That's pretty fucking cool. Not sure what the "I inherited it" laws are around that kind of stuff, or if it's illegal to have in the first place, but I'd sure as hell want to keep it.
I just bought an inexpensive little 5'6" ultralight rod to go with an itty bitty spinning reel I got on sale this winter. Time to fuck some 'gills up! Got my turkey tag today too- only five weeks 'til my season. I've resumed watching hunting videos in anticipation of being afield again, and this one turned out WAY better than I expected: I'd need a moment to scrape the shit out of my pants after taking that shot.
I just bought an owl call and crow call for locating turkeys next month. It seems a little odd how the past two years the birds have been dead quiet during the spring season despite my calling tactics (I've tried being a quiet coy tease and I've tried being a big loud whore hen and everything inbetween), so at least now I will hopefully have a better idea of where to post up and ambush the assholes. They have what looks like two main travel routes through the property and I think success will be a matter of being on the right trail at the right time. Running and gunning has not worked so well so far, probably because I get too excited and sound like a samsquanch rolling through the woods, so we'll see what happens. Mills Fleet Farm had gigantic basic inline spinners for $5 last week too so obviously I'm going to get one for this coming Boundary Waters trip in June too. The lake we're headed to isn't exactly known for harboring big northern pike but fuck it, I have to find out either way. This thing had a bright chartreuse blade and black bucktail over the hook (but not tied directly to it) so I added a bit of orange and red paint with silver flecks to the blade and dressed the hook itself with some gray squirrel tail and flashy strips. Definitely overkill but it was all fun to do and I won't care if I lose it because it was cheap. With a Mepps #5 for scale: Now we'll just see if I can cast that thing out of a canoe without my dog going after it too.
I got banned from a duck hunting group for using ducks to train duck dogs. I do believe the world has finally lost it's shit. This was a diver duck group. There's a ridiculous feud between puddle duck hunters and diver duck hunters. The concern was that since I use smaller diver duck to train the young dogs (which we end up cleaning and letting them eat anyways, although I will eat them every once in a while, despite them tasting like mackerel-soaked gamy flesh) that it would make diver hunters look bad in the eyes of puddle duck hunters. Shit like this is why I'm gonna end up moving to a secluded mountain and living in a cabin.
Turkey Season opens here tomorrow. I'm beyond excited but it's going to a cold morning, not sure if they'll gobble with it in the 20's. Any experience for hunting turkeys in the cold?
Dead silence, at least that has been my experience hunting them in northern Minnesota when there's still some snow in the shadows and it gets down to those temps in the mornings in late April/early May. The birds will still be out and strutting their stuff for decoys but they may not be chatty. I will be scouting soon and am really curious to see if this trend continues. May 14th is our fishing opener and I can still take a buddy turkey hunting then too. A cast n' blast weekend, my favorite!!
Some people in SW Ontario (London area) are finding good results by actively entering their territory. The wild turkeys have huge populations and aren't skittish or scared of people, and have been known to harass patrons in the parking lot of the local Tim Hortons (I know first-hand of this happening in Lambeth, Ontario, to a long-time hunting buddy). By entering their domain they become somewhat aggressive and will come at you, bro, rather than run away as historical turkeys have done. It might be that they just haven't learned to be afraid yet, and this behaviour will teach them to run away, but for now, they just don't give a shit.
Caught these guys today, finally breaking the year to date skunk. I'm using a new rig, called the Ned Rig (or Midwest Finesse) before the weeds really set in. It's a rig that is supposed to get great numbers, although size is sacrificed because the plastic is only 2.5" long. Now that the temps have warmed up, here's hoping the productivity continues.
Tried a different part of the same lake before returning to the spot which produced earlier this week. Also tried a different lake and got skunked, but rewarded by the fishing gods for cleaning up refuse. I think the pre-spawn is on because I was hit by 4 fish, landing two, within 15 minutes of fishing. That little area also had some other wildlife which I didn't expect to see. I think that's a muskrat? maybe a beaver? Edit: found a lure in the trash I cleaned up
Panfish are back in the shallows and biting. It was rainy and chilly today (could see my breath) so I was using the tiniest little hook I had in my box with half a power grub stuck on, suspended by a tiny little bobber, and started off my lunch break fishing with a bang. In consolation it did have a very cool blue/purple color, but it was all up from there. Bonus bass was fun on my little ultralight rod, though I can't target these guys 'til May 14.
It took a few seasons but I finally have a nice gobbler on the ground. I caught my first glimpse of this bird on Thursday (as he was running away, obviously), called back and forth for the first time on Friday evening (I need to thank a giant owl for hooting and getting him stirred up), went back and forth again for a long time on Saturday morning before he went in the opposite direction and then later visited me for a moment on Saturday afternoon before disappearing. I called him in and after what sounded like sprinting my way his head poked into view just as I was setting my box call down and immediately turned around and went silent (damn!). Then this morning I relocated my spot to get closer to where he was roosting and had him and two other birds gobbling at sunup. Fun. Not long after the first yelps and cuts and round of gobbles in response I heard him thump onto the ground and head my way... this time I was smart enough to have the call in my lap and hands on the gun already. His head poked up in the same spot as yesterday afternoon but this time he just made his way to the decoys while I tried to keep my heart in my chest. Bam, nice big bird. 9" beard and 1" spurs, this is the first mature tom I've shot and the last time I got one was my first turkey, a jake two years ago. Had a lonely hen visit and poke around for awhile on Saturday around noon, she sat in front of this decoy looking completely puzzled for a bit. So now I'm back this weekend to hopefully help my brother kill one of the other birds I heard this morning and then with another hunting buddy the weekend after. Before this weekend I had yet to hear any gobbles on the property nor do any actual calling back and forth with any birds, and now I've got a lot more experience and confidence and actually feel like a turkey hunter. It can be really frustrating to go seasons without even seeing a damn feather while you're trying to learn so I'm happy. Time to fire up the smoker and get on to the next one. There were mallard ducks going in and out of tiny puddles on the property and I saw a couple sandhill cranes on the way home. I also saw seven deer out on Saturday evening, hanging out in the field I hunt over. Previously the most I've seen is four, so that was awesome and hopefully they stick around and stay healthy for November.
