I am definitely thinking there is some divine significance to this dream vision, and what is to come Friday evening. I will definitely report back with details from the weekend spent in the woods. Deer Camp 2009 we will be staying out at Norris and hunting over near Middle Grove.

While not quite as big as the buck last night, here is a pic I found of a somewhat similar deer.

Jacob Heimer’s Opening Day Missouri Buck

Ryan Pudik’s Mid-October Otter Creek Buck

Todd Staley’s MONSTER Fulton County Typical Bow Kill

Ryan Pudik’s Mid-November Otter Creek Buck II

Hopefully on Friday or Saturday I will be able to post a picture of my own Illinois Trophy Buck!???

FIND OUT WHO TRULY IS YOUR ROLE MODEL. DON’T SCROLL DOWN YET, DO THE SIMPLE MATH BELOW, THEN SCROLL DOWN TO FIND YOUR HERO. It’s CRAZY how accurate this is!

No peeking!
1) Pick your favorite number between 1-9

2) Multiply by 3 then

3) Add 3

4) Then again Multiply by 3 (I’ll wait while you get the calculator….)

5) You’ll get a 2 or 3 digit number….

6) Add the digits together

Now Scroll down

...............

With that number, see who your ROLE MODEL is from the list below:

1. Jeff Lampe
2. Bill Dance
3. Jimmy Houston
4. Jim Shocky
5. Harry Canterbury
6. Tim Wells
7. Ray Scott
8. Babe Winkelman
9. Nate Herman
10. Teddy Roosevelt

MORE:
I know, I know… I just have that effect on people. One day, you too can be like me.

P.S. Stop picking different numbers! I AM YOUR IDOL, JUST DEAL WITH IT!

We finished up installing windmills a bit earlier than expected, so we headed out to do a bit of trout fishing before sunset. At our last windmill install we were talking about trout fishing with our client Josh Catour and we all decided to just head out to the lake. En Route, Chef Todd called and happened to have the afternoon off of work and I think his sixth sense just knew I would be heading out to the lake on this fine November afternoon.

At the lake, the trout were definitely digging this nice cool sunny weather! They were up shallow and chasing pretty much any bait tossed in front of them. We caught trout on mepps spinners, curly tail grubs, jigs, minnows, chicken livers, and canned corn!





We also caught this nice cold water catfish as well.

It has been about 5 years since I have been this excited about a waterfowl opener. I actually had a bit of trouble falling asleep friday night and was awake a good hour early Saturday morning. An absolute ton of geese had been working our field all week and I was just excited to get out hunting with some friends and family!

Hunting buddies Todd, Aaron and Matt along with my brothers and my two cousins- Caleb and David (both first time hunters) and I all met at 6 am and set up a nice spread of 3 dozen big feet decoys and 2 mojo ducks out in the field. I knew the geese didnt start flying till about 8:30 am so we brought the mojo’s to try and get lucky with a group of early flying ducks. What happened next was really pretty unbelievable.

At 7 am the first group of 4 mallards came right in to our spread, and then about every 5-10 minutes for the next hour we were bombarded with small groups of mallards right and left! We were not anticipating bonus action like this one single bit and actually didnt prepare for it very well either. After the first 3 or 4 groups we were actually running out of shells and rationing and dividing amongst ourselves. Finally Justin knew he needed to make a break for the truck and was able to scrounge up about 50 more shells of various gauges- 20, 12, and 10 gauge so we could stay out long enough for the geese to fly!

So the ducks kept a coming and Todd’s dog woody did an amazing job at fetching every singe one of the 23 mallards that came tumbling down! After burning through the reserve shells over the next half hour, the ducks finally quit coming and we all had about 5 shells left each for the geese. The ducks were just a bonus! We just knew the geese would be coming over the horizon any minute and this was shaping up to be the hunt of a lifetime!

Well, 8:30 came along and sure enough here comes two geese right from where they were supposed to! They came in to our spread like clockwork and pretty much landed at our feet. Caleb and David put the hammer to them and Justin finished one of them off with his single shot 10 gauge! The anticipation of several more small groups of geese was building! Adrenaline was pumping, we were hooting and hollering and just felt like kings (more like legends in our own minds), but we were flying high and just knew the best was yet to come!

Anyhow 9 am comes along and the air temperature starts feeling just a bit cooler and the wind starts biting just a bit. Still no sign of the geese anywhere. 9:30 comes rolling around with no sign of geese and stomachs start rumbling along with the much colder temps! By 10 am and no sign of geese the adrenaline and excitement is pretty much gone, it feels about 20 degrees colder than at 7 am, and the reality of our daily obligations starts setting in. We figure that once we pick up the decoys and are halfway to the trucks that the field will literally fill up with geese, but just couldnt wait for ‘em any longer. We snapped some pics and then headed out to install an aeration system for a client.

Noah is definitely my son. He just absolutely loves fish and animals- dead or alive and is not afraid one bit to pick em up! Its always great to show Brook these kinds of pics later in the day and watch her reaction as she goes and washes his hands and changes his clothes!

