A Book Worth Reading-Girl Hunter

OK, so I bet you all thought I had either fallen off the face of the earth or dropped the ball on this whole blogger thing.  Well, I haven't, I've just been extremely busy; between vacation, interviewing, and starting a new job.  In any case, I wrote part of this before my hiatus, and here I'm finishing it, but I am hoping to continue writing every week or so in the future.  If I don't get to it every week though, please keep checking back occasionally for the stories I do have time to write.

 This isn't a story so much, and will probably be classified as a musing, but I wanted to share a good book with you all, and it is definitely related to hunting.  The book is called Girl Hunter by Georgia Pellegrini.

I read this book recently and was very pleasantly surprised with what I found.  Now, it may seem odd for a guy like me to pick up a book called "Girl Hunter", but the tagline got me interested, "Revolutionizing the way we eat, one hunt at a time."  Because one of the main reasons that I hunt is to have some semblance of living off the land, this idea of a top chef actually supporting this same idea was refreshing and captured my attention.  Furthermore, I was also piqued by the general idea of a girl taking up hunting, not because there aren't plenty of women hunting these days, but because I have several women in my own life that I would like to see get into hunting more and I thought this book might offer some insight into assisting me in that endeavor, especially as my wife is also and avid but amateur chef.  As an added bonus, while paging through the book, I also realized that there were a number of recipes included for much of the wild game hunted throughout the book.

In any case, I was very pleasantly surprised with this book.  It was not quite what I expected and was in some ways, more than what I had thought.  Ms. Pellegrini starts out with a description of her first hunt, a turkey hunt, but then she backtracks and describes how she got into the position where she realized she wanted to hunt in the first place.  She goes on to tell the story of the hunt as well as several other hunts, some successful, and others an utter disaster. 

To add to these entertaining stories, she includes several recipes at the end of each chapter, having to do with the game hunted during the preceding chapter.  All of these recipes look excellent to try, although some of them do seem somewhat unapproachable in that they require ingredients that may be difficult to acquire.  On the other hand, the recipes that are doable look excellent and I hope to try them in the future.

More, possibly most, importantly, is that Ms. Pellegrini intersperses some degree of philosophy about her making the jump to hunting.  She has some great things to say about hunting and how it should relate to our way of life, and especially what we eat.  It was this aspect of the book that I enjoyed most as well as the reason that I have passed it on to several people around me, especially the women in my life.  I hope that by reading this book, they may get some insight into why I hunt.

The only thing that I would have changed is that she would have included some fishing stories.  On the dust jacket, there was some indication that she did get into fishing, yet there is not one story about fishing in the book.  It isn't crucial to the book, I just think it would have been interesting and probably entertaining to read a little about Ms. Pellegrini fishing.  In any case, it isn't anything that's necessary, just would have been good.

Overall, I highly recommend this book to everyone, especially those that might find some entertainment in reading my blog.  Ms. Pellegrini has written a great book including some great hunts, many wonderful looking recipes, and best, the philosophy of why people hunt.  In any case, I hope you all have a chance to read this and get as much out of it as I have.  Enjoy!!

TLaSS,
Joshua

Heres the Amazon link:
http://www.amazon.com/Girl-Hunter-Revolutionizing-Hunt-Time/dp/0738214663

Escape to the Boundary Waters

All ready to go

This story is a little old, but still a classic.  If nothing else, it is classic in that it is a Boundary Waters fishing story that shows, yet again, how good fishing can be up there.  This happened when my wife and I went to the BWCA in 2005, the of and after Labor Day.  This also happened to be right after Hurricane Katrina had struck New Orleans and that was all that was in the news.  Needless to say, it was a relief to get away from all the media hoopla surrounding that all and offered us an excellent opportunity to relax and truly get away.

Sunset on the first night

For this trip, we decided to put in at entrance #16 (I think) which starts with a long portage and then traveling many miles on the Moose River.  Eventually we ended up at Lake Agnes, an absolutely gorgeous lake with pretty good fishing, and set up camp for the first night.  We didn't have any luck on the way in or during that first night, but we hadn't tried very hard initially.  But, for me, when I'm in the BWCA and on the water, I'm fishing almost as often as possible, whether purposely fishing or even when loaded down and traveling from site to site.

In camp cooking up a classic BWCA dinner

24 in Walleye

The next morning, we got loaded up and headed out towards our next planned campsite.  Almost immediately, I put my line in the water and started trolling.  Within five minutes, my rod bent over and I had a good bite.  After fighting the fish, to my amazement I brought in a nice 24 inch, ~4 lb. walleye.  I should add, this was amazing to me because it was a radiant sunny day with very little waves; just the kind of day on which you would not expect to catch a walleye.  Sometime that day, I also caught a decent northern, but because we already had walleye, we had no reason to keep him.  In any case, this was a great start to our trip and we already had excellent fresh fish meal that evening.  After dinner, we did a little more fishing, and caught a couple smallies, but we only stayed at that campsite one night and then we were on to the next one.

