Grouse Hollow Journal for March 3, 2016 by Greg Koelker

Last week I had tips on biting fish from two friends and a relative; Jeff Bye texted me that he and his partner had just finished cleaning 40 perch.  They had launched a boat into open water and motored  to a backwater ice flat (that is to remain secret).  He said, “I just love going out in the boat and then fishing through the ice.”  I asked him if he had heard about anyone catching fish south of the Genoa Dam and he texted me a picture of a livewell full of pike.  Rick Elsen of Stoddard also reported that he got a nice mess of pike at Genoa last week using hair jigs and rosy red minnows.  Nephew Jason Junk of Onalaska shared his most recent secret spot for catching panfish.  He had picture of a bluegill that was bigger than his bigger than average hand!  He said he had 5 like that and almost a limit in total.  Believe me, I was reinvigorated to get out on the water.

Vince Ruetten and I went out in the Mississippi Queen at Genoa later that week.  The temperature was a sweet 40-plus with sunshine.  We stopped at the Captains in Genoa for the fishing scoop and a scoop of rosy red minnows.  Jen Clements said that the catching had been good two days before, and okay but slower yesterday according to her sources.  I swear they are going to put “Yashudabinhereyestiday!” on my tombstone.  

Anyway, the Blask Landing parking lot was busy, but we were able to launch pretty much without incident.  Okay, not completely: I didn’t see the ice shelf on the east lane of the ramp and dropped my trailer over it.  The boat rolled off fine, but the trailer was hooked for a moment before sliding to the side and letting me drive up and out - no harm, no foul, at least as far as I could tell.  

When we got up to the dam, there was good news and there was bad news.  The bad news was that I realized the wind was coming over the bluffs out of the east!  In my experience that is never good; you know, “wind from the east fishing is least.”  The good news was that we could see fishermen setting their hooks here and there and netting fish.  We put on heavy blue colored hair jigs baited with rosy reds.  We commenced to drift among the forty-plus boats, jigging and dragging our baits in the deep (30 to 60 feet) open water at the head of pool 9.  Vince pulled up the first sauger.  He had a couple in the boat when I finally hooked something that proved to be a nice ring perch.  We kept a fish here and there, the wind eventually shifted from the north, but the sun got warm enough that we didn’t need bibs or gloves.  We lost a little tackle to snags and we pulled up a few zebra mussels (but nothing like the dozens of them some years back.)  Anyway, we drifted and fished and solved the problems of the world.  Vince did catch his first ever legal walleye on the Mississippi.   Better yet, when we got done, he said I should keep the fish!  We had cheeseburgers with the works and fries washed down by some of Milwaukee’s finest at the Thirsty Turtle in Stoddard before we headed home.

Brother-in-law Chuck Wright of Potosi called the next evening and said he was laid off and asked if  anybody was catching fish around here as no one was doing any good down there.  Well, I told him about Jason’s big haul of super nice bluegills, caught at, uh, well, I was sworn to secrecy.  Chuck said he was coming up the next morning.   

It was gray but calm when we walked onto the hardwater at 7:30.  The ice was probably 14 inches thick, but it looked sketchy in places, dark, cracked, and soft here and there.  We tried to find Jay’s secret spot but it wouldn’t have been a secret if we could have found it I guess.  Anyway, we caught a few small bluegills and I got one real nice perch.  There were some snow geese flying to the west, and I really enjoyed three trumpeter swans that flew gracefully north at treetop level a few yards from us.  Chuck had said there were no boats out at Genoa when he came by earlier, but as we weren’t doing much good where we were and Vince and I had some success there a couple days before, we decided on going out in the boat at Genoa.  

