try to scent check the area for the source of the calls. I’m so high up in this tree though, that my scent will pass over any deer coming up from the south (downwind) of me.

I can hear something moving in the heavier cover behind my spot, and I sure hope it is the buck that grunted! Despite the additional calls I make however, this deer does not show itself. In any case, I can’t turn far enough around on this small platform to get a shot in that direction if one presents itself. The main trunk of the tree my stand is attached to is in the way, and there is lots of heavy cover at ground level that way.

Note: Later this day when I left the woods, I walked through the woods straight behind (west) of the Owl Stand to see if I could figure out what happened. I found two fresh deer beds in the newly fallen snow about seventy-five yards away from where I had been posted. Just south of the beds, I discovered a large set of tracks approaching into the wind to scent check the spot.

The doe and fawn tracks left the beds, heading northwest, with the larger tracks following them. So the buck rousted the two bedded deer and would hound them for a while. I really think that buck was coming in to check out my calling efforts when he discovered the other two. That buck left good sized hoof prints. They seem as large as the eight-point buck I shot two years ago near here.

1:42 p.m.: A four-point buck walks into view from the north. Like the spikehorn that earlier followed roughly the same path, this small buck browses his way along, nipping at various types of woody forage. I watched this deer biting at small branch tips from trees and I think he even ate some spruce needles. This is somewhat unusual since spruce certainly is not a preferred food. This makes me recall deer I watched in Georgia one year that definitely ate needles from some species of pine tree. Of course deer up here in the northwoods eat white cedar all winter, so I guess each region has certain foods that appeal to the local herd.

2:30 p.m.: I have had enough exposure for this day. I’m stiff and my face is windburned despite the face mask I’m using. Seven and one-half hours up this tree is enough. I parked my four-wheeled all terrain vehicle about one-half mile west of here and I have to bushwhack through the woods to get there. Despite the fact that I did not kill a deer, I enjoyed this day. Muzzleloader season opens in another week and I’ll be back out again. I’ll have some new reports from that hunt.

Copyright Ray Hansen, 2008

THE LAST DAY - Part two

Author's note: This is part 2 of the series entitled "The Last Day. It details observations I made while spending 7 1/2 hours in an open treestand on the last day of the 2008 rifle season for deer (Sunday, November 30). I used no bait for this hunt. I wanted the movements I watched to be as natural as possible. I did do a lot of calling and rattling antlers to try to attract bucks - and I saw bucks. I was surprised at the amount of rut-based movement this late in the season.

Beginning of part two of “The Last Day” series.

A light snow has been falling for the past hour or so. If I sit very still, a dusting of the powdery stuff starts to cover me. I feel this is a good sign since deer tend to move more during periods of light snowfall. It is almost as though they sense that the new snow may cover up more of the stuff they feed on, and that they should feed more heavily while the opportunity exists.

10:48 a.m.: Three big deer cross from the north and trot toward another stand I have, “Birch Hill”. I almost hunted that spot today, but decided at the last minute to take this place instead. I’m glad I did. Birch hill is a ground blind made from brush and logs piled in a roughly circular formation. It is a great little spot where I can watch a small clearing surrounded by heavy woods, but it does not offer a panoramic vista as the Owl Stand has.

Anyway, these three deer are all does and I wonder where their fawns are. Any doe from 2 ½ years and older normally has from one to three of them tagging along. They have probably stationed them in nearby heavier cover since bucks are still chasing the adult does at this time. If the fawns were present with the adult does, bucks might injure them by driving them off during this phase of the rut.

11:18 a.m.: Three more large deer come running out of heavier timber north of my stand. They too, are traveling east toward Birch Hill. One of them gives out a loud bleat as it crosses the opening I watch. I go on “high alert” at the sight of these does and fully expect a buck to show at any time. Few reasons exist for the does to be running unless a buck is chasing them or a pack of coyotes have taken up their trail.

11:19 a.m.: Sure enough! A buck comes out of the woods where the does emerged. He is dogging them, nose down in the snow and zig-zagging along. Since the three does all ran on slightly different paths, the buck is crossing all three sets of tracks out repeatedly, trying to sort out where they went and how far ahead they might be.

I can see small antlers on this deer and I am confident it is just a six-point buck, meaning that it has three antler points on each side. It is possible that this one may have two additional brow tines near the antler bases, making it an eight-pointer. Even if this is true, I would not take this deer. It has some potential to grow into a considerably larger buck next season. Also, this is the last day of this rifle season. I don’t think this buck will be killed by anyone else who might still be hunting north or south of here. I know at least part of his home territory from the observations I made today, and I’ll be back next year.

11:30 a.m.: Two fawns come out of the woods northeast of my stand, followed by a spikehorn buck. Looking at this small two-pointer, I figure it is the same one I saw earlier in the day. They amble along, heading toward the Powerline #2 stand. They seem to have a specific destination in mind because they are not taking time to browse along the way. Most of the time, deer are almost constantly nipping at various types of plant growth or pulling leaves from trees and picking them up off the ground. This is especially true during the early winter time frame when they need as much body weight as possible to survive the lean times to come.

Note: All of the deer I have reported so far have been within range of this stand, from about fifty to one hundred and fifty yards away. I have seen other movements slightly inside the heavier cover, but have not counted them as deer since I could not be sure they were actually whitetails.

The final installment of this series will run tomorrow. Stop by then!

Copyright Ray Hansen, 2008

THE LAST DAY - Part One

THE LAST DAY
By: Ray Hansen


As I fumbled around the house in the darkness before sunrise Sunday morning, I was struck by the thought that this was the last day of the deer hunting season for so many people.

Here in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, that portion of the deer hunting season in which the use of modern rifles is permitted, ends November 30. Hunting deer while using bow and arrow, or primitive firearms (muzzleloaders) continues, but for most hunters, the season ended thirty minutes after sunset Sunday.

I spent most of the daylight hours the last day thirty feet up a big spruce tree, surveying an expanse of second-growth poplar, spruce, cedar, black ash, and elm. I call this spot the “Owl Stand” because I once watched a pair of owls roost nearby. Snow covers the ground, offering better visibility than was possible when this part of the season began on November 15.

While many trees grow in this spot, I can see for one hundred to two hundred yards north, northwest, northeast, and east of the stand. The heavier spruce and cedar cover bordering this opening stands like a solid wall along the edges. Deer come out of the thick cover at random times.

The many long hours sitting high up on a tiny platform in the frigid weather left me stiff, cold, wind-burned and tired, but not bored. I saw lots of deer. The fact that I did not shoot one did not diminish my enjoyment. I was outside in a natural setting and was able to watch animals I hunt go about their daily routine. I learned things as usual. Here is a recap of the day’s events:

8:48 a.m.: I have been hearing brush break near this stand since daybreak, but I have not identified what is causing the sounds. I suspect it is from a buck chasing does, but I do not know that at this point. I have been trying to lure deer out by using a call.

Suddenly, one big deer busts out of the heavier cover north of me, with another large one chasing it. They zig-zag back and forth for half a minute or so, and I can see antlers on the second deer. I need to stop it to get at least a brief look at the headgear. I may decide to take this buck, but I need to confirm that it has at least four points on one side or more to make it a legal target. They are running nearly full-out, cutting corners, changing direction, and leaping over fallen trees.

I blow several loud grunts on my deer call but fail to stop this buck. The pair crashes off into the woods east of my stand and breaks more brush before moving out of sound range. Watching them from a thirty-foot perch has given me something akin to a hawks-eye view of the proceedings. It is like watching a play from a balcony level box seat.

9:20 a.m.: A lone spikehorn buck appears on my “radar”, walking slowly from north to south and browsing on weed tops sticking up through the snow and the woody tips of branches on small trees. He is stopping to scan his surroundings frequently – probably to try to pinpoint the source of the calls I have used.