Nice catch honey

All ready to go to the bathroom with TP and bear spray in hand

Bald Eagle watching as we paddled by

Small northern, typical of the BWCA

That next morning, we got loaded up an were heading out, trolling again when I happened to hook up with a small smallie.  This time, when I brought him in, I used a small fly-fishing net that we had brought with.  Unfortunately, while this net was good enough to bring in decent fish, it also was very easy to snag hooks on the size of lures we were using.  In this case, this is exactly what happened and before we could go anywhere, I needed to pull the hook free from the net.  As I did this, I pulled a little too hard and as the one hook came free from the net, one of the other hooks lodged itself directly, straight into the meat of my thumb.  From everything you read about removing hooks, you're supposed to push the hook through and then snip off the barb and back the rest out.  In this case, this was impossible as the hook was truly straight into the meat of my thumb and pushing it through would have meant pushing it all the way through my thumb.  I tried using my knife and cutting the wound open more to allow the barb to come out easier, but to no avail.  Eventually, I had to just grit my teeth and use brute strength to jerk out the hook.  Certainly it hurt, but there was nothing else to do; so I put a bandage on and kept going.

Lori's awesome northern

That day we continued north on Lac La Croix and were glad we were going that direction because there was a strong south wind creating 4 ft. waves and pushing us north faster than we knew (this only became apparent when we headed back south and it took twice as long to go back as it did to go north).  Along the way we tried to stop and see some petroglyphs that were on some of the rocks there, but because of the waves (and my difficulty seeing them due to my colorblindness) we kept cruising and got up into an area where the wind didn't have near the strength it had out on the main part of the lake.  It was in this area that my wife thought she had snagged a rock only to have her line start moving, indicating a large fish on the other end.  After a long fight with her rod tip in the water, we were able to land a very nice northern (I estimated it to be in the 8 lb. range).

Island camp

Very nice smallie

Anyway, we finally got to our camping spot on an island in the northern portion of Lac La Croix and for several days enjoyed not seeing another person, canoe, plane, or boat.  One day, because we had the time, we took a day trip to a nearby lake that I knew did not get fished a lot and that a BWCA fishing book had indicated had excellent sizes and quantities of walleye, northern, and smallies.  While there we had a great time relaxing and I was fortunate enough to see a family of otters playing in the lake.  The fishing was also excellent, although all we could catch were smallies.  There were some huge smallies in there too.  While fishing, I hooked into  a very good one and just as I got it up to the boat, the line snapped and he dropped back in.  Now, knowing what was in that area, and not wanting to leave without a trophy, I got retied and was fishing again quickly.  Astonishingly, within ten minutes I had another nice one on the line and this time was able to get him in.  He turned out to be 19 inches and probably weighed close to 4 lbs.  Although I wouldn't probably keep a fish like this now, we did keep it, along with several other smaller smallmouth and took them back.  We ended up eating the smaller ones for dinner and had the large one for breakfast, which we were barely able to finish considering the size of it.

Island sunset

Couple of friends

In any case, we headed back after a couple of days and experienced our only bad day of weather.  There was persistent and pervasive fog, and as a result we were having a difficult time finding our way through all the bays in Lac La Croix.  Somehow we got off track because at one point we looked towards shore and saw a small building, something that is definitely non-existent in the BWCA.  Fortunately, we had tracked our route north with a GPS and after turning that on, realized that we had strayed into Canada.  We quickly got back on track and worked our way back south, stopping to see the petroglyphs and taking a break for some lightning.  We eventually made it back to Lake Agnes.

Ready to portage

Petroglyphs on Lac La Croix

Chomped walleye

Punctured walleye

As we were coming into the lake, I noticed a good under water rock saddle that was sure to hold walleye.  Because we hadn't caught anything for dinner, we made a point to go over the saddle several times.  Eventually, Lori did hook into something and began to reel it in.  Interestingly, she described that it was coming in easy and then would get real heavy, and then easy.  She finally got it to the surface and we saw that it was a small walleye as she lifted it from the water.  Then, with the fish only a couple inches out of the water, a nice northern pike literally erupted from below (just like the shark in Jaws) and grabbed the walleye, dragging it back under.  Lori brought him up and I tried to net the northern but he let go and took off.  Lori let the walleye back again, and he grabbed it yet again.  This happened a couple of times, but eventually the northern didn't come back up.  We finally checked out the walleye which had some serious puncture wounds, and then let him go, most likely to become dinner for that northern.  As a result of all this, we had a good time fishing, but didn't have any fish for dinner that night.  But, the resplendent sunset more than made up for the lack of fish.

