May 11  MN Fishing Opener 2017

May 13-15 2017

Congrats!  We have made it to everyone’s favorite time of year, Soft water season!!!  Corn Belt Outdoors will be out opening weekend in search for the elusive trophy walleye.

We will have one pair of fishermen in the Longville lakes area (fishing multiple lakes) focusing on mainly the elusive walleye.  We will update you afterward for the presentations that worked well and the ones that made us shake our heads in frustration.

We will also have another group on a Emily local lake hoping to find success on large, early season walleye or pike.  This group will also be hitting the crappie spawn about perfectly so some good fishing will almost certainly be happening. 

In Emily, we are going to be trying our hands at many different presentations.  The weather outlook is calling for sunny, clear skies and 70 degrees.  This might make it a struggle on some of the clearest lakes in the region.  We will also have our fishing kayaks ready to go into the shallows to find the crappie spawn.  This year we will be trying our luck with Gulp Crappie Nibbles and BerkleyRipple Shads in multiple colors as well as the tried and true live crappie minnows.

Hope you all have a great opener!  Be safe and patient as opening weekend brings a lot of traffic (many who have not been out in the boats yet this year).  Remember that sometimes the memories of having a good time with friends are more important than the number of fish we can boat. 

Thank you for reading and GOOD LUCK!!

CDN

May 4 Minnesota Turkey Season 4 

South Central Minnesota

Many would describe my spring turkey hunt as frustrating, and yes, there were moments.  The season provided a stretch of beautiful weather and some magnificent sights and sounds.

 Day 1. Before sunrise a huge raccoon froze in his tracks to the sound of my hen yelps.  Four wood ducks were buzzing my blind when one landed on the roof and another attempted to come through the shooting hole.  A jake then appeared out of nowhere without warning.  He made a circle around my blind then disappeared.  He gave me a good shot but I decided not to end my season within the first two hours.  Later morning in a beautiful river bottom I had a couple toms talk back to me, but they couldn’t be coaxed across the river.  

Day 3. I arrived in a new spot at about 5:15 AM where a friend had bagged a jake two days before.  He told me exactly where to set-up.  Upon closing the zipper of my blind, at least two toms gobbled from the trees just 40 yards away.  I was psyched!  However, as they pitched down from the trees, the hens lured the toms into the river bottom below my blind instead of along the ridge in front of my blind. 

Day 5. I returned to this same area and sat motionless in a gillie suit for over two hours before sunset confident those same toms would return to their roosting area.  Not a cluck, gobble or sighting.  I saw one squirrel! 

 
Day 6. Mid-morning while driving from one area to another I spotted one tom in a freshly planted field, heading into a 20 mph wind away from the woods.  I drove back to the ravine below the field and failed at my attempt to call the tom back into the woods.  However, I was entertained by eagles soaring above and around their nest in a huge cottonwood tree. 

Sometimes the delight of the hunt comes through even smaller wonders such as this beautiful snail that I spotted on the ground next to me.  So ended my hunt until later this month during the open season.

-JMK

April 13 Minnesota Turkey Hunting

Day 1 April 12


Opening morning.  I set up in an overgrown pasture near the roosting area on the oak ridge which I described in the previous blog entry.  10 pm the night before, I set up my Double Bull blind in the dark.  It was overcast with a steady breeze so I was confident that I wouldn't spook any of the birds that could have been roosted close bye.

I was in the blind 30 minutes before first light with my 2 hen and strutter Avian-X decoys set up half-way between the blind and the edge of the woods.  It is very peaceful just before day break, waiting for the woods to awaken.  As the sun first started to appear from the east, the quiet morning turned into thunderous gobbling 75 yards to my left.  I could hear and see 2 toms roosted just on the edge of the woods.  Every 5 minutes a chorus of gobbling would sound off. I counted 4 toms close by with another 2 or 3 deeper in the timber to the east.  I figured that my hunt could be over in 5 minutes.  As the day was quickly gaining more light I could see more and more turkeys (a half-dozen hens) roosted in the nearby trees.  I resisted the urge to call to the gobbling toms except for a few light tree yelps with my Lynch's box call just to give the illusion of hens in my set-up area.   

The toms continued to gobble and stayed on the limb almost until sunrise, 20 minutes past legal shooting time.  When they finally pitched down, they flew straight down and went to the bottom of the ravine.  Then hens followed approximately 15 minutes later.  I thought the hunt was over before it even started.  Historically the turkeys would go down in that ravine and follow the creek bottom away from the property that I had permission to hunt.  This time was different.  I could still hear some sporadic gobbling, so I knew the birds were still close.  The hens eventually emerged out of the ravine and were now on the edge of the woods in the pasture where I was set up.  Three strutting toms were not far behind.  The hens and toms paid no attention to my decoys and pecked away in the pasture about 40 yards away.  The toms were in range, but were so close to each other and the hens that I didn't have a clear shot.  The flock of birds started slowly working away from me and I was beginning to think that I wasn't going to get an opportunity.  

