My son Chad had an awful day that started out great and a great day that didn’t start out very well.

Earlier this year Chad was in a walleye tournament out of Red Banks. First place was worth a couple thousand dollars. In the beginning few hours of that tournament they ( Chad and Ted Dorsey) got 6 big spawner (female) walleyes (they can keep only 6 for the tournament). Not a bad day eh. They were really excited as thoughts of first place danced in there heads. Chad fishes out of a smaller size bass boat with tiny livewells. That fact would turn out to be unfortunate. Most fish like these are released alive after the tournaments. On the way to the weigh- in 3 of these big fish died and in this tournament if a fish dies you may not register it. Therefore they lost all the weight of those three big walleyes and dropped down to 11th place. That was one place out of the money. They would have been over 4 pounds ahead of second place if they could have included those fish that died in that tiny livewell.  Granted catching that many big walleyes is a good, check that, a great day, but under these circumstances let’s just say it ended up less than desirable.

But there would be a better day. Early Sunday morning before the Chiefs vs Packers game Chad and I went bow hunting. It was cold and it rained all the way on the 45 minute drive to our hunting spot just north of Tigerton. We stopped the car where we usually park and both of just sat there for a few minutes. Here we were again up early, it’s cold, wet, and dark and yet we are going hunting. Once in a while you get those days where you wonder what it’s all about. Why do we do this to ourselves? Well we coaxed each other out of the warm vehicle, stood half naked in the cold, while we don our scent locking hunting garb, and ventured into the morning.  I saw a doe and a four point buck.  Chad tried the new stand we put up in August. Chad had 2 does a fork buck and  five different8 point bucks by him that morning. They were fighting, grunting, and one came running all the way across the field to challenge his grunt tube call. It was the most exciting hunt he ever witnessed. All but one of the bucks walked within 15 yards of his stand. Three bucks were mature 2 1/2 year old deer and the biggest one had his horns all busted up from previous fights. The rut was on like he had never seen before and Chad was so caught up watching that he chose to just watch rather than take a shot. Chalk that up as a good, (check that) great day.

The DNR just passed a new law so it looks like Lumber companies and any MFL land owner will have to pay the full taxes if they try and lease there land for any recreational use. (That includes hunting) Effective Jan 2008. That’s good news and should open up some more public land for us hunters.

-Randy Williams