Bow hunting kick off.

 I had a great weekend, and got out to the woods for four hours to kick off bow hunter opener.  The weekend started by attending the MN Baptist Conference Men's retreat at Trout Lake Camp.  What a great weekend to worship God and get a spiritual makeover.  I had a great time with Robert Boyd and company.  We laughed, learned, joked around and rested.  God is good.  Trout Lake Camp is near my old hunting grounds, Pillsbury State Forest, in Brainerd.  It was here that I shot my first dear with a 12 gauge shot gun and earned the nickname, head shot.  Sunday was the last day of the Men's retreat and I decided to stop at Pillsbury State Forest on my way home.  My intentions: to study for my board exam, to see the land and enjoy a quick hunt.

Last year I hunted Pillsbury for four days with my friend Jim.  We did not see or hear a thing, and I was very discouraged.   My main objective was to find a quiet place to study for the board exam.  I was not expecting to see any deer, or signs of deer.  Last year, the loggers had come and destroyed a portion of the forest.  I was glad to see that the loggers are gone, and the forest is making it's come back.

 As I was walking through the woods, I happened upon some deer poop.  Seeing deer poop in the woods is always a nice sign that there are some critters out there.  I was pleased to see signs of pre-rut scrapes and rubs.  The picture on the left is a fresh scrape.  There is a branch hanging over this scrape, deer like to rub their heads on such branches.  I believe they also urinate on the scrapes as to mark their territory.   For those that are wondering: No, I did not rub my head on the branch or urinate on this scrape.  I have learned that it is wise not  to disturb scrapes so that the bucks are not alerted to the presence of deer hunters.  

The picture on the right is a fairly fresh rub.  The rub is towards the bottom of a small tree.  For this reason, I am not sure if it is really a rub.  Some porky pine, beaver or chipmunk may have been fond of this particular small tree.  Because it is early yet, some Bucks still have velvet on their antlers.  So perhaps this rub is from a buck that was attempting to remove some of that velvet.  Usually rubs extend up the trunk of the tree a little ways.  What do you all think, is this an official rub?

As I was walking out to my old stand, I kicked up a deer.  I could not tell the sex, however it was of nice size and it gave me the old White Flag.  Some refer to this as the Flag and Flee, where the deer whips it's white tail into the air as it runs away as the first line of defense.  The picture on the left shows a deer running with it's flag up.  Many hunters see this, it must be the deer version of the one finger salute.


I did not see deer while sitting in my stand.  I did hear some thrashing about, and it was very close to where I was posted.  I grunted and wheezed, however no deer presented itself.  All and all, it was a wonderful hunt, and a great way to kick off bow season.  DEER BE WARNED; a plan is in the works for another Pillsbury State Forest hunt with me and some of my friends, probably at the end of October.  Oops, I probably shouldn't announce that.


A shout out to my Nephew, DJ.  He shot his first deer with a bow on Sunday.  Good job!  It took me three seasons to shoot mine.

Thanks to my lovely wife Jennifer.  It was her birthday on Sunday and she graciously allowed me to hunt.  I love you babe.

A day at the dam.

Today Weston (almost 2), Brody (4) and I (early 30s) went to Orwell Dam near Fergus Falls MN. I had two rules for the boys, stay by me and stay out of the water. I strongly encouraged Weston and Brody to throw rocks into the water. Orwell Dam has millions of rocks, I have fished there once before with Brody and he threw rocks to his hearts content.

The fishing adventure started out great. On the first cast, I hooked a smallie. I knew I would catch lots of fish, and I did. Smallies of all sizes, and one Large Mouth Bass. As I fished, I kept a close eye on my boys. Not only were there numerous rocks to be thrown, there was many things to explore. Weston was all over the place. I kicked him out of my tackle box several times. He kept finding things on the ground and in the rocks to eat. Both boys had fun peeing in the woods. They were having a hoot. They did a pretty good job of following the rules, especially Brody. Weston did wonder off from time to time, and I found him sitting in the river amongst the rocks. Not only did I perfect my cast and fish landing abilities, my vocal chords got a great work out.

The first story I would like to share is that we came upon a mid size snapper turtle. The boys and I had fun as we followed it around. Weston and Brody thought it was fun watching the snapper hiss and bite at the stick that I was jamming into it's face. The snapper got itself lodged between many large rocks. No doubt it would still be stuck there had not the three of us showed up. Needless to say, the snapper did find the river. It probably had it's first flight lesson as it flew through the air and skipped across the water. Don't worry folks, we stood around and made sure the snapper was ok. Old snappy was sticking his head out of the water and swimming around, happy as can be.

The second story is kind of neat. I was catching so many fish, and having a lot of fun. Whenever I caught a small smallie, I would call the boys over and cast the fish back into the water. The boys would have fun reeling in the fish. This one time, I caught a small smallie. I casted it out to the middle of the river and called Brody over. Brody starts reeling in this fish and I was surprised by how difficult of time Brody was having. There was lots of splashing in the water. Here the little smallie had tripled in size and it was jumping out of the water putting on a big show. It must have been 14-15 inches. I was dumbfound. The small fish must have fell off when I casted it to the middle of the lake, and the large fish must have hit the gizzit as Brody was reeling it in (the gizzit was the brand name of the artificial rubber tube I was using to catch the fish). What ever happened, Brody was shocked and had a great time reeling in such a big fish.

This adventure was truly an adventure, one that my boys are certain to remember. They were so worn out when I put them to bed, that they went right to sleep with little smiles on their face. I have no doubt that they are dreaming about fishing! I will make sportsmen out of them yet:)