I’m for one season out of the rut. Sometimes i lump thoughts together. Apr is ok to certain people, but I’m guessing the some of the same people that hunt first season and get first cracks at the bucks don’t want one season. The less competition the better. It’s also easier for them to kill a buck during rut when they are on their feet more. So some of the people for apr don’t want other changes because that would affect them too much. They would rather control what other people shoot because, well everyone should let small bucks go. Why would they want to make it tougher on themselves? Make everyone have the same philosophy when it comes to what to pull the trigger on. And have the DNR make people do it..
I think these organizations are ok to an extent. I joined qdma to learn more about timberstand mmanagement and habitat, ways to use trail cameras and food plot/minerals. Not their opinion on what should and shouldn’t be shot. These groups just don’t really have a place in deciding DNR policy. They speak for a small % of hunters and those hunters typically go by the same general thinking. Send out fliers to all hunters or do it when they buy a license. Not saying you have to do exactly as the results indicate but then at least everyone has a voice. Anyways, I’ve enjoyed these posts. No hard feelings but I’m going to move on. I think I’ve spoke my opinion and will leave it at that.

The thing is steve when u put that stuff on here and you are a member of the organization you are essentially putting your signature on those posts. I guess if you aren’t prepared to be challenged on what the organization that you belong to then i wouldnt post them. In your initial post mwa said legislators seem to know more about deer management than the DNR. Don’t just take a small portion of my quote and take it personally. I went onto say that mwa can’t have it both ways. You didn’t quote that though. Either the DNR knows what they are doing or they dont. That’s what I said. It’s OK for the DNR to implement apr but probably not move the season out of the rut and or eliminate a season. As long as it doesn’t affect certain people then its a good idea. That’s what I find funny. Sorry if you took it as me laughing at you. Let the DNR do their job and leave the organization’s out of it. Qdma starts getting their hands into it and I can assure you I would quit. Let the DNR do their job without the outside pressure of special interest groups. I like to shoot mature bucks too and I choose to hold off as well, but my point is there are better ways to balance the herd that doesn’t restrict what people can and can’t pull the trigger on. I’ve shot basket racks, I’ve shot plenty of does and the occasional mature buck. I’m proud of all of them. I enjoyed my time hunting and taking them. Since apr has been installed i have had less and less enjoyment because if you don’t stick a monster then people look down on you and that stinks. the big buck/herd management down in Se mn has had a negative affect on the hunting culture in that area. That to me is more important than any big racked monster. Good luck hunting.

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Guys,

Let’s not lose sight of the fact we all want what is best for our resources even if we can’t agree on how to go about it. We are our own worst enemy sometimes. Please keep this thread on track so we don’t have to lock it down.

Thank you!!

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I didn’t attack the IDO reporter. HHe came after me because I wasn’tjJohnnyon the spot with putting my personal Iinformation in the profile the first day I registered. Thought this was a site to hang out and talk deer hunting, not get pushed around by an IDO reporter that seems to have a big rack agenda and can plaster it all over this site. You have my word Kooty. I won’t get personal.

Nothing like getting right to the point steve. Who began pointing fingers with the original post about the legislators? Not me. I’m a member of qdma and I don’t agree with apr. Not because it doesn’t work but because it is touted as this huge herd management tool when in fact that isn’t the reason Iit was initially introduced. Small groups of individuals pushing their agenda on other hunters. Farmers are the reason that there is two seasons in Se mn? And its because only the farmers would get to hunt the land that they stick so much into? Are these the same dairy farmers that put on orange straight out of the barn and grab their gun and go to the woods? I know a lot of them and I can tell you this. I’m not about ready to point the fingers at them, are you? Oh and steve, i never attacked anyone. Be ready when you post stuff from your organization to be challenged and for people’s opinions to be expressed. That’s all I’m doing. Sorry if it doesn’t line up perfectly with what the whitetail alliance thinks. Next time I’ll have them write my posts. I’m done. I’ll put my information in so you can’t accuse me of hiding behind my screen name too.

