Before you know it!

Here we are, in the middle of August. Temperatures are in the upper 80's to 90's, the sun high in the sky and we are staring right down the barrel of the fall hunting season fast approaching. Can it get any better than that?


It actually all started for me a couple weeks back, when I was attending the Archery Classic at Cabela's, doing some work for Mossy Oak. Seeing the Camo patterns and all the clothing and walking through the archery department, it began to flow into me.

This last weekend, I was at Bass Pro Shop for their hunting classic, also there for Mossy Oak. There were people wandering through with their list of what to get for first time hunters and veteran hunters replacing old camo with new. It, again, raised the thought of the upcoming season.

If that was not enough, the weekend of August 21 & 22, I will be back at Cabela's for Mossy Oak and the Waterfowl Classic.

All of you out there in the Holly, Mi area, just to add to the hype of the upcoming bow season, Spot Shooters Archery is having their own 4^th annual Bowfest on August28^th with a 3D shoot. Stop by and join in the fun (see flyer below).

Can you feel the hunting fever starting to run through your body, as the thoughts of being out in a blind or up in a tree stand, waiting for that exact moment of truth when your game steps out and offers you a shot? From the blast of the gun to the thwack of an arrow, you play it over and over in your head of what will happen.

Here in Michigan, in just under 3 weeks, the season kicks off. Starting with waterfowl on September 1^st and then we have youth hunts, small game, early deer, bear, Turkey and elk, also in the month of September.

You better get out and practice. Whether it is with a bow, a gun, a crossbow, or a sling shot for that matter, you should be ready because the season will be here before you know it!




Shooting Pink Victory arrows
in Honor of my mom!

Also, make it a point to get your hunting list ready and filled. You would not want to be caught short handed out in the field because you forgot something on your list.

Please, think safety first and foremost. Whether it is checking your equipment and making sure it is in working order to getting a new harness and checking on those deer stands and blinds. Make safety #1 and let's return home from our hunts safe and sound!

Remember, when you're in the outdoors, as I always say "Aim Small Miss Small".

Wind, Waves and Fish!

It was Friday 2:30 and I was off of work. I made a stop at home, then with the fishing pole and tackle box in the truck, I was tooling down the highway to my cousins' house.

I arrived at 4:30 after fighting with the construction and all the orange barrels (which is a season all its self here in Michigan).

I threw my stuff in the boat and off we were. We stopped at the bait store for some worms and went next door to the party store for dinner, consisting of pizza and pop. Finally, we went to the boat launch, where we set out onto Lake St Clair.

Now, for all the dry days we have had here in Michigan and the weather man guessing wrong on all the rain possibilities, it's just our luck rain clouds and windy conditions met us as we set out. But not matter what, we were going fishing!

We headed out of metro beach and aimed for a area close to the shipping channel. Getting there was not too bad but we had 3 -5 foot waves.

Our first set up was trolling for musky.

Trolling at between 4 – 5 mph, we had our lure in the water dancing away. As we trolled, on we spotted a few other boats that were also going after those big predators of the lake. Within few minutes, we had a strike but no fish on but still giving us hope. As we continued trolling around the area, we saw another one of our Family Members; Eli Berant of Great Lakes Fly.

(http://www.greatlakesfly.com/).

For fly fishing in that wind, I give him credit.

After a bit of trolling and no luck, we changed our tactic to drifting.

We were drifting with crawler harnesses. With the waves rolling and wind blowing, we had no problem getting action with our harnesses. The perch were hitting but they were on the small size, to say the least. No keepers out of them and then, as a comment was made about the harness not being on bottom due to the wind being so strong (famous last words of course)…

Bam! A strike and our first walleye was on the line. With Bryan reeling him in, we needed the net and as Bryan worked him in… Bam! I get a hit and I have one on as well. Now with all the commotion, the worms went flying all over the boat and the net got snagged on the fire extinguisher. It was pretty chaotic but funny, so we landed them both with no net. We had an 18 and 17 inch walleye in the boat!

Dan's Keeper

As we drifted further, Bryan had another one on and was it giving him a fight and pole bent trying to pull him in. This time I had the net ready, and to our surprise, it was a catfish! With the line wrapped around his fin, he put up a fight, so we landed him but we threw him back in.

After some more small perch, Bryan had another strike that was short lived. He set the hook and within a second of that action, the fish snapped the whole line, giving us the impression that a musky must have been on. But if you're not set up with the right tackle it is short lived, like we were, it was gone.

Now, as the weather was windy there was rain! Did the weather man say rain? No. But sure enough a 5 minute shower showed up!

Bryan had another walleye hit and this time again, I had the net ready and we landed him perfectly. A nice 16 inch eater as well!

Our keepers for the night!

As I mentioned, we headed off to the shipping channel. By now, we had a few freighters go by and are those some big boats. Good thing we had of plenty distance between us and them.

We made our way back to a spot and drifted again. With darkness approaching and a big wave ride home, we headed in. This ride was interesting to say the least. With the waves pounding away on the boat, it also threw up water like you would not believe! We got soaked! Water, wave, water, wave and as we did, we did have a great view of the sunset. What a ride but you know what?

A sunset on Lake St Ckair!

It was a blast just being out there in the outdoors!

We made our way back to the dock and getting there at dark was perfect timing.

We headed back to Bryan's house, cleaned some fish and called it a day!

And hope we can do it again soon.

Thanks to my cousin Bryan and his boat for getting us out on the water and a few fish to boot was not too bad!

and remember when your in the outdoors as i always say "Aim Small Miss Small"