First time on the ice this year

  This Weekend my brother and I spent about 9 hours on the ice fishing for sunfish and crappies and turned out ok with 17 sunnies 2 crappies and a perch. It was the first time I got the ice house out and worked great.  

New shotgun (Stoeger M3000)

Today (Black Friday) after getting together with the family for a late thanksgiving meal my family and I eased over to fleet farm to check out an early Christmas present. And within Half an hour we walked out with this brand new Stoeger M3000 12 gauge. I've wanted a upgrade from the 20 gauge I have for a while and this lower end gun (lower price for a semi auto) with good reviews was perfect since I don't do a lot of shotgun hunting but would like to do it more often. 

Lost Valley Prairie

Today I volunteered for a praire reconstruction  project in which we collected and spread seeds on the same praire. The praire was super hilly and with rock outcrops and small bunches of trees it was absolutely beautiful. I was lucky to have my aunt with me most of the time and I had fun and learned a ton of things about the plants and the prairie itself.  

Rifle season 2013

Over the past two weekends my family and I have been hunting in central Minnesota with a group of people. As a group it was kind of a slow year but for me and my brother it turned out pretty well. With my brother getting two does within a couple hours and missing in between, he was covered in deer that afternoon. But for me, my story came on opening morning at 7:20. A buck, that I could only see was one I would be willing to shoot, chased a couple does past me sprinting through the woods and he happened to stop running and jog for about ten feet and that's all it took for me  take the shot. But what really made it awesome was when we found him 75 yards from where I shot him, he was way bigger than I even imagined and will be on my wall in about a year. 

Everything but deer

While hunting last weekend it was hard to imagine that I would see twice as many grouse from the stand than deer. But with no deer movement in mid October I was kept busy with all sorts of animals such as porcupines, foxes, grouse, squirrels, weasels, owls, and the occasional whitetail. Since if wasn't seeing many deer I decided to take a shot at a grouse and as you can see, I missed by millimeters. 

Gorgeous view

With a view like this, it's hard to complain about the lack of deer movement.

Foggy morning in the stand

Can hardly see within bow rang with this thick fog over the woods. 

September Fishing

This weekend I went fishing on my boat with my friend and brother. Unfortunately they did not catch a thing but I managed to catch a small northern and this 30 inch one as well! (below)

Also while throwing daredevils I snagged this beautifully colored carp by the dorsal fin. When you don't hook them in the mouth there's not much to stop them from swimming full speed away from the boat so it put up quite the fight.

Trail camera success

Trail camera pictures are one of the best confidence boosters that you can have. When its 0 degrees outside and the wind is blowing 25 Mph one of the only things keeping me out in the stand is the fact that I have consistent daylight pictures of deer in the area. It also helps if a couple of those pictures are of big mature bucks.

Opening weekend

It was a fun first weekend of bow season but didnt see very many deer. The only deer I saw was walking directly In front of my stand, but as I started to draw back, a fat raccoon waddled over and scared it away. 

Dove Hunting

This weekend was my first time dove hunting and it couldn't have been a greater success! I went to a property with a couple friends and while they were more seasoned hunters than I am, I managed to get a few of the 19 birds that night. The doves come flying over the trees at 30-60 mph straight into the decoys, sometimes a flock of ten will come at one time. Between my less than perfect shooting percentage (12% of about 35 shots) and the fast moving birds these birds could challenge any new hunter. And they taste great too!

River FIshing

While fishing from the shores of the river I ventured out through quite a bit of mud and weeds to get to a small lake I saw on Google earth. Sadly I could not fish it from shore because of how shallow it was at this time of year. But i am looking forward to getting back there in the boat and seeing what kinda of fish make their homes in this waterfowl paradise.

 But while the lake may have been a bust, the river was pretty fun this week.Throughout the whole week we caught a couple northern's, dogfish, bass, and a lot of sheep head. The biggest of the bass was the one pictured above although most of them were closer to the size of the one below.

Leech Lake Sunset

                                 The sunset over leech lake was fantastic as we trolled for walleyes.

Successful Day on the Water

Walleye fishing on Leech lake was pretty successful this weekend, with a couple keepers and a lot of them that weren't withing the slot limits. We also caught a lot of Northerns and this unexpected Musky! The Musky was measured at 34 inches and was estimated to weigh 20-25 pounds. It was my second musky of my life, the first being in 2008.

Trail Camera Check

Checked the trail camera this weekend and found that this buck was coming through during daylight hours. 

Pan Fish Paradise

The fishing was very iffy this weekend but on Saturday we were able to get on the fish and managed to catch three bass and enough sun fish to have breakfast for six the next morning.

Water Sports

With Minnesota being the land of 10,000 lakes, there are plenty of opportunities to do some pleasure riding!

Old Boat Gets a Make-Over

This weekend we were up at a cabin and decided to bring the boat along to try and get the 25 hp Johnson motor going and do some work on the trailer. My dad and 

I had rewired the trailer recently and the trailer is road ready again!

This is the trailer with the new rollers down the middle. They were definitely not meant to be changed very easily.

After only a couple of pulls the motor started up like new! and we had no problems with it all weekend.

New Hunting Shack

Finally made it to the woods to put together and set up this stand for early bow season. This stand was definitely a project, taking over seven hours to complete. But now that its up and couldn't be more confident in this seasons chances.

Toilet Talk

This is what we can only assume is the "toilet" for a porcupine's home. The porcupines are causing some serious damage to the trees in the area.

Turkey Hunting

The view from my turkey blind this spring. While i was unsuccessful in getting a turkey the action was almost non stop and became one of those times I look forward to all year long.

Putting down the Minerals

Today I picked up some mineral and salt to throw down for deer.

The Cuddeback is set right on the sight and any pictures I get will be posted in a couple weeks.

Probably the last trail cam check for a while

Surprised to see this buck still hanging around. And I believe the picture below is also of him but without his antlers. Maybe I can find them laying around somewhere.

This deer has been seen  a couple times around the house but this is the first picture of her we have. She seems to still be doing fine.