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It's been a month since I posted a fishing report, so thought I would share our results this past weekend. The water temperature has dropped to as low as 41° in the shallow bays, though some of the deeper bays were still at 45. Friday night and Saturday Jeff and I targeted walleyes and caught 95 of them with 13 over the slot, the biggest being a couple of 27 1/2"ers. All of them were caught casting and all of them were released. One of our 'overs' struck a 6 inch swimbait so violently that it blew the bait completely through her gills, where the lone treble hook stuck on the outside of the fish, halfway down her body. Amazing... On Sunday we targeted smallmouth bass and got 54 of them, with a handful in the 4 pound class though most were in the 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 pound class. We also caught a musky and a 26 1/2 inch walleye as a bonus by-catch while bass fishing. That musky picked up a little finesse jig/craw worked on bottom in 20 feet of water. All in all, it was time well spent on beautiful Lake Vermilion. To do that with my son made the trip that much more special..

Still some cranes north of the boarder. Three man limit this morning

11/15/24 The ringnecks are finally here, and some mallards and gadwalls are starting to show up. We have decoyed some flocks of 30-50 ringers the past couple weekends, with one mixed flock of ringnecks and bluebills number around 100. Some new, more cooperative mallards have joined the bag as well. The cold coming up this week should get the late migration of the hardiest ducks (mallards, bluebills, buffleheads, goldeneyes, common mergansers) as well as big Canada geese and Tundra Swans started. Still worried the best mallard, bluebill, and goldeneye hunting will come after our early closure of ducks before Thanksgiving this year. Good luck, and happy and safe end of the season everyone.

Back when we had to bring the deer in to register it, I went to town with one and came back with three. My wife was impressed! They weren’t there when I went in but were when I came back so they didn’t have time to rise yet.

Shot some greater dark geese and some mini versions of them today

I grill crane, ducks and geese i bring it to a butcher and they make it into meat sticks. I also will shred the duck and goose meat in a crock pot with barbacoa sauce and make tacos with them.

Yes. Happy accidents will keep the blood pressure lower. Messy wings fingers might be an issue though.

Kinda depends on if you want magnification or quick target acquisition. More magnification options and better accuracy with a scope. You get what you pay for too so get comfortable with a budget for one. Tasco and Bushnell work but I find they lose their zero easier, have low contrast and don’t gather light well in low light conditions. That said, I’m still using one I haven’t replaced yet. Vortex has been the hot brand for the past several years for bang for the buck. Good products. Nothing beats Swarovski though. Huge dough for those. Burris is another decent option. There are some specific models for shotgun/slug hunting in the economy brands and bullet drop compensation (BDC) reticles. Based on experience I’d recommend not falling for that marketing ploy. Red dots are usually lower magnification and easier to get on target. Reasonably accurate but don’t do well with definition, like searching the brush for your target. I put a HAWKE red dot on a .22 for squirrels and it’s been good. For turkey, that’s probably the route I’d go. If your slug shots are normally not too far and too brushy, I’d think a red dot could work there too if you’re only buying 1 scope. You’ll be better off dimming the reticle to the lowest setting you can easily use to not over shine the target and get a finer aim point. If you don’t have a slug barrel, you might appreciate one of those. I had a browning with a smoothbore slug barrel that shot Brenneke 2-3/4 inch well. The 11-87 would well fitted with a cantelever rifled barrel.

Haven't heard that but have heard from several people they've seen wolves out hunting. Obviously I cannot harvest those but hopefully I'll get some coyotes and bobcats this upcoming trapping season

Then your wife yelled, get up it's time for work!! And that dream was over!

I told her what's the problem? Theres whole cook books down south on how to cook road kill coon and possum!

I joke around with my wife all the time. Look honey that's a fresh one, the legs are only a few inches off the ground! She like, we're not picking up road kill!!

Friends around Grand Rapids have done pretty well, nothing big regarding bucks though. Further north all I've head are bad reports. Seeing a lot of does when I drive around during the day but have only seen one buck during the day the past few weeks. Have a friend that's a trooper so when I need venison I just get a car hit one.

No deer seen by my group but we taking care of grouse. We had grouse for lunch for da vikes game. I have got 9 birds, my dad has 5, my cousins have 3 and 1. I am going to the stand in the morning then grouse hunting until dark unless I get my before dark.