I agree with you 100 percent but like I have said many times before in these forums Bluffland Whitetails fought for this for years but the DNR will not budge on this so APR was the compromise

The first problem with this is that if they did change the seasons to one season state wide allot of guys who do not own their own land would lose places to hunt because a lot of the land owners are farmers who hunt the second season because they do not have time during the first season. As a result a lot of non-land owners would lose places to hunt because the land owners (farmers) would want it for themselves.

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wisconsin=one season, iowa=one season both don’t have apr. And the fact that getting the hunting season out of the rut but the DNR didn’t listen is funny. Either the DNR knows what they are doing or they dont. Cant have it both ways. And why are we planning a season around a small group of farmers in the southeast portion of the state? Thats the only place there are two seasons. Call APR what it is. APR=more big racked bucks on the hoof ready to be killed. Quit with the smoke and mirrors and call it what it is. To call it anything else I feel is hurting the push for APR in other areas.

My father in law summed it up best this past season after he had to let a nice buck walk by at 50 yards because he couldn’t count the points “who would have guessed, 50 years of deer hunting and I couldn’t pull the trigger on a respectable buck like that because I wasn’t sure if it was legal”. Get the gun season out of the rut, have one season state wide and be done with it. Why aren’t these organizations pushing for these?

I don’t want the MN Whitetail Alliance telling anyone how to think or what to say. I think we should leave that to the hunters that hunt the APR area. People need to think and speak for themselves. Formulate their own opinion about APR. Not let any private organization do it for them. Also, the DNR doesn’t answer to the voters. The legislators do. And the legislators tell the DNR what to do. The legislator you speak of represents voters in SE MN so I feel he is listening to his constituents. I’m not saying I agree or disagree with APR, but lets be clear about one thing. MN Whitetail Alliance and any other organizations wanting APR to continue is in my opinion a group of trophy hunters looking for more mature whitetails to chase. Not saying its a bad thing, but I for one am not fooled by any of them claiming otherwise.
I grew up in SE MN, still hunt there and will be moving back there in the next 8 months. I have seen huge anterless populations get decimated over the last 5 years because what was once a buck season and an either sex season has now become two 8 day seasons that buck or doe are now taken. Not to mention archery and muzzleloader seasons. You want APR to continue? Then lets bring back some of the does as well. First season, buck only. Second season leave it both sex. Better yet in my opinion, have one season. This year I had 4 bucks that were legal to shoot within bow range. I passed on all of them. I didn’t have a single doe within bow range and for that matter only seen 2. I hunted about 8 days down there this year on property that is historically very good at producing both bucks and does. It’s been tough to kill a baldy over the last three years. The landowner that hunts way more hasn’t seen many does lately either.
To me APR puts a restriction on what bucks can be shot so therefore more people are shooting does that would normally shoot only bucks. It is bringing the buck to doe ratio closer together. APR does not grow bigger bucks. There have been big bucks in SE Mn for a long time. Not to mention St. Louis and Ottertail County historically grow bigger deer. Maybe not more big deer, but there are bigger racked bucks grown there.
Long story short, I think I’ll think for myself on APR and don’t need anyone to take data and throw it my way only to write an email for me and send it out so that APR can take hold in areas that I don’t hunt. DNR is missing the boat on a couple areas, APR is just one tool they can use, but others that need to be considered for deer management.

I was living in the barracks at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and so I had shacked up with my girlfriend at a hotel in Laurel, MD the night before (it was my weekend, and no girls allowed overnight in the barracks!) By the time I woke up, I believe all the planes had crashed, but the towers had not collapsed. I called my NCO and he had me BDU-up and come straight in to the hospital, where I spent the next 36 hours while we tried to figure out what was going on and Pentagon victims began arriving. Reality can really kick you in the pants sometimes.

I know they’re in there!!
I’m just gonna keep casting out the hardware until I see one…

A nailbiter for sure, but my confidence in AP’s knee, Ponder, and our rookie kicker is much higher!

