This is my old Marine Corps buddy Danny Oldham and his brother Dennis with some big Hooiser Bluegill they caught ice fishing.  As you can see they used a familar item to show the size and length of the fish.  Some people have been known to use a tape measure for this purpose; but leave it to the Oldham’s to use a Bud bottle.  They may be looking for sponsorship money for the JON Boat they used to win The US Tobbaco Bass Fishing Tournament so Bud or Busch needs to take a hard look at them.  Although these boys would settle for free beer in lieu of money I am sure, so it will be a serious negotiation if you call them.  I also heard from a little bird that the ice fishing was cut short by a DNR official letting them know their cousin no longer owned the pond they were fishing on….. I would have loved to have had that conversation taped.  I am sure Danny had an out of state fishing license as he lives in Tennesee and thought he was fishing on a family pond  These fish were released after the photo op.  Thus the look on Danny’s face as he gives them CPR if they need it to revive them.   Great job fella’s!

Bow Hunting from the ground has it’s challenges, doing it from a wheel chair adds a little more of a challenge to it.  This last bow season brought me several chance’s at bucks; but they were not the buck I was looking for this year.  I had some very successful hunts though, like this one with this 8 pointer in the picture.  To scout and find the deer sign and the perfect stand placement is to me one of the most fullfilling things about deer hunting for me.  You take a 5,000 acre woods like I hunt and then narrow that down to the place to sit and observe deer within 20 yards of you is just awesome.   This stand is a funnel point where three ridges drop off and empty into a creek bottom.  There are several rubs and a couple of scrapes here along the side of the main ridge.  Those logs have washed down due to a heavy rain at some point.  It is very thick during bow season before the frosts have arrived so the deer will be very close for a bow shot.  Chances are like that you will see deer within yards of you like this one and no shot will be available.  Yes , you can find places for a stand that offer 50 or 75 yard shots but that is not where the deer are at so what good is all that open really doing you?  Another thing is that you always have to be alert and watching and listening to the woods.  A deer does not have flashing lights or sirens on it to make sure you see him.  Allot of people go hunting I know and have deer pass close to them and they never had a clue it was there.  Look at this buck in the picture and I bet it takes you a minute or so to see him.  What perfect camo?  He is exactly 12 yards away and yet if you do not know what to look for you will never see him.  You rarely see a whole deer where I hunt.  You must look for a ear, a nose, a white patch of hair or their eyes.  A leg moving where there should be no movement or just the noise of the buck’s footsteps.  I am not naive enough to even begin to think I see all of the deer that pass by my stand,  but I know by concentrating as much as I can and looking for all of the clues I greatly improve my chances.  The buck is top right about three inches left of the right hand side of the screen in case you can’t see him.  Not a shooter for me, but it was great to watch him make rubs and browse along that trail.    

This may have happened somewhere before but I had not heard of it.  These two white morel honeycomb mushrooms came up after our first snow this December.  Mushroom hunting is such a big deal here the local paper came and photographed it and ran a story on it.  If you have had this happen before of know of it then please comment and let us know.  Here is the picture of them as ran in the Salem, IN Leader Newspaper.  

I have known Jim for too many years now. Time has flown by it seems to me.  Jim and his brother Ron as well as his son Russ hunt with me each fall.  There are no better people to share a hunting camp with or a deer stand with.  This year again all fo the Zimmer’s harvested trophy bucks.  This is one of Jim’s deer.  Congrats Jim!

My friend Michelle Mcphereson’s Dad harvested this buck in Virginia in the Nov 2007 deer season.  Congrats on the buck Chet.  This was a good buck for the area and will make for some great eating.

White bass - Striper  HYBRID = Wiper

When the water temperature reaches 43 degrees and colder the shad really start balling up together in the deep coves.  This makes them easy to locate with your depth finder and when you find them just jigging a white soft plastic or a silver jigging spoon in them brings some great results.  It is really fun to catch them on light tackle or a fly rod and play them out. 

Here my brother John Albertson and Todd Easton are catching them the last week of December 2007.  This lake is in Indiana and is close to Bloomington.  This time of year you have the whole lake to yourself except for a few duck and geese hunter’s.  The wipers range in size from 5 to 16 lbs generally.  We always catch and release them but they are good table fare.  Limit is two and there is a size limit too.