Bears, Deer, Ducks & Doves
A whirlwind week in the world of Wisconsin Outdoors is a good week. Thursday I loaded the old truck with the last of 10,000 papers slated for southeast Wisconsin and placed them on the racks through Madison on my way to the Mike Foss Bear Camp in Bayfield. When I say “old truck”, you can believe it. 311,000 miles, one wiper working, badly cracked window, etc. etc. It’s been with us delivering On Wisconsin Outdoors from the inaugural issue to this 7th anniversary issue. I’m going to take her in to the truck hospital this week, and get her one giant and no doubt expensive band aide.
I know that Kwik Trip and Menards also both delivered On Wisconsin Outdoors to all of their stores in the last week. They will go fast so make sure you stop soon for your copy. It’s also posted of course for the online reader.
You know from last week’s Blog that Foss hunters had three bears down opening day Wednesday, September 3, including a 405 pound boar. The number of tagged bear from the 20 hunter camp has now increased to 16, with one unrecovered animal. Click here for the whole story under Bear Hunting.
While writing this Blog Thursday afternoon, an e-mail came in from Mike Foss. Three hunters will be returning to camp to try and fill their tags. Mike is moving some bait stations in an attempt to mislead a couple of the monster bears, up to 700 pounds, still out there. Mike sends these photos of what he is seeing just in the last day.
Will this monster bear fall to one of the few Foss hunters with his tag still unfilled?
”There are three hunters left and they’re coming back before the season ends,” Foss wrote today. “We have changed up some of the bait stations to try and fool some of these monster bears. We have moved bait stations to make sure some of these bears feel more comfortable so they will show up during daytime shooting hours. This season has been the best one yet for Northern Wisconsin Outfitters. We’ll get one of these monster bears yet.”
Last week, I arrived in the Washburn camp with buddy Bob Smith from northwest Wisconsin, and we were able to bait two stations with Foss. The guide is tired and beat up after all those months of baiting and the intensity of the first week of camp. Hunters have to be taken to stands, bears need to be recovered and butchered, and bait replenished. At least now the burden lessens as more and more happy hunters go home with their bear.
Mike Foss is feeling the strain after a long and highly successful season.
One incredible statistic, a few days after the season began, all Foss hunters with the exception of two had an opportunity to kill a legal bear from their stand. “It depends on how you measure success as a hunter,” said Bill Engler of Prescott as he butchered a bear in Foss camp and we talked shop. “All you can do is put these bears in front of the hunters. What they decide is worthy of tagging is up to each hunter.”
When the bear goes down, the work is just beginning in Foss camp.
After a day in camp, Smith and I headed to Vilas County for the experimental teal hunt. It was a blast, due to the number of ducks on the wing and I was kept busy shooting my camera. But, from my perspective, I have a hard time identifying a teal on the wing, and there was no way I was going to squeeze the trigger. Maybe this will help me and others become a better hunter due to the need to improve on the ID skills. But I talked to Conservation Warden Rich Thole on the road. One small group of hunters near us will pay the price for using lead shot and taking down seven wood ducks. We either have to learn to minimize mistakes (that is inexcusable) or abolish the special teal season. The idea is to expand opportunity, not destroy opportunity for other hunters in the regular season.
John Ellis sets Teal decoys with two mallards mixed in during the special season.
Micah and Dylan didn’t have much to get excited about during the early teal season. To see Dick Ellis great nephew Tate Ellis imitate the hunting dogs, connect with the video posted under Waterfowl Hunting on this website.
Another unusual aspect to the duck hunt. The wild rice harvest is underway, and although the rice harvesters can’t begin until mid-morning, we had four groups near our blind in the afternoon until later in the evening. Share and share alike.
The wild Rice harvest meant that hunters needed to move over a bit.
Returned home to real work and got Micah in the field one evening to hunt doves. I was one-for-three but just the opportunity to ease your hunting dog back into the field during a mild September hunt often presented in the mourning dove season is a good thing. I’ll be out there a lot, and I also happen to like shish kabobs during a Packer game that includes wild turkey, dove, venison, pheasant, and all the vegetables. Oh, stop it.
As promised in the September-October OWO issue in the Lee Gatzke column on self-filming a deer hunt, we have Lee’s kill of a 160 class buck up on the website homepage. Don’t forget to see how you can purchase any of NextBuk Outdoors hunting videos on our homepage below the posted video.
Thank you for connecting with On Wisconsin Outdoors. Come again soon.
Shoot straight.
Dick Ellis