Deer Hunting, Good or Bad?

2 smaller 4 point bucks

Well, last weekend was Minnesota's Deer Firearms opening weekend.  I usually hunt with my friend Jack Taylor and his son Ben, we stay at his cabin on Platte Lake, west of Onamia, MN.  There is a lot of deer around the area as it's a good mixture of farm fields, woods, and swamps.  This year we had plenty of rain so the swamps were overflowing with water.  Years back we used to hunt our friend Rich Allen's land but unfortunately his 160 acres is 85% swamp and this year was no exception.  We found ourselves on Jack's cabin neighbor's land, Loren and admittedly it a lot drier  hunting but honestly, doesn't have the deer of our old friend Rich's place has.  Rich died a few years back and his nephew Brett Saatzer has the land now and we still keep his place our focal point for the hunt, actually have used the stands closer in where it's not so wet.  Jack, Ben and I didn't see anything opening morning however Brett's crew ended up with 3 deer, to smaller bucks and a doe.  Brett was bemoaning about the lack of big deer so I suggested that he institute a selective harvest limit on his land, maybe 16" spread minimum or 8 point minimum except if you are under 18, it might help because these buck would have been nice 8 pointers next year.  Oh well, if it's venison you want.........  This years weather was crazy.  In years past I remember breaking ice, trudging through snow, not 2016 as it was 72 degrees on Saturday, short sleeve weather.  I only remember it being this warm back in the 80" when we hunted up in the Roseau area near the Canadian border, it was 65 up there.  Although it go to the mid 30's at night she quickly warmed up in the morning.  I am not complaining however the deer needed to be taken care of.  Jack and I headed to Loren's land on Sunday morning before heading back to Brett's where we helped butcher the deer. With no wind blowing on Saturday, I called my friend Bill Lundeen and suggested we go crappie fishing, it would have been a perfect day for it.

View from my stand

Sunday was a repeat of Saturday, temperatures in the low 70's a pleasure to hunt if you got cold easy yet the deer weren't moving much during the day.  Minnesota's deer hunting coincides with the rut and often the bucks are running all over the place.  I think that most of their running was at night because I did not see a deer either day.  Oh well, all that really was important was to get together with the guys and enjoy what success we had. My recent Outdoor News claims the deer harvest is down 7.5% from last year and the DNR has been trying to catch up on which way it want's to go with the deer harvest.  The last 5 years of liberal doe tags have taken it's toll on the deer population and of course the warm weather doesn't help at all, as the DNR says the population is up.  Oh well, with the relatively mild winters we have and the desire to increase the population, who knows what next year will bring?  I do know that our traditional Steak dinner at Brett's on Friday night will hopefully never change!

Well, the Mille Lacs harvest saga continues with the DNR releasing the winter regulations for walleye fishing on Mille Lacs.  It will be 1 fish and it has to fit within the 19 - 21" slot.  Personally I think it's simply a repeat of the same regulations that got us in trouble in the first place.  At Lac Seul the Canadian DNR has figured that these fish are the most prolific spawners and all fish from 18 - 21 inches have to be released.  Here we allow the Indian's and the anglers to take all of the good fish with the intent of leaving the correct amount of poundage in the lake regardless if they are big and eat the lake out of house and home, or small enough to be caught in the nets prior to spawning.  Uffda is all I can say.  Red Lake should be good this year however this warm weather does not bode well for early ice.  Never the less I am ready to go!  The countdown to my Florida Grouper fishing trip is happening and in 3 weeks I will be on a flight heading south.  Until then the warm weather is allowing me to get some of my procrastination taken care of!