Note: I am calling frequently today, using doe bleats, buck grunts, a fawn-in-distress sound, tending grunts, and buck “clicking” calls at fifteen minute intervals. I am also using my “Treestand Rattlr’” rattling bag to simulate bucks sparring (www.brushwolfgear.com). As the day wore on, I seem to have attracted some curious bucks as you will see later in this report.

10:20 a.m.: A 2 ½ year-old doe walks by from the direction of another stand I have placed near here called “Powerline #2” stand. The various stands were originally set-up as bowhunting spots, but some do double duty as firearm hunting sites as well. This doe has a fawn walking behind her. They turn northward near the stand I am using today and walk out of sight.

End of part one. Check in tomorrow for part two.

Copyright Ray Hansen, 2008

FIND WINTER FISH FASTER !

Authors Note: I am leaving today on a trip to central Wisconsin, and will resume posting blogs when I return Monday, Dec. 1, 2008.

Happy Holidays!

WORK YOUR LURE FOR PANFISH
Don’t Just Sit There, Make Them Bite!
By: Ray Hansen

Sooner or later we are going to get safe ice out on the main lake areas here in Michigan – and when we do, you need to be ready to catch fish. Too many anglers hit the same old spots and fish in the same old way, seeming to believe that “the fish are biting or they are not”. Well… you can accept blind luck to provide some fishing action, or you can try to trigger fish into biting. Here is a trick I use to “make something happen”.

One of my favorite tricks is to head out on a day when there are few anglers on the ice, and lots of open, but unused holes found there. Mondays after a busy weekend are a great time to try this, but it can work anytime.

Set up an ice rod with a small spinning reel filled with four pound test line. Tie on a size 2 “Swedish Pimple” spoon and load the small treble hook with “spikes” (maggots). Put two or three spikes on each hook point. I call this a “spikeball” rig.

Walk along, lowering the baited spoon into each hole you find. Let it sink to bottom, raise it up about six inches, then use that as a starting point. Shake the rod tip as you raise the lure up two or three feet very slowly. Make that lure shake and shimmy like a belly dancer. After reaching that point (about three feet off bottom) let the lure free-fall back to the starting point (six inches off bottom). Hold the rod tip still, watch for bites for about ten to fifteen seconds, then repeat the sequence.

Work each hole for about three to five minutes, then move on to the next. You’ll be exploring the area, fishing actively, and you stand a great chance of finding fish active enough to bite, or fish that will respond to the action you give the lure. A variation of this tactic is to drill a dozen holes along a weedline or other bottom feature before starting to fish. Keep moving between holes at regular intervals, but stay at spots that provide action until the bite slows.

This tactic will work throughout the Midwest, and can produce perch, white bass, yellow bass, crappies, bluegill, rock bass, and some surprises like channel catfish, walleyes, or largemouth bass.
Copyright Ray Hansen, 2008

DEER SEASON UPDATE

DEER SEASON UPDATE
By: Ray Hansen

I have been trying to sit down to write a report about how the rifle portion of this years deer season has progressed for me, but I have simply run into too many glitches. Computer problems, electrical work here at home and weather have conspired to keep me from journaling as I normally do.

I have been wading through eighteen inches of snow here at home, with some drifts that are two to four feet deep. I spent Saturday morning snowblowing, plowing, and shoveling. Temperatures have gone up enough to cause some daytime melting today (Monday 11-24), however it was two degrees below zero yesterday morning as I drove out to the swamp I hunted that day.

Among the group I hunt with, Larry took a nice nine-point buck Friday as it chased a doe past his stand. The shot was about 75 yards and was a clean, quick kill with his 30-06. His son Shawn took an eight-point buck as it trailed a doe past his stand. The buck was 160 yards out, and Shawn used his .270 with a steady rest to make the shot. When I mention the group I hunt with, I mean that about six of us hunt a 160 acre tract, but we almost never hunt together. Instead, each person hunts when time permits, and according to what type of license he holds.

A friend of the group, Bob, stopped by Sunday to pass along his report. He has two daughters and a son, who all killed bucks, a five-point, a seven-point, and an eight-point. He hunts in various spots around here, and each deer was taken in a different area.

I tagged a doe in October while bowhunting, but have not seen a buck I was willing to shoot yet. I’m waiting for an eight-point or better buck while hunting with my rifle, and the remaining tag I have does not permit me to take anything smaller with a firearm. I can use the tag for another antlerless deer until the end of December with my bow.

Duane and I hunted a large swamp yesterday, and saw about twenty different deer between us. The heavy snowfall made it harder for them to forage, so they have been very active since the temperature has come up a little. The deep snow may have put a damper on rut activity as well. We did not observe any doe chasing, scraping, or cruising bucks Sunday. All the deer were focused on feeding. We both used rut scent and calling to try to convince larger bucks that they should check our areas out, but none responded.

The ride out to the hunting area was very scenic. We use ATV’s for a half-mile or so then walk the final quarter-mile on foot. Pines draped in heavy snow cover made the old logging road look like a Currier and Ives scene. Fresh tracks in the snow told us deer were moving well, and the sheer number we saw while sitting in the woods verified what the tracks stated.

The end of the evening was also something that makes these times so memorable. We met up in Tom’s big pole barn and built a hot fire in the old wood-burning stove. We pulled a few old chairs up around the welcome heat, and cut thick slices of sausage made from a 425 pound black bear Len killed earlier this year. Some bourbon over ice accented the bear meat, and before long we traded a few old deer stories around the fire.

That’s why I hunt…..

Copyright Ray Hansen, 2008

THE OWL AND THE BUCK

Author's note: We are still in the midst of a snowstorm. About 14 to 16 inches blankets the ground outside. The deer should be moving well when it lets up. Just before this bad weather hit, one of our group (Duane's brother Larry) got a nine-point buck. I've been busy with snow removal and related chores. The cold weather got me thinking about past hunts I've made trying conditions. Here is a story that took place on a December hunt.

THE OWL AND THE BUCK
By: Ray Hansen

Over the years I’ve had occasion to sit out in the cold many, many times: for the sake of chasing fish through the ice; in the hopes of catching a buck unawares; simply to enjoy the transition from darkness to daylight; and for innumerable other reasons.

A frosty December morning in a cedar swamp in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula comes to mind. The primitive firearms (muzzleloader) season just started, and would run the first ten days of December.

Swaddled in layers of insulated coveralls, vests, sweatshirts, and longjohns with a knit cap under a full face mask, I must have resembled an overstuffed sausage. Moving around was not an option. No wind howled to conceal the sounds I would make. The surrounding cover was too thick, and my best alternative was to sit while watching a small clearing within the dense swamp.

When creeping into place earlier that morning, I hung felt pads saturated with rut scent, hoping to convince a buck that had survived the gun season that an un-bred doe was hiding nearby. And it worked! I heard occasional movements through the green wall of cedar branches, and even saw the silhouette of the buck passing through some alders forty yards distant. Getting him to step into the far end of the clearing where the pad hung was proving difficult. Having been hunted non-stop for the previous two-weeks, he was wary.

Drinking water carried in a pack was now frozen in the bottle. I slid it into the pocket of my coveralls, but after an hour, only a small trickle of liquid could be coaxed from the cold plastic container. Breathing in the frigid air dries your throat, causing thirst nearly as intense as that experienced while working outside in the summer.

The buck kept moving slowly around, trying to catch a scent trail that would let him pinpoint the source of the smell, but the swamp was dead calm. No breezes helped out. It would be a waiting game. After an hour elapsed I could not track the deer by sound, and I thought he had moved on. An owl began to hoot however, and the sounds very slowly circled the clearing.

