Congrats!!

Congrats to Brad Hawthorne and Bob Carlson on their 2nd place finish at the MTT Walleye Championship on LOW. This article sums it up nicely: http://lindyfishingtackle.blogspot.com/2011/09/goofy-is-good.html

Was up in the Crosby area to chase some grouse this weekend. Brittany was all excited cuz she had a new gun to shoot, but I was more excited to see how quickly the new pup figured out what was going on. I didnt have the chance to get her on live birds yet so this was gonna be a make or break weekend. We must have walked close to 15 miles on Saturday with only one flush, that we never had a shot at. The two dogs seemed to get birdy quite a bit but with the wind I think more birds were running away than wanting to get up. Coolest photo of the day was a dragonfly that decided he liked my hat and did not wanna leave.

Woke up on Sunday to a heavy drizzle that according to the rain wasnt going to end until late in the day. Hit a couple trails close to the cabin with nothing to show for it. So we decided to make a run up north to some other trails that Jesse from Oars N Mine had been talking about. First trail was a little short as we ran into a guy hunting on his own that we didnt want to interrupt so we turned around and started to head back. Within 50 yards we had a black squirrel run across the trail that the two dogs promptly treed. Brittany finally saw it in the tree tops and dropped it with a single shot. He is in great condition and in the freezer right now, waiting to go on the wall.

Drove a little further north to another trail (saw a woodcock sitting on the side of highway 6, first one I have seen in 2 years). Started walking the trail, and within 200 yards the little pup got excited and ran into the woods, I was excited thinking she smelled a bird, but she quickly came running back out with a fish jaw in her mouth!! Sure was an interesting find more than a 1/2 mile from the nearest water. took it away from her and we kept going up the trail. Another 2-300 yards up they both took off into the woods and flushed a bird (alright, she is getting it!) the bird flew 10 feet up into a pine and I showed Brittany where it was and she took it down!! Her first grouse! It was very cool seeing her get so excited aboot it. I went in with the dogs to retrieve it and see how the pup did, when two more birds got up, I started to swing my gun to get one of the birds in my sights and thud, barrel right into a tree. Oh well, we have one. Walked further up the trail and jumped another cover of 3 birds but never got a shot. But both dogs were very excited aboot the birds we found. I think we may have a good hunter on our hands, cant wait to get out again!

Hunting Recruitment

DNR Takes Aim at Hunter Recruitment

By: Bob Bohland

                Hunting license sales are seeing a sharp decline. Not just in the State of Minnesota, but nationwide. This is causing quite a stir among those in charge of managing wildlife and wildlife lands due to the majority of their funds coming from the sale of licenses. While not a new problem, it is one that has seen a lot of focus from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources as of late.

                In the spring of 2003 the Minnesota DNR, headed by Commissioner Gene Merriam, recognizing the trends and wanting to be proactive took steps towards slowing the decline of hunting and fishing license sales by forming a Hunter Recruitment and Retention Program and hired a full-time coordinator. In 2005, a group of DNR staffers met for an advisory committee. During this meeting they developed a plan for the long-term retention and recruitment of hunters. This plan identified several factors that the DNR felt were barriers for hunters to start or continue the tradition of the sport such as: access to hunting lands, lack of time, lack of outreach, etc. All told, 11 major impediments were found.

                The group also addressed goals and strategies for the program and set priorities for how to market the program. Their major goal is to: “Sustain and increase participation in hunting by recruiting new and former hunters and retaining current hunters and maintain an annual hunting population of 570,000 individual license holders.” They plan to do this with six objectives:

1) Increase the recruitment rate of youth

2) Increase the recruitment rate of adults, including non-traditional groups (females, minorities, urbanites)

3) Increase the retention rate of current hunters

4) Increase the number of hunters participating in multiple hunting disciplines

5) Reintegrate former hunters

6) Create a positive image of hunters and hunting among the general public

                Since their inception in 2003, the group has seen success. Their biggest gains have been through the Becoming an Outdoors Woman (B.O.W.) program. Due in large part to this program, the number of female deer license holder numbers has risen from 44,349 in 2003 to 54,433 in 2008. From 2003 to 2008 firearm deer license sales rose from 644,751 to a record high of 791,715.

                Another program that has seen success has been the Hunter Apprentice Validation program. According to Minnesota law, a hunter born after December 31, 1979 must have completed a firearms safety course prior to purchasing a license. In 2007, the DNR introduced the Hunter Apprentice Validation to allow new hunters to try out the sport before deciding if they would like to go through with the class. After purchasing the apprentice validation, the new hunter must be under the supervision a licensed adult hunter. Originally this validation was only good for one year, but for 2011 the DNR has extended it to two years in a lifetime.

                But their work is not done. Their recent focus has been on grouse, ducks, pheasant, and other small game. Normally small game license sales rise and fall depending on the population outlooks for pheasant and grouse. But Minnesota small game sales have remained stagnant in recent years, so this year they have started a push to introduce more hunters to small game.

                Other programs that the DNR offers are: Becoming an Outdoors Family, Mentored Youth Spring Turkey Hunts, Mentored Youth Waterfowl Hunts, Mentored Youth/Women Upland Bird Hunts, National Archery in the Schools, the Scholastic Clay Target Program, Take-A-Kid Hunting Weekend, among many others.

                Many of these programs are always looking for volunteers and mentors to help. If you are interested in participating, contact the Minnesota DNR through their website (www.dnr.state.mn.us). To keep hunting and fishing available and to increase availability of funds for management, we as stewards of the outdoors need to do our part to help; bring a kid out hunting with you, introduce others to the sport, or just spend a day helping out at one of the DNR’s programs. And remember, the most important thing you can give is your time.

