The really big news from Canoe Country this fall was rain, rain and more rain. We basically went from drought stage to flood stage in six weeks. Funny how nature always seems to balance out the extremes. I’ve never seen so much water in the woods as this October. Paddlers can expect to find spring water levels returned to normal after the three-year drought. Of course, that means a bumper crop of bugs too. We’ve been getting by easy on the skeeters. Officially we went over 25" of rain in September/October. (Normal annual precipitation here is 30".)
For the past four Septembers, I’ve been able to live out my fantasy of guiding elk hunters in Colorado. I spend four weeks in the high country chasing these bugling bulls and go home lamenting that it will be another long eleven months before I can return. I especially love the spot/stalk/calling tactics we use to get within archery range of these majestic rutting bulls. My hunters shot three bulls: one archery, one muzzleloader and one rifle. The last hunt was particularly challenging as a 16" blizzard had us packing out with all our gear plus a big bull through waist-deep drifts. My novice horse wrangling skills were put to the test, but we all made it out safe and sound. Carrying precious memories of a true wilderness hunting experience with us.
If you’re interested in a guided elk hunt with the outfitter I hunt with, give me a call. I’m also looking for a couple more guys to join me on my own archery elk drop-camp hunt in late September 2008. If interested, call Stu at 218-365-5168 ASAP as we need to make plans in January and apply for licenses in April.
I spent the last half of October catching up on magazine work, corresponding with folks interested in my new Grand Slam Guide Service trips and bowhunting our place. I have a dozen deer stands to prep and scout for visiting hunters. Plus I like to grouse hunt with my dog Hawk. I really don’t find many more grouse than last year and only shoot a few.
When this issue went to press three of my six Quetico trips were filled up, plus the BWCAW Photography trip and the Sutton River Brook Trout trip. I still have three Quetico openings: May 12-18, Quetico lake trout only. This is the best time to catch the monster lake trout in shallow on light tackle. June 23-29 and July 4-10 are both good time slots to pursue the Canoe Country Grand Slam. If interested in any of these three openings, call me ASAP at 218-365-5168. I am so impressed with all the truly great people who responded to my Guide Service ads. A lot of really cool people, from all over the country, read and love The Boundary Waters Journal. I’m proud to be associated with all of you.
11/3 The Opener—In our family there is only one real opening day, the deer gun season. I sit with son Alec, 16, in a stand hoping he gets his first opportunity at a deer. We see two good bucks, but they present only marginal shot opportunities, too fleeting for a first timer. Alec participates in the Ely High School play every year and apparently the director is not a deer hunter. They practice/perform the whole first week of deer season. If I only had more time with Alec....
Mike Kolbeck is up from Wisconsin to sample northwoods deer hunting. Mike bowhunted elk in Colorado with me last year, a grueling winter-like adventure that revealed he is the real deal when it comes to being a hard-core hunter. Today he lets a decent 8 pointer walk by and can’t get a shot at a bigger buck before he whirls away into the spruce unscathed.
Michele, who showed us all how to shoot the big bucks here last year, sees only a couple of yearling bucks. Kind of a quiet opener for our crew.
11/4 Sunday Mike and I hike back in two miles behind the house to sit two new portable stands I had set up. I see two bucks, the second a decent 8 pointer who trails a doe within five yards of my feet and never knows I’m there.
At 4:15 in the evening Mike shoots a beautiful, heavy, very dark-horned 9 pointer with a 19" spread. We had this buck (and many others) on our trail cameras. Turns out this buck is Mike’s lifetime best, so he’s a happy hunter. Michele’s Dad offers to put his tag on this buck so Mike can hunt with me up at my Echo Trail camp.
11/5 Monday We get one and a half inches of snow overnight. I see two small bucks in the morning, then Alec and I see six does in the evening. Michele passes on a spike and a fork horn.