I began to realize the owl was following the deer. Why? The answer came to me when I visualized what the bird of prey would accomplish in this way.

The only thing moving in the swamp was the love-struck buck. The owl wanted a tasty breakfast of squirrel, partridge, rabbit, or some rodent, but they were not moving. The only chance was to follow the deer. It might kick up something while slipping through the cedars. So that’s what the bird did. He was hunting just as I was.

Whether it worked or not, I don’t know. After four hours, the arctic conditions got the best of me. Leaving the swamp, I followed an old logging road ran toward a warm camp where fresh, black coffee brewed. I walked slowly along, reviewing the few glimpses I had of the swamp buck. Had I learned anything? After writing notes about the day’s experiences, one nugget of truth emerged: I’d pay more attention to owl hooting on the next hunt.
Copyright Ray Hansen, 2008

BONES IN THE RIVERBED

Author's note: We had our first good snowstorm on Monday and whether that knocked out my internet access, I don't know. I was not able to log on for a couple days. I'll have a report about the deer hunting season as soon as I can write one up. In the mean time, here is a true tale about the river that runs past my house.

BONES IN THE RIVERBED
By: Ray Hansen

The inspiration for this blog came from something I observed this summer while wading in the river behind my house and casting for smallmouth bass: deer bones lay scattered in certain sections of the riverbed. Moving slowly along, I’d spot part of a ribcage here, and a hip bone there. Longer leg bones often lay oriented with the flow of the current, and smaller bones sat wherever the high and roiled water flow during the spring would fling them.

Later in the fall I went to a place more than twenty miles upstream and found even more evidence – old and new – on the dry bed of a reservoir that had been drained. I had some hunches about how they got there, but I haven’t lived here very long so I decided to consult the Mystic Oracle, otherwise known as the Past President of the Old Partridge Hunter’s Society. He lives a grouse flush down the road from me and has spent many years on the river. I found him out in his workshop, tinkering with reloading press.

“Ah yes” he said, mulling the question over on a warm October night. “Bones in the riverbed. Well… a few come from coyote kills during the winter, and maybe a few more from deer that make it to the river after getting hit by trucks on the road. Most though, are put there intentionally.”

“Put there intentionally” I repeated, somewhat surprised.

“Yup” he replied, picking up a twelve gauge hull from his reloading bench and examining it under the light of a sputtering lantern. “Do you feed birds in the winter” he asked?

“Sure” I answered.

“And what do you feed them?”

“Seed mix, suet, dried corn, peanut butter”, I said while thinking about supplies I’d buy for the upcoming cold months.

“Great for jays and juncos” the President postulated, “but what if you wanted to feed eagles?”

“Aha” I exclaimed, grasping the significance of his calculated question.

“People here watch for roadkilled deer once the river freezes over. Pick up a small deer if you’re alone, or a bigger one if you have help. Toss it in the back of the truck. Skid it across the snow and slide it over the riverbank”, he explained, staring out past the lantern light.

“Eagles, sometimes four of them, strip the carcass fairly clean and ravens get the rest. Once in a while a pack of coyotes scare the birds off but there is usually not much left for them. Mice and small nesting birds carry off the hair, and the river claims the bones.”

So the river flows along unceasing. New water constantly keeps the current moving. Each time I look at the surface, it really is a new river. The bones I see are the only sign that some particular deer ever existed, but they don’t last forever. Maybe the words on this page are the only thing that can ever lend them any kind of permanence…
Copyright Ray Hansen, 2008

THE DAY BEFORE THE OPENER - 11/14-08

THE DAY BEFORE THE OPENER- 11/14/08

Today is the state-wide “Day of Anticipation” here in Michigan. The firearms portion of the state-wide whitetail deer season opens tomorrow, November 15, as it does every year. Personally, I get a bigger challenge from hunting deer with a bow and arrow than I do with a gun, but I’ll still be out there in the swamps before sunrise on the “opener” as everyone calls it.

I’ve been on the phone to my hunting partner Duane several times today, making last-minute changes to our strategy for tomorrow morning. We have been hunting together for many years, and the sense of anticipation just gets more intense each year.

We do not hunt from permanent hunting blinds like so many others in this area. Instead, we carry backpacks and sit out in the open alongside natural cover like fallen logs, uprooted tree stumps, brushpiles, or simply sitting beneath the branches of live spruce trees. In 2006 I shot a fine eight-point buck while hunting in this way.


I remember one year when I got settled in far out in the cedar swamps on the Stonington Peninsula, east of here and shot a buck within a minute or so of the legal shooting time (thirty minutes before sunrise). My season ended so fast I hardly had time to enjoy it!

This year is a little different. Most years have something that sets them apart from the rest. We will be hunting far back in the marshes and swamps well past the end of an old logging road – out in the open as usual. We will use deer calls, scent that is supposed to attract deer, and we’ll rattle antlers as we do when bowhunting. These actions are all geared toward getting a buck to pass near enough for a shot. But… if you think this is a couple hunters just trying to fool a dumb animal into making a mistake, think again. This is a hard way to hunt, and the deer are a lot better at surviving than a hunter is at killing them.

The final part of the hunt is the chance to see other hunters – Duane has five brothers – and swap hunting and fishing stories that have transpired since the last season. Glenn will bring big jars of pickled eggs up from Manitowoc, Wisconsin. We’ll sit around the woodstove out in brother Tom’s garage, Bruce, Larry, and Jim will show up on the evening of the 15th, and we will laugh, swap tales, and strategize about what we’ll do on the 16th.

I wouldn’t miss this for anything! I’ll post something on Monday the 17th. See you then.

Copyright Ray Hansen, 2008

Rattling Bucks - First Hand Account

Author’s note: Today I am posting the text of an e-mail I received from Larry Boehm, the CEO of Brushwolf Gear, makers of the Treestand Rattl’r rattle bag. I wrote about my experiences using this product here in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in a blog a couple days ago. This note details some deer hunting experiences Larry and his brother had while hunting on public land in Minnesota. These rattle bags can attract deer. I’ve proven that to myself. The bucks mentioned here were taken within the past few days. See what you think after reading this account.

(Start of Larry’s note)

Ray:

Tomorrow I will e-mail you a picture of the bucks my brother and I took in northern MN this weekend. I'm heading to Montana for a hunt later tomorrow, but will try to get a photo and short write-up put together that I can send to my contacts. I'll give you a personal account.

We were hunting 1 1/2 miles back in public forest land that doesn't allow any motorized access, so needless to say we have NO other hunters bothering us. Temperatures on Saturday morning were mid 20's with 25-40mph NW winds, less than ideal for rattling, but the absolute perfect week to be rattling in our area.

I had a couple close encounters earlier in the week with my bow, but no luck, and this was the firearms opener, so I didn't need to bring one in quite as close. At 11:30 my brother rattled in and shot a really nice 2 1/2 year old 160 pound - 6pt (no brow tines).

I met up with him for lunch and after lunch he decided to take a bit of a stroll to warm up. I decided to climb into his stand, about 20 minutes later I saw a buck chasing a doe on the oak ridge across the drainage I was watching. I didn't figure I'd have much chance of luring him away, but had nothing to lose so I smashed my bag against the trunk of the tree as hard as I could to get his attention.

He stopped and looked my way so I started to work the bag on the ground. What happened next was unreal. He spotted my brother’s dead buck which was lying right between us and came on a dead run stopping 5 yards from it. I shot him in the heart at 30 yards. He's a massive 10 pt., 180 pound, 4 1/2 yrs old, 21 inch spread. I'll get you photos tomorrow. I guess I found a new method of decoying.

(End of Larry’s note.)

