WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
November 17, 2005

So with the deer season over for many and only days away for the rest, I have now come out of the woods, and have had time to think about the next outing that will soon present itself, those first ice Walleyes! I hope everyone had a great deer season. As for our North 40 Camp, it will likely go down as a slow year at best. As of Thursday, we had only managed to harvest five bucks. Most of the camp was more than frustrated with the lack of deer movement. Mother Nature sure played a part in the season, as she presented some of the best conditions for the deer to stay high and dry of most hunters. The last report I had heard, the registration count for Itasca county was down 40%. I certainly believe this report had more to do with the weather then the number of deer.

Winter seems to have nearly avoided us, but as most of us expected, it looks like Winter is here again and looking like it is here to stay.

So with another deer season slowly but surely coming to an end, it will be one that will be remembered by me for years to come. High winds, Summer-like weather and even rain. This 2005 deer season was the first time in my 18 years of hunting that I was able to hunt in the rain. Normally snow is common, but the rain was certainly a memory that will stick. As for the hunting, deer camp for many, including ours was slower then average. We did manage to harvest some bucks, but in the first week the deer movement made for a frustrated camp with very few deer spottings. Each season that comes and goes makes for great times and memories. The largest deer for the camp was harvested by Kris Lien, he shot a nice nine-point. As for me, I found a repectable 10-point.

So now what? Are you ready for the ice season? I am not sure when that first fishable ice will get here, but with the cold overnight temperatures that we have seen the last couple of nights, we should be fishable by mid-December. Have you thought about the first ice fishing lake? Red? Lake of the Woods? For me it will be Lake of the Woods. The Lake of the Woods is an amazing fishery in the Winter and I would highly recommend making a trip up there this Winter.

So as the seasons finally make that change, get those ice fishing sticks out, it won't be long and we will be watching that Vexilar and rod bend soon.

Sean Colter
member of the NMLOG's
www.seancolter.com