Fish Report: 9/23/04

Well, I guess you can now say we are into fall because the hunting seasons are here. From what I have heard so far the hunting for pats is great, but the finding leaves a little to be desired. Then again you add into the challenge all the leaves that are still on the trees and it makes it hard to see a pat. This is the time of year when you talk to a pat hunter and he says, "Saw two birds and had six flushes." This means that the bird saw the hunter before the hunter saw the bird so it headed for the high country. I guess this is what makes hunting interesting and after a day like you have this time of year my Dad would always say on the way home, "I wonder how many birds saw us that we never saw?"

The one thing that is interesting when we humans try to figure out nature is the fact that no matter how we try to outguess or figure things out so many things never change. A while back we all figured that the trees would all be colored before October ever got here and the color tours would miss out this year. But here we are with the 1^st of October arriving next week and there is still 90% more green out there than color.

With the 1^st of October getting here we will be into deer season also. I have received a lot of different opinions about what people think about the deer herd. In fact there is a gap like the Grand Canyon as to how people feel about the shape of the deer herd. It will be interesting what we see when the leaves are gone and the bucks get moving around.

The one hunting season that is almost non-existent now is bear season. Wifee and I can go out and drive all over looking for berries and just enjoying ourselves and never so much as see a bear hunter. In places where there always used to be campers and hunters there is no sign of life anymore. There still are a few lucky hunters out there and they have a picture of a real nice bear taken off Highway 13 out at the Garden Sport shop.

I still have not been able to figure out why when I go hunting I always manage to see what I am not hunting. If I go out looking for pats I could kill turkeys with a stick they are so close. Then when I sit looking for turkeys what do I see but a nice buck walk right by me! Now you guessed it when I sit and watch for a buck to come by during deer season what do I see, but the pats I couldn[base ']t find a few days before. There has to be a way to make the right species be in the right place at the right time.

Of course there is one thing that bothers me a lot more than this! It is the fact that Wifee can hit clay pigeons like you wouldn[base ']t believe! This and the fact I could hit them if I set them on the ground and shot at them.

A while back I bought a 12 ga. Remington at an auction. So when my daughter and her husband came up we went out and tried to hit a few clay pigeons. The two of them broke a few and then asked Mom if she wanted to try it? Here Wifee takes a shotgun she has never used before and breaks bird after bird! There are some things in life that are just not fair. In fact if she really cared about me she would miss once in a while so I wouldn[base ']t feel so bad.

One thing to remember is the fact that they are still doing great out on the big lake fishing for those whoppers. If you can find a time when the wind dies down and you like that type of fishing this has been the best year I can recall in a long time for heading out on Lake Michigan.

In closing I would just like to mention that my new book The Old School is off to a real good start. Now if all of you that are going to be sitting in a deer blind this fall pick one up for some good reading I should really be on a roll. I think the one rather interesting thing about this book is all the people that have contacted me that knew some of the people talked about in the book. It really makes one understand how small our world really is.

[EDITOR'S NOTE: The Old School is also available online from Dan's Mall, as are all of John's books.  Check out the special offer!]

If you want to drop me a note on how your hunting season goes you can reach me at jawspub@charter.net. You can also reach me about my books there.