25.5 in Walleye

The next morning, we packed up and started paddling across Lake Agnes on our way out.  We did have heavy clouds and some slight wind, but it wasn't too bad and we were ready to get home.  Because I was in the mood to catch one more fish, I dropped my line in and began trolling across the lake figuring I could catch one more northern.  As we came across the lake, I did hook into something pretty nice.  When I finally fought it into the boat, I was tickled pink to see that it was a nice walleye.  It ended up being 25.5 inch, 5.5 lb. walleye, my largest walleye to date.  Because I didn't want to waste such a fine fish, I put it on a stringer and dragged it as long as it stayed alive.  Once it died, and we were in the river, I gutted and gilled the fish and wrapped it in a wet towel to keep it cool in the bottom of a canoe.  I kept that fish cool all the way to the car, then put it on ice in Ely, and finally filleted it at midnight when I finally got home.  That fish ended up being Christmas dinner and was honestly one of the best Christmas dinners I've had in a long time.

Tiny northern

Ironically, this wasn't the last fish I caught on this trip.  On one of our portages, I noticed a very small northern in the shallows where we were supposed to put in.  We were taking a break so I took the opportunity to toss in my line a couple times, and, as you would guess, I finally caught him.  He was maybe 12 inches long; by far the smallest northern I've ever caught, but still plenty of fun.

Overall, we had a great trip and had excellent fishing.  I have been back to the BWCA several times since, but have yet to have as good a time or fishing.  In looking at these pics again, I long to return with my wife and hope to take my family in the future.  I can only hope we have as pleasurable a time as we did on this trip.  Till then...

TLaSS,
Joshua

Sunset on the last night in the BWCA

'Yotes, 'Yotes, 'Yotes! (sort of)

Ok, sorry I haven't posted anything in a while.  I was away camping with the family.  I had actually written about half of this post before I left but didn't have time to finish it.  Anyway, here it is, enjoy!

Here's a compendium of stories that are all pretty interesting and all related by the fact that they are all coyote (or fox) related.  Many of you may not find it that interesting, but remember that coyotes and fox are considerably harder to hunt for as they utilize all their senses much more and seem to actually think about it more than many deer do.  On top of that, there are fewer of them, and when they do come around, they're as attentive as can be to everything around them.  It is for these reasons that taking a coyote is usually considered quite an accomplishment; taking one with bow and arrow is an absolute feat that is highly valued.  I have been fortunate enough to take a couple of my own, and assisted heavily in the taking of a nice fox, all of which are accounted for you here.

The first story is from several years ago, probably 2005 or so, and is about the first coyote that I killed.  Now, one thing about all of my coyote and fox encounters is that they have been coincidental while I have been hunting something else.  This isn't to say that I haven't tried to hunt for coyote and fox, I've just never had any luck doing it and instead have had more success when hunting for other game.  This is exactly what happened for this first coyote.

I was bowhunting for deer and had been sitting in my stand since early in the morning.  My stand was in a great spot as it was in the woods a about 30 yards from a field edge and my particular strip of woods acted as a travel-way for all sorts of animals; deer, turkey, raccoon, skunks, opossum, and of course coyotes.  As I sat there at mid-day I hear something moving behind me.  If you've ever been hunting, you know that at the hint of any movement, you automatically perk up, and of course, try to get a look at what is making the noise.  The same happened in this case and I was fortunate enough to catch a glance at a nice coyote that was moving behind me, without it noticing me.

Now, I had watched several coyote hunting movies and had already tried my hand at calling coyotes before, but again, had never had much luck.  The one thing I had picked up on though was that the sound most calls make can be made quite easily, granted more quietly, by puckering ones lips and squeaking rapidly.  At first I thought this coyote might come right by me, but I quickly realized that this 'yote was headed into the field.  As soon as I saw that, I puckered up my lips and started squeaking like mad.  Amazingly (to me at least), he immediately stopped, looked my direction, turned, and started walking right towards one of my best shooting lanes.  Just as one plans, I drew while he was behind some brush, barked and stopped him as he stepped into the lane, and made a perfect shot at 25 yds!

