by Roger Sabota - Northwoods notebook

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The struggle of deciding what to do outdoors continues, with many good hunting and fishing opportunities. Last week my good friend Tom Twesme came to Rhinelander and we did a little of both.

He arrived Friday mid-afternoon and we put on camo clothing, grabbed our bows and headed out in search of deer. Each of us sat on stands where we have killed deer in the past but on that Friday afternoon all we saw were a few grouse and a snowshoe hare. Just as daylight faded we were treated to a symphony by the coyotes in the area. They continued to sing for nearly a half hour.

Saturday morning dawned clear and cold and we slid the boat off the trailer in Eagle River for the Musky Enduro, an annual event sponsored by the Headwaters Chapter of Muskies Inc. It's actually a club outing held on the Eagle River Chain-of-Lakes. Following a day of fishing there was a dinner for the participants at which time everyone could tell their stories. Just over 60 members registered for the event but only eight muskies were landed.

Tom and I began to cast near the T-Docks. On perhaps my tenth cast I felt a fish hit my suick and set the hook. There was a swirl in the water but I didn't hook the fish. The water temperature was 46 degrees so we knew that we had to work our lures slowly. After several more casts, a musky in the three-foot range followed my slow-moving suick back to the boat. We saw five muskies during the day and hooked one one of them, but it jumped and threw the lure.

All eight muskies boated in the event were caught on live suckers. The largest fish, a 43-incher, was landed by a 13-year-old boy. He was an excited angler when he described how he landed and released the trophy.

Sunday morning found us sitting in the woods as it got light, waiting for a deer to walk past. Tom saw a deer but passed up the shot because he said it appeared to be quite small. After bow hunting for three hours it was time to hook the boat behind the pickup and head out to fish muskies again.

We spent most of the rest of the day fishing and saw six deer from the boat. Tom landed a northern that was a bit over 30 inches long and released it alive.

We spent the last two hours of daylight sitting in the woods with our bows waiting for a deer. Neither of us had the opportunity to shoot that evening.

Later, as we were watching supper cooking on the grill in front of the hunting shack, we were again entertained by the pack of coyotes that apparently live quite close. What was so unusual is that they continued to yip for over a half hour each night.

Monday and Tuesday were spent bow hunting, scouting the area for deer sign and checking tree stands to insure that they were safe to use. We were especially looking for scrapes and buck rubs on trees that would indicate that the annual rut had started. We did see a bit of rutting sign Monday and Tuesday but we did not see any deer chasing yet. That activity should begin to increase during the next several weeks.

In the Monico area there are many relatively small cherry trees in small clumps scattered throughout the area. Almost every cherry tree we saw shows evidence that the bears love cherries. Frequently the branches will be broken off and the trees show claw marks. In one area there were 14 cherry trees and each one was broken off. Based upon the amount of scat we saw and the damage to the trees, the bear population is large.

With the colder temperatures the water in area lakes is cooling off quickly. My experience shows that once the water temperature drops below 45 degrees it is difficult to get musky action on artificial lures. The exception to that is to switch to row trolling rather than casting lures. Last fall on the last day of musky season, which is also the last day of November, Tom Gelb caught a 52-pounder while row trolling. Tom spends a good deal of time row trolling over deep water with deep diving crank baits.

The walleye anglers are continuing to catch good numbers of walleyes from deep water. They say that the walleyes are running quite small but there are a lot of them in 20 feet of water.

Another group of hunters who are having a good season are the duck hunters. Most of them report that this fall they have had the best shooting at divers that they have had in several years.

This weekend is the opening weekend for deer hunting in Minnesota. Sure wish that our gun-deer season would last more than nine days.

Enjoy what is left of the fall.

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Bob Patschke wrote on Nov 8, 2007 9:59 PM: " You speak of the nine day gun season as being too short. Did you forget about the black powder season? It's cold but the orange army has gone home. " The comments above are from readers. In no way do they represent the views of the Rhinelander Daily News.

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