An Easy Start to Winter

So far this winter it has been pretty nice. After a cold snowy fall in the North we have slowly eased into winter on the Prairies. There has been very little snow here but in the North around the camps it has been pretty normal with more snowfall.

We have had -20 to -30 Celcius so far but we have also had beautiful days where it is barely below freezing. This sure helps shorten the winter if you can get into December without too many big storms. Although we need some serious moisture. After a dry year last year the farmers in the area need some snow to bring back up the water levels and the pastures.

My Brother, Dustee and I have been out on Lake Manitoba commercial fishing, and we have 2 feet of ice already. With little snow on the ice whenever it gets cold the ice goes down fast. The ice is as flat as a mirror and in the beginning you could not stand on the ice with out creepers.

Dustee had a tough time on the smooth ice too!

Fishing has been very good. For the 3rd year in a row! Usually we do not get this many years in a row of good fishing but we will take it. Walleyes are very plentiful and the price is pretty high so we are happy. It is not an easy job on your back but being out on the lake not seeing another soul except my brother and Dustee is totally worth it. We learned last year that almost all of our Walleye head to the US to Culver’s Restaurants. If you eat there, have the Walleye. It came from our lake.

The days are very short now and we get to the lake just after 8am and the sun is just getting up.

And then by 3:45 in the afternoon it is almost on the horizon. As we get older, the short days are kind of nice. At 3pm, we both get “The 3 o’clock back” that’s when you start to think about going home cause you have bent over too many times in a day.

There is many things that can go wrong out on the lake and the biggest one is the crack. A lake this size expands and contracts up to 6 or 8 feet at times. The lake finds it’s pivot points and the crack moves back and forth. Sometimes you have to travel a mile or more to find a safe place to cross. Last week it opened up, froze a bit and drifted over.

We were looking for a place to cross, couldn’t find a good spot so we kept looking for a better place to cross. My brother was checking to see how wide the crack was with the chisel. He chipped in this side of the crack and it looked fine. As he was hopping to the other side to check the thickness there, DOWN HE WENT! Right up to his chest and neck. I was about 50 yards away and was running. I saw the whole thing. Of course he did not want to drop the chisel in the lake so he held onto that. One thing about falling through the ice. You don’t stay in long. Even with a 10 pound chisel in one hand my brother got out before I could reach him. Not a big deal, we just went home, he put on some dry clothes and boots and we went back to the lake to finish the day….

Hopefully everyone had a good deer season and spent plenty of time in the bush. I hunted quite a bit and had a couple of big bucks on the go. Of course it is so hard to meet up with the big ones in the daylight. I ended up harvesting a older ugly buck to clean up the gene pool.

Our local hunting club had the Deer Head night last weekend. The bucks this year were bigger than we have had in a few years. Our deer herd which was decimated a few years ago is back and doing well. Plenty of big ones and lots of nice ones. Our youth category is thriving as well with lots of younger kids getting out there and hunting. Here are some pics of the biggest and weird deer from this season.