Hayward Hosts Governors Fishing Opener
This Saturday marks the beginning of another great Wisconsin fishing season. On invitation from Wisconsin Indian Head Country, I will be in Hayward, Wisconsin to celebrate the 50th Annual Wisconsin Indian Head Country’s Governors Fishing Opener. Good friend and OWO writer Ron Klimcke, who sent us the spawning muskies now posted on our homepage, will be showing me how to fish on the Chippewa Flowage. Ron is also a resident of the area, an excellent fisherman and knows the flowage.
Media people and other invitees will be spread out over the beautiful Flowage with local guides catching fish and participating in an entertainment agenda designed ultimately to bring Wisconsin families to Hayward too. Believe me, it’s an area worth seeing and vacationing in if you have not yet. If you have been here already, no one will need to twist your arm to return. That’s why I’m heading back for about the tenth time.
Governor Walker of course will be in attendance with local hosts who know how to show off the gem that is the Hayward area including the Hayward Lakes Visitor & Convention Bureau, Treeland Resort, Timber Kove and The Landing. Governor Walker will be presented with a lever-action .44 rifle from Wisconsin-based Henry Rifles, an OWO advertiser during festivities. Wisconsin Indian Head Country also wishes to thank major sponsors MillerCoors Brewing Company, Indianhead Foodservice Distributor, Eau Claire, the Wisconsin Department of Tourism, and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
For information on vacationing in this area, connect with Wisconsin Indian Head Country at wihc@centurytel.net or 800-826-6966, the Hayward Lakes Visitors & Convention Bureau at www.haywardlakes.com or 800-724-2992, or Treeland Resorts, with five locations on the Chippewa Flowage all designed to exceed your vacation expectations at www.treelandresorts.com or 715-462-3874. Connect with Mystic Moose Resort at www.mysticmoose.com or 715-462-3014 or mysticmoose@centurytel.net.
It never ceases to amaze me that a tag doesn’t have to be filled to enjoy outstanding hunting, deer or turkey, in Wisconsin. As long as you don’t happen to deer hunt in the northern counties. You still have to see something to classify it as a good hunt. In fact, it’s what you see and hear on stand that makes or breaks the day. Friday, John Ellis would give it his best shot to take a gobbler near Fennimore in Grant County. I would shadow John as camera man and reporter. We didn’t fill John’s tag. But, I would count it as among our best hunts.
I knew going in to our season two hunt that turkey hunting was already hot throughout much of central and southern Wisconsin. Good friend and recent retired teacher Mike Hart went solo on his property near Wisconsin Dells. After seeing maybe 20 traveling and boisterous Toms over the morning and afternoon the Wednesday of season two, Mike tagged a 24 pound bird that flirted just a little too much with a decoy. That made four gobblers down for the Hart crew including Big Mike, Jim and Tom.
Buddy Craig Cutts was hunting private property northwest of Fond du Lac with his 12 year old son Nicholas. At 6:15, Craig called in the 25 pound gobbler below and Nicholas shot him at 12 yards with a crossbow. On April 26, Craig called his own double-bearded gobbler from 400 yards on another private property and all the way in to a near point blank shot. Send your photos and stories to ellis@onwisconsinoutdoors.com for posting.
Score two for the Cutts boys.
Friend and Aurora Healthcare President Nick Turkal, who will have an article in the May-June issue of On Wisconsin Outdoors, also tagged a Tom last week. The bird came in fast as Nick said, “looking for love in all the wrong places”. Nick’s column continues our “To Stay in the Field” ongoing series designed to help sportsmen and women stay healthy and active out there in the big outside.
Before getting chased by torrential downpours in Fennimore, John and I enjoyed one of the best hunts a turkey hunter could hope for. Sometimes, you set up wrong and the new morning remains quiet until you move and find and active bird willing to play. At first light Friday, we had an estimated half-dozen gobblers open up with hens equally vocal within maybe 200 to 300 yards of us in a large semi-circle. They were conversing and combative from the moment they awoke.
We later watched four Toms strutting together like soldiers which I had never before witnessed personally in the field, and later still called in three separate gobblers that flirted with us but remained hung-up despite our efforts. Each bird was without female companionship but so impressive, with thick long beards and another male badge of honor that reminded me of the rutting bucks of November showing off for the girls; a swollen neck. I had binoculars glued on the birds that came on the scene about an hour apart and kept us on the edge of our stump all morning long.
Speaking of deer, it wasn’t only the turkeys that kept things entertaining from our ambush seats in Grant County. An adult doe and two yearlings came across the alfalfa to take exception with our hen decoy. Pawing the turf and acting like skittish deer act, I caught about a dozen shots on camera before they surrendered the field. And two raccoons came down our hedge line to ultimately pose for photos at about five feet.
And the cherry on top? We didn’t exit Fennimore until we had stopped at one of those little farm cafes where they treat you like kings and feed you that way too. Before that, we had not eaten since stopping at the Dodgeville Kwik Trip for hot coffee and a donut in the wee hours.
My brother Jim Ellis found his first crappies of spring in the Boulder Junction area. Jim was using slip bobbers with crappie minnows, sometimes with a jig and brought home six fish to about 10 inches. Photo below by Colleen Ellis, who in reality probably also caught the fish.
Thanks for connecting with On Wisconsin Outdoors. May your bird be heavy and his beard long. May your live well be full and worthy of an opening day fish fry.
Shoot straight.
Dick Ellis