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Deer Camp


Bobby Bass

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Traffic picking up along Main Street here at Lake Iwanttobethere. Pickups and SUV's with orange clad drivers and passengers making stops and picking up forgotten items left at home on kitchen tables. The lucky ones have taken off from work a day early and are already settling in to deer camp. Wood to chop and mouse traps to empty. Stoves to clean and floors to be swept. Cupboards need stocking and rolls of tp stacked on the little shelf in the outhouse. The beam for hanging deer will need to be checked and rope coiled at the bottom. The wall of honor will be dusted and time spent looking over the collection of pictures stapled to it. A few more will be added from last year and with it some more stories for the deer shack or the Hotel as we call it.

The old school chalk board will be wiped clean and the menu for the first supper will be printed in nice block letters. The bar will be stocked and ashtrays wiped. At each new arrival another slot on the wall gun cabinet is filled. Bunks are claimed and sleeping bags rolled out. Favorite pillows are fluffed and tossed on top. Coolers are emptied and stacked just outside the door. A new propane tank is hooked up and the old one secured in the back of the pickup. A broken antenna wire is twisted together running out to the Pine and the crackle of static and Garage Logic makes background noise.

Each new arrival brings everyone to the door as they are greeted with handshakes and slaps on the back. Quick work is made of unloading and soon the Hotel is filled with laughter and insults. It does not take long to catch up. Chairs are pulled up to the big circle table and cigars are lit. A few more will arrive tomorrow and the circle will be complete. Some will stay for the weekend some will last a week. A vacation planned for the day after they left last year. Some will be there the entire deer season or will make the drive back and forth from home. The stew pot is started and placed on top of the old black cooking stove. It's aroma starts to fill the air of the hotel, mixed with cigar smoke and the sound of cards being shuffled. Plans are discussed and fingers pointed at the hand drawn map on the wall. Like generals we all stare at the map looking for something we might have never seen before.

The lamps are lit and windows cracked open. A little smoky and getting a tad warm inside. A few guys head to the porch and sitting in old chairs and testing the swing they drink strong coffee and pull on cigars till the ends grow red. Sun settles down into the trees and the woods around them grows suddenly quiet. They stop talking and are wrapped in there own thoughts of nights past. First one then another notices out past the feeder just at the edge of the clear cut a doe and two fawns are working there way towards the feeder. The doe has her head up and she is sniffing the breeze, the fawns are more intent on checking the feeder. Soon all three are in the trough feeding. The guys on the porch sit quietly, watching. Seeing fawns is good. About then a pair of headlights and the sound of an engine can be heard working it's way through the grassy trail to the Hotel. The last members of the party have arrived, twelve hours early. From lake Iwanttobethere have a safe season.

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • Brianf.
      I'm not there, so I can't tell exactly what's going on but it looks like a large area of open water developed in the last day with all of the heavy snow on the east side of wake em up Narrows. These two photos are from my Ring Camera facing north towards Niles Point.  You can see what happened with all of snow that fell in the last three days, though the open water could have been wind driven. Hard to say. .  
    • SkunkedAgain
      Black Bay had great ice before but a few spots near rockpiles where there were spots of open water. It looks like the weight of the snow has created a little lake in the middle of the bay.  
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the south end...   Thanks to some cold spring weather, ice fishing continues strong for those still ice fishing.  The bite remains very good.  Most resorts have pulled their fish houses off for the year, however, some still have fish houses out and others are allowing ATV and side by sides.  Check social media or call ahead to your favorite resort for specifics. Reports this week for walleyes and saugers remain excellent.   A nice mix of jumbo perch, pike, eelpout, and an occasional crappie, tullibee or sturgeon being reported by anglers. Jigging one line and using a live minnow on the second line is the way to go.  Green, glow red, pink and gold were good colors this week.     Monster pike are on a tear!  Good number of pike, some reaching over 45 inches long, being caught using tip ups with live suckers or dead bait such as smelt and herring in 8 - 14' of water.   As always, work through a resort or outfitter for ice road conditions.  Safety first always. Fish houses are allowed on the ice through March 31st, the walleye / sauger season goes through April 14th and the pike season never ends. On the Rainy River...  The river is opened up along the Nelson Park boat ramp in Birchdale, the Frontier boat ramp and Vidas boat ramp.  This past week, much of the open water skimmed over with the single digit overnight temps.   Areas of the river have popped open again and with temps getting warmer, things are shaping up for the last stretch through the rest of the spring season, which continues through April 14th.   Very good numbers of walleyes are in the river.  Reports this week, even with fewer anglers, have been good.  When temps warm up and the sun shines, things will fire up again.   Jigs with brightly colored plastics or jigs with a frozen emerald shiner have been the desired bait on the river.  Don't overlook slow trolling crankbaits upstream as well.   Good reports of sturgeon being caught on the river as well.  Sturgeon put the feed bag on in the spring.  The bite has been very good.  Most are using a sturgeon rig with a circle hook loaded with crawlers or crawlers / frozen emerald shiners. Up at the NW Angle...  Ice fishing is winding down up at the Angle.  Walleyes, saugers, and a number of various species in the mix again this week.  The bite is still very good with good numbers of fish.  The one two punch of jigging one line and deadsticking the second line is working well.   Check with Angle resorts on transport options from Young's Bay.  Call ahead for ice road guidelines.  
    • CigarGuy
      With the drifting, kind of hard to tell for sure, but I'm guessing about a foot and still lightly snowing. Cook end!
    • PSU
      How much snow did you get on Vermilion? 
    • Mike89
      lake here refroze too...  started opening again yesterday with the wet snow and wind...  very little ice left today...
    • Hookmaster
      A friend who has a cabin between Alex and Fergus said the lake he's on refroze. He texted me a pic from March 12th when it was open and one from 23rd when it wasn't. 🤯
    • SkunkedAgain
      I don't think that there has been any ice melt in the past few weeks on Vermilion. Things looked like a record and then Mother Nature swept in again.   I'll give my revised guess of April 21st
    • leech~~
      As I get older it's really not just about sending bullets down range.  Some of it's just the workmanship of the gun and the wow factor. The other two guns I have really wanted which I'll never have now because of their price, is a 8mm Jap Nambu and 9mm German Luger.   Just thought they always looked cool!  
    • jim curlee
      I had a guy hit me with a lightly used 1969 BAR, he wanted $1650 with an older Leupold scope. More than I think they are worth, I made an offer, he declined end of story.   You know if you look at the old brochures, a grade II BAR sold for $250 in the late 60s, $1650 would be a good return on your investment.    Why would anybody want a 50 year old gun, they are heavy, have wood stocks, and blued metal.  I guess mainly to keep their gun safes glued to the floor. lol   You can probably buy a stainless rifle that you never have to clean, with a synthetic stock you never have to refinish, is as light as a feather, and for half as much money, perfect.   I'm too old for a youth gun, although I've shrunk enough that it would probably fit. lol   No Ruger 10/44s.   Jim      
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