At Genoa, there was no wind as evidenced by the rising flume floating up out of the smoke stack at the power plant; it went straight up.  By now there were probably 30 boats out.  We had some catching luck here, putting 6 saugers and a nice walleye in the livewell before calling it quits near 4.  We agreed that we should have started there and that we we might have had our two limits.  While out on the water, we visited with John Ross of Stoddard and Rick as they floated by amongst the thirty or so other boats.  Anyway, Chuck said I should keep the fish too, so with what Vince and I had from earlier, Ellen and I had enough for a real Friday fish fry feast.  She fixed red cabbage slaw and “crash hot” red potatoes, and I fried fish.  We topped it off with super chocolatey brownies covered with mint frosting and with a daub of ice cream to cut the sweetness.  Yeah, I know, it was great.

We can report many, many cardinals at our bird feeders.  We have been seeing herds of deer in the fields around the area, including 16 in a hayfield near Stoddard one morning recently.  The turkeys are out making a living off the the newly melted off corn fields.  I got a report this last week from Gregg Sikora about hearing a coyote yip at dusk and then calling back at it.  Later, their dog started howling and they could hear a coyote out in the field nearby.  They were ready for it, getting a spotlight on it in time to send it to varmint heaven with a .243.  Eli Jackson borrowed the trailer and four-wheeler on Saturday, February 20 to go on a fishing safari far out on Lake Onalaska.  He said he started out and then pulled up before walking ahead to check some sketchy looking ice.  He drilled a hole and found only 5 inches of ice!  He and his friend Mike decided to turn back.  They did get a nice mess of panfish on a cranberry bog up near Warrens later that day.  

This past week in Madison, thirteen bills were reported to be advanced for hearing by the senate.  As of this writing, one was NOT a change to the railroad trespass law, making it unlikely that it will be acted upon before this current session ends on March 15.  The 2006 Railroad bill in question, a roughly 18-page document submitted by five Republican lawmakers in August of 2005 - restricts thousands of acres of recreational area.  Several people have asked me what the law actually says.  The 2005 Assembly Bill 588 in regards to trespassing on the tracks reads: “No person, other than a licensee or authorized newspaper reporters or those connected with or employed upon the railroad, shall walk, loiter or be upon or along the track of any railroad . . .”  There’s more, but that’s the lines that are onerous to fishermen, trappers, hunters, birders, and such.  According to the Wisconsin DNR, there are at least 124 spots along the Mississippi River alone that are restricted by this law.  Lee Nerison’s (R-Viroqua) bill to change the law moved through the assembly and on to the senate in Madison; however, the senate has yet to act on the bill for some reason.  Contact your representatives and the governor and let ‘em know how you feel about changing this law.  Heck, for that matter if you have any pull with him, let BNSF Railroad owner Warren Buffett know too.  By the way, this law covers all railroads in the state, not just along the big muddy.

Timber Todd Slaght and his beagles Smoky and Hank came over Sunday morning to celebrate the official end of the rabbit hunting season.  I opted for pancakes and bacon and the Sunday paper, but I went out in the yard a couple times to just listen to the music of his hounds as they ran one cottontail after another.  I had to laugh one time as they bellowed out their hunting calls and charged across our yard on their short legs in hot pursuit.  I eventually saw the rabbit bounding up across the old horse pasture while the dogs scurried about and worried the brush where it had been hiding.  Todd called to me, “That one has long legs!”  He had two bunnies in his bag when he loaded Smokey and Hank up back at the ranch - two fewer garden raiders come summer.  

Until next time, get out -  but be careful; over a week ago a fisherman from Ontario went through the ice near the public landing at Stoddard Bay.  Warden Dale Hochhausen was able to assist him in getting back on hardwater.  In fact, I had just walked past that spot maybe twenty minutes before, missing all the “fun,” and maybe a cold surprise myself.  Finally, it is March - hooray!  Remember to get your fishing license renewed before it is April.  Enjoy.

