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Well I have officially become an old guy!  First I turned 50, then they were nice enough to send me my very own AARP card!! Both of those things were having me think about my age, then Saturday it really sunk in, I bought my son his first truck!!  Gotta say that was pretty cool. He found an ad in the local Lapeer paper for a 1994 F150. Those F150’s from 1992 - 1996 have a special place in my heart, over the years I’ve owned 6 of them. They had in my opinion the best seat I’ve ever ridden on in a truck, and  the  4.9L six cyclinders were just flat out bullet proof! 

 We stopped over to the seller’s home Saturday morning to get a look at the truck and I believe my son and I were both about equally excited. I knew from the first glimpse of the sellers house that if this truck was anything close to as clean and neat as the home it was gonna be ours. I mean you could have eaten off the garage floor!!  The owner came out and showed us the F150 and from the look on my son’s face I knew he was hooked. Yeah she’s got a couple rust spots, nothing big, but she purred like a kitten and has an interior cleaner than my 2002. Couple runs down the road and I was sold. She now sets in our driveway waiting for my boy to reach his 16th birthday in October. In the meantime I’m gonna introduce my boy to a little body work to patch up the rust spots.

 I can’t hardly wait to make a few bow and duck hunting trips this fall in my sons’ new truck!! Man, now I can track my muddy waders on his front seat, and leave some feathers in his visor!! Hey getting old may not be so bad afterall.

Been getting a bit annoyed about this whole LeBron thing and the sporting world in general. I mean come on folks these players are just that, players. Granted they are very talented at what they do, which is……entertaining us by playing games that we did as kids. From what I’ve been hearing on some radio and TV stations folks tag these players as “their heros”. Personally I think that is a bit over the top. These folks are ordinary people who are highly trained and very well paid at their particular talent. Yes some of them are very good citizens who give back to the people who helped them attain their current status, but I guess when I think of a hero sports stars  fall a ways down the list. For me, heros include folks like those serving our counrty in the armed forces, police officers, doctors, teachers, pastors, and a little known but much appreciated group of folks known as volunteers. These people are my heros. They are the ones making a real difference in our quality of life.  Next time you come across one of the people who make a real difference in your world let them know how much you appreciate their services.

Geez, OK I give up please somebody turn down the heat!  Been over 90 for 3 days. Makes for some pretty tough inland lake fishing. My son and I have been out twice in this heat and though we did manage to put a few fish in the boat it wasn’t much fun baking in that hot sun. One thing this heat does seem to do is tone down the insects. Been out in the woods a bit as well and this heat seems to keep down the mosquitos, but it brough out the deer flies. Man those things bite hard!!

Been noticing on my many drives around the state that the growing season seems ahead of schedule this year. Used to be “knee high by the 4th of July” was the saying farmers used for how their corn crop was doing. Heck alot of fields I see are already chest high now. Should make for some great duck hunting cover at Fish Point this fall.

 Another item of note is that I’m already seeing mentions of folks catching chinook salmon up in rivers on the northwet side of the state. Now that is a great bit of news in my book. It is an absolute riot to tangle wih those silver monsters in shallow water. Be sure to have lots of line on the reel cause long runs are common, as are the sounds of lines snapping! Best guess of where to explore for early salmon would be Little Manistee and Betsie Rivers on the west side of Michigan.

 Now on to more early arrivals. Been seeing some big fawns so far this summer. Heck I saw 2 last weekend in Tuscola County that had nearly lost their spots already.  This years goslings have pretty much gotten as big as mom and dad. Seems to be lots of them too, good news for early goose hunters.

Just got back from a few days of fishing at a favorite spot in northern Michigan. My family and I spent 4 days camping on the banks of the Betsie River in Benzie County. Thought we didn’t catch much from the river we did do fairly well on the smallmouth in Crystal lake. Spent a couple days wading the shoreline tossing Mr Twisters and Rapalas and picked up some nice bass, couple over 4 lbs. We also did some wding in the nearby Platte River where my son and a friend did a little catch and release on somemore smallmouths in the 1 to 3 lb size. Gorgeous country up there, and not too many folks all week. We also got in lots of swimming in both lake Michigan and Crystal Lake.

 Thanks to the folks at Vacation Trailer Park on the Betsie for yet again providing a great family camping experience. Clean comfortable trailers and cabins, right on the riverbank, can’t beat it!!

We’ve all done it, spent a few minutes daydreaming about how things used to be. Remember those days we spent up north camping with our folks, or that day spent on the beach riding the waves and skipping stones. Maybe it was a special time you got to spend with dad or mom walking a forest path. Whatever that memory was I ask you to keep it in your head and log into puremichigan.org. Click on the ads section and indulge yourself in remembering why we live in this great state. Click on the play video icon. Listen to a few, and relive some memories.

A statement I’m sure alot of us have heard over the years. Ranks right up there with “Should  wudda coulda”. Both of those statements I hear alot in discussions about properties. The one that got away, you know the one, that 20 acres of prime deer ground you wished you’d made an offer on but decided to wait for the price to drop.  Then just weeks later you see the “SOLD” sign show up and you find out someone got a great deal on the property you “coulda” had.  Heck I’ve been in that position many times myself over the years.