Remember that I said in my original blog, that this rattle bag comes equipped with a cord so that it can be worked at ground level even when you are in a treestand. Use it at the right time of year (usually mid-October through the end of November) and you might pull pre-rut and main rut phase bucks in close. You want that buck to focus on the source of the sounds – at ground level – and not up in the tree. This bag can offer you this solid advantage.

Copyright Ray Hansen, 2008

SETTING UP ICE LURES

Author’s note: Ice fishing season is at hand, and I know many winter anglers wait until the last minute to check their gear over. The following blog details how I set up lures I will use. These tips can easily double your catch so they are worth thinking about. You still have time, so give it a shot!

SETTING UP ICE LURES
Tricks that Easily Improve Your Catch
By: Ray Hansen

Did you know that most “panfish sized” ice fishing lures are not set up correctly to catch fish right out of the package? With a few simple modifications you can easily double the number of fish you land. In this article I’ll tell you how to set the gap, and adjust the offset of the hook so you can get solid hook-ups on many biters you would otherwise miss. These steps take only seconds.

The lures that most often need modification are the single-hook styles in sizes 6, 8, 10, and 12. Most size 4 and larger hooks have a large enough gap to hook fish well without any change. Those lures that hang vertically benefit the most from these changes, but they work with lures that hang horizontally as well.

I carry a set of inexpensive needle-nose pliers that can be found in home-improvement stores to make the changes I will detail. The pliers I like best are the “multi-tool” style hat fold open. Mine are only 2 ½” long when closed. They are always in the pocket of the insulated coveralls I wear when ice fishing.

Set the hook gap by holding the lure so the hook looks like the letter “J”. The gap is that part of the “U” shaped bend between the hook point and the longer shank. All you need do is to bend the short arm of the “J” out very slightly to enlarge or open the gap between the shank and the point.

Next is the offset. To visualize this setting, hold the lure in the upright position as it would hang in the water. Turn the lure so the point and the shank are lined up. Instead of seeing a “J” shape, you would now see a straight line or “I” shape. Next, bend the hook point slightly off to one side (either left or right of the vertical line).

By adjusting the gap and offset, the hook enters the fishes’ mouth farther, and there is less chance that the shank will hit the outside of the mouth to prevent a good hookset.

The final step is to touch up the point with a sharpener. One of the best styles is a simple “diamond blade” fingernail file. They are inexpensive, work great, and are easily available at many stores.

When you have been ice fishing as long as I have, you will find that simple steps like this are often the easiest way to improve your catch.
Copyright Ray Hansen, 2008

AVOID BOAT WINTERIZING MISTAKES

Note: Here on the upper Great lakes, many anglers are still out chasing big walleyes, and the good fishing will continue as long as open water is available. Sooner or later though, these boats will be pulled out for the season. Here are some winterizing tips:

HOW TO AVOID THE SIX MOST COMMON BOAT WINTERIZING MISTAKES

Free BoatU.S. Winterizing Guide Available ALEXANDRIA, VA

With winter approaching, BoatU.S. Marine Insurance has reviewed its claim files and reports the following six most common mistakes made when winterizing a boat:

1. Failure to winterize the engine: Freezing temperatures occur in all 50 states and while they are taken seriously up north, it's the balmy states of California, Florida, Texas, Alabama and Georgia where boaters are most likely to have freeze-related damage to engine blocks. It routinely occurs to boats stored ashore here. Boats left in a slip are less susceptible to sudden freezing as the surrounding water retains heat longer than air.

2. Failure to drain water from sea strainer: If your winterizing plan calls for draining the engine, the seawater strainer must be winterized or residual water could freeze and rupture the watertight seal. Sometimes you won't know it's damaged until spring launching and water begins to trickle in.

3. Failure to close seacocks: For boats left in the water, leaving seacocks open over the winter is like going on extended vacation without locking the house. If a thru-hull cannot be closed, the vessel must be stored ashore - the sole exception is cockpit drains. Heavy snow loads can also force your boat under, allowing water to enter thru-hulls that are normally well above the water line.

4. Clogged petcocks: Engine cooling system petcocks clogged by rust or other debris can prevent water from fully draining. If one is plugged, try using a coat hanger to clear the blockage or use the engine's intake hose to flush anti-freeze through the system.

5. Leaving open boats in the water over winter: Boats with large open cockpits or low freeboard can easily be pushed underwater by the weight of accumulated ice and snow. Always store them ashore.

6. Using biminis or dodgers as winter storage covers: A cover that protects the crew from the sun does a lousy job protecting the boat from freezing rain and snow. Unlike a bonafide winter cover, biminis and dodgers tend to rip apart and age prematurely by the effects of winter weather.To get a free copy of the BoatU.S. Winterizing Guide full of tips to help you prepare your vessel for the winter, go to http://www.BoatUS.com/seaworthy/winter, or call 800-283-2883.

Author’s note: I have been experimenting with calling techniques this bowhunting season as usual. In this blog I’ll describe an experience I had on Saturday, October 25, 2008 while using a device called the “Treestand Rattl’r” made by Brushwolf Gear in St. Cloud Minnesota.

YOU CAN RATTLE BUCKS!
By: Ray Hansen

The big eight-point buck slipped around the edges of the small clearing, trying to catch some scent. Hunting partner Duane Deno and I had this deer convinced that two other bucks had entered his territory. We figured he would show himself in order to drive these intruders away. Weather and atmospheric conditions however, were making it tough. Wind had gone as flat as yesterday’s soufflé and without anything to blow it away, fog built up and around our stands making it tough to see very far. Well… this was the day we had chosen to work this spot so we just had to make the best of it.

So how did we set up this strategy and the buck encounter? Actually, it was a combination of strategies – especially the careful use of sound – that culminated in the buck’s arrival.

Part of the equation was the lay of the land. We set up on a “hogback” ridge of higher ground that bisected a tag alder jungle. The ridge had maple, oak, ash, spruce, and a scattering of old apple trees that still produced fruit. Bucks generally stayed back in the alders, but would sometimes come out during the day if they thought some does were on the ridge. No trees large enough to hold treestands could be found in the jungle, so we had to set up on the ridge. Besides, that was the only place you could see far enough to tell when a deer was approaching.

We set out rut scent as part of the plan. When a light, steady breeze is present, the enticing smell swirls and streams downwind like the waters of a small brook. Under optimum conditions, deer many hundreds of yards away can detect it. We wanted them to think a “ready doe” was up on the ridge.

To make the bucks focus on a specific target in a specific spot – one that would provide a good shooting opportunity for us – we set up decoys twenty yards from our stands. The easiest I have found to use and transport are Renzo’s folding style decoys. These are photo-realistic units that fold flat about the size of a newspaper and set up in seconds. I have had bucks walk in circles around them, so I know they work. We used the “Feeder Doe” models.

The final factor was sound. To simulate two bucks sparring, I used a rattling bag called the “Treestand Rattl’r” made by Brushwolf Gear in St. Cloud, Minnesota. This is a tough, weatherproof bag that can be rolled between your hands or pounded with one hand to simulate the sounds made by bucks clashing their antlers together. The idea is to sound like two younger bucks fighting over a doe so that a larger, dominant buck might barge in to chase them away from the prize he wants to claim. The Treestand Rattl’r takes this strategy one step farther however. It is sold with a long, strong cord so that the hunter can lower it beneath his treestand and make the sound come from ground level. In that way, the arriving buck should be focusing on the lower source of the sound, not the treestand the hunter is in. This is a solid advantage the hunter needs when trying to fool an animal who spends his life out there, outwitting hunters.