On another note, RG III are you kidding me?

Yeah…I hit WBL on thursday night after work, as the clouds rolled in and the rain came, hoping the change in weather would turn ’em on. I had just enough time to thoroughly cover the north side of Ordways Bar…nothing. There was a lot of feeding activity with smaller fish though. There were 5 or 6 other guys out there with the same idea I had, I didn’t see any indications that they were successful. Like you, I’m really hoping the fall weather comes soon.

Some people don’t like killing things…give the guy a break.

They must be some big sunnies…

Sorry to hear that…went though it a few years ago with a dog my family got while I was in 8th grade (she was 16). It’s tough, and I’m not looking forward to going through it again with the little stinkers I have now. Best of luck to you sir.

I cannot understand, for the life of me, why they don’t allow Webb a little more time behind center. I think he’s got some serious potential.
Of course many of the very best QB’s started out like Ponder, or worse…

Very slow today on the St.Croix…launched at Windmill. Didn’t talk to anyone that caught much. Guy I was fishing with landed a 16″ suger in about 16fow on a minnow, I caught 2 bluegills on crawlers. By 12:30 it was so slow and cold we packed her up!

Hi everyone. sorry I’ve been out of the loop for a while, moved to the DC area in 2009 and kind of fell off of IDO. I’m back in MN for about a month, but just wondering…could someone maybe PM me and tell me what exactly happened with Evert’s? I see all this about Evert’s being “back” and just wondering what it’s back from…thanks a lot in advance. Can’t wait to make a trip down there, got my personal best walleye of about 11 pounds in early March 2008 right on the edge of the ice in the lock channel there. Good times!!

MAN!! I’m pretty sure I know that spot!! Good job getting her to eat, I just can’t ever seem to do it on that lake. I’ve seen some bigguns in there though…congrats on a beautiful fish and a great release!

Thanks guys, I thought it was open w/ catch and release for all fish…crap. Guess Pool 4 it shall be!

Strengths: I have quite a bit of time to fish during the weekdays, and I’m a good accurate caster. I try to keep my lure selections to just a couple of each type to cut down on the boat clutter and confusion (if I have too many lures I spend more time trying to decide which one to use than I do fishing), such as 2 shallow cranks, light and dark colors, 2 bucktails, light and dark, etc.

My weaknesses: Effectively using my sonar. I can read depth, bottom composition, and weeds just fine, but I cant get it to mark a nice fish arch for anything. I just see blobs, and I don’t know if the blobs are fish, bubbles, or what. I’m not really actually trying to find muskies with the sonar, just their habitat. But I can’t tell what is a school of bait and what is not. Also, like some of you guys before me, I tend to fish the same spots, and I HATE fishing in weeds, I tend to pound midlake structure.
All of these are things I cant WAIT to work on this summer and fall…

The Owatonna Cabela’s has nice employees, but the worst check-out area I’ve ever seen. Why are the desks round???

Arrrrgggghhh…well on that note, is there anyone here who has ever caught muskies on spoons regularly? I wasn’t targeting muskies when I caught the one in the pic, but I thought it was interesting, since all anyone talks about for muskies are bucktails, Bulldawgs and whatnot. Maybe this question should be a seperate thread…I also had 4 or 5 follows last summer on a Perch colored Salmo Fatso, no takers though.

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One: Muskies don’t bite daredevels

two: red/white is such an old color that every fish has seen it and won’t bite it any more.

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Are you kidding me man? I guess I must have caught a muskie on crack then, because it HAMMERED a red and white Daredevle. Ok, it was a tiger, but gimme a break. The other side of that spoon is red and white baby!

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Sometimes and old-school method can be awful deadly…..

Tim

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You said it…I caught my very first muskie last fall trolling the ol’ Red and White Daredevle. I was surprised, to say the least, but I’m thinking the old school baits probably do work pretty well, considering the fact that to most of these fish, they’re brand new! After that muskie saw bucktails all summer, that Daredevle probably looked pretty good…