Yup under 3” is considered antlerless in WI.

Around 5:30 a spike came in, and having more than enough antlerless tags, once I was given the shot I let a bolt fly. At first I thought the shot was low, but the quick collapse said otherwise. Normally at this point I would have jumped down to deal with it, but something told me to stay up. Damn sure glad I did! About 20 minutes later I see body coming straight at me through the woods, pausing to pick up acorns here and there. Another few steps and then I see antlers and realize I might finally have a chance at a real buck. He eventually comes down to where I shot the spike, stops to sniff the glowing bolt, and immediately freezes. For the next 15 minutes he would freeze, pause, backtrack, pause again, all while constantly licking his nose scent checking. Slowly but surely, he turned from facing me to broadside, and swung his head to look back behind him. I wasted no time and seized the opportunity given. 35 yards later I watch him fall over. First time ever getting a mature deer, first time ever getting two in a day let alone a night. What a great feeling.

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Perfect night to be out. Moved a set up from where it was for WI gun season down near some water and some acorns earlier this week and tonight had the right wind to sit the new spot.

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Set up at 5am along this ridge line hoping something would move past early. Nothing but squirrels, oh well at least I found a place to potentially hunt those.

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Mods please delete post as there are no open seats to fish Lake Michigan with anyone, thanks.

Still no real change into the weekend. Nothing calling on roost, nothing responding to calls, one solo hen seen while driving home, nothing else moving.

bigpike wrote:

The best way to get them 2 come in is sit in a big pile of cow crap and wait. They will certainly come.

You mean sit on private farm land? That’s if you can get access, apparently every field around here is leased now. Hunted my 7th public property and scouted an 8th, no sign, no calls, no responses. Anyone that tries to convince you the first three periods are the best is lying lol.

The only bird I’ve seen in the last two days was a single hen as well. I’ve hunted five different public properties so far and haven’t encountered a single gobble or response yet. No idea what’s going on to be honest.

Results?

When does the drawing start?

Explains why the shore bite has been horrible, good read.

Of course the majority says kill a protected species here, no surprise there…

I do scout all spring, summer, and fall while mushroom hunting and at work. I go to different properties each day, usually sitting over trails between ag fields or potential bedding. It’s not like I’m out in the woods blind, I just don’t see the point when I’m out this much in all these different places and the results are all the same.

Public land appears dead in west wi. Haven’t seen a buck in over a week aside from a lone spike, and the does that do show up are alone and not being followed. All the private ag fields around in the area have deer though.

Thank you for the replies. The vortexs were recommended by a friend, but according to their spec sheets they weigh 2-3x as much as the monarchs or leupolds. As I know nothing of the ring mounting heights etc, I will look into the 32mm size you(Tom) suggested, as you made very valid points when it comes to carrying in the field. Grouse I could never do that to my grandfathers gun. By using the gun it was as if he was still here to hunt with me, and any modifications would just diminish the sentimental value. Now since I honestly know nothing when it comes to scopes, could you explain what you mean by reticle focus? I just assumed once it was mounted zeroing in was the only adjustment required.

I had forgotten about meeting him until I saw the story in the local paper, as he was the first person to ever take me out on pool 4 a few years back. The list of directions to his place for the first trip ended with stop at the gate and call so I can put away my dogs. I expected prized/reliable hunting dogs that may run unwittingly upto vehicles but was surprised to see about 15 or so yard dogs fighting over an animal corpse. After putting the dogs back into an old barn building on the property we went inside his place to shoot the breeze while he finished tying up his rods. In one room just past the kitchen were 6 travel kennels, each with a female and a litter of what appeared to be recently born pups. This didnt seem too out of place, as with some kennels they prefer to separete the mothers and pups from the rest of the group to alleviate dog fighting problems. The only weird part was downstairs when he asked me to go grab the minnows out of the fridge for him. The walls were lined with double stacked kennels, each with a dog inside, throughout the whole first room at the bottom of the steps. It was one of those out of sight out of mind type experiences I forgot about until reading the paper. Just crazy.

the little island/penisula between the lock side and the dam side.

all the more reason to report them.

yup, pool 4 out of everts.

the shovelnose were active, picked up 2 on minnows. heard a kid had a 68″ sturgeon on for two hours also. other than that didnt see much but fish sticks.

With all the boats in the scout hole today and a few even up past that into the refuge it should be regulated. Hell, we even blew a few stomachs in some sauger… out of 24 feet of water. The difference between us and the scour hole guys, we kept ours. And if a blown stomach happens at 24 feet its happening at 40+.

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That should help keep people off the scour hole. lol

Good info to get out there Everts.

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No, it won’t. There were people in the scour all day long today. I’m sure they got sick of us laughing at them catching eagle feed.

we used blades, moxies, pulse-rs, minnows, color swaps each pass just couldn’t find them while avoiding the scour crowd.

I know we were out there today, one bite all day long. we did however count anywhere from 25-33 boats at all times on top of each other in the scour hole. I about fell out of the boat laughing watching all those power hooksets and speed reel-ins for 8-10″ saugers. best eagle buffet around.

havasu has always had huge sunfish, if im not mistaken the world record green sunfish came from the same lake/area.

I’ve had this happen with pike a couple times, frozen on the lake then tossed into a cooler full of snow. After a few hours to drive home and such, as soon as the filet knife touches them immediate jumping and flopping all over the place. First time it happened it scared the hell outta me.

Dennis Miller on MNF was one of the worst decisions for a broadcaster.

wasted six hours out there this morning… marked five or less fish, zero in the bite department, th st. Croix is starting where it left off for me last year that’s for certain

what would be the best way to clean up some spot rust that formed from fluids on the crank magnets and coil trigger, fine sand paper? CLR?

That seems to be the only option unless I like waiting, all the close strikemaster service centers are 2+ weeks behind on snowblowers. Just my luck.