Grouse Hollow Journal for March 28, 2013 by Greg Koelker

“I've heard it saidThat people come into our lives for a reason”-Steven Schwartz for “Wicked”

On Saturday, Ellen and I drove to Oregon to say help say goodbye to Hank Hierlmeier, our dear friend Gordy's dad. Hank was quite the sportsman in his time. There were photos of him with big muskies and bass and stringers full of perch and panfish. He was a deer hunter too. Many moons ago, El and I and the boys stayed with him and Virginia, his wife of nearly 65 years, at their cottage up near Gordon. In those days, Hank would fish the Lower Eau Claire flowage and other lakes around it early and late, and golf in the middle of the day. The first time my boys and I ever golfed, it was with Hank and Gordy on a small local golf course where a black bear had been seen on the greens earlier in the day. T El and the boys saw a black bear near the cottage one day too. Hank always had a ready smile, ready advice, a ready story, and maybe a ready opinion. He had failed due to gout and heart disease in recent years and didn't go up north much any more, instead filling his time playing cribbage and going to high school sports. There was a big crowd for someone who was 86. (My dad used to say the worst thing about growing old was that all of your friends were either in a nursing home or dead or living in Arizona.) Anyway, I choose to remember Hank as he was up north all those years ago, heading out to fish with his colorful slouch hat tipped to the side.

On Sunday, Vince and I spent the better part of two hours starring at holes in the ice in De Soto Bay. Just because there are thirty vehicles there along the highway with dozens of fishermen on the ice, does not mean they are biting. Another piece of evidence for my life long motto, “You should have been here yesterday.” I was telling Vince about a fishing show I saw where the guy was hooking snelled hooks to his ice line and dangling two or three baits on the same line up on Devil's Lake in North Dakota. He was hammering the big perch with this special rig. Vince commented that maybe we need to start bringing a camera and recording our fishing trips to turn on the fish. Hmmm. . . I wonder. The manager at Pronto told me all the fishermen were complaining about the lack of fish, but she said someone who had been fishing at Stoddard was complaining about getting pinched by a warden because he was over his limit too, so . . .

On the way up Proksch Coulee, I saw maybe 30 robins hopping about the sun-cleared grass of a front yard. They were the first ones I have seen, but Ellen said she thought she heard one singing last week already. Back at the ranch, I got a call from Vince who said I should come over to Shady Maple to see the birds. I grabbed my Nikon and a tripod and my gym bag and headed over. I stopped to take a couple shots of the robins too. At Shady, the open water was full of waterfowl. I could see hundreds of snow geese, some swans, golden eye, mallards, and canvas backs as well as canada geese. Some were feeding and others just stretching out their wings or calling apparently just for the sure joy of being their journey north to Canada or wherever they goe to nest for the summer. They were making a hellacious racket that announced the spring has sprung and this is where the birdies is, as my old friend Harry Opsahl used to say, except it had a line in about the grass is riz too – that doesn't appear to be on the horizon just too soon, although Ellen showed me some tulips and other plants poking out of a flower bed on the south side of the house. Anyway, I posted a couple pictures on my blog, grousehollowjournal.blogspot.com, if you'd care to check it out.Speaking of the web, I shared a picture of some morel mushrooms on my Facebook page last week, and I got a comment from Dan Vento of Genoa, who wrote that he checked out his notes from last March and he had found his first morels last week in 2012 after a week of temperatures in the 80s. WINTER WILL END! It has to, doesn't it?

This week I am going to get my hunting and fishing licenses taken care of. I think I will buy a Conservation Patron's License again. It seems pricey, but you only have to carry one license and it covers all of the following for $165: What's included :Annual Fishing LicenseGreat Lakes Trout & Salmon StampInland Trout StampSturgeon Hook & Line InlandSturgeon Hook & Line WI-MISmall Game LicensePheasant StampGun Deer Hunting LicenseArchery LicenseTrapping LicenseOtter ApplicationFisher ApplicationSpring Turkey ApplicationSpring Turkey License (permit required)Turkey StampFall Turkey ApplicationFall Turkey License (permit required)Early Goose Permit (upon request)Exterior Goose Permit (upon request)Regular Season Goose ApplicationWaterfowl StampAnnual Park Sticker (not included with the Conservation Patron Junior License)Annual State Parks Trail Pass (not included with the Conservation Patron Junior License)Admission to Heritage Hill State Park (not included with the Conservation Patron Junior License)Subscription to Wisconsin Natural Resources Magazine (not included with the Conservation Patron Junior License)You can also buy a Conservation Patron License Junior that is $75 for people 12 to 17.

Until next time, get out – remember to get your fishing license renewed this week, and while your there, you might as well get your turkey license too. The Conservation Congress and Wisconsin DNR Fish and Game Hearings are on April 8 at Viroqua High School. Enjoy.