Tip-up Fishing For Carp

This has always been one of my favorites out of all the stories I have written, really gets me pumped for ice fishing.

You’re Catching WHAT!?!

Late Ice Carp Tactics ….Yeah Really!!

            Everyone has found themselves carp fishing at some time or another. And although most people don’t really pursue them too actively, or even admit that they liked catching them, they sure can put up a fight. Ask anyone who has tied into one while crappie fishing with light tackle, you had better have a good drag or they will put a bruising on your equipment. I have always been a sucker for just about anything that will tug at the other end of the line. On days when I couldn’t get on the water I have even been known to play tug-o-war with my dog by tying one of her chew toys to the end of my musky rod (yeah, I have a problem). So when my brother and I found ourselves trying to sight fish shallow gills this past February and all we kept seeing when looking down the holes were huge carp, we knew precisely what needed to be done. Luckily I had left a couple of tip-ups in my truck from a previous outing.

            Lacking traditional carp gear (although I am not sure what technically constitutes traditional carp gear, nor does anyone else on this side of the Atlantic ocean); we took a couple of tip-ups and improvised. All my tip-ups were pre-rigged with 50 lb Power Pro line, but this being gin-clear water we added a Spro swivel and 6-7 feet of 20 lb fluorocarbon to the end of each. My brother added a size 6 circle hook to his with no weight and baited it with as many wax worms as he could squeeze onto it. I took a slightly different approach. Some of the fish were cruising and from the looks of it they were picking off aquatic insects as they swam around. So I took a size 12 Lindy Genz Bug and loaded it with waxies. It didn’t take more than 5 minutes before a flag was flying. The first fish came on my brothers circle hook rig, and he made the mistake of taking his gloves off before trying to land the fish. Well that first fish gave him several line burns on his fingers to make him think better of taking his gloves off the next time. It also weighed in at only 4 lbs on his digital scale, and man was I excited to see what one of the bigger ones we had seen swimming around could do.

            The commotion from the fish (and my brother’s squeals of pain as he got burned from the line) attracted some attention from a group of people crappie fishing not too far from where we were. Two of them came over to talk to us about what we were catching, and thought we were either stupid for fishing for carp, or lying through our teeth and had found either some big northerns or walleyes in the shallows (supposed "real fish"). Luckily they didn’t have to wait around long to see it with their own eyes as my brother’s tip-up went off again. This time he left his gloves on, and when the slush cleared and we managed to squeeze it up the hole we has holding a beautiful (they say beauty is in the eye of the beholder) 7lb carp. By the end of the day we were able to ice 6 beautiful (c’mon, they are cooler looking than walleyes) carp, the biggest being a 10 lb brute that took a little extra effort to squeeze up the hole. All while catching bluegills not 50 yards away.

Now We’re Prepared, Whatever That Means

            We decided to be a little more prepared the next time we went out to that spot. This was going to be a serious attempt at fishing for only carp. We even took the time to make dough balls out of Wheaties and vanilla extract, which have always been a killer for us when open water carp fishing. The fishing really seemed to pick up from the previous day, or maybe it was just because we were “serious carp fisherman” now. Try calling yourself that without laughing. The action was split between dough balls on the bottom and wax worms about 1 foot off of the bottom, and we ended up icing around 15 fish, although it did seem as though our bigger fish were caught on dough balls lying on the bottom. I also decided it would be a good idea to rig up a tip-down, which is like a tip up except it allows you to fight the fish with a rod and reel. My reasoning was that it would be a lot more fun to fight the fish on a rod and reel, and it would help me avoid burns from the line and the girlish squealing that would ensue. The one down-side to the tip-down is that the moment the fish felt any resistance they would drop the bait, so I had to open the bail and just constantly check to see if I had a fish. Luckily we were using circle hooks so I didn’t have to worry about gut hooking any of these gorgeous fish (they really aren’t that ugly)

            We took a look around the area in between flags and found out a little more about the area we were catching these fish. We were getting the majority of our fish in 9-10 feet of water over a sandy/weedy bottom at the entrance to a small bay. This particular area came up out of a 22 foot mud flat very quickly. The back of the bay was very muddy and had a stream that connected to several other lakes. Although we never checked the temp of the water we figured that was a big reason why the fish were in that area, as well as the bug hatches that we could see coming up our holes.

            As the snow cover began to diminish near the end of this ice season we found that the fish became a lot spookier and would take longer to move back into an area after we had drilled holes. They also began to move back further into the bay over the dark bottomed areas. They were still biting, but if there was any commotion going on above them they would vacate the area, so there have been fewer doubles on the tip-ups.

Why? Because They are Fish!

            I have received almost the same reaction out of everyone I have told about this bite so far, “Why?” And all I can really say in response is that you have to try it, if for no other reason than it gives you an excuse to still have a tip-up out while you are out fishing for panfish. So dust off those tip-ups, grab yourself a pack of circle hooks and some canned corn or dough balls and make an excuse to fish carp for a day, or don’t tell anyone if you feel embarrassed. This is one fish that will quickly win you over, if not for its looks (although I still say they are way better looking than walleyes), than for its sheer brute strength and willingness to eat almost anything. Hook up with a carp on a tip-up (but leave your gloves on) and try and wipe the smile off of your face, I dare you.

Bob Bohland

"Serious Carp Angler"