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. 

Hunting doesn't stop in cold weather

In the frigid temperatures my brother and I still made the best of it and spent the week hunting crows, squirrels, and grouse. While we may not have been very successful it was still fun to be outside and active. 

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.