Grouse Hollow Journal for February 18, 2016

Someone asked Ellen and I if we had been up to anything exciting this winter.  Well, just staying home a lot I guess.  We take turns getting the paper and mail and tossing a tennis ball for Scout.  We read the paper together over breakfast and coffee.  We had been going ice fishing some, but the catching is so slow that it is hard to get up the ambition for an ice expedition.  Ellen and Scout take a hike or snowshoe up the ridge and down one of our logging roads or the Grouse Hollow path every day.  I go to the gym a few times a week or go for a walk on the road.  She keeps the bird feeders full.  I watch the birds.  I practice a bit with my new crossbow.  She uses the pellet rifle to keep the squirrels off the bird feeders - nonlethally up to this point.  There have been a few times where we had to move some snow.   She volunteers at Stoddard Elementary and I sub at De Soto High School occasionally.  We go out for lunch - our favorite is a cheeseburger and fries at The Thirsty Turtle in Stoddard.  We went to Cassville last week and took my mom out for a Valentine’s Day lunch at J & J’s Sandbar, visited Ellen’s sister Kathy, and picked up our finished venison summer sausage.   Mom said she had heard from my sister Carolyn and her husband who went to Florida for a week - the temperature never got above 60 while they were there though.  (Their round trip flights from Chicago were only $116!)  My other sister Diane and her husband, are in Texas where it has been cold too.  We both have read numerous books.  I read “All the Light We Cannot See” in January and I just finished “Commander in Chief” by Tom Clancy.  She reread “To Kill A Mockingbird” and is reading the latest Khaled Hosseini novel, “And the Mountains Echoed.”   I am writing a few short articles and journals and taking a few pictures I guess.  El has been getting some great snow shots.  El cleans house and does the wash and cooks.  I make messes, get my clothes dirty, and eat at least three squares plus a day.  We talk to our mountain kids a couple times a week.  We both check out our Facebook accounts and email occasionally.  Ellen bakes cookies, granola, dessert crisps, and her famous “crack bars” - so sweet they might crack your teeth the kids say.  She made a fantastic toasted cheese sandwich with Popeye bread from Great Harvest Bread Co. along with a bowl of her unmatched tomato soup one cold morning this last week.  I am quality control in the kitchen.  We watch movies and “our shows” like “Downton Abbey, The Middle, Modern Family, Last Man Standing, Pioneer Woman, and Cook’s Country.”  Now that football is over for the winter, we have been watching the Bo-less Badger Basketball team.  Can you say, may I have this dance?  We make plans together.  We talk about our trip to Canada in June and Colorado some time this year and maybe a jaunt to Washington, DC or just up north for a fishing trip a couple times.  Anyway, pretty normal and boring stuff I guess, but that is life, normal boring stretches with some occasional excitement thrown in that makes you appreciate a snowstorm and a good book by the fire at home.  Of course, what is normal?  It is just a setting on the washing machine I am told.

Until next time, get out - we have neither one watched any political debate this election season. It is much more interesting (and probably more relevant to most of us) to check the woods for wildlife sign.  That said, I checked a trail camera yesterday and all of the bucks in the pictures had dropped their antlers.  Enjoy.

Grouse Hollow Journal for February 11, 2016

Super Bowl 50 is in the books.  Did anyone else feel a bit let down by the commercials?  I liked the wiener dogs in a blanket/catsup and mustard spot best and the Doritos ultrasound baby was funny; I like actor/comedian Ryan Reynolds well enough too, but otherwise, after spending millions to air commercials during the Superbowl, I think some of those sponsors got ripped.  Speaking of getting ripped off, I understand an hour before the game there were tickets on sale for as low as $3,000 to get into the game in California.  Add the cost of flights, hotel, chow, partying, souvenirs, and a beer at the stadium and you were all set, or you could build a new house with the money and set up your own theater room and order a pizza.  At the Superbowl, a 20 oz. beer in a souvenir plastic cup was $13!  Popcorn was $15!   A slice of pizza was $11.  Ellen fixed guacamole, nachos, a pepperoni pizza (my SB request), rhubarb crisp, and cocktails and we enjoyed the game in our family room on the big screen with a fire in the fireplace where we could also pause the game to make necessary trips to the kitchen and bathroom, and there were no lines.  I was also able to turn the sound down during the halftime show - try that in the stadium.  Total cost for us - including the big screen and fireplace - was less than half the cost of one ticket to the game.  Just sayin’.   Anyway, now football fans will wait on bated breath for Peyton Manning’s decision.  Maybe he’ll have a long talk with Brett Favre.      