I checked on our field several more times in the afternoon and was just amazed that the geese never did fly at all. Not even in the evening! They must have taken a day off and boy did they choose a good one to sit tight and hunker down. Oh well, were gonna be waiting for them in the morning! I just hope they fly before church starts, otherwise I might not be hunting again for awhile if I’m late.

Anyhow, enough of the nonsense as I try to make it through the rest of this yet another rainy day, and if your reading this odds are your trying to make it through yet another rainy day as well! This interesting pond that we electrofished for Pat Mcsherry last week was not necassarily meant to be a fish stocking experiment by design, but falls into that category by default. I have been researching and fooling around with different stocking combinations of low density predators with high density forage and Pat’s pond just fit the bill perfectly.

Based on a foggy memory and some observations we estimated that the pond had a huge fish kill about 4 winters ago. The pond is very fertile and simply produced more fish biomass that summer than it could support through a harsh winter and the biggest fish simply suffocated to death. As the fish started dying, their decaying bodies only used up more and more of the available oxygen under the ice and pretty much all the fish died. Well to make a long story even a bit longer, all of the smallest fish in the pond found enough oxygen to survive the rest of the winter.

There were 1000’s of small fish that survived the winter kill and absolutely no large predators to eat them. So many that the fish became instantly stunted, as they all competed for the same tiny peices of available food. That basically set the stage for a very low density predator/high density forage situation. When we electrofished this pond, it was completely full of tens of thousands of small crappie, tiny bluegill and little bullheads. The problem was they were all adult fish with huge eyes like this one.
>

While there definitely was not a natural balanced fishery at hand, what we did find was just about what I told Pat to expect, I kept telling him that we were going to come across a handful of nice big bass as we were dialing up scores of adult midget fish. Small bass would survive the fish kill as well, and a few of them would make it big enough fast enough to avoid the huge stuntedization of the rest of the population. Then they simply would have as much to eat as they could ever desire! When we did start to find some bass, I didnt expect them to be quite like this: morbidly obese! Look at the size of their mouths in relationship to their bodies.

Let me just say that catching trout from a 16’ homemade pond is alot more fun than it sounds! For a moment we were just two big kids having a great time tricking and manipulating those trout into biting!

We are going to be adding a new dimension/twist to set ourselves apart from the typical trade show trout pond. We actually are going to photograph, clean and vacuum seal the trout and send them home for dinner for the lucky youngsters and “big kids” who reel em in!

So less than an hour from slumbering out of an 80 degree cozy bed and we are out on the water greeted by 36 degree air temperatures and no sunlight peaking over the horizon yet. Now this time of year I would much rather be out fishing in the afternoon as the water temps warm up just a bit, but we only had a small window of opportunity and boy did we make the most of it!!!

Lee put on a fishing clinic! His bait of choice was a white/chartruese Bomber A crankbait, slow retrieved from the bank back to the boat.

Golden Trout

Hybrid Bluegill

3.5 lb Rainbow Trout

And Here are some pics of the biggest fish of the morning. It was a 24 inch rainbow trout pushing nearly 6 lbs! These fish arent supposed to live around here, but we have several lakes with sustaining populations of trophy rainbow trout!

We stayed out a little longer than we were supposed to, but still made it back into town by about 9:30 am and spent the rest of the day moving boxes and furniture. Its a shame that so many get buck fever this time of year, because the fishing is phenominal!

Anyhow, after harvesting 11 does and 1 buck over the last 6 seasons borrowing my cousins extra slug gun, I finally went out and bought my very own H&R Ultra Slug Gun Deluxe. I cant be more excited for this season being able to use my very own gun! I will pick it up early next week and start attempting to put holes through cardboard about 100 yards away! We shoot hornady slugs with these guns and they seem to just be an awesome combination!

I wouldn’t classify myself as really that great of a shot when it comes to practice shooting at targets, just on a lucky streak while hunting that I hope continues with my gun. Using my cousins gun I havent missed a shot on a deer yet. I know I am doomed now this season since I wrote that, but I think I am a firm enough believer in the H&R / Hornady combination to say how impressed I am with it. I havent had to shoot at a running deer yet, and generally won’t take any shot that I am not 100% confident with, but just hope that I haven’t jinxed myself for this season by buying a new gun and pulling up my pants abit while saying I havent missed a shot on a deer yet!

Last year I shot my first buck and while it is not the monster trophy deer everyone raves about, it is proudly hanging on my wall at the lake! To make an already too long story even a bit longer, I shot my buck last year opening morning and it scored 140”. Then later that evening I was sitting on the ground looking for some does when a monster buck waaay bigger than the one I shot comes walking up the ravine within 15 yards of me, stops and stares me down. He simply stood there frozen for a few seconds, turned around and walked away. Both of my brothers saw that same deer that night, but neither of them could get a clean shot off from their stands, and boy did they want! I am definitely looking forward to this season!!

****If your looking for a place to live up by chicago, I would seriously consider this place!!! It has over 30 acres of virtually untouched trophy fishing water as well as its own ski hill, tons of volleyball courts, basketball, hiking, swimming pools, etc. Its like a place to vacation to, not live at!!!!