Shed Hunting January 2012

Well, this isn't a picture of a shed, which is what I was hoping to come home with.  That's the shed hunting usually goes though- at least for me.  It was a nice day to be in the woods and the view from my brothers lot is always worth the drive.  This was the first time that I was up in the deer woods since last November 18th.  I'm never disappointed when I get out for a walk in the woods- there's always something to see...

This is a timber wolf track that I figure was about a day old.  There was just a touch of snow in it, just enough that it made me feel comfortable that I wasn't too close.

You may have to click on this photo to enlarge it in order to get a better perspective.  The timber wolf had the same route planned that I did- I'm just glad that the wolf was first, but I guess you never see tracks when you're the one being tracked.  I was shed hunting and the wolf seemed to be doing the same thing that I was- taking the easy trail until there was a fresh track or game trail, and then following it.  I did find one track with a touch of blood in it.  I followed it back a ways, hoping that maybe I could find a wolf-killed deer, but I never saw any other blood.  Maybe the wolf had one of his nails trimmed too short?  When I saw the blood, all I could think about was the Blood on the Tracks album by Bob Dylan, and how cool a photo of that would be- unfortunately, taking photos of animal tracks in the snow is not that easy.

It looked like there must have been two wolves traveling together at this point, their tracks almost landed on top of each other.  I saw a lot of wolf tracks today and it's hard to say how many there were all together.  I did see a ton of deer tracks too- including at least one that had to be made by a big buck.  I actually saw more deer tracks that I ever have at this time of the year in this area- my guess is that they are just more mobile due to the lack of snow this year.

Shed Hunting

My brother Tom found this shed (wedged up by the 4" stick) during an early May BWCA trip a couple of years ago.  Shed hunting seems like looking for a needle in a stack of needles.  We had each more or less stepped over this shed several times while exploring an island before Tom noticed it.  With the lack of snow this year, shed hunting isn't out of the question right now in some areas, especially near the shore of Lake Superior where there is hardly any snow.  In Duluth, yards are still mostly bare once you get down near the lake.  I'm not sure what it's like further up the shore, but I may give it a try this weekend if we don't get too much snow today.  The other day when I was driving into Duluth, I noticed a buck that had one half of his rack still attached, but I suspect that he was one of the hold-outs and that most bucks have already shed both sides.

The island where the shed was found was littered with what appeared to be at least two wolf killed deer carcasses.  The shed appeared to have been naturally shed, as it was away from everything else.  We couldn't tell if the shed antler came from this skull, but it seemed like a fit. 

Here is a link to a MN DNR article about shed hunting:

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/volunteer/mayjun07/wooodland_crowns.html 

This photo was taken on our way up to the early May BWCA trip that resulted in finding the shed.  Most of the snow melted by the time we got to camp, but it wasn't a good feeling to start a trip with snow on the ground, especially considering that there was a fire ban at the time.  I have a feeling that we might start the open water season off with a BWCA fire ban again this year.  Knowing my luck, we'll probably make up for lost precipitation while I'm on a canoe trip!

2012 BWCA Trip Planning- In the Pagami Creek Fire Area

This photo was taken in a BWCA fire area during June 2009- I believe it was between Gabimichigami and Rattle Lake.  It was an interesting area- scorched trees, as you can see in this photo, but also many wild roses, which seemed to thrive in this habitat.  The soil seemed to be changed from the fire and was almost sandy in appearance.  We only traveled through the fire area on this trip, on our way from Knife Lake, out toward our exit at Kawishiwi Lake.  I enjoyed passing through the area, but I don't think I would want to camp in it.  What will the Pagami Creek burn area look like?  How intense was the heat compared to what I observed in this area?  What was the vegetation like in each area before and after the fire?  I'm planning to find out this May, when I'm planning a trip where I'll travel through the eastern portion of the Pagami creek fire area, just south of where this photo was taken.

Pagami Creek Fire

The USDA Forest Service recently released information regarding campsite closures and entry point restrictions for 2012.  While the vast majority of the BWCA was not impacted, these changes will have major effects for those who use the area which was impacted by the Pagami Creek Fire.  I have camped in the impacted area about twice per year for the past 5 years, and I will share my opinion regarding the impact of the fire and resulting restrictions during the next several weeks.  Other than the burned area, I'm sure that a ripple effect will be felt in the area around fire perimeter.  Here is a link to information released by the Forest Service:

http://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5346766.pdf

No Trout- Big Pike!

