Why write a daily outdoor blog?

The above title asks a good question, and it's been tossed my way for nearly eight years by many readers from around the world. My answer is invariably the same: why not?

Anglers and hunters can understand a column, which is nothing more than a bit of self-indulgence plus some solid fishing or hunting experience and information.

Columns are about what I think, feel, do, believe in, rant against, etc. The same thing can be said about a blog.

A blog (short for weblog) is a daily journal of sorts. It covers the wide range of my daily emotions, and how I look at things through a bleary and somewhat biased or jaundiced eye.

You may sense a touch of anger, animosity, joy, sorrow or other human emotions. My feelings on a wide variety of things is never far from the surface nor am I adversed to speaking my mind.

You'll almost always feel my love for the environment, the animals, birds and fish that we hunt or try to catch, and you'll feel my sense of betrayal and delusion when some sorry dude levels perfectly wonderful wildlife habitat and builds a shopping mall or hard-scrabble subdivision on it, adding more of what we don't need to the overall trashiness that has become something less than Paradise.

Each daily weblog is different, and they cover all types of fishing and hunting.

Readers will read my unabashed feelings on brook trout that invariably turn me on in their watery little trickles, and the litter that invariably turns me off when I must look at it. You'll note, hopefully with a righteous indignation like mine, when I bare my soul or teeth about the destruction of a never-ending amount of wild land.

Hopefully, you'll share my glee when the DNR does something really great or get ticked off when they continue to do something utterly stupid like depriving you and me of the opportunity to obtain private-land spring turkey permits in Region II while granting such permits to people in the Upper Peninsula and southern Lower Peninsula.

Zone II hunters get the shaft on that turkey ruling.

My weblog runs daily, and I've only missed a few days since November, 2003, and then only because some piece of crud hacked my website. My archives are available to one and all, and I urge readers to dust off some of them and see what you've missed.

You'll share my pain when my beloved twin brother George died on Sept. 10, 2003. You'll get as excited as I did when catching a 30-pound muskie, writing about the Christmas Tree Bomber, and other true tales.

I invite you to walk with me when we go into a bear swamp for a hunt, and what is even more fun, when we walk out in the darkness. Jump into my tree stand as we bow-hunt for whitetails, and whisper in my ear when it's time to shoot a dandy buck or tell me to draw down on him and let up, giving him a life he could have lost had I shot.

Come along as we wade belly-deep into an area steelhead stream during those cold March days, and grab the net when we slug it out with hefty chinook salmon in the fall. Let's take a walleye fishing trip on Long or Platte lakes, a bluegill outing to Arbutus Lake, and we can trudge through the January snow in search of cottontails and snowshoe hares, even though there are very few of the latter these days.

Do you feel up to laying flat on the ground in January as Canada geese hover overhead, honking loudly, as our belly muscles tighten and we lever our way to a sitting and shooting position? Is there anyone out there who doesn't thrill to the loud and clattering flush of a ruffed grouse as the October dew dries on the ready-to-fall golden leaves?

Does any upland gunner fail to rejoice to the towering flight of woodcock as they dart and twist ever upward out of the alders before quickly plummeting to earth before we can swing and shoot?

Calling predators with that high-pitched squeal of a dying rabbit is a heap of fun during the winter months as the coyote darts out of a thicket, and begins circling to a downwind location. We know a shot may be possible but it's nerve wracking to watch the animal close in on a spot straight downwind. Will we get a shot or be winded?

Fishing and hunting has been a major part of my life for 60 of my 71 years, and I eagerly await each new season and every new adventure. You ask me: why write a daily weblog.

I write because I must; to satisfy a strong need within me to do so. There is a deep driving need to write, and a need to share my love of fishing and hunting with my readers. I don't have to write for the money although I wish this blog and website paid more; instead, writing about the outdoors makes me feel good, makes me feel whole and productive while helping to smooth out all the rough spots in my life.

You and me, we can go places and do things. We can discover new places to fish or hunt, and learn more about what pulls us ever onward to another wonderful outdoor adventure.

