One of the interesting things about blogs like Fishin’ With Dave is that fact that you meet people that have never crossed your path, yet they become an interesting part of your circle of friends. Neenahpete certainly fits into that category as well the son of an engineering contact, Bruce Buratto, whom I met only over the phone and through e-mails. Bruce resides in western Massachusetts and we have worked on a couple of transformer projects however over the years we have traded fishing tips, ATV stories, and the differences between how things are done “out east” verses in Minnesota. Bruce has a son, Matt, who is one of my followers and an avid outdoorsman as well. Seeing my less than stellar spiked buck on last weeks post, he had to send me a picture of his successful archery hunt this year. This picture is Matt posing with a nice respectable 9 pointer. Rather than tell you the whole story, here is what Matt e-mailed to me: Today I decided to move to a different tree on a wood road that my father and grandfather made years back. I saw a small four point buck and a doe yesterday and a couple others the previous week. They all seemed to be going up the same ridge. Yesterday I noticed a bunch of scrapes on some trees just below the ridge. This is what ultimately prompted my stand location change to right behind the scrapes. For once it finally paid off. The deer came walking up the wood road under my stand. He was less that 10 yards away and never new I was there until I grunted at him to stop him. I couldn't have asked for a better birthday. Before we know it we'll be on the ice. I can't wait! Well, Happy Birthday Matt and great job. Some guys wait years to nail a nice buck like that, heck I only have to look in the mirror! What is even more exciting is to see Matt carry on traditions and experiences that both his father and grandfather participated in. In this day of computers and video games, it is a refreshing to see his pictures and listen to his stories. The amazing thing to me is as such a good looking young man like Matt, I imagine it's difficult to find time for the outdoors when you have all the girls chasing you. Thank God I never had that problem!
Matt's last sentence was "Before you know it we'll be on the ice" Well Saturday produced a good old snowstorm dropping 10 inches of heavy wet snow in the area. Last year we did get our first snowfall rather early however it didn't last. This one could stick around for a while. This is a good omen for early ice. As stated in a previous post, my earliest foray on the ice was November 17th with Earl Taylor. Fishing North Center Lake in Lindstrom, MN there was a good 4 inches of ice covering the lake this early. Although the small ponds and swamps have a thin coating of ice on them now, we will need some more cold weather to get walkable ice. Next week shows highs in the mid 20's with lows in the single digits so we can't be too far off. With the weekend approaching it will be good to get my gear out and tune it up. I am predicting a great year for walleye on Mille Lacs. The earliest I have been on the pond was the weekend after Thanksgiving. Early ice is always one of my favorite times and I am looking forward to a little hard water.
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