So how did this hunt turn out? Well, the eight pointer I mentioned showed himself but the calm, foggy conditions made it hard to gauge his reactions since Duane could not see him too well. At the time the buck was approaching Duane’s stand, I had a doe slip out of the tag alders on my side. She cautiously circled my set-up, and when a shot became available, I took it.

The 2 ½ year-old deer was in prime condition, and I processed the venison myself. When she made a death run back into the jungle, the buck slipped away. Nevertheless, I considered the hunt a success. The buck definitely responded to our tactics and I took a very good antlerless deer. The season runs until the end of December here in Michigan and I’ll be out lots more.

Copyright Ray Hansen, 2008

MOONSCAPE LAKE - Final Installment

Author’s note: This is the final installment of the blog I started yesterday. It passes along some details about a visit my wife and I recently made to a reservoir that is now drained while repairs are made to the dam that normally holds water back to form the lake there. While it is dry, we have enjoyed exploring it in a way that is normally impossible.

I wish we had more time on today’s trip. I’d create my own fishing hotspot by dragging some logs into a pile along the drop-off where the basin suddenly slopes down into the main river channel. A few of the big rocks laying around would weigh the logs to keep them captive once the water level is allowed to return to normal levels.

This kind of spot quickly becomes attractive habitat for fish since it concentrates some good cover in a small area. Also, it would provide a current break against the constant flow of the river. By anchoring it on the slope that drops into the main channel, I would create a shallow side and a deeper side – about six feet below the surface up on the bank and fifteen feet deep at the base. This offers fish a piece of bottom structure that connects the extremes – something that experience shows they prefer.

Standing at the launch ramp that now leads only to a dry lakebed, I can see that most fishermen would head downstream like sheep following the rest of the flock. That is because the reservoir is wider in that direction and would appear deeper because the dam crosses the entire basin. By appearance, there is simply “more water” downstream, therefore – in most fishermen’s minds – more fish!

For this reason, I would build my underwater “fish condo” in the opposite direction - upstream - where it would likely go undetected by other anglers for several years. The water in this river is dark enough that the structure would not be visible by eye once the lake refills. An electronic fish locator would be necessary to pinpoint the exact location. That would be sure to help keep my spot a secret.

Of course, I would need some help finding it the first few times as well. For that reason, I would place a discreet marker on the shoreline slightly above the high water mark. Maybe I’d use a couple of the old stumps commonly available here. I could place one at the water’s edge and another some yards up on land so they lined up like rifle sights, pointing to the spot. No-one else would suspect their significance.

As for exactly where on the upstream side of the lake I would build this attractor, the choice is relatively simple: I’d choose a place that is currently devoid of cover – a place no natural competition exists. This creates a new opportunity for the local trout, walleyes, bass, pike, or perch to hide from the relentless current. A place where they can rest as they wait for natural water movement to drift a morsel or a minnow past them.

Placing structure on the bottom of reservoirs in this manner is a common practice in southern states where reservoirs with fluctuating water levels allow access when the lakes are drawn down annually. Similar lakes here in northern states seldom see changing levels so this strategy is not well known.

I’m going to talk to my life-long fishing pal Duane about going up later this fall to take on this project. We could trailer our all terrain vehicles to the reservoir to make pulling the logs together an easy chore. The structure we create could be useful year around, since both open water and ice fishing are practiced here. If we take on the project, I’ll let you how it goes in another blog.

Thanks for stopping by, and I’ll see you on Monday 11-10.

Copyright Ray Hansen, 2008

MOONSCAPE LAKE - PART ONE

MOONSCAPE – Part one
By: Ray Hansen

The scene was something like you might have seen on the 50’s television show “Death Valley Days”. Maybe that is before your time. Compare it to one of the desolate planets Spock and Captain Kirk visited before Kirk returned to Earth, retired from space exploration, and got a job as a partner in a law firm on Boston Legal (and James Spader took Spock’s place.

Vast open stretches of bare dirt spread out for thousands of yards in all directions. Strangely, it is lined with deep cracks as though it was a desert even though until recently it held millions of gallons of water. Sprinkled here and there are the skeletons of huge trees, whitened and split by exposure to the sun after many years submerged beneath the tannic stained water. Massive stumps squat silently in all directions, their roots spiraling off in a circle like so many octopi sitting on the ocean floor.

The site I’m describing is the reservoir formerly backed up behind the Boney Falls Dam, on the Escanaba River some miles upstream from my home. Now drained of water, it contains just a single thin river channel running through its center like a main artery snaking through a parched skeleton. The water level has been lowered so necessary repairs can be made to the dam that normally holds the river back.

The bottom of the reservoir – now exposed to the sun and wind for the first time in many years – holds traces of its history for those who can read the clues. Wearing high-top rubber boots and poking through the ruins, Kate and I find the remnants of a very old wicker basket style fishing creel. This is a kind of basket with a long shoulder strap that trout anglers once used to keep their catch fresh. Wet moss was placed in the container and fish placed on it. Cooling by evaporation helped keep them from spoiling. Indian tribes in this area also made baskets for various purposes, but theirs were fashioned from intricately woven and intertwined willow branches. The piece of basket we found was made of flat wooden strips. In any case, I’m certain the owner despaired losing it.

Signs of the old logging days lay settled into the drying sediment all around us. Big pine logs with hand-hewn notches near the cut ends spoke of smoky cook shacks dimly lit by oil lanterns. A pine pole with a neat row of branches, each cut cleanly at three inches, whispered that big, black cast iron skillets had been hung there through holes in the handles. A big horseshoe, rusted and thinned by so many seasons under water gave silent witness that three-quarter ton draft horses once stabled here. Look closer and maybe two faint lines would reveal the course of a logging trail etched into the ground by clydesdales, morgans, percherons, and belgiums straining against leather collars. These massively muscled horses pulled drays filled with logs so big two lumberjacks could not encircle them with their arms outstretched.

An old boat wedged between two big pine stumps drew our attention. It’s not ancient, but is a very early aluminum model in a long, narrow “johnboat” style. Vintage 1950’s I’d say. We wonder how it got here? It’s upside down. Does it speak of tragedy? The transom shows no evidence that an old green Johnson Sea Horse outboard motor was ever clamped there, so it must have been used as a rowboat.

Was it tethered to a small dock with an old hemp rope that gave way in a storm? Is there a skeleton in the mud beneath it? Did the wild wind and relentless river current push it against the stumps until it tipped enough to fill with water and slip beneath the surface? Well… at this point it is just the Escanaba River version of the Edmund Fitzgerald that was lost on nearby Lake Superior. The hull has been found but the story of its sinking remains a mystery.

End of part one – come back tomorrow for the conclusion of this blog. Thanks for reading!

Copyright Ray Hansen, 2008

PROCESSING VENISON AT HOME - Final Part

Author’s Note: This is the last installment of the two-part series detailing some of the processing I did on the deer I killed while bowhunting recently. I’ve been seeing lots if deer exhibiting the early stages of the rut season in the past few days, and I’m set to spend some more time in a tree hoping to bring a nice buck into range.

THE BUMP AND GRIND

The grinding and stuffing we do is for the purpose of making sausage, bratwurst, and hamburger. We first determine how much hamburger we want. This time it was twenty pounds. That being the case, we bought ten pounds of beef hamburger and two pounds of pork suet. The mix is 50% venison, 50% beef, with an occasional pellet of suet tossed into the mix as it runs through the grinder.

For bratwurst, we mix equal parts of venison and pork roast, along with a pre-measured packet of dried seasonings. We soak some real pork casings (bought from a butcher) for an hour or so, then rinse them internally with clear, cold water. The seasoning is hand-mixed into the ground pork/venison mix then run through the grinder a second time with a tube attachment that holds the casing. As the casing fills it is twisted at six inch intervals to create a string of ‘brats.