For the winter trout opener (on lakes outside of the BWCA), we hopped on snowmobiles and headed out in search of lakers.  There were several other groups on the lake and everybody seemed to be constantly on the move- I assume that we all had similar luck, meaning tough fishing.  In our party, Kris Clusiau, Jason Clusiau, and I didn't get a single laker through the ice, but Kris pulled in this interesting looking northern.  Its coloring and pattern almost resembled a lake trout- definitely a tighter pattern than an average northern.  The measurement of 36" that Kris came up with seems pretty conservative after I looked at this picture again.  He measured it by himself before the camera crew (Jason) arrived.  By that time, Kris wanted it back in the water ASAP to make sure it survived, so we never got a real accurate measurement.  This was definitely the high point of the day.

Small Lake Gamble

My cousin Ben was in town this Sunday and I convinced him to give up the safe bet of hitting Fish Lake for some crappie action.  The bite on Fish Lake has been more of a "grind it out" endeavor lately, so we opted for the thrill of a new lake.  Due to circumstances out of his control, he was running late, and we hit the ice at around 1 pm.  We had the lake to ourselves, as I suspected that we would, and it was a beautiful, warm, and calm day to be on the ice.

This was the only fish of the day, which was caught just after we got our initial 50 or so holes drilled.  It was over 13 inches, and it seems that this picture doesn't do it justice.  This really got our blood pumping, considering that we had just started to really fish hard and this was one of the first fish that we graphed.  The pink Northland Hexifly tipped with a minnow did the trick today.  Pink is my go-to color during the winter- walleyes or panfish.  Unfortunately, this was the only fish of the day- except for a northern that almost pulled one of my new reels through the ice.  We stuck it out until after sunset and hole-hopped throughout the day.  I'm sure I drilled over 200 holes on this outing, but when you're on a new lake, it's all about covering as much ground as you can, trying to locate active fish.  We did graph fish all day, but they were not active- and that doesn't do you any good as a fisherman.  Maybe I can use today to convince my wife that its time to invest in an underwater camera?  The sun came out shortly after this fish was caught and I wonder if that, combined with our timing, didn't have something to do with how the day turned out.  Considering the size of this lone fish, I'll give this lake another shot, only next time it will be starting at dawn.

Zipper Method of Cleaning Walleyes

The "zipper method" of cleaning walleyes is something that I learned a few years ago.  If you want to be certain that there are no bones in your fillet, this is the way to go.  Start by removing the fillet and skin as you normally do.  Next, make a small slit on each side of the Y-bones, as shown here (on the tail end of the fillet).  Then, grab hold of the center strip (bones) with one hand and pull straight down, parallel with the strip of bones on each side.

After you've pulled the "zipper" on each side of the Y-bones, you will be left with two boneless pieces of meat, as shown here.  The strip of Y-bones shown in the center is actually much narrower than it appears, as the strip would not stand up on end for the photo.  This works best on walleyes that are at least 14" in length.

12/30/11- Tough Bite Walleyes

My buddy Chris with the first- and biggest fish of the day- it measured 18" and had a 10" girth.  There was not a slot limit on this lake.  When I cut it open, I found that it was a female that was full of spawn.  One interesting thing that I learned about the lake was that a pink Northland forage minnow seemed to be the only thing they were interested in.

We left town well before daylight today and made the drive to a small walleye lake that has been on my hit list for quite some time.  The lack of snow this year is allowing me to drive into lakes that would normally be accessible only by snowmobile.  We had the lake to ourselves, as I had when I was here by myself a week earlier.  That trip was just productive enough that I felt the lake deserved a full day of fishing to give it a fair shake.  On the return trip, after fishing from dawn til dusk and drilling well over 100 holes, we had only 3 fish to show for our efforts.  The funny thing was that the fish caught were all taken mid-day.  Just goes to show that rules of thumb are just that.  Maybe I'll try it again some day with the canoe.