I saw a few turkeys out in the fields this last weekend and the deer are really working up the snow.  There were tracks in our yard yesterday.  Ellen and Scout have been snowshoeing up the ridge almost every day - Ellen snowshoes, not Scout.  Anyway, Ellen reports seeing deer and turkeys and even grouse on some trips.  She said the snow on Sunday was terrible though as it stuck to her snowshoes and made walking difficult.  I went for a walk on the road with Scout later, enjoying the 40 degree temp and sunshine.  I was also able to spend a couple hours Sunday working on our tractor and snowblower.  I checked the belts on the snowblower and I took the belly mower off the John Deere - finally.  I also realized that I had put the front tires on backwards last week - yes, there is a right way and a wrong way on a four-wheel drive - and had to switch them.  I spent some time moving some of the piles of snow left over from last week.  I am paying for crawling all over and under my machinery today though.  

Until next time, get out - you might have heard one the many rumors about tickets being issued by railroad cops for trespassing on the tracks. The reality is that up until last week, no tickets have been issued, only warnings and education pamphlets according to Burlington Northern.  Their spokesperson emailed me that they hope not to have to take that step.  I talked to Representative Lee Nerison on Saturday at the Vernon Electric Cooperative district committee meeting, and he tells me that he has presented a bill to Representative Kleefisch, chair of the Criminal Justice and Public Safety committee I guess, that if acted on and signed by the governor, would make it legal for people to cross directly over the railroad tracks - not walk along them, but cross them at least.  Nerison says it doesn’t have a name yet and may not make what’s left of this current session.  Nerison got that law change in the budget last summer, but it was vetoed by the governor for some reason.  I have heard from many people lately and most say that the current law will not stop them from crossing the tracks to get to the river.  Enjoy.  

Grouse Hollow Journal for February 4, 2016

Last week one morning, while I was sipping my first morning coffee, I saw something in the pasture where we planted a food plot last summer behind the tobacco shed.  It was a deer working up the snow.  I grabbed my binoculars and tried to get a better look.  Ellen joined me at the window and we watched the critter paw and dig down to get at the food plot tubers and leaves that were still bright green poking out from under the snow.  I tried a few shots with my Nikon too.  Later, I hung a trail camera up there to try and record some of the critters who may be taking advantage of the tubers, roots, and greenery showing a glimpse of last summer through the snow.  (There had been some pumpkins and squash tossed out up there after Halloween and they are completely gone.)  The next day, Ellen and Scout went up to check the area.  I was messing around in the shop when the girls came in with a newly dropped 4-point antler they found right in front of the camera.  It wasn’t there the day before.  We found we had over 50 pictures of at least six different bucks and a couple of does in the area - from just one night.  Several of the bigger bucks were actually having a wrestling match.  There was a coyote who was running away with his tail between his legs, no doubt startled by the camera flash.  We also have a shot of the buck we figure is the owner of the missing antler right in front of the camera.  While we can’t hunt deer per se right now, we can hunt for part of them; tis the season to hunt sheds, that is the shed antlers of whitetail bucks - generally lost in mid winter.  I suspect somewhere an antler or two is falling off as I write this.  Ellen texted her brother Bill with a picture of the antler in the snow.  He said the bucks on their cameras down south were all bald already.  He recommended that as she looks for sheds, she keep a sharp eye out for morel mushrooms.  That Bill, he is always thinking!  Ellen is actually taking his advice to heart, making a mental note of possible mushroom trees to check around in warmer times to come.  Anyway, going to hunt for sheds is also kind of a cool reason to get out in the woods and see who is doing what and where written in the tracks in the snow.  El has seen grouse tracks, turkey tracks, bigger birds of prey tracks, coyote tracks, squirrel tracks, rabbit tracks, mouse tracks, Labrador retriever tracks, and today she saw a huge owl, only in a tree.  Anyway, It is time to get out for an antler walk.

