The Back 40

   That’s the one thing about being a woodsman; you spend a lot of time in the woods. You observe plants, animals, clouds, and experience odors, usually coming from you, But there is also crisp air mixed with the scent of pine or sweet fern. All these observations and experiences are what form your educated opinion.

   For instance, I’ve surely learned big bucks are one of the cleverest forest creatures, and sadly, man is one of the dumbest (see empty ...

   “They’ say love makes the world go around. I don’t agree, not if ‘they’ are a sportsman like me. It’s irony. That’s right irony makes the world go around.

   Here’s a perfect example if ‘they’ are both fishermen and hunters. Who isn’t? It goes like this; June is all but over which means in this neck of the woods there are only 3 ½ or 4 months of open water fishing left until freeze up. The t...

    It happened a long time ago, right after we got married and moved to La Crosse, Wisconsin. That would be about 33 years ago, give or take. I was already an avid trout fisherman. The La Crosse area has many beautiful trout streams crisscrossing what they call the Coulee Region and most with public access.

   I was going to a stream I had discovered the week before in a place called Timber Coulee. It is know for the clear water, high banks, and big fish. My wife L...

   For a hunter or fisherman rain should mean, “get out there!” It doesn’t matter if you’re a deer hunter sitting in a cold November downpour or a bass fisherman casting to spawn beds through a misty June shower. Rain signals movement to game. ‘Up and at ‘em.’

   Rain signals movement to sportsmen too. Unfortunately, it is movement in the wrong direction. They always head indoors. It c...

I know a man, a neighbor, and friend who once caught a hellacious large mouth bass on our little wilderness lake. It measured at least 26 or 27 inches long in laymen’s terms. And if that wasn’t exciting enough, he caught it on the surface, over a weed bed. 

His was the only boat on the backwoods lake at the time he made the long arcing cast and began a slow retrieve. The swimming bait, a black Jitter Bug, cut a perfect V in the fla...

  Years ago while our girls were growing up my wife and I enrolled them into a Karate self defense class. We figured just a little info would teach them the basics of self-defense and give them a little confidence. Wow! It worked. I’d strongly suggest everyone do this for any child. These shy, bashful girls ended up getting brown belts. I asked one of them what she learned and how she would take out an attacker? When I reached to put my hands around her neck she move...

   Of all the great Wisconsin campfire tales one of the best is about the young woman wearing red nail polish who dangled her toes in the water at the end of the dock. Of course, the story goes, the red polish attracted a fish. A big fish. It was a musky with long, sharp teeth and a bad attitude about the color red. Sort of like a bull. I myself have caught many a northern pike, large and toothy. I have never caught a musky. And such was the case of a guy I know in a...

  With the dusk came a silence that covered the deep forest like a blanket. Not a warm comfortable cover but one that brought dark shadows and cold. By this time of day the hunter was chilled to the bone and he squirmed in his place. Oh how he was cold. Just ten more minutes of shooting light left, or less if he left now. No! A buck hunter never leaves the stand early no matter how cold he is. Ten minutes. He could do it, though his fingers ached and his toes were numb. Hi...