First ice fishing of the year

With a new ice fishing season comes a lot of new gear. Pretty much everything is new including the auger, the shelter, and electronics.  Everything seemed to work better than expected and the fishing wasn't bad either. My brother and I caught four keepers the first day and the second I caught 13 by myself. 

Rifle season first weekend

While the past few weeks the bow hunting was as good as it has ever been for me and my brother, rifle season seemed to be a different story. As soon as we had gotten into our stands on rifle morning the deer seemed to quit moving. While I did fire a few 300 yard shots at a buck I was not able to get a deer this weekend. Hopefully they are moving next weekend. 

1st attempt at goose hunting

while my first try at goose hunting this weekend was a failure in terms of geese on the ground. it was a success since I will be going again in the near future.

First deer with the bow

After multiple years I bowhunting I finally got my first deer with the bow on Saturday evening. It was a slow but windy day, not greatly enjoyable until the last couple minutes. After a 20 yard shot the doe fell in the field less than 100 yards away. 

Leech lake

Another trip to leech lake and another weekend of walleye fishing. While the fishing wasn't spectacular it was still fun to catch a few fish when the weather was right. And also get out on the skis and kneeboard. 

Successful day on the river

My brother was the only one to catch a fish but these two fish were more than enough to keep us busy. His first northern was 36" (10 lbs) and the next a few minutes later was 37"(11 lbs). Both bigger than my last two muskies... The fish were caught on gold and orange daredevils (spoons). 

Remodel

The old floor in the boat was rotting and needed an upgrade so my dad and I set out to do just that. We not only replaced the existing floor and carpeted it but we also added plywood to the next bench adding about four feet of flat flooring 

I have taken it out quite a few times already with varied success. My friend and I had one or two pretty good days but otherwise it was pretty slow. I also recently began bow fishing on the same lake. 

 

Turkey hunting 2014

This year I have found out the that the youth turkey license is much more lenient than the one week license lotteries for adults. So I am able to hunt any of the five or six days seasons. So since my uncle and cousins had "A" season licenses  I decided to hunt with them. The first few days were slow with only one bird coming to my call but hangin up almost 200 yards out. But on the last morning of the season my uncle and I left the private land to hunt public where we had seen a few birds the night before. Through out the morning I heard gobbles in the distance but then nothing for three hours until noon when I heard a gobble directly behind me. Three jakes and a tom stepped out of the woods immediately behind me. The tom unfortunately circled around me and didn't give me a shot. But the jakes were very interested in my hen decoy and stayed around. Just when the tom disapeared I shot one of the jakes. It was my first turkey. 

Leech lake ice fishing

This weekend my family stayed with my aunt and uncle at their cabin. We fished for the whole weekend and by the end of the weekend we had caught 28 keeper perch, 1 walleye and four northerns. Along with a ton of perch that went back in the lake. 

I spent a majority of time in the spear house and the northern above is the only fish I saw besides one small northern while setting up. But it was 31" and big enough to keep me spearing. 

The biggest perch of the weekend was 12" long and caught by my brother. 

Ice fishing update

Ice fishing has been consistent for my brother and me. The crappies have been biting in intervals and we usually go home with at least a few. But this last time out brought a few firsts with it. The perch pictured below were about 11 inches and were the first perch we caught that didn't look like bait. We also had a camera down and saw quite a few northerns so we dropped a sucker down and added a few bobbers but unfortunately didn't get a bite on it. Maybe next time I'll be back with spear in hand.