Outdoor Notebook: Summer time has arrived on the wings of mosquitoes
Apparently summer has arrived. How can you tell? Just stand outside and try not to move for five minutes. After that little experiment you will most likely have any exposed skin filled with mosquito bites. If you are looking for a good stock purchasing tip, maybe you should look into investing in companies that make and sell insect repellent. Based on the number of mosquitoes in our area sales should be brisk.
Oh yes, the wood ticks are also out in large numbers and are eager to catch a ride on people and on dogs. We spent last weekend along the western portion of our state. The ticks were present almost every place we stopped.
We have found that if we spray our pant legs and shoes with insect repellent the evening before we wear them we pick up fewer ticks. The best advice we can offer is to check yourself carefully after returning to the house.
Each spring, we look forward to fishing crappies a short time after the ice goes out. During the spring of 2013, with the slow melt we experienced, it seemed that the crappies ignored the shallow spawning areas.
Following the poor early spring spawning of crappies last spring we were saying just wait until the spring of 2014. We should catch good numbers of crappies on their annual spring movement. Unfortunately that movement was almost a non-event. This year, we had better walleye fishing than crappie fishing. Also we are hearing from quite a few anglers that the bass fishing has been excellent.
Although, we knew that the crappies were not moving into the shallows, our son, Craig and his two boys, Jack and Mason, came to Rhinelander for Memorial weekend. It was our intention to get some action for the boys even though it was challenging to locate decent sized crappies. For Craig, the weekend brought back a flood of memories about the many hours he fished crappies while he was growing up.
The Wisconsin Conservation Congress, at the request of the Governor’s Office, has been working to simplify the rules relating to hunting, fishing and trapping. It is the goal of the Governor’s Office to eliminate rules and regulations that make it difficult to participate in these activities.
Due to this initiative by the Governor there have been substantial number of changes made to the rules governing the deer hunt for 2014. The one big change is that there will not be any antlerless deer tags available to hunters in 19 counties across the northern third of the state. The reason for this regulation is to give the deer herd a chance to rebuild again. This is a regulation what is not popular with some deer hunters. Another group of hunters welcomes this regulation as the only way to help our deer herd rebuild.
One study that was completed recently found that approximately 40 percent of the yearling deer did not live to their first birthday. We lost substantial numbers of yearling deer during the harsh winter we just experienced.
The challenges that Wisconsin is facing are not unique to our state. Michigan and Minnesota are facing similar challenges. As one reviews the regulations regarding our deer hunting it is apparent that the challenge is not only managing deer but we are also managing people (hunters). Our sincere hope is that we experience a good fawn crop this spring.
The Natural Resources Board, at their May meeting, passed a resolution legalizing motor trolling statewide. This change will not take place until July of 2015.
Longtime Northwoods outdoors personality Roger Sabota writes a bi-monthly column for the Star Journal.
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