FREEZE THE BRATS

Both the hamburger and brats are placed in ZipVac bags. A pound of ‘burger in a bag is about right. Duane likes to make three-quarter pound flat burger patties while I like one and one-quarter pound round portions. This meat is used for spaghetti sauce, hamburgers, chili-mac, or any dish normally requiring ground beef. The brats are packaged three to six in a bag.

The final chore is making sausage. This meat is ground in the same 50-50 pork/venison ratio, but Duane mixes dry seasonings and Liquid Smoke flavoring according to his own recipe.

Certain secrets will never be shared by a true “Yooper” (the name residents of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula use for themselves) and knowledge of the exact ingredients in Duane’s sausage mix is probably something he’ll take to the grave. I do know it contains things like mustard seed, garlic powder, curing salt, “soul” seasoning, onion flakes, small cubes of pepperjack cheese, and much more. Store-bought dry seasoning is also available pre-mixed, but I recommend getting creative with your own choices. If you are going to try something like this for the first time, try two radically different batches. Next time, fine tune the one you like best.

CASE CLOSED

The casings we use for sausage are dry and about two inches in diameter. They measure about three feet in length, and are stuffed using the grinder as for bratwurst, except that different blades are inserted into the machine and a larger outflow tube is used. They weigh about six pounds apiece when filled. These are cooked at a low temperature of 165 – 170 degrees for about six hours. Duane has cooked them in his home oven on past trips, but this time we dropped them off at a local butcher for cooking in his smokehouse.

Once again, we package the finished sausage into the vacuum-pack bags for longer term freezer storage after cutting them into six-inch lengths. I wrap each short piece in a “cling” type semi-clear film, press this film tightly across the cut ends, then bag and vacuum seal them.

So our 2008 hunt got off to a great start, and we had hands-on involvement with the entire process from “deer down” to stuffing the final sausage. This tradition is something we look forward to each year. New changes creep into the experience, like “tweaking” the seasonings and trying new gear. The biggest change this year was the addition of the ZipVac system and it was welcome discovery. It will be a standard item on future hunts. Check their website, www.zipvac.net for more details.

Copyright Ray Hansen, 2008

PROCESSING VENISON AT HOME - Part one

Author’s Note: This two-part series will detail some of the processing I did on the deer I killed while bowhunting recently. Part two will run tomorrow.

TRIMMING, GRINDING, AND STUFFING
By: Ray Hansen

Cutting, trimming, grinding, and stuffing. Razor-sharp knives in experienced hands, slicing down to the bone. An entire deer that slowly becomes a skeleton before your eyes. Sounds like the plot for a Halloween horror classic, but it’s nothing macabre.

It’s all about turning venison on the deer into steaks that will sizzle, sensational smoked sausage, hearty hamburger, simmering slumgullion, a bounty of bratwurst, and a few other fine cuts that will warm the coming winter nights. Life-long friend Duane Deno of Gladstone, Michigan and I recently spent a couple days in an unheated pole barn doing just that. For us it is all part of the hunt – a part we choose to do ourselves rather than bringing the meat to a commercial processor.

I have nothing against bringing a deer in to have a butcher trim and package it. I’ve done it. Not all hunters however, have the knowledge, time, or equipment to handle this chore alone. Duane and I however – at least for the first deer we take in any season – like to process them ourselves.

So, on Monday and Wednesday of last week we went to work on the two big does we killed while bowhunting the week prior. It was a pleasure to tackle this chore.

HANG ‘EM HIGH

Step one is hauling the deer to the pole barn and hanging them to let the muscles relax and give the meat a little time to age. If tempertures remain around forty degrees we may let the deer hang several days. On this October hunt in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, we skinned the deer immediately to get faster cooling since temperatures were borderline. After two days we started processing Duane’s 3 ½ year-old, 125 pound doe.

We work with four-inch and six-inch fillet knives just like those used on fish. Our goal is to cut meat cleanly away from the bone, one quarter at a time. Each slab is laid on a clean cutting surface where we trim away all fat, connecting tissues, membrane, and “silver skin” which is found on the surface of some of the muscles.

After initial trimming, we begin cutting steaks from the hindquarters, and building a side pile of smaller chunks of lean venison that will become stew meat or will be ground up. The steaks are cut across the grain, and shaping them is a matter of personal taste. Duane likes his thin and flat like a rib-eye. I like mine round and thicker like filet mignon. We have plenty of meat to work with so each gets his quota of preferred cuts.

DEEP FREEZE

This year we are trying a new approach to packaging meat, using the “ZipVac” system. This is a very simple yet effective way to handle venison, fish, or anything that benefits from vacuum-packing. Put the cut into the appropriate sized bag, zip the seal closed using finger pressure, then place a small hand-held vacuum pump over a valve built into the bag and remove the air. In a few seconds the bag collapses tightly around the meat and stays that way. Twist the valve a quarter turn to lock it and the venison is freezer ready. It sure beats the other methods I’ve used such as freezer paper.

As a side note, campers, travelers, backpackers, hunters, and others could use this style vacuum packing for anything they wanted to keep fresh or stay dry like granola, matches, scents used when hunting, and many, many other things.

Check this blog tomorrow for the final part of today’s blog. See you here!

Copyright Ray Hansen, 2008

HALF-DAY BOWHUNT: Final Installment

Author’s note: This is the final installment of the series I wrote detailing a half-day in the woods while bowhunting for deer. As I mentioned previously, I have already had a successful season, taking a 2 ½ year-old doe during late October. I’ll be out looking for a eight-point or better buck during the rifle hunting portion of this season (Nov. 15-30), and if I don't fill my remaining tag then, I’ll spend more time bowhunting until the archery season closes at the end of December.

I’ll see you tomorrow with a new blog.

PREDATOR AND PREY

The third deer in the group was hanging back while the others began browsing. It was small, and did not have the somewhat “sleek” look of a healthy deer during the autumn season. As it maneuvered closer I saw that it had recently been attacked by coyotes or wolves. Perhaps a mountain lion or one of the local black bears. Its sides were raked heavily as if by claws, the lower jaw was broken, and its tongue protruded out of its mouth sideways from the right side. Once in a while, deer survive an attack from these predators, and make an escape. The injuries could also have been caused by a vehicle, but we were so far away from the nearest road that I did not think this was the case. Even then, the closest roads are dirt and quite rutted. Twenty miles per hour is about top speed.

I decided to kill this deer if I could. I watched it try to eat with the others, but it could not bite effectively. It stayed out on the fringe of the group, and when it got closer the others would drive it away. Unfortunately (I guess) the injured deer walked away toward the east, and I had no opportunity to get a clear shot. That’s just the way it is when hunting with a bow.

10:05 a.m.: A buck fawn comes in from the northeast.

10:07 a.m.: A 2 ½ year old doe joins the small buck from the same direction. This animal is very sleek and in prime condition. She browses a little on the hill but acts more cautious than any of the other deer I have seen here. Looking in many directions, stopping frequently to swivel her ears all around, and circling to try to scent-check, it is going to take some luck to catch this one in position for a shot. It just does not happen. She moves off to the west and out of range before any chance comes up.

I have seen this deer pay close attention to something southeast of my spot while she was in my sight. Again, I’m hoping the buck I suspect is skulking around is what this doe is reacting to. Normally when deer circle some spot it is because they are trying to get downwind of something they want to scent check. Today has generally been calm so this strategy is not working well for them.

11:10 a.m.: I see some movement northwest of the stand, and assume it is deer. I use a soft doe bleat followed by a higher pitched fawn call to try to pull these animals in closer, but it doesn’t seem to work.