He barked when he got hit, and quickly ran off into the woods.  I waited several minutes and then got down and started searching for him.  If you know me well, you also know that I am partially red/green colorblind and thus have a very hard time finding a blood trail.  The same thing happened in this case and I was having a darn hard time finding any sign of him.  Thankfully, I finally stumbled across half of the arrow that I had shot at him, and it had a good amount of blood on it.  Finding this not only told me that the coyote was bleeding good, but also gave me a direction to continue looking.  Fortunately, after looking a little more, I finally found him, dead as a doornail, about 60 yards away from where I shot him.  Amazingly, he had bitten my arrow in half, which if you know how strong carbon arrows are is quite a feat.  I won't be underestimating the jaw strength of these guys in the future.  This was the first coyote I had ever seen while bowhunting and I felt pretty good that I had succeeded in taking him.

Ok, now on to the second story, which is actually a story about my friend Jason, but I was pretty involved in this situation and am responsible for the success.  It started out when Jason invited me up to his land near Valders, WI to deer hunt.  Unfortunately, because of the mentality of many of the hunters on neighboring property, the deer population had waned and Jason had not seen a decent buck, or even a decent population, for the last several years.  Of course, there is always hope that a nice buck will pass through around rut time, but in reality, neither of us were expecting a whole lot.  More than anything, this was an opportunity to get away and hunt together, which is worth whatever time we did spend doing it.

Anyway, we hunted in the morning, both of us in tree stands of Jason's, but neither of us saw anything.  For that evenings hunt, we decided to set up near an old orchard and one of the food plots that Jason had planted.  Because there were not too many stands overlooking this area, I decided to set up my blind on one side of the field, across from the main wood line.  Jason, on the other hand, took a tree stand across the field from me and down maybe 40 yards.  Yes, we were close to each other, but we each had a different perspective on things and Jason was covering the woods while I covered the field and anything coming from the orchard behind me.

As I was sitting there, I did see a small buck walking along the field edge.  He did step out and I could have easily shot him at 40 yards or so, but as he was a small buck, I let him walk.  A short time later, I heard something moving in the wood and as I looked across to the wood line, I saw flashes of red moving in and out of the trees.  At first, this mystified me, but it didn't take long for me to realize that this was a red fox cruising the wood line.  Now, being the prepared hunter that I am, I quickly whipped out my varmint call and started squealing on it, with the intent of calling him in and making a nice trophy out of him.

What did happen though, was that as soon as I started squealing, I stopped the fox and turned hum in my direction.  As he came my direction, he came out of the woods not 30 yards away from Jason.  Jason, having been alerted to the presence of something when I started squealing, was already drawn back as the fox came out and made a beautiful shot at that fox.  He ran off and we sat for another half hour or so until the end of the day.  Upon finishing our hunt, Jason despaired of finding the fox, but having a good idea of where he lay down, I walked right to him and presented Jason with his trophy.  This fox turned out to be a beautiful specimen, and while I wish it was mine, I was and am so glad to have been a vital part of the taking of such a fine trophy.

For the final story, I'll tell you about my most recent coyote encounter, which happened just a couple years ago and was the only animal I shot all hunting season.  In this case, Jason and I again were hunting together on a semi-public piece of land in central Wisconsin.  Jason had scouted and hunted this land already and had seen a very nice buck just the day or so before.  In setting up my stand, I put it on the end of a knoll with a commanding view of the area and was exactly where Jason had seen the buck previously.

As I sat there later that morning, I got pretty excited when I heard something coming up the valley behind me.  As this animal came up along side me where I could see it, I realized that it was a coyote, and a very pretty one at that, with a dark red and gray hide unlike any that I had seen before.  As before, I started squeaking as loudly as I could with my lips.  Because it was a relatively quiet morning, this sound carried and I got the attention of the coyote, but couldn't see that it had turned in my direction.  I kept squeaking from time to time, but still didn't know where the 'yote had gone.  After almost half an hour, I was surprised when I looked over and there was the coyote.  I squeaked lightly and it moved towards me slowly.  At about 40 yards, I made a nice shot, hitting it in the midsection and definitely wounding it enough that I would be able to recover it later that day.  For now, I listened as it rolled down the hill and finally stopped moving at the bottom of the hill.

At the end of the day, neither Jason or I had seen anything else, and so on our way out we went down the hill and found the coyote piled up in a nearly dried up stream bed.  Amazingly, the animal was still alive so I got another arrow ready and put it out of its misery.  Now, while the hide looked horrible and smelled even worse after being in that stream bed all day, it was obvious that the coat was unique and beautiful.  Thus, I took the coyote and had the hide tanned which I then had turned into a nice hat that is fitting for a guy like me.

Overall, I feel fortunate to have had these experiences and look forward to more in the future.  I have one other to tell, but I'll save that for another day.  I also hope that someday I will have success intentionally hunting for coyotes, but until then, I'll make do with the opportunities that present themselves randomly.

TLaSS,
Joshua