23lbs 10.5" beard 1" spurs

I caught some movement out of the corner of my eye from the woods.  I could see the dark tips of a turkey fan working its way up the ravine towards my directions.  As the tom got closer to the edge of the timber I could see his bright blue head. I knew that when he stepped out of the woods he would likely be joining the rest of the flock so I my chance for an opportunity would come quickly.  He stepped out of the woods at 45 yards and my shot was true.  

The keys to the success of this hunt were:

• Historical knowledge of the farm.  Ideally I would have had more time to scout, but my prior knowledge of this farm paid off as I knew where the birds liked to roost early in the season when they were still flocked up.  This allowed me to set up close to the roosting sites.
•  Light calling.  The birds were moving very naturally and aggressive calling could have driven the hens away from my location taking the toms with them.
• Confidence in my gear.  A few years ago I tried the newest and best turkey load on the market which shot very poorly out of my gun.  Switching back to a tried and proven load combination gave me the confidence I needed to take the 45 yard shot when I had my opportunity.

KK    

April 6 Turkey Hunting Outlook

April 12th brings the opening day of the Minnesota Turkey season.  I was fortunate to draw a 1^st season tag for both Minnesota and Iowa (opening April 17)  so this will be the start of my season also.  My plan to start the season is to hunt an oak ridge where the turkeys historically roost early in the season.  This is a big horseshoe-shaped oak lined ravine with a creek running through the bottom.  A classic turkey roosting area.  My success in this area has been mixed in the past.  I have harvested several birds here, but when hunting so close to the roost, action typically comes early or not at all. A big thank you to again JFN Farms for allowing me to enjoy the outdoors on your beautiful farm. Thank you!

Turkey flock in March on the oak ridge

My plan for Iowa will be similar.  With the birds still grouped together in larger flocks, I plan to hunt close to the roosting sites in order to catch the toms before they join up with the hens.  I will be hunting a mix of public and private land in a couple of different areas.  Having multiple options and a large area to hunt can definitely increase the odds of success.  Good luck to all those hunting turkeys this spring! --KK

March 30 

Trout fishing preview

Spring Caddis Hatch SE Minnesota

by Joyce Kolbet, SSND

News was out! There were daily insect hatches on one of our favorite trout streams in the Driftless Area of SE Minnesota. I called my nephew, Kyle, who lives and works in Rochester to see if he had time to head down to the stream with me. “Sure! Meet me at my house and we’ll drive down together.”

It was about 11 AM when Kyle and I arrived at our spot. A couple other vehicles came at about the same time. In the pool nearest the road we noticed the trout already setting up or “staging” for their feeding lanes in the stream, i.e. larger trout chasing away the smaller ones so they would be in the best positions to feed.

Hurriedly Kyle and I assembled our fly rods, put on our chest waders, boots and fly vests in order to claim our favorite spot on the stream. More anglers were arriving now, also vying for their casting positions on the stream. Guess you could say we were “staging” too! The annual caddis fly hatch was about to begin.

Off we walked to a favorite pool about ½ mile upstream where we knew there were lots of large brown trout. We were the first ones to arrive, so we set ourselves up at the foot of the pool so no one else could infringe on our spot.

As always, the challenge of trout fishing is to match the hatch, i.e. find the appropriate fly that will match what is hatching on the water, which, on this particular day was a size 18 gray caddis.

Gradually as the insects starting rising to the surface, so did the trout, and the hatch was on! Kyle and I stood in water up to our waist, casting to unsuspecting fish that were so focused on these caddis flies they barely noticed our presence in their pool.

One cast after another yielded a catch of brown trout…anywhere from 9-16 inches…trout after trout. Kyle caught the first fish and started counting. He proudly caught the second one too. Then it was my turn. After that, we alternated for the most part, catching and carefully releasing each fish, thanking each of these beautiful creatures for giving us such joy.

About an hour and a half later there was a second hatch – this time of blue-winged olive mayflies, also size 18. So, we changed flies and once again were into the trout.  

As the insects emerge from the water, they immediately look for a place to land. At one point Kyle looked at me and exclaimed, “Joyce, you’re covered with bugs!” And I was, but so was he! They were on our clothes, crawling across our polarized sunglasses and clinging to the grass and rocks along the riverbank. It was a sight to behold!

After about 70 trout, we stopped counting and just enjoyed catching and releasing fish. From every direction, upstream or downstream, heads of trout were breaking the surface to capture these minuscule insects. It was truly an amazing sight!

 

Kyle and I cast and caught fish until our arms ached. It was a day like no other I had ever experienced on the water. Some anglers say you’re lucky to get one day like that in a lifetime!

We were among the last to leave the stream that day. As we walked back to the car and packed up to leave, I recalled a scene from the movie, A River Runs Through It. The father (who was a minister) and his two sons are displaying all their trout on the grass. With pride, the father says, “God was very good to us today.” Then he took the biggest catch of the day from his creel and added, “And God was particularly good to me!!”