11/6 Tuesday Mike and I head up to my Little Indian Sioux River camp. I drop him off at a stand at daybreak and slowly still hunt my way back into the BWCAW.
At 7:15 I catch a flicker of movement, brown on the white snow background, and scope a buck entering a small opening in the jackpines. I have about two seconds to evaluate the rack, decide to shoot and then execute the tricky off hand 75-yard shot. The buck goes right down, and I’m pleased with the decision. He is a very heavy-beamed, long-tined 10 pointer; my best BWCAW buck to date. Mike and I drag him out to the truck and head all the way back into our most remote stands for the evening hunt. Mike tags this buck so we can keep party hunting together on my buck tag. It’s trophies only from here on out.
For four years running, I’ve sat this stand overlooking an awesome line of 8" aspens rubbed raw by a “mystery” buck. I shot two good 10 pointers in here last year, but the phantom rub-maker lives on. Tonight at 4:15 a very good buck slices right through the rub line. I can shoot him, but I can’t get a definitive look at his horns. I see long thick tines but I can’t tell much about his width/height or the number of points.
As we trudge along our reflector tack trail the two miles out to the truck, I can’t help wondering if my long-awaited rendezvous with the phantom rub-maker has slipped away. Such are the delights and dilemmas of trying to judge these bucks in the dense cover of the BWCAW.
11/7 Wednesday At daybreak Mike and I set the Old Town in the Little Indian Sioux River and paddle up (south) to a couple of remote BWCAW ridges. Most years these rivers freeze about when the gun season arrives. This makes a “real” BWCAW canoe-rifle deer hunt a dicey endeavor. With the mild temperatures this year we could have pulled it off.
I’ve found some awesome sheds and buck sign on many canoe trips. I know where I could hunt big bucks out there who live and die without ever seeing a human being. Some year I’m going to paddle into the BWCAW backcountry and bowhunt the last week of October. I just haven’t found a willing partner yet. Hint! Hint!
Today we see good buck/deer sign at both stops but I only get the drop on three does. Still, Mike and I enjoy one last canoeing foray for 2007.
11/8 Thursday I sit twelve long hours on the big rub line, but the phantom rub-maker never shows. Nor does any other living organism. Most hunters believe the whitetail rut reaches a single peak then drops off. I believe big-buck activity actually hits two peaks. The first ten days of November is when bucks are actively prospecting for the first estrous does. They can smell when their hormone levels are close to being in heat, and for some bucks close is close enough. This leads to the classic “chase phase” when we see does fleeing through the woods with grunting bucks on their heels. This is the Number One time to hunt.
Research shows most BWCAW does are bred November 12, 13 and 14. Once does actually come into heat the dominant bucks will pair up with them and “accompany” them for the 24 to 48 hours they are breedable. This puts the skids on the level of mature buck rambling for a week. It appears we are in this phase now as we are not seeing much deer activity.
After most of the does are bred, mature bucks will again resume trolling the woods for the last few does that are coming into heat. I’m convinced this is why we have shot most of our bucks at the beginning and end of each gun season—and fewer in mid-season.
11/9 Friday Mike and I sit a different area in the morning and draw another blank. Plenty of tracks in the fresh snow, all seemingly made at night. In the afternoon we head to town. Mike heads home, and I will watch the high school play performance tonight. Two other friends from Wisconsin, Pat and John arrive to begin a six-day hunt with us.
11/10 + 11 The bucks seem to be moving good at our place, maybe it’s just because the recent logging cuts enable us to see what deer are around. John has the hot hand, spotting eight different bucks. Three or four are decent, but he is holding out for a trophy. Pat passes on three or four bucks as well. Michele and I see only smaller bucks and does.
11/12 At midday, Pat, John and I head up to our Echo Trail Camp again. We sit my best three stands for the evening and see absolutely zero. That’s three straight days without even seeing a deer up here, and the deer sign is better than ever. Go figure?