In the end, I stayed until about noon, but saw no more deer close enough to get a good look at. I took advantage of the lull in activity to climb down from my stand and quietly slip out of the woods. I have lots more time to hunt and I really enjoy being out in the woods in the generally warmer weather this October hunt took place in.

I saw more deer than usual today. I’ve spent many other half-day hunts in a tree when all the activity I watched consisted of birds, squirrels, rabbits, ravens, and other natural sights but no deer. When I go out into the woods I just never know what forest drama might play out. That sense of anticipation keeps things interesting

Copyright Ray Hansen, 2008

DEER PARADE

Author’s Note: This is part four of the series I started earlier this week. Today Duane and I took the thirty pounds of summer sausage we made out of the smoker. It was absolutely delicious! We had five six-pound sticks of it so I cut my part into smaller sticks, wrapped each in self-sealing food wrap, then placed each shorter piece in a sealable freezer style plastic food storage bag and put them in the freezer. These bags are the type that can be vacuumed-packed using a small hand pump to remove the air from them. They should store well, and I’ll have sausage all winter and more.

Anyway, today’s part of this series starts where part three left off. Enjoy!


THE PARADE STARTS

8:00 a.m.: The first of a series of deer show up, as three does approach from the tag alder swamp northwest of me and enter the hill well out of range. They ease closer however, and end up feeding on maple leaves from five to twenty yards from my stand. I almost immediately decided to simply watch these animals go about their natural activities and act as “live decoys” for the buck I heard earlier. I’m hoping he is still in the area and will pass by to investigate the sound of the foraging deer. The day is so calm I can clearly hear the “snap” as each leaf is pulled from the stem and when the does are close enough I can make out the grinding sound of their chewing.

One of the does is a one and one-half year old that would offer some very good venison, but I’m not even thinking about taking this one. I watch as it offers some near perfect shooting opportunities, but I am thinking about that buck. The does do not know I am there and go about their activities just as they normally do each day. I never tire of watching them forage, and I learn new things just about every time out. For example, I always knew they ate maple leaves, but this is the first time I have seen them target these leaves almost exclusively. In the future when looking for stand sites, Ill watch for spots where the visible mature maples send out these small “sucker root shoots”. There are probably thousands of them on this hill, but very few anywhere else. I have hunted a 160 acre tract here and this is the best growth of this type I have seen.

At some point after I first spotted the three deer, two more filtered into the clearing. This pair was a 2 ½ year-old doe with a fawn. I now had five deer within sight, and another that continued to circle this spot. It acted like a buck, or maybe a very experienced older doe. Hard to say. I could not get a good look at this sixth deer except for occasional glimpses of its silhouette as it move through the pines. This deer was obviously trying to get downwind of this spot so it could tell by scent what was going on. That is the sign of a deer that has learned caution – especially around places where groups of deer congregate. Their noise and milling around sometimes attracts coyotes of wolves.

This parade of deer reminded me of some of the trips Bob Buske and I made to the big woods out in west-central Illinois. Once in a while we would have as many as seven deer move past our spots at one time. This was a firearms hunt though, and when Bob saw that many deer he usually picked one he wanted and took it with one well-placed shot.

Anyway, back to the Michigan hunt. Eventually all five deer wandered off, having browsed as much maple as they wanted. This season is still quite new, and I’m under no pressure to fill one of my tags yet, so I am content to watch them for the time being. I sat back down for a welcome fifteen minute rest before another group showed up.

PASS THE CACTUS

9:45 a.m.: Three more deer came in from the north /northwest again. Two of these animals are unusual examples among whitetail deer, and I’ll describe them in a moment. The first one in was a normal yearling doe fawn. It began browsing on the maple shoots as did the previous visitors.

The second in line was a 1 ½ year old, four-point buck. This buck however was what hunters typically call a “cactus buck” because its antlers were stubby and full of short, pointed spines. It looked like a deer with two small cactus plants growing out of its head! These are not often seen and are not trophies. They don’t look very good, and most hunters simply take the opportunity to watch them in their natural setting. There is nothing wrong with them physically.

Come back Monday, November 3 for part five.

Copyright Ray Hansen, 2008

CLIMBING TREES

Author’s Note: This is part three of the series I started earlier this week. Once again today, I am busy making summer sausage and bratwurst from the deer I killed last Saturday. The hamburger I ground yesterday is vacuum-packed and in the freezer after having been mixed 50/50 with beef. The seasonings Duane and I mixed yesterday for the brats and sausage has been mixed with the remainder of the ground venison and pork. That mix sat overnight in a refrigerator out in the garage and will be stuffed today.

In any case, all the work we have done since taking the two deer we got is a big part of the responsibility a hunters takes when going afield. We use the meat and enjoy each meal made with it. In January and February of 2009 we will be out ice fishing and carving off chunks of the sausage we made this fall as a snack. No doubt we’ll remember the details of this successful hunt while out chasing perch across the big weedflats on nearby Little Bay de Noc. For us, the hunt is so much more than just the kill.

I hope you enjoy this part of the series.


CLIMB CAREFULLY

7:20 a.m.: I slowly climb the spruce I’ll hunt from, one careful step at a time, branch by branch. It is just about like going up a ladder, except I use branches rather than steps. My bow is tied to a pull-up line while I ascend toward the small seated platform I hunt from. I always secure a “three-point hold” tactic while climbing. That means I have at least two hands and one foot or two feet and one hand firmly planted before moving up to the next branch. On a spruce, the branches are strong and grow out at a right angle to the trunk so they are great climbing trees.

Once I get up to the platform, I ease into place and fold the small seat down while making sure my safety strap is in place. The entire device is small, measuring about eighteen inches wide by twenty-four inches long. The small padded seat is just large enough to sit on, and it is comfortable enough for a five hour hunt or more.

I have a small backpack that I hang on a branch next to me. It is filled with stuff like deer calls, binoculars, a bottle of water, a package of granola, a small notebook, an extra wool cap, and a dozen other things that make the hunt more comfortable. I don’t have a cell phone because they don’t work up here anyway.

I pull my bow up using the cord I leave attached to the tree, and nock an arrow, check the mechanical release strapped to my right wrist, and lay the bow across my lap, ready to use. It is still too dark to see much, but I lean back and relax as I try to tune in to the sounds natural to the forest. Legal shooting time starts thirty minutes before sunrise, so I simply check my pocket watch to see how much time I have.

7:30 a.m.: I slowly reach for the adjustable tone deer call I have hung next to me where it is easily accessible. Deer use many sounds in the woods, the most common being a sort of raspy “urp” vocalization and this is what I’ll use to send out a message saying “hey! I’m over here” in deer language. Older bucks have a deep tone, mature does have a kind of medium tone, and fawns give out a thin, somewhat reedy call that can even sound bird-like at times. I’ll use what is called a “doe bleat” just to try to communicate the message that there are deer here on Birch Hill and everything is clear and safe.

Just after getting settled in, I removed a quart-sized resealable storage bag (like a sandwich bag) full of dried corn from the backpack. I fling several handfuls out in front of my stand to attract bluejays and squirrels to this spot. There are several reasons for doing this. First off, the presence of other wildlife is somewhat reassuring to deer. They may be more likely to pass near my stand if they think the birds feel safe enough to be there. Secondly, jays and squirrels are among the noisiest of woodland creatures. The distracting sounds they make, help mask any noise I make while trying to get in position for a shot. Finally, the longer I watch jays feeding, the more I have come to believe that deer actually swing by to check out what the jays have found to feed on. Anyway watching squirrels and jays squabble over the few corn kernels I toss out is entertaining.

BUCK PASSER

7:45 a.m.: I hear a single deep-toned grunt from just east of my tree and not far away. I’m fairly certain it is the sound of a buck and I hope to see it pass by. I go on “high alert” straining to hear footfalls, the buck rubbing antlers on trees, any other deer calls, breaking branches, or the common “snort” deer make when alarmed.

