New decade...Same Dream!

It has been a long, long, long time and I really apologize for the lack of postings, but it was for a good reason.  I figure that when you take 2 months off of school to chase the clouds…you will have to make up 2 months of school aka November and December.  This year has been quite the whirlwind of activities ending up with the best time of year….fall.  We ended up harvesting around 400 ducks and about 150 geese, not too shabby but there is always room for improvement.  I want to thank everyone who stopped by and got to join in on some great adventures in good ole’ NoDak. On a different note,  I did get out and do quite a bit of deer hunting from Minnesota, Wisconsin, and North Dakota; I put some meat on the table.  The last deer that found the dirt, I managed to sneak with my bow and send an arrow right through its pump house to bring down a nice late season doe.  Wisconsin was a blast with my Canadian counterparts, and I also managed to send two arrows into the dirt.  There was a Mr. big with 16 pts running around that wasn’t shot so next year there could be quite the story.  When I was home on break I did get out to do some coyote hunting with Travis, Matt, and Bails.  The first spot we hit was a tip off from a farmer who spotted a yote in his backfield.  Travis and I snuck around to trap the coyotes from running back into the willow thicket.  We had every escape route (except the one they ran on) cut off.  When matt fired the shot we didn’t see anything, sure enough on further inspection they got away on the uncovered runway.  That night it got brutally cold, dropping down to a balmy -13, but the coyotes still did not want to cooperate.  After calling for an half of an hour in a prime spot we were left with nothing but a little deer that almost was mistaken for a coyote.  After a police siren cruised by the dogs lit up in a frenzy of howling that broke the night’s silence.  That sent us home with cold extremities and a couple of puzzled looks.  After getting back up to school I was going stir crazy and had to get onto the lake.  I hit the lake in the afternoon on a steep break line and waited for some ice action.  The perch kept us busy while the pike made the afternoon.  This lake was crystal clear in 18 feet of water and it was about as close to sight fishing as your going to get with a foot of frozen water under your feet.  Well this one pickerel came up to Chris’ bait and came up to it and sat for about 2 minutes eying it down, and finally nibbled, but all that came of it was a swing and a miss.  It swam about 10 feet and made a beeline to my bait and took a little less time to swing at mine, but I failed at hooking the gator.  Again, it swam away to only come back and smash Chris’ lure and finally connected.  It wasn’t the biggest or baddest pike in the lake, but it was a blast to watch.  A while later I had a sow come up and slam my lure only to take me for a 20 second ride and leave me with a broken heart.  This pike would have been right around that 35-inch range, real hell raisers.  The permanent house will be arriving on Monday so get ready for a lot of fishing.  If you haven’t seen Travis has a photo journal on his page and I thought it was a pretty nifty idea, so I also will be giving the 30 pictures in 30 days journal a shot.  From the cold north country……Keep Livin’ the Dream!