Fan Outdoors: Jeff Anderson, Andy Tri, Tackle Terry

The Captain is back with Bob St Pierre and they’re joined by Jeff Anderson, Andy Tri, and Tackle Terry!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
From the fish filled Midwest lakes to the deep woods
of the North Upland prairies filled with pheasants, to the

(00:22):
whistling wings of duck ponds. This is Saturday Morning Fan Outdoors,
your show for hunting and fishing tips, topics and conversations.
You can also send us a question or opinion by
emailing us booth at kfean dot com. Here's your host,
the Fans, Captain Billy Hildebrand.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Good morning, Fan Outdoors, faithful, Good morning to you. Welcome
to another weekend, second weekend of dear season. And guess what.
Guess what? Oh, I've got wonderful news for you. And
here it comes. Guess who's in the studio with me,

(01:11):
the one and the only, mister Bob Saint Pierre.

Speaker 3 (01:19):
Wow, that's quite an introduction.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Oh, it's like eighteen years have been waiting for that.
Don't come out happen and again I'm just telling you,
welcome back, thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:36):
It has been a while since we've been back together.
And Brett, good morning, Brett.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
I love it. I love seeing everybody here.

Speaker 3 (01:43):
I think it's been we've been together at least one
time since the Stay Fair, right, I don't know, I
think there was.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
A long time ago. It'll be here before you know it.
Brett right around the corner the way. I'm pretty good,
pretty good. I spent a busy fall, although I found

(02:11):
day before yesterday, I haven't walked much for a couple
of weeks. I lost at whatever conditioning I had. My legs,
Oh my goodness, gracious, my legs just ached. I stopped
on the way back and let Breeze run for a
little bit. She's driving me nuts. And so we were
out in his wildlife hairy area, out of sock and

(02:34):
it gets pounded really hard. I didn't I didn't have
a gun, so it didn't make any difference. But yeah,
I got back in there about five ten minutes. I
had to get out. God, they just burned. My legs did.
But Chad is Chad's heading off president with a couple
of buddies, with Colton and Carlos today. He's got big plans.

(02:58):
He's got all kinds of place as he wants to
go to. And Eric is up on their least property
and shot A said, I sent you the picture of
one yesterday. Giant. Yeah he was.

Speaker 3 (03:12):
I didn't count the point like it's at a point
point eight, but I mean it's their body is Yeah.
Well it was a very nice spread.

Speaker 2 (03:21):
Yeah, it was really a nice deer. And it's a
good thing I've owned these slug guns because I haven't
used I've got two of them, Remington automatics, and they
got scopes on them and they're Sabbage slugs, so it's
a rifle barrel and I haven't I haven't hunted with
them for about ten maybe seven eight years, but the

(03:43):
boys do, so that's good. And they just keep shooting
deer with them.

Speaker 3 (03:48):
So that deer is hanging up, it's up there, it's
up there right now, on its way to you to
be cleaned.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
When does that happen? That will happen tomorrow sometimes, and
I have left. I've got a small electric winch because
I'm done Armstrong, and those buggers up in the rafters
and the permanently hanging there now. So we need to
make a sign for you. Billy's butcher shot. That's not

(04:17):
just me. Eric is Eric basically skins it and he's
just like gutting a deer. I mean, he get that
bugger skin, stay out of my way, hold the leg
the way we go. That's the same thing he tells say,
out of my way, hold the leg and when he's
gotten him out, But he's done so many of them,

(04:38):
not skin any, but so many of them. With work.
And he worked last weekend CWD Andy. There was somebody
that couldn't come and staff a station, so he took
that over and he was there all weekend. But they
had a lot of deer come in, So you're skipping
deer season this scene. I think I'm gonna hunt muzzle order. Okay, okay,

(05:00):
the cabin is all closed up. Your hire's up day
before yesterday. Unfortunately, I shed a big tear when I
drove away, did you Yeah? It bothered me, it did.
I'm standing in the yard and it's so beautiful and
I'm standing in the front yard and then came out
and yelled at me. He says, what are you doing?

(05:21):
I said, I'm standing here looking at the lake, missing
this place.

Speaker 3 (05:26):
So what's it to ya? So when it hit seventy
degrees here yesterday? Did you think about running back up
and opening it? A?

Speaker 2 (05:34):
Chad said yesterday when he dropped the dogs off for
the night, he says, you know, I might just go
up to the lake and stay up there for a
day or so, he says. You got to bring your
own water. Everything shut up. I can do that, he says,
And yeah, it beautiful. So with the cabin shut now,
you're not done pheasant hunting. No, no, no. Will you

(05:56):
head south to.

