Grouse Hollow Journal for week of October 31, 2013

Grouse Hollow Journal for week of October 31, 2013

“Since golden October declined into sombre November/And the apples were gathered and stored, and the land became brown sharp points of death in a waste of water and mud.”

T.S. Eliot

In October I got about a bit, traveling to North Dakota to hunt ducks, Horicon Marsh to hunt geese, bowhunting here at Grouse Hollow, and Lake Onalaska for panfish.

I have written about my western hunt, but the week after I returned, Jake Sikora and Scout and I went to Mayville and hunted geese and ducks from a purchased blind ($18 for the day) on the outskirts of the Horicon Marsh. We left our house at 2:40 A.M. to get there by daylight. As we went up Losey Boulevard, I saw Dan Fladhammer all alone walking on a tread mill in Snap Fitness - whoa, talk about ambition! At the Goose Haven Gun Club, the man had us sign a release and I paid him for blind 29. We needed lights to get to our blind that was situated down a field road and to the right along an unpicked cornfield. The blind was a simple affair, basically a plywood box with a bench seat in it and room for two people, one canine, and my thermos. As dawn grew brighter, we (okay, sharp-eyed Jake) could pick out lines of birds passing - sand hill cranes. We must have seen over a thousand of them in the first hour, “gronking” their way out of the marsh in flocks of four and eight and even twenty. The canada geese started. The first pair to come in close enough should have been down and made into jerky or roast goose by now, but being the card-carrying ballistically-impaired shotgunner that I am, they flew on, startled no doubt, but unscathed. (Jake even had the audacity to laugh.) We managed to shoot at others, with no effect. We saw thousands of honkers in the morning hours. We also saw some mallards and wood ducks, that all landed in the marsh refuge right where we could see them. We heard other hunters shoot, but not often. We could hear a man loudly correcting his dog. Always the lady, Scout was curled up at our feet in the blind; however, every time we pulled up on passing geese or ducks and fired skyward, Scout would bound out of the blind in anticipation of a retrieve. By midmorning, we were getting wet, so we decided to drive around the marsh and stop at the visitor's center; the road in was chained? Oh yeah, the federal shutdown even reached to Horicon Marsh. Anyway, all we managed was feathers a couple of times unfortunately, but neither Jake nor Scout had ever seen Horicon, so it was worth the trip, goose or no goose. Jake thought it was way better than school and I thought it was way better than, than, uh, not going I guess.

Vinny Ruetten and I got out on Lake Onalaska twice this past week. On a windy, rainy Saturday morning trip, we found hot bluegill action in 15 feet of water just off a drop off. We got caught in a small squall, complete with a cold shower, but then the sun returned. We were using nightcrawlers and small jigs to fill up the livewell. After we got the Queen out, Vinny bought a huge lunch at the Red Pines; he had a burger and I a hot beef and swiss and the obligatory fries and beer.

Ellen and I tried the same spot later that week. It was much, much windier and colder, but no rain in sight. I baited up El's hook and she had a slabber bluegill on before I even got my hook in the water. I thought, “Here we go again.” Alas, it was not to be. Ellen hooked half-a-dozen keeper panfish, and I only one, so we called it a morning and got out of the cold. This was one of those mornings where one appreciates being outside just so one can feel a whole lot better once the truck heater is on full blast.

On Friday morning, Vince and I found a hole full of perch in Lake Onalaska. We must have caught close to 100 apiece - but interestingly enough, no other species. Vince used minnows and I used crawler chunks and we put enough fish in the well for two weekend perch fries. When we finished cleaning perch, we had a heaping gallon ice cream pail full!

I have not seen any deer while I have been hunting, so far. I have seen plenty after dark while I was driving and in trail cam images. I am going out again before the Packers play this evening. When I get back, I am frying Canadian walleye filets with Ellen's homemade cole slaw and mashed potatoes. Oh yeah, how about those Packers? What a weekend - my Pirates dominated Weston on Friday night 46-13 too! Boomshakalaka!

It is Halloween week. I used to love Halloween as a kid. I loved hitting the houses and bingeing on unlimited chocolate and sugar for days afterward. I used to love taking Ben and Mark trick or treating in the Coulee. When they were really little, I'd just take them to the neighbors and they'd get a pile of goodies, and I'd usually get a cocktail - at each house. Whew! Good thing we were close. For years Halloween cost me money; Ben has diabetes and I would buy his stash from him for deer hunting. Halloween holds a different kind of memory now. It will be six years ago on Halloween night (actually very early November 1^st, 2007) that my dad passed. I still think to call him when I have some new idea or plan or purchase in the works or something I need to fix or some story I think he'd get a kick out of, and then I remember he is gone. I often smile then thinking what he might say - we used to call him Archie Bunker, so you might have an idea too. Anyway, for me, Halloween will always be the day my dad died.

Until next time, get out - my favorite month of the year has up and left us. Ellen's wonderful garden is now just barren ground punctuated with some tall sunflower plants, some mulched garlic and asparagus patches, and the red raspberries waiting for my nippers. November is upon us - November is a lot like what T.S. said I guess, but November has promise, good, too; it may be the time of gray skies, cold winds and rains and snow likely in the forecast, but there is also the whitetail rut, wood cutting to warm you many times over, busy bird feeders, the northern duck and goose migration, the final harvest that ends with frozen furrows in fields, hot soup simmering on the stove, Lambeau leaps, long naps in front of the fire, maybe a first snow day, and the beginning of the holiday season; the first holiday being Wisconsin's annual Whitetail Gun Deer Hunt in just a little over three weeks! Enjoy.