People who stay indoors, and watch idiotic game shows on television have my sincere sympathy.

Me, I'd rather be outdoors with a bow or rod in my hand, and enjoying nature. How about you?

NOTE: Don't forget to check out my Scoop's Books and my Book Reviews. These sites can also be accessed from my Home Page.

Take care of each other, and mentor someone about fishing and hunting.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors

Surf fishing is good now

If there is anything that turns me on, it is prowling a secluded Lake Michigan beach and casting bait or lures over the edge of the first drop off. The results of that one cast can be explosive.

This is the time of year when most of the coho or Chinook salmon have moved upstream but some stragglers may be caught from shore. The occasional brown trout or steelhead is also a possibility although the steelies are about ready to move upstream to follow the spawning salmon.

Of these two species, the brown trout are most unpredictable. Brown trout numbers have dwindled in recent years, and it would be nice if the DNR planted some fish.

Fishing such spots can be a hit-or-miss fishery.

Rivermouth fishing can pay off from now through times when it is too brutally cold to fish. Many anglers can be seen fishing off a mouth as the wind gusts and drives bone-chilling cold rain or snow into your face. Sometimes the action is good enough to make fishermen fight the cold weather until they limit out on steelhead or browns.

However, most of the time, the fishing will be strictly for steelhead. A brown trout is a bonus. Anglers must learn to read a rivermouth in order to know where to fish.

Watch to see where the river current meets the lake water, and the current flow often depends to a arge degree on wind direction and wave action. Often, a sand bar can build off a river mouth, and the current will curve one way or the other around the sand bar.

I remember once when me and a dozen other fishermen found a school of fall steelhead and a few browns off the Platte river mouth pm a foggy day. The fish could be seen swimming only 10 yards away, and every fish seemed to weigh six to 10 pounds. A few of the browns were even larger.

We used spawnbags tied with orange or yellow mesh material, and we added one or two tiny Styrofoam kernels to the egg sack. This helped the bait to float up just off bottom.

Bait produces mostly steelhead while spoons work best for brown trout,

Our fishing rig was simple. We ran our 6-pound line through a 1/4-oz. egg sinker and tied the line to one end of a barrel swivel, We then tied in a four-foot length of 4-pound leader, tied on a hook, baited up, and cast into the water where the river current and lake water met.

The bait would roll along bottom, and usually it may roll only a few feet before we felt the tap-tap-tap strike as a steelhead picked up the bait. We'd give the fish a bit of slack, let the line come tight again, set the hook, and then watch the explosive jumps of an angry and wild fish.

We hooked a few brown trout that day, but most of the catch were steelhead. If a spot stopped producing, we'd move 50 to 100 yards down the shoreline as we continued to fish the river current flowing into the lake.

Often, the fish would hold on the deep-water side of a drop off. Deep is a relative thing. Where we were hooking fish that day was only five or six feet deep, but the fish were on one side of the sand bar and we were on the opposite side. They couldn't see us, and they seemed to act like an outfielder camped under a high fly ball waiting for the bait to fall down to them.

Once the bait hit the water the fish would grab the spawnbag. We didn't get a hit on every cast, but rarely did we make three casts without hooking a fish.

Try casting spoons in the same areas.

We also experimented with casting 1.4-oz. Devle Dogs or Little Cleos with a silver, silver-blue, silver-green, silver-orange or pearl-colored spoon. The lures would be cast out past the fish, allowed to sink, and retrieved just fast enough to bring out the best action. It seemed to work best on the brown trout in that school.

Timing this event is a crap-shoot. It often happens sometime after early October. Either develop a local and reliable contact in your favorite fishing area, or try it on weekends.

A river mouth can get crowded, and if your neighbor hooks a fish, it's important to get the bait or lure in fast to avoid a serious tangle. Two or three lines tangled by one fish creates a great deal of wasted time for everyone concerned.

Fishing the surf is fun. Lots of fresh air, usually a good group of guys who are willing to help each other, and if one hits the right day, it can be some of the most exciting and spectacular light-line action of the year.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors