A time of transition ... from fishing to hunting

By Bill Bartusek, Outdoors Columnist

Another routine weekend in October, except for me.

It was time to pull the dock out of the lake and put the boat away until next spring. It's never one of my happiest times, but I was ready to get it done.

Despite the wet spring and early summer, fishing was pretty good. We also had some great weather after the first of July. We did do some fishing the last day, and some great success. We found both sunfish and crappies in about 22 feet of water. There were also some nice sized pike mixed in with them. They all seem to be in the same area. I will start to fish there this winter.

All went well and the Cabin is ready for winter. Now, like many others. I will turn my attention to some hunting. The deer hunting season with guns is just two weeks away. I won't hunt deer until the third weekend in November. I probably will do some squirrel hunting before then.

I always enjoy hunting squirrels, especially after some of the leaves fall down. I have a couple of farmer friends who like to keep the population of squirrels at a friendly number. Others are still goose and duck hunting, and they are doing OK. The warm weather has kept ducks from flying south. The ducks in Canada are still there and will fly down as things cool down.

The upcoming deer hunt should be fine. Deer numbers statewide have held their own, despite the deep snow and cold we had last winter. As always the success of the hunt depends on weather conditions.

In the meantime get your guns and equipment ready and read the laws and regulations, so you know what you're doing.