11/13 Tuesday The day breaks with the wind really rocking the tent, gusts of 40 mph plus. It’s the kind of day deer are reluctant to move, but we tell ourselves it’s the rut—anything can happen out there.
I’m on my feet from 6:30 to sundown pushing farther back into the bush than ever. I see encouraging deer sign all day but no deer. Finally at 4:15 I jump a couple of flags, and they blow me off as they bound away. “At least I finally saw a deer in here.” I creep forward another 100 yards, and to my surprise a doe runs across 50 yards ahead. I already know a second deer is with her, so I lock onto where she came from and see a good buck right on her trail. Just like a week ago, I have only a few seconds to decide if he is big enough and make the shot.
I’m not disappointed. He is in my all-time top five for sure and my best BWCAW buck. He doesn’t have the typical heavy mass of older Ely deer, but his G 2s, 3s and 4s all go over 8-9 inches. A true Superior trophy—destined for my “wildlife art wall.”
Fortunately, Mike had given me a GPS, and a lesson in using it, just four days earlier. I’m a good two miles from the Echo Trail with no definitive landmarks and darkness approaching. I mark the way point, field dress the buck and tie his horns to a tree so the wolves don’t make off with him overnight. Then I punch in GO TO my closest stand where I can pick up the reflector tack trail for the last mile and a half to the truck.
John and Pat hear me shoot and know I’ll be a bit late getting out. We celebrate the taking of another northwoods trophy with a hot meal around the cozy wood stove in the wall tent.
At first light Pat and I drop John off at a stand to hunt, and we continue on to retrieve the buck. I’m as anti-technology as a guy can be, but I have to admit it was pretty slick to go right to him without any worries. Only a pine marten was hanging around.
After taking some photos, I halve the buck and lash the head, shoulders and rib cage to a pack frame. Pat rigs up the hindquarters so he can drag them along behind me.
So off I go with my 100 lb load and Pat’s rifle; only to hike hard for half an hour and end up right back where I started. Ugh! Like I need extra exercise today! The sun pops out, I get my bearings and soon catch up to Pat. We joke abut how one session with a GPS has ruined all my woodsmanship skills. The upside of my little detour is I find a new honey hole of big buck sign that leaves me drooling. Getting to know this neck of the woods by next season is a must.
For anything over a mile, especially on dirt, two backpack trips is faster and easier than dragging a big buck. Next year I’ll be keeping two pack frames on hand.
It was a great thrill to take my two best BWCAW bucks, especially still-hunting new ground. There are areas with more deer and areas with more top-end deer, but I contend the BWCAW is the highest-quality public land wilderness whitetail hunting in America. For those interested in the ultimate whitetail challenge, see my article in the Fall 2007 BWJ, “Real Hunting For Superior Bucks.”
I really enjoyed sharing my hunting grounds and camp with Mike, Pat and John. They understand this is tough hunting, but they also realize you’re just a heartbeat away from an indelible encounter with the buck of a lifetime. We all plan to get together in April to shed hunt and scout out new territory for next year.
On Monday Michele shot a wide/heavy 9 pointer at our place, and our party shot two more good 8 pointers on the final day of the season. So we finish with six nice bucks. I hunted 12 of the 15 days and saw 47 deer, 17 of them antlered bucks. Hunters from agricultural areas scoff when I tell them we have a 3:1 doe/buck ratio. But this season confirms it once again.
I know we left some good bucks (and many young ones) at both our place and our Echo Trail territory. Hopefully, we’ll have another mild to normal winter and next season should be another good one.
I’m hoping to do a couple of my own “pull my own sled” winter camping and lake trout fishing trips in late January or February. Michele won’t let me go out alone in the winter so I’m putting out the invitation to anyone who wants to join me. These are not guiding-for-pay trips, just winter adventures for the fun of it that I can share with Boundary Water Journal readers. I like to go with a heated wall tent and enjoy the experience without suffering too much. If interested give me a call at 218-365-5168.