Northern Duck Hunting Opener Reflects Strong Nesting Spring

Now that was one fine northern Zone Duck opener on Vilas County backwaters.  If Bob Smith, brother John Ellis and I could shoot a little better, Golden Retriever Micah and Yellow Lab Dylan might have found considerably more work doing what they were born to do.  Alas, when the gun powder had cleared after opening Saturday and a Sunday morning watching the sun rise to burn off a heavy fog, nine ducks made up our total bag.  

Bob Smith is our old high school football coach from New Berlin West and gym teacher.  I asked him if he remembered the tackle I almost made in 76. He didn’t. We invited Bob up to participate in an Ellis weekend at our cabin on the Manitowish Chain.  We had cousins and friends, probably about 15 guys, participating in an annual do-what-you-want-to-do–three-day-outdoor-free-for-all.  

Some panfished as far north as the Gile Flowage in Iron County.  Some musky fished here or there while other chased walleyes. Some grouse hunted.  John, Bob and I chose to miss ducks. The highlight was eating brother Jim Ellis’s meat loaf…rolled with cheese, ham, sausage, pepperoni and secret ingredients.  Some took photos before the carving of the contraption affectionately known simply as Jim’s meatloaf.  Some bowed their heads. Some wept in gratitude that someone had the extraordinary vision to bring such a thing to the table. And some of this might have had to do with the Old Crow whiskey bottle lowering like the Manitowish Chain when they open the dam in fall.

Anyway, ducks were flying and pressure was good.  We saw mallards, woodies and teal, and there were lots of them.  Here’s to Micah and Dilly Boy.  Our most valuable players….again.  Remember boys and boys, deer or ducks, give finding the hit animal your very best effort.

After the weekend, Jim Ellis and brother Steve Ellis headed to a sturgeon lake for the hook and line season. I would tell you specifically the lake, but they would tie an anchor around my neck again and mark the spot with my best  red long Johns that stand up by themselves after a weekend like we just had. These are the older brother that taught me to swim in 68. It was easy once I got out of the bag. Even if they had caught a legal sturgeon, which I think is about 432 inches….or at least 65 inches; they were going to let the fish go.  I think they ended up with about eight sturgeon the largest being 55 inches.

Mike Foss the bear man is still hard at it in Bayfield County. Last night he e-mailed me a few photos and a report.  The bear season, he wrote, got off to a great start with eight bears down of 14 hunters. “We ended up with 12 of 14 bears tagged with 100 percent shot opportunity.  One more hunter coming up this week. Bears are still hitting the bait stations with some consistency.”

This monster bear is coming to the big cedar territorial scratching tree that Foss found and began baiting. We blogged about it in recent weeks and wrote about it in the September-October issue of On Wisconsin Outdoors.  See that issue posted online on this website.  A Foss hunter is sitting over the bait as this Blog is being written.

Photo left to right shows bear hunter Steve Richardt from Wisconsin, Guide Mike Foss, hunter Rick Sanger of Wisconsin and hunter John Luke of Minnesota after another successful tracking job.

If you want more bear hunting, read the Wisconsin story of a disabled hunter’s success with Empowered Dream Hunts Inc under “Bear Hunting” on this website.  Empowered Dream Hunts Inc Founder Joe Ramsey is also founder of Ramsey’s International School of Wrestling in the Wausau area.

We have posted a lot of material this week.  Send us your photos and stories and we will spotlight your adventures in the field.  Thanks to you, since launching onwisconsinoutdoors.com in January of 2012 with 1400 unique visitors (counted only once per month), more than 15,000 unique visitors connected with us in August of 2013 with 303,000 hits, according to Google statistics.  Our newspapers don’t last long out there either at the 550 locations listed on the homepage.  Thanks for reading. Check out “Outdoor News”, “Firearms”, “Inland Fishing” ”Bear Hunting” “Deer Hunting” in particular for the most new material on this website or browse away as you please.

Finally, father-in-law and OWO writer Dick Henske, 78, who took the nasty fall from a treestand last Tuesday, went home after surgery and one week in the hospital…11 cleanly broken ribs, punctured lung, broken arm and all. If you hear about an unexplainable surge in the northern Wisconsin grouse population soon, it’s really not so unexplainable. Dick and English Setter Lucy are on the sidelines for the first time in years.

Thanks for connecting with On Wisconsin Outdoors. Shoot straight.

Dick Ellis