Hunt the west end of Mille Lacs area in public land. We had 5 hunters...I missed a med buck, and my buddy shot 2 bucks, that we shall say were not very old. decent and got meat on the table, but the bigguns were not showing up. We only saw 1 doe being chased by a small buck at dark...I did have something bound away when I was packing up last night. Overall another wild opening weekend with some situations that happened that only happen when you are out in the woods and a bunch of other "hunters" are out with you. Example as we were leaving the woods on Saturday the local fire department was there putting out a fire that they say was started due to some "hunters" starting the hollow trees on fire to smoke out porcupines, racoons, possums, and squirrels. Apparently this is the 3rd fire in the past 2 weeks in the area, and they were threatening to shut the area down to hunters for the season! We were wondering why a large trail had been cut through the woods to an area that was burnt deep into the swamps and oak ridges. Find out that was a fire from a few weeks earlier!! Unreal

The calendar migrators from the Dakotas have been passing through central MN in trickles the past few weeks, and the recent cooler weather has some Canada ducks starting to show up. We have been harvesting mallards, pintails, gadwalls, wigeon, shovelers, greenwing teal, canvasbacks, redheads, bluebills, and ringnecks in decent numbers.

the kid and I always check our stands prior.......i'll go back to check the conditions of said stands before he gets there to see what we need. while i'm at it if i can i shoot at grouse with shells that appear to not have bb,s in them!!!!

Plenty of ducks and geese's in the Kettle this winter you say!

dang......there aint gonna be any waterfowl to migrate left!!!!!!!!! nice going!!!!!!!!!!1

Yup widgeon banded in north dakota this spring as an adult. Likely on the migration north

I will when I get home and grill them. Yea, they fold up pretty easy, not hearty birds!

There was 15 total, 5 a piece per day. We got 15 snows tonight, 3 specks and a mallard too. Relaxing and fun trip

That’s almost exactly what I was thinking. Have slug barrels for both One for turkey and one for deer. I have a 20ga mosseberg as well. (Combo came with the scope but never used. I always liked the 12 better

Wanderer is right on the money and covered it well. I was wondering too if you had a slug barrel for one of your guns? If so you could make that your slug gun with a scope, and the other your turkey gun with the Red dot. As you can afford it.

Kettle, I ran into a local in the woods last week I've known for 30 years. He said t here's no shortage of wolves. He told me wolves took down a deer like 20 yards in front of the main door of the bigfork high school. You heat anything about it?? Guess the school is trying to pass it off on German Shepards.

Dang, that kinda sucks. My deer sightings went way down this weekend. 2 Saturday and 2 today but those might’ve been the same 2.

Need tips on hitting your own?

Good luck this weekend for those going out. Smurfy must be dragging a biggun outta da Chippewa this week. Some are saying the movement kept increasing for them this week but my cams have gone cold the past couple days. We’ll see how she goes!

Had 30 feet of ice out from my Stuntz Bay boathouse on Tuesday afternoon. None inside the boathouse so I was easily able to remove my boat from the lake (just pushed the ice away in reverse and drove forward through it with my 16 foot aluminum boat). Didn't hook up my battery so I didn't get the lake temp. Were lots of boat trailers parked at the landing. Hope they get off the lake easily. Will be ice fishing in 4 weeks.

In October but I used get more of them in Ely.

and sad too..

I’ve got plenty of photos over the past week but no tag filled. I only saw 3 that I thought were worth a stalk with the bow in SD. None worked out for one reason or another. The two guys I went with both got smaller bucks. Did 2 days archery in the 172 before boom stick season opened, then 2 days of that. Had over 20 sightings; all but 2 were does and fawns. The two others were a spike and fork. I’m waiting on an adult. Some shots were fired close to me but overall the amount shooting seemed to be down. Friends in the area saw mostly does and fawns also but few bucks and let ‘em walk cuz they were small. Sounds like that might be the one free pass they got though. The bucks are there but not chasing yet. Cameras show them at night. Fawns are all with does yet. This thing called the rut is still at a simmer based on what we’ve been seeing.

I was spared all but the last 2:47 of the game. That was painful enough to watch. My wife said the whole game was like that. Glad I stayed in the deer stand.

Jeez, John Parker Romo never played in the NFL or with the Vikings and he walks on and saves the day! I thinking he's a full time employee now!

Yeah, like I said goodthing.

Got a ways to go north American duck and goose numbers above 55 million. I will have plenty of meat for the winter

Haha. Perhaps lacking some trust, can't deny it.

Gim.....arent you skeptical about everything??????

Pass shoot them between roost and fields, typically farthest shot 40 yards. They don't fly high.

Maybe there's enough tape out there opposing coaches are figuring the Vikes out. Coaching staff needs to make better adjustments... sooner.

To me if a team has the talent to go 5-0 and falls flat. It's the coaching and play calling! They need to turn these guys loose and let them play. Last year with Joshua Dobbs was a good example. The guy comes in doesn't know the play book, not hardly anytime for team practice plays insane for the first few games, start getting coached and falls apart. Some coach's stifle their players.

Those weren’t as good as the 5-0 wings, eh?

Go gettem.

Yea nope o seen 1 live deer all week during shooting hours, no headgear!

Pretty tough. Was catching about 2 walleyes per hour and the biggest was only 13". Back up Thursday so I hope I have better success.

47 this morning for those still interested in getting out.

Yep and tonight I'm having left over Zorbaz pizza. They on their own for this one!