The wild turkeys are out in the fields a lot now.  I imagine the mast in the woods is finally running out, so the birds are scratching out a living in the picked corn and bean fields.  Speaking of that, Ellen fixed some of her famous roast wild turkey in mushroom and wine gravy with wild rice for dinner the other night.  Let me just say, that bird did not die in vain.  

I know it may be weeks away, but seeing the antler and deer reminded me to remind you that the Deer Committee Chairman for Vernon County, Jason Leis, recently informed me that the Vernon Country deer committee will meet on March 23 at 6 PM at the Kickapoo Valley Reserve building.  He said he hoped more people would attend as the more people who see how this works the better.  I’ll also start right now and remind readers for the first time that the Annual DNR/Wisconsin Conservation Congress Spring County Rules hearings are April 11 in every county.  Mark your calendar.

Until next time, get out - the Genoa National Fish Hatchery is again hosting a Kids Ice Fishing Day.  The event for ages 5 to 12 is this Saturday, February 6th at the Hatchery south of Genoa. The event is from 8:30-12:30.  There will be a warming tent during the event and the hatchery will have ice fishing poles to loan or you can bring your own.  The hatchery will supply all the bait for the event to prevent the chance of spreading fish diseases.  Finally, the 13th annual Stoddard Bay Jiggin’ Jamboree Ice Fishing Derby is also this Saturday on Stoddard Bay.  Fishing times are 9 AM-1 PM. with $10 tickets available in advance at the Stoddard Village Hall or at the Stoddard landing headquarters the day of the Jamboree.  Enjoy.

Grouse Hollow Journal for January 21, 2016

We have been following the big winter storms on the east coast and in the south this last weekend.  50% of the people who live here hate snow and the other half love it; the analysis is easy: as far as I’m concerned they can have all the snow, but my better half would have been happy if we had been dumped on.  At least we agree on ice.

Ellen and I got out on the ice a couple times this last week. On Friday we headed to the spot where we caught a nice meal over a week before on Stoddard Bay.  There was no one around until just before we got there when two guys came walking in from the north and set up almost on top of “our” hot spot.  Ellen even found the same holes we used the week before.  I drilled them out and baited up some poles while she scooped out the ice chips.  My Vexillar was acting up, so we couldn’t “see” if there were any fish hanging out in the spot like last week.  We fished for maybe an hour there without a bite.  Our neighbors hit the road long before that, but before they moved out, one of them told us that they were “seeing” lots of fish on their scopes suspended in the slough to the south of us, but nothing was hungry.  Eventually we tried a spot where there had been a 10-foot channel along an island.  I tried two holes and found only five feet of water and no fish.  We drilled out farther and found more water, but no fish.  Anyway, we had a good walk and got some fresh air.  

This last week, I heard all kinds of rumors about fishermen filling bags of perch and bluegills.  One was promising - sort of.  Brad Fitzgerald at Ace Sportsland, said his son and a friend got limits of nice perch somewhere south of La Crosse on Thursday.  He said he was taking off Friday afternoon to go fish there with him.  “Wait, what?  It is Friday afternoon, Brad,” I said.  He laughed and said, “I called my son at 11 and they were packing up to come in as they had fished for three hours at the hot spot and had as many keepers.”  This is why they call it fishing, not catching.  Chalk it up to just another example of why someday I want my epitaph to be: You should’a been here yesterday.  

Until next time, get out - I imagine if the pollsters could find time to think about something besides the craziness we call American politics, big snow storms around here would poll about 50/50 - unless you counted school children.  Also if the upper midwest was digging out from those big storms the press called the Storm of the Century, SnowZilla, Snowmageddon, or Snowpocalypse, we’d just call today Monday.  Speaking of school children, the Stoddard-Bergen Fire Department is sponsoring a Hunter’s Safety Class beginning March 29.  Contact Bob at 787-6220.  Enjoy.