FISHING AND HUNTING

For the past six years a group of us have made an annual fishing trip. The first two years we traveled to the Gunflint Trail on the Minnesota/Canadian border about 55 miles west of Lake Superior and Grand Marais, Minnesota. We stayed at the Gunflint Lodge, a first class resort located on Gunflint Lake. We booked Grand Slam Fishing deal which included a cabin large enough for the six of us, all meals (breakfast and dinner were gouirmet), fishing guides, boats, tackle, bait and fish preparation. We caught a lot of fish; walleyes, northern pike, smallmouth bass, whitefish and lake trout. We hauled two coolers filled with fish filets home with us. Fishing these two years were myself, my oldest son, Kurt, David Brinkerhoff, his son, Craig, Ed Park and Jerry Brown.

Getting to the Gunflint was a major undertaking. We flew into Minneapolis, rented cars and drove the next 300 miles. It was interstate to Duluth but from Duluth to the Gunflint was a two lane road clogged with motorcycles, motor homes and tourists. Since time was not important on the way up the traffic was no probllem. However, the return trip was very stressful as it was a seven hour drive to Minneapolis and we had to turn in the cars and check in for our flight home, which left at about 5 pm. We had fished all of the lakes in the area twice, caught all the different species of fish available and the lodge was raising its prices every year so we decided to go somewhere else the third year.

2003, 2004 and 2005 found us at the Wekusko Falls Lodge located about 10 miles from Snow Lake, Manitoba, about 500 miles north of Winnipeg. This is a very remote area. In three years we made it to Snow Lake once and then just to drive through to the seaplane dock. The airport is located in the middle of nowhere on the only ground they could find that was flat enough for a runway. We flew into Winnipeg after changing planes in either Denver or Minneapolis and chartered an eight passenger Piper Navaho to take us the last leg from Winnepeg to Snow Lake. The first year the charter flights were smooth, the second year the outbound flight was very rough and one of the guys lost his cookies in the only container on board - a box that contained granola bars. Fortunatley, it was big enough to hold it all. The third year we again had a smooth flight.

With the long days we were able to fish from morning until late at night. We caught a lot of fish and brought back our limits every year. Most days we cooked our morning catch on the lake shore for lunch.

I have been hunting in Hardeman County for many years. For about 20 years I have been hunting regularly with my good friend, David. We (mostly David cause he lives there) have maintained bird and deer feeders on his farm, attempted to control bird predators and planted wild game feed plots. In recent years we have been pretty successful in maintaining a healthy quail population. I like to hunt with David and my two sons because that usually means we won't get skunked. We have had some great dogs. For many years David and i were partial to Brittanys. In 2004 David had a great Brittany, Rusty, who was killed when attacked by stray dogs while David and he were hunting. In desperation we began looking for another young dog but not a puppy. We found Dixie at the Denton German Shorthair Pointer Rescue Center. A week later we picked up Duffy at the Center. We were really lucky. Both dogs were/is outstanding hunters. We now have a third German Shorthair, Lexi, who is an outstanding hunter. I think we enjoy watching the dogs work the fields more than anything else. They love to hunt and will keep it up as long as we let them. I retired Punkin when she turned 12 1/2 because I was afraid she would literally hunt until she died.

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