On Wisconsin Outdoors Blog
4/3/2014 Some Better Men Deserve The Stage…
Even in their passing. Maybe especially at their passing, so that we never forget that this freedom most of us inherited was earned through great sacrifice of the few. I am grateful to give up this spotlight today to Jeremiah A. Denton. I would appreciate it if you would read about him through... More
3/27/2014 Open Water, Searching for Yesterday
Sunday’s inaugural hunt for lake trout, steelhead and browns on the Milwaukee Harbor was locked out by 12-degree temperatures and new ice on the landing. Jim Olsson rescheduled our trip for this coming weekend with the weatherman’s promise of mercury climbing toward 60, but couldn’... More
3/20/2014 Open Water Time
The first Saturday of May falls on the 3rd this year, and about one million Wisconsin anglers will join the floating mass known as “opening day” on inland waters. Many fishermen though, won’t be waiting another month to chase migrating walleyes on Wisconsin’s main veins... More
3/12/2014 Kwik Trip Takes “On Wisconsin Outdoors” Statewide
257 Wisconsin Kwik Trip stores statewide began making On Wisconsin Outdoors available to its customers this week, supplementing its own outstanding Facebook presence introduced recently with Kwik Trip Outdoors. Kwik Trip Outdoors is ready to post your photos and stories from the field ri... More
3/7/2014 Florida or Wisconsin? Ask these Badgers
You know those retired guys and ladies who wallow on the beaches and boats of the deep south for months fishing and catching rays, literally and figuratively all day long while we freeze and shovel day in and day out like my brother, father-in-law and long lost friends from Wisconsin? I hate t... More
2/28/2014 Looking ahead...
We’re putting the March-April issue of On Wisconsin Outdoors to bed as we “speak” at 5:00 pm Thursday, with press time slated in Waupaca in the wee hours Friday morning. That means look for your copy next week on stands from Merrill and Medford to Kenosha, and posted on this ... More
2/21/2014 Nice Day for a Trout Hunt…
Although we won’t be using hooks. This February 20 is actually a nice day to hunt down a cover photo for the March-April issue of “On Wisconsin Outdoors”. The plan is to showcase the early trout season in a little spring- fed stream near Fond du Lac despite the icy, snowy wea... More
2/10/2014 The Wisconsin Sturgeon Season; Put me in the Zoo.
What was it that Dr. Seuss wrote? Put me in the Zoo? Did he mean the Winnebago Chain during an opening sturgeon season with good ice and high water visibility? Last year, I wore my reporter’s hat and showed up opening day 2013 at Wendt’s Landing on the west side of Lake Winnebago ... More
2/6/2014 Winnebago clarity superior as spearing season looms
With just days to go before the 2014 Winnebago lake sturgeon spearing season opens Feb. 8, state fisheries officials report that water clarity and ice conditions are the best in a decade. And these keys to spearing success continue to improve. DNR fisheries biologists checked water clarity the morni... More
1/30/2014 Guns & Ice
Ice fishing of course continues to be the tactic of choice in Wisconsin in January and I suggest you keep tabs on our “Inland Fishing” or “Fishing Reports” pages to see what our guides are saying, and catching, on a weekly basis. Our guides are not nuts for the most par... More
1/24/2014 What to Find On OnWisconsinOutdoors.com
As usual, media releases, reports and stories of high interest came in from the world of Wisconsin’s outdoors over the past week and we posted them throughout www.onwisconsinoutdoors.com. We’ll give you a sneak peek of a few of them here and link to some of the more compelling news. ... More
1/16/2014 Turkeys, Hips and Grading the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Packer Grader
Three weeks ago today I was on the cutting table for the hip replacement. This week I have discarded the cane except for outdoor use, one week after discarding the walker. Pain is minimal and I stopped using all drugs including Vicodin and Oxycontin two nights ago. Perhaps we will transi... More
1/9/2014 Ahead of Schedule