 Back in 1990 I was again driving my wife mad bothering her with my vacant land wishes. I kept telling her how we were missing out on alot of potential investments. ”Aw come on honey this 10 acres is perfect, and it’s a great investment at the asking price.” Why if we bought this and held on for a couple years I bet we’d make more money than our 401K, and get to use our investment too.  It took me a L-O-N-G time to convince her to let me give it a try, but persistance finally paid off and I found a hunt club that was disbanding and selling off their holdings.  The asking prices were pretty decent, and the land looked nice. Long story short the seller was willing to deal and we wound up with about 40 acres instead of just 10. A result I’d never have known if I hadn’t put an offer on the table. We had a blast with that property and in a few years the itch was there again to buy another 40 acre parcel I’d been watching for nearly 2 years on the market.

 We hooked up with a local realtor I had used before, who convinced us to do some parcel splitting and then put them up for sale. We wound up selling off all but 14 acres around our pole barn, and netted a decent profit, enough to make an offer on the 40 I wanted. The property by the barn was pretty special to us and it was difficult to put that on the market, but I decided instead of working up an offer on the 40 we’d instead play it safe and sell off the barn and 14 acres first.  Low and behold the 14 and the barn sold in 2 days!! Soon as we had an accepted agreement on our property I was off to write an offer on the 40. Unfortunately, my luck had run out, seems someone else had put an offer on the table for the 40 just a couple days before I came along and he got it for a song!! Drat!!!  If I’d made my offer first instead of waiting to sell the 14 acres and the barn I’d probably have gotten that parcel. A “Shoulda, woulda, coulda ” moment. 

 Where I’m headed with this rambling is that you never know what you can get a property for unless you write an offer. If you’re in the market for a property, don’t let the asking price keep you from putting in an offer you’re comfortable with even if it’s a bit below what is being asked for the property.  Last bit of advice here as a buyer make sure you put your offer in writing! Sellers are much more likely to give your offer serious consideration if it’s in writing, as the ole saying goes “Talk is cheap”, and all those zeros can look mighty inviting.

Spent a couple hours with my son fishing again at Holliway Dam.  The walleyes are still on the bite and we caught 30 in our 2 hour trip. Now you have to remember of all those fish, none made the 15 inch size limit, but we had a blast reeling them in.  We did pick up one catfish as well, which got put back to fight another day. While we were there a couple other fishermen stopped by to try their luck and did quite well too. They were using small jigging Rapalas and fishing close to the wall of the dam. One guy fought and landed a 20# plus carp and they also picked up a few smaller walleyes and lost a keeper eye.

 If you’re going to head over to the dam, bring along a couple dozen perch minnows. They seem to be the ticket right now. Seemed that the fishing has been about even on both sides of the dam too. There’s a public access parking lot right at the dam site so access is no problem.

Spent the entire weekend fishing with my son, we had a blast. Started out up near Houghton Lake on the Cut River, and finished out the evening Sunday below Holiway Dam. Our Saturday found us doing very well on rock bass, smallmouth bass, perch, and river chubs. We spent most of the day sitting on a road bridge over the river, drifting nite crawlers into a deep pool below the tubes under the bridge. I was hoping to catch a sucker or two, but wound up catching a couple very respectable smallmouth bass. Those went back in the river as the season is yet to open. We also caught a few nice rock bass and a bunch of those river chubs. Strange little fish, most of them had some sort of weird little bumps on top of their heads. Looked like tremendous pike bait.

 Today we ran down to Holiway Dam and fished the north side of the river. Used perch rigs with minnows and heavy sinkers due to all the current. The boys easily caught a couple dozen walleyes, most in the 10 - 14 inch range. They did also pick up a couple nice smallmouths as well. Those again had to go back to fight another day. We also saw a guy latch onto something extremely large, probably a carp, but we never did get an look at it, it took alot of line before finally breaking off well down the river from the dam.  

 All in all a tremendous weekend had by both my boy and me. Nice to get a little father son bonding time, just the guys hanging out, eating the wrong foods and staying up to late. Heck we never even worried about a shower Saturday morning, just pull on a hat and we’re all good. Alas……….Monday’s right around the corner.

Well, my son continued his dominance of the ole man this weekend. First he out fishes me up north, then we return and he fills his turkey tag this morning!!  Ole man couldn’t be prouder. Always nice to see life coming full circle. As I remember I was usually filling most of the game tags when my dad and I were hunting together.

 We saw quite a few birds this morning on the acreage we were hunting. As usual things didn’t get underway till after 7AM. This property seems to be a place where the animals sleep late. The past 3 times I’ve hunted there I haven’t seen much till after 7AM, makes it nice not having to walk in the dark. The bird my son got came out into the field with another at about 30 yards from our location. Took a few tense minutes to be sure they had beards and then it was up to him. He took the closest one to him and I decided to pass on the other bird as I wasn’t fully sure I could see a beard. One shot from his new 12 gauge and that was it, about 35 yards. We did have more birds gobbling around 8:30AM, but they didn’t show and the wind was getting pretty cold, so we bugged out at 9:30. I’ll be back there next week to try and fill my tag too.