The fishing season for pike, walleye, and bass just started up over the weekend and I was just on a dock enjoying my lunch hour. Less than a minute after rigging up with a spinnerbait and before making my first cast, I saw a three foot long pike or muskie slink past the dock (surprise!). I lobbed the spinner a bit past the fish and ended up just watching it sail into the water with a few feet of line attached- it had snapped off right at the reel. It was 10 lb. Berkley Fireline wound up tight on the spool with a weak spot just a few inches ahead. Yah shit happens but PSA: Don't be an idiot like me... clip off some of your line from last year to get rid of the worn stuff before tying one on and having at it. Just glad it was a cheap lure. Turkey hunting with my brother two weekends ago was a bust. Didn't hear a single gobble the whole weekend- it was odd after there were multiple birds gobbling for me just a few days previously. I suspect it is because he was making a ton of noise with his mouth call all day, just calling indiscriminately, but who knows. I told him it was his tag to fill so he could do whatever he wanted if it made him happy. I was back at it again this past weekend with another buddy and we heard a lone gobble at about 6:30 am on Saturday morning and then sat in cold wind for a few hours before he decided bloody maries were a better idea (my tag was filled, so fine by me!). It snowed the night before- it was not warm out. Then on Sunday morning that same bird sounded off at the same time, except that day he was receptive to my calls... and we went back and forth for a good two hours. It was exhilarating to have one actively gobbling back again, and all morning too, except this bird just refused to move from his field about 300 yards away. I was trying to not over-call or get too aggressive with him but maybe I still was, or maybe he was just a tough 'ol bird that is smarter than to risk eating a face full of #5s for a random hen. Don't know but it was still fun and the look on my buddy's face after the bird gobbled back to my call was priceless. We were sitting in this spot (my brother in the pic) and the bird was in an open area just past that treeline in the background. Had four hens and a jake in the spread, a whole flock.
First 4-day fishing trip of the year kicks off this weekend... so tonight will be spent stripping spools and redoing 4 fly fishing rigs from scratch... always fun. Normally we're fighting ice and sleet and hail and snow at this high elevation lake this time of the year, but I went up there a couple of weeks ago with my mom (drove her around to show her some of my favourite fishing spots), and it was already 14°C, sunny, and the lake had turned. Should be a killer fishing weekend, and I'm really looking forward to it.
There's a half dozen toms that always come into my yard in the morning to eat. Really piss off my cat who ends up just chasing the hens around because they don't get big and scary at her. I can tell the grass is needing a fresh cut when it gets about beard length on them. Fuckers will scare the crap out of you if you aren't expecting them there.
There's a flock roosting in my neighborhood and they've been spotted along my block too. They sit on the sidewalks and block traffic on occasion- night and day behavior compared to in the wild. I just haven't been able to get any in my backyard yet (not like I've tried or anything like that).
Just got back home from a nice 4 day fishing trip. Weather was fucking retarded... windy, rainy, sleety, almost freezing... all... fucking... weekend. But we braved it out, and I'm glad we brought our normal load-out for the cabin; huge pop-up with string of christmas tree lights for the front porch (totally saved the weekend... we could sit outside in the rain and drink Bailey's and espresso), my espresso machine, laptop and speakers full of movies and tv shows (everything from LetterKenny to Dead Pool), way, way too much food, and almost too much alcohol. Even with the shitty weather we must have caught about 40 fish between the 4 of us. We have 5 that we kept that weighed in between 3.5 and 4.5 lbs, which is great for shitty little lake trout. The new boat made its first trip: A friend cleaning a few of his haul. My 2 didn't suck. Great fucking time was had by all.
The fishing was exceptional in the Boundary Waters over the weekend. I didn't catch any really big pike like I was hoping to but managed to keep pulling in fish after fish the entire time and had a blast. My best was probably this 18" smallmouth that I caught just 10' off the shore of our campsite with a Mepps I tied the bucktail on. That fish ended up hanging out around the same pocket near the site all weekend and was even nipping at fish we had on stringers near the shore. Also noteworthy was one guy catching pike, walleye, bass, perch, and bluegill all in the same day and on the same lure no less, a Rapala minnow just trolled along the surface. We rarely see bluegills in the BWCA and the three that were caught were nice thick 8-10" ones too- tasty! The smallmouth master of our group had a 24-25" bass on his fly rod at one point, the biggest either of us have ever seen, and it would have set a record with the certified tippet he had on his line. But alas it snapped off at the boat and is only a good story. He still caught a bunch regardless including a nice 20" fish. The majority of my fish were hooked up on a bright buzzbait ripped along the surface over shallow grassy water until the temps dropped. Too much fun. Hot topwater fishing never gets old, even if you aren't always hooking up big ones. We're talking about where to go for the fall trip. I don't care, I just can't wait to get back.