Grouse Hollow Journal for April 27, 2017 by Greg Koelker
I am tapping this out while sitting out on the porch on Sunday morning, and I just heard a shotgun blast echo down the coulee. Maybe it was a successful turkey hunter. I was too lazy (or maybe too smart) to get out of a warm bed to go turkey hunting this morning. Yesterday, I had a great Earth Day though, starting up the ridge in our woods early and ending on the Mississippi River near Redwing later.
The sunrise here was worthy of an Earth Day dawn with a brilliant horizon and soft breezes and lots of songbirds and gobbling turkeys. After leaving my mug of hot coffee set on the hood of the truck, I walked along a field near the woods where I set up on a gobbler still on the roost. It gobbled for awhile but then flew down and apparently got closer to me by the volume of the gobbles. I was seated in a fence row, but I imagine I moved as the bird moved away. Anyway, it and two others toyed with me for an hour before I moved on.
The start of my season was a week ago, and that was interesting enough I guess. On Wednesday morning last week, after a night of restless sleep, I woke up five minutes before my alarm - set for 4:45 - went off. Ellen wished me good luck and I tramped downstairs. I turned on the coffee maker and got dressed. El had filled my thermos and insulated coffee cup with hot water before bed. Remarkably, the thermos was still steaming hot. Outside only the yard light glowed. The sky was pitch black and a breeze came out of the north.
When the F150 roared to life, a weather man said it was 50 degrees out and guessed that the wind should subside. Corn leaves blew across the road in the headlights reminding me of Halloween as I crossed the dark ridge. I could see trees swaying in a stout north wind. Up at the back gate of our place, I pulled the cab into the wind and climbed out with my coffee cup and thermos. I relaxed behind my four wheeled windbreak, sipping hot caffiene, hoping the north wind would take a break. I tried to listen for turkeys, one of my favorite opening morning rituals but it was hard to hear much in the wind. The wind was cold even while sitting out of it; for a moment, I contemplated heading back to my warm house and hunting later or taking a nap in the warm cab.
As the horizon started to glow, the wind - as it often does at dawn - started to fade. I could hear songbirds. Then I heard a gobble off to the south. The bird gobbled again and I thought I had it on my radar, so I poured out the rest of my now cold coffee, pulled on my jacket and shouldered my camo boat cushion and Wilma, my .10 gauge turkey special, and headed out to hunt that bird. I hadn’t taken ten steps when at least four toms gobbled to the north, most likely from down in the Oak Hollow. I reversed course and took off for the Oak Stand where I had a blind set up.
After I got the windows on the blind opened a bit, I did a yelp call with my REEL Turkey call. I got immediate gobbles in return, so I just shut up. I had birds come in. A hen walked past me putting softly. I thought I was golden for a moment. At least one gobbler came up calling loudly to the point that the hair on my neck was standing up, but I never saw it and the hen in the field wasn’t impressed enough to bother calling to the tom to get it to come out. Go figure. Over the course of the morning, I hunted four places, pulled in birds, but could never quite seal the deal and finally quit around 1 p.m.
One of the highlights of Ellen’s week was going to the big horse show in Madison with her sisters Barb and Kathy on Friday. They also visited niece Sarah’s new home that is “almost” ready for habitation - June maybe. Ellen said she really enjoyed the opportunity to see some of the lesser known breeds and all the displays at the stalls. She said the owners are so friendly and eager to answer questions and are ready to talk horse stuff. She visited with the lady that owns CR Quarter Horses south of Prairie du Chien, a place we often drive by and admire for their beautiful animals.
One of the highlights of my week were the old fashions at Rockies Friday night, uh, well they were a highlight, but I really meant to tell about about something that happened at sunrise on Friday morning when I was leaning up against a downed tree in the Corner Woods, calling occasionally, trying to attract the noisy gobbler from down in the hollow. The sunrise was only starting when I became aware of a change that cued my senses up to more than just turkeys. What I saw was simple but remarkable. The sun’s rays were slowly starting to create patterns of color and light and sunbeams through the new foliage around me from high up and down to the forest floor. It started small, but the light kept changing the picture until I wished that I had one of my good cameras. I finally realized that this was a moment I should just enjoy since only I got to experience just that spot at that time. It was a, well, soft and spellbinding instant there in that quiet morning woods shared with a few song birds and squirrels, no camera, no one else, just the newly sprouted woods and early sunshine making one master piece after another as I recorded in my mind, such as my old brain is.
Anyway, back at the ranch from hunting early on Earth Day, I had breakfast with Ellen and then drove north to Redwing, MN to meet Gordie and wet a line. I got to beautiful Colville Park ahead of him. There was a Minnesota Tournament Trail Walleye fishing contest going on out of this landing. I talked to the friendly couple who were setting up a water tank for the fish to be released into later. They said this was the first of 17 walleye tournaments they would run around Minnesota. They were headed to Big Stone Lake next weekend and would make stops at Lake of the Woods and Mille Lacs to name a couple over the summer. There were 50 boats entered in the fray for a top prize of $5,000.
Inspired, I went back to the car and put a chunk of crawler on a small jig and tossed it off the dock. I immediately hooked a sheepshead. Sheepshead can be fun to catch and good to eat but I released this one. I really impressed a couple of little kids walking out to a boat to go fishing with their granddad. Gordie appeared shortly thereafter and we launched his boat without incident.
We fished a lot of water from northern Lake Pepin up to the Redwing dam, catching up about our families and lives and our world views, making plans to fish up on Shell Lake soon with our friend Jake Ekern, and hooking quite a few fish. Gordie got a dandy northern pike that weighed 7 pounds and I caught two walleyes - one an 18-incher that is the main course - grilled on a cedar plank - for tonight. We both landed other fish including half-a-dozen sheepshead and a few striped bass.
Once I hooked something that took off and dived. The drag on my fishing reel started whining and the creature commenced to strip almost all the line off my reel before I got to reeling some of it back in and tighten the drag just a smidgen. Wow! I had the “fish” - a big carp, sturgeon, monster walleye, catfish, turtle, or a sea monster maybe - almost to the surface by the boat where we could see it, but suddenly it was having none of that and made another strong run. It could have pulled us back to Redwing if we could have guided it I think. Anyway, it or I finally broke my line. Now here is the funny part. Just then, 25 yards from the boat in the correct general direction, a beaver surfaced. When we saw it, there was a bit of a “what in the h-e-double hockey sticks?” moment; then we laughed so hard. The apparently tired, but nonplussed rodent just paddled slowly over to the nearby shore and sat there watching us, no tail slap, no diving or anything, so we are pretty sure that’s what I hooked. Okay, even if it was one of the huge carp rolling in the crick nearby, or a big catfish or turtle or sturgeon or Russian mini-sub, we are going with the beaver, just for a better story’s sake. It is too bad though; I was just thinking about how much fun describing us netting a big, angry beaver and trying unhook that little jig would have been.
Until next time, get out - anyway, I got home in time for Eli and Pat to show up from the woods. They had been turkey hunting all day, chasing turkeys and had stories to tell of gobblers that outsmarted them more than once during the day, missed coyotes and lots of movement of blinds and birds moving to where they had been. It is good to hear it happens to others too We shared a libation or two, more stories, and Ellen made them supper. With the sunshine and perfect temperature, Earth Day doesn’t git no better. Oh yeah, Ellen and Scout came back from a walk this morning with a bag with three four-inch morels in it. A good sign for the immediate future I’d say. Enjoy.
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