Two weeks out from total hip replacement, recovery is ahead of schedule. Home therapy continues twice daily, where I put myself through a series of exercises designed to strengthen the hip and legs. Three times weekly and transitioning to two times beginning next week, therapy is directed by ... More
1/2/2014 Painless hunting and fishing, dead ahead……
To begin 2014, I would like to thank the thousands of you who sent “get well” notes and cards as I recover from full hip replacement surgery December 26. Yes, I would really like to do that but none of you sent me even a single flower. What’s wrong with you? Actually i... More
12/26/2013 Back in the Saddle Soon
Good morning from Rehabilitationville. I look forward to talking weekly again with the New Year. I have had hip replacement surgery and am just beginning the process of learning how to walk, and eventually climb trees without pain again. You will still find new postings throughout... More
12/12/2013 A BB Gun Christmas
You know, this darn Global Warming is not allowing me stay in the treestand nearly as long as I would have liked. Hmmm. 15 below zero or so. Does this mean without global warming we would be at say, a cozy 62 below? By the way, when data doesn’t match up with their science, ... More
12/5/2013 A New Hip & New Ice…The perfect mix
Later this month I receive a hip replacement. My hip is the only thing that hurts on this 55 year old body. But man, it hurts. I have been hobbling around in the field or whispering “owie, owie, owie” as I climb on my portable deer stand carried in on my back for the be... More
11/27/2013 Applications deadlines loom for turkey, bear
Wild turkey hunters and black bear hunters have until close of business on Dec. 10 to apply for available permits for the 2014 hunting seasons. Preliminary permit levels for the 2014 spring turkey season are set at the same level as in 2013. Final permit levels are not set until after the clo... More
11/21/2013 Good Luck
There’s few things worse than pounding the keyboard on a Thursday when your hunting crew is already arriving at the cabin 300 miles north with a new gun season looming. There are few things better than a Wisconsin opening day, except, for sure, the Wisconsin bowhunt all season long. Goo... More
11/14/2013 Bucks Amok
Isn’t it good to be alive and a bowhunter? We’re into it now boys. Answered a call Friday from friend Craig Cutts who was expecting me to join him that afternoon on private property near Oshkosh. He wanted to let me know he had shot a beautiful nine-pointer that morning. The... More
11/7/2013 So Close, So Far
Our intention, last weekend, was to bowhunt Vilas County. With a cabin on the Manitowish Chain, we have deer hunted near Boulder Junction for the last two decades, gun and bow. When deer numbers are good, hunting has been good and we have hung our share of deer including good bucks. ... More
10/31/2013 The Affordable Deer Act
If you like your buck….you can keep your buck I did not know about this slight change until reading the Wisconsin deer hunting regulations thoroughly this week before disappearing into the forest with bow and arrow. Apparently, President Obama has come to an agreement with the Wisconsin DNR.... More
10/24/2013 2013 Wolf Hunt Off to Extraordinary Start
It’s a biting cold Wednesday and I pound keys in a dark office before the sun with a northern Wisconsin bowhunt on my mind. I will join my brothers in the North Country and spend two days in a tree or maybe in a duck blind if the wind blows too hard and the northern ducks get goosed sout... More
10/17/2013 Success in the deer fields and a pheasant season tune-up
It’s always nice to see success from a Wisconsin sportsman using a Wisconsin made product. Scott Heitman is an “On Wisconsin Outdoors” writer and one of our archery-bow hunting consultants. He works at West Town Archery in Brookfield. He’s helped me se... More
10/10/2013 14 Bears for 14 Wisconsin Hunters and a Scary Tale from Ontario
Mike Foss the Bayfield County bear man and OWO writer finally crawled out of the swamp with his last hunter a happy hunter. 14 bears for 14 hunters was the final tally, which really surprised no one who knows Foss and crew and how hard they work in this beautiful and wild Superior country. ... More