Weather is quite comfortable now with temperatures about 40 degrees, an overcast sky, and no wind to chill me. If I had a choice though, I prefer a mild breeze. That rattles branches, creating movement which helps hide the movement I make while drawing my bow, and the wind increases the sound level which also helps conceal any sound I may make while moving into position. Conditions are too calm today.

Incidentally, getting into position means very slowly standing up and drawing my bow – however there are plenty of times when I’m already standing because I know a deer is approaching or because it is a day when they are very active and have been passing by frequently. I didn’t know it at this time, but today was going to be a day when I was standing with bow in hand for about three and one-half hours out of a four and one-half hour hunt.

Stay tuned for part 4 tomorrow!

Copyright Ray Hansen, 2008

BEAR TRAILS AND TREESTANDS

Author's note: I have a couple of preliminary observations prior to posting today's blog. First off, this has been a long day (29 October, 2008). Duane Deno and I spent many hours grinding venison, mixing it with pork and beef, adding various spices, packaging it into hamburger, summer sausage, bratwurst, and much more. We will freeze some of this meat, smoke other parts, and simply refrigerate other cuts. We killed these deer, and we will use all the meat we harvested. In the end, it is all worth it. We'll be eating venison well into next year (and we are not done hunting yet).

Secondly, I have to post a complaint against my internet provider, Hughes Satellite. I had to make six attempts to get logged on tonight to post this blog. Each time I went through the same series of steps I normally make, but it continued to come up with different destinations - none of which were the place I needed to be to post a blog. It stinks, but is the only service provider available in my area.

In any case, I'm on now and this is tonight's blog. It is a continuation of yesterday's story about a typical half-day hunt. I hope you enjoy it!

P.S. When Duane and I returned from the day's meat processing at his brother's house, we got the word that his nephew had taken a nice buck today while bowhunting. I also have to note that I have witnessed some early stage rutting activity (pre-rut) here in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The bulk of this activity is still one to two weeks away, with the main rut most likely starting after November 10.

Here is the continuation of yesterday's blog:

7:00 a.m. We are well on our way toward the stands we have chosen to hunt for the day. The route takes us to the end of the old, overgrown road, across a ridge planted with red pines that are now eighty feet tall, through a passage past the ruins of an old trapper’s shack, and across another ridge, this one planted with spruce that are now about sixty feet tall apiece. A thick carpet of pine needles covers the ground, making our movements as quiet as the night.

BEAR TRAILS

Once through the spruces, we drop into a thick tag alder maze, following an old bear trail well worn into the dirt. In past years we have had to use thigh-high hip boots to get through some of these parts due to standing water and the resulting muck in the alders. Recently though, things have been much drier and we find no pools of water in this swampy stretch. We don’t use flashlights. Full darkness is more appealing, and lets us slip through the woods with the least disturbance possible.

While crossing the alder maze we come up to a small one-acre rise with a few maples growing on it, cross this higher ground, then drop into low ground again. Another rise comes up after a while, and a big spruce tree on this higher spot marks where we split up, each going on alone to that day’s hunting spot. In 2006 I sat on the ground behind this same spruce tree and bagged a fine eight-point buck on the third day of the rifle hunting season. Today though, Duane and I are hunting with bow and arrow and it is a lot harder.

NAME YOUR TREESTAND

7:15 a.m.: Duane is hunting at a spot we call the “Pocket Stand”. This is a small rise of higher ground surrounded by low ground. A maple so big that you could not even come close to encircling it with your arms, grows here. This old tree has seen pioneers, lumberjacks, hunters, bears, deer, bobcats, and maybe a mountain lion on occasion. Deer trails cross this higher ground, and the deer stop at the old maple in the fall to pick up leaves from the forest floor that the maple drops. Once they have been exposed to a frost the starch in the leaves begins to turn into a sugar and deer eat them. Many times I have seen bright orange, red, and yellow leaves sticking out of deer’s mouths as they amble along.

I am hunting at “Birch Hill”, which is also a small patch of higher ground – maybe two acres – with tag alder swamp surrounding it. My spot also has maples, but most are younger trees. Small shoots of maple that grow from the roots of mature trees extend up out of the ground. Each of these shoots looks like a miniature maple tree, and has full sized leaves growing on the tiny branches. Most are two-feet tall at maximum. Deer show up here to browse on the leaves as well.

Live birch trees grow here along with some cedar, spruce, and hackberry. Dead birch logs lay scattered across this small hill like so many soldiers on a battlefield. Limbs lay entangled and broken, while the new maple shoots find a way to grow up through them. Deer trails cross this place like cow paths through a barnyard. Local bears come through once in a while, but we never see them while hunting. We attach a trail camera to a tree to monitor the worn bear trails though, and get pictures of the big, black bruin. He passes through at odd hours like 2:00 a.m., on his way to whatever bears do during the night. We don’t bother each other, and that relationship works very well, thank you.

Copyright Ray Hansen, 2008

Stop by tomorrow for part 3.

GUT INSTINCTS AND MORNING COFFEE

Author's Note: In the next few blogs, I'm going to describe a typical half-day bow hunt based on an actual day I recently enjoyed in the woods. The routine described here would take place when I drive to my friend Duane's home and we go to the hunting area from there. In other cases, we would be staying in a camp and hunting near there, or I would be going out alone.

GUT INSTINCTS

Three hours before sunrise: I get up, stretch, and wander out to the screen porch to take a look at the sky. I see no stars and conclude that it is overcast. We do not have television and I don’t watch the Weather Channel. I could fire up my computer to see what the forecast is, but I’m not invested in what they might report. This is hunting in the old way. I’ll go by what my guts say; what the sky looks like; what I might hear on the pre-dawn breeze; and what experience tells me about hunting with a bow and arrow at this time of year.

5:20 a.m.: I’m in the truck, driving toward Duane’s place. I see lots of deer on the ten-mile drive. They seem quite active today. I hope this carries through into the hours I’ll be out in the woods.

MORNING COFFEE

5:30 a.m.: Duane and I have a cup of coffee. We have a long-standing and fundamental disagreement about coffee strength. My preferred recipe is one heaping handful of fresh grounds per person, boil for thirty minutes then throw a horseshoe into the seething cauldron. If the horseshoe sinks, add more coffee. This is called “campfire coffee” or “cowboy coffee” at times.

Duane on the other hand, starts with a full pot of water on Monday, using just three miserly, tiny, teaspoons of grounds. This brews something – certainly not worthy of being called coffee – that one can easily read a newspaper through.

On Tuesday, and each subsequent day, he sprinkles a few additional grains of finely ground coffee on top of the soggy grounds remaining from the previous day. The result is the creation of some unknown heated liquid that he relishes each morning.

PRE-DAWN DEPARTURE

6:15 a.m.: We head out to the woods in my truck. Sunrise is not until just before 8 a.m. and we have a long hike through the woods in the dark so we can be in our stands well before it is light enough to see. Watching the woods come alive on frosty autumn mornings is a treat not many people take advantage of. It is especially enjoyable from a small platform twenty-five feet up a large spruce tree. (Yes, I’m still climbing trees at my age!)

6:40 a.m.: We park on an old logging road adjacent to a large marsh flooded by beavers some years ago. We suit up in camouflage coveralls, gloves, and camo facemasks. After that we spray down with scent-blocking spray from plastic spritz bottles and put on eighteen-inch high rubber boots. Deer have an incredibly well developed sense of smell, and that is the number one thing hunters have to try to defeat if they plan on seeing any animals.

Copyright Ray Hansen, 2008