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It is with a sad heart I have read to day of a hunting accident at the Fish Point Managed Waterfowl Area. 39 year old Lapeer man passed away from apparent gunshot wound from a hunting accident. I have spent alot of time up there hunting ducks and as such get to see alot of the same folks around the office waiting for the draw. You sort of develope a distant relationship with the others there. Likely not a personal one, as folks come from many different areas, but seeing the same faces on a regular basis they kinda become almost a family. Anyway, today we lost a member of that “family” to an accident. No details on what exactly happened.  Prayers go out to ALL involved including family and friends.

Had a blast yesterday. Got to spend the day duck hunting with a couple good friends up at Fish Point. The ducks and geese were flying all day, must have seen 10,000 in the 5 hours we hunted. The wind was howling, but we did manage to get a few birds to come close enough to get some shots. Wound up with 4 geese and 4 ducks. The area we hunted wasn’t the easiest to access but the work was worth the effort.

OK, I thought this was supposed to be October?? Been walking properties for last couple weeks and sweating my %$#&^% off. Come on bring back those 30 degree mornings and 50 in the afternoon. Had enough of this Indian summer stuff. Haven’t seen a deer yet in the daylight. That warm winter coat is too much for them to stand out in that blazing sun. I have seen a ton of squirrels. Se4ems they are having a blast picking up all the acorns. Hoping there are a few ducks moving this weekend, got a chance to go chase a few.

Last week was a busy one for us. Spent the first couple days with some folks from New Hampshire, walking properties in northern part of the state, then last couple days back up in NE side of state. In between quite a few trips around the thumb area. In all the running we didn’t see too many deer, but a whle lot of turkeys. Interesting that we saw many flocks of hens with fairly small poults. Heck some weren’t much bigger than grouse. Hope those little guys eat lots to fatten up for winter.
My son and I made a trip out to our gun season haunt in Gratiot County on the opener for bow. Very few folks out there yet, only seen 3 deer. The woods are again full of acorns, so looks like lots of food available for the critters again this fall. Pretty much state wide, apple trees are dripping with fruit.

Got to spend some time with my son deer hunting yesterday. I must admit it was our first youth hunt and it seemed very weird gun deer hunting with green leaves on the trees. We didn’t see any deer, but bumped one when we walked in in the morning. Seen a few turkeys fly off the roost and Lord knows more squirrels than we could count.
Spent an hour or so sprucing up our gun blind. Since we hunt state land it’s a good idea not to make it too obvious, but a few more logs and sticks were added. That location has produced 20+ bucks over the past 30 years, so we keep it on the down low. Lots of acorn dropping already, so looks like plenty of food in the woods again this fall. I was suprised, I figured hunting state land we’d see lots of hunters, but only seen a handful of cars on the 2 mile stretch of road going in.

Looks like the weather is finally starting to cool off. Great news, been a long hot summer for walking lands. Got a couple large pieces to wander today with a coupe guys from Metro Detroit. Should be a good day in the woods, fewer mosquitoes, less sweating, good things!!
Walked a 13 acre parcel over on Mill Creek near Ruby. Interesting parcel, it has 2000 ft of frontage on the creek and touches the Port Huron State Game Area. Always amazes me to see those deep gorges over in that area along both Mill Creek and the Black River. Looks like something you’d expect in Tennesee, not Michigan. I did manage to jump a deer along the river. Course she ran directly uphill and right into the path of a truck traveling on Abbottsford Rd. Fortunately it appeared she hit the side of the truck and after a couple seconds of being unconcious, she jumped up and bolted off thru the woods. Didn’t see any damage on the truck, but the driver was a bit shaken. He was an older gentleman and was teared up worrying about the deer. After I was able to speak to him and let him know she ran off seemingly none the worse for her experience, he calmed down and drove off.

Yeah Baby 37 degrees!!! Nothing to set an outdoorsmans heart a flutter better than a cool morning after a LONG HOT summer. Mornings like these make me yearn for the coming hunting seasons. Soon to be back setting in the blind at Fish Point, staring out over a decoy spread, looking for mallards. Man I love that place. There’s just something about having the wind blowing at your backside, 40 degrees, spitting rain and snow, and a nice group of greenheads spiraling into the decoy spread!! Easy Maverick………Murph to your right, low……. take em!! Now… Now!!! Yeah Baby, nice shot.

We’ll be at this years show in Imlay City. Show is great for the whole family, lots for everyone to see and do. If you need anything for this upcoming hunting season it will be there. Again this year we’ll be in the yellow building on the west end of the Fairground. Stop by and say Hi!! Yeah we got lots of free tootsie rolls too!! LOL

Spent a couple days salmon fishing up on the Betsie River in Benzie County. River was full of fish and we found ourselves fighting salmon both days. We pretty much spent the 2 days fishing one small stretch of river inside Vacation Trailer Park. Lots of nice holding water for the migrating fish, and not a ton of fisherman to spook them. We caught them on flies, skein spawn, spoons, and body baits. Must admit the arm jarring strike of a chinook salmon on a crank bait is something to be experienced. The fish seemed most active right at sundown. We also tried a stint out on the Frankfort pier. There were a number of boats trolling around outside the harbor, but we didnt see anyone with any fish on while we were there. We did meet a couple guys coming off the pier with 3 kings and a lake trout. Guessing the fishing was much better in the dark before we arrived.

Spent a few hours yesterday evening setting in a box blind with a good friend of mine. I asked him to come over and shoot some pictures of the deer on one of my llistings. We borrowed the owners ATV and took a ride around the 120 acre spread, knowing there were 80+ deer on this property I expected to see quite a few. Suprisingly we only seen one 6 pointer. The next 4 hours in the blind proved to be much more fruitful for deer sightings. My friend wound up taking about 200 pictures of some flat AWESOME bucks, including a couple HUGE 8 and ten pointers. Heck one of them ended up within 20 feet of our blind. Hope to have some pics posted of these big boys next week.