Speaker 3 (06:00):
Like Wanton One and some of a place as Chad
has lived in the past and he's got some relationship.

Speaker 2 (06:06):
I've been down there and I know where a few
of the places are big spots. But I might go
up north too, because all the for any well for
everybody listening the hunts pheasants, all the corn has gone,
everything's out. I saw one corn field from here to
Sock Center, which is one hundred miles on ninety four,
and it was a small one that was still standing. Otherwise,

(06:29):
I've been here in the cities for a week and
there was a lot of corns standing then. So if
you're going to get after him, this is probably the time.
And there there's a lot of grass out there. But
I'm guessing if the weather guys are accurate, they're going
to be in cattails soon. I haven't looked at what's

(06:52):
the extended forecast. It's going to get cold were the
shock of spring is past five degrees on the way
down here. Sixty one It is very nice. Sixty one
when I went to bed, and fifty five now and
I think it's going to be down. Well, what's the
high today? Yeah, I think it's into the forties.

Speaker 3 (07:13):
Yeah, rested the day, right that we already experienced a
high of today?

Speaker 2 (07:18):
Yeah, yeah, it's yeah, the northwest wind is going to
blow a gale two.

Speaker 3 (07:25):
And then tomorrow is similarly similar, similar temperature, but sunny,
and I think the winds calm it.

Speaker 2 (07:33):
Calms down a bit, I believe, and I'm not sure. Yeah,
I'm kind of beginning to subscribe to the theory that
I'll look outside and I believe what the weather is
when I get there.

Speaker 3 (07:45):
Because, yeah, that the snowstorm last weekend across southern Minnesota
and Iowa. I mean that was a surprise to a lot, Yeah, meteorologist, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:57):
Yeah, I think it did too, because, yeah, the thing
is that the ground is pretty warm yet, so it's
not gonna last a long time, especially when it's seventy
degrees out. That'll melt it. Now the lake is down,
nobody's fishing. I noticed that ducks are gone. But Eric
said out in western Minnesota where their property is, or
at least land is. There were he saw ducks when

(08:20):
he was gutting the deer and moving it and working corn,
feeding in corn, so they were going to hunt ducks today.

Speaker 3 (08:27):
There was actually quite a bit of fishing boat activity
on bolt Eel yesterday. I suppose yeah, man again, it
was seventy degrees and if you didn't have your boat
winter as it was a good day to play hooky.

Speaker 2 (08:41):
I talked to Eric right after he had shot the
deer yesterday morning, and he has a tendency to get
way up in some little skinny tree and put some
portable stand up there were we hunted out about.

Speaker 3 (08:53):
He did that one time to me, put you up
way high in the tree. Didn't go there, but I walked.

Speaker 2 (08:59):
I heard shooting over the other side of the farm,
and you could shoot five deer a piece, and we
had all kinds of ant on his permits. And so
I said to Chad who was up on the hill
and he had shot one already. Scared the heck out
of me when the gun went off, because I was
real close swing below a hill, and I said, well,
I'm going to go over and see what Eric has got.

(09:19):
I walked over and I saw a deer laying out
in the field, and on might walk over, I heard
a shot, and I walked up and I looked up
in this tree and there's this guy in the stand.
I don't know how high it was forty feet, but
it was way up in the air, and he had

(09:41):
portable steps screwed into the tree, but they were about
four feet apart. So I walked up and I says, hey,
you got one. Huh, good job, buddy, good job. He
looked at he says, yeah, I got one, and I
got four more laying right back there, and here laid
on a roll. He had four more deer gut it

(10:02):
out and lined up, and I said, we are done.
Billy's butcher shop is closed for business. You get that right,
Because he was going to college then, so what we do?
We go home, hang the deer in the garage and
he says, I'll see you later, dad. I went back
to school, So he goes. So I spent the week

(10:24):
cleaning deer. Did you have to buy an extra chest freezer?
For all that I had? I had my taxi ermy freezer,
and then, according to my spouse, no food could go
in that well it went in there.

Speaker 3 (10:38):
And do you still do you have animals in your
taxidermy freezer?

Speaker 2 (10:42):
Right now? I have one pheasant from a year ago?
Oh really? Yeah? What was it? What's the story behind that? Back?
There's no story. I wanted to use it to trade
the dogs, okay, and it's a rooster too, but hopefully
it's a rooster. It wouldn't be good if you had.
I've gone to a game farm and shot a hand

(11:04):
and put it in the freezer for dogs. And I
got a couple of chuckers from Tom Dokan and one
of those are still in there because they use them
for the dogs, take the bills off them and the
feet so for a puppy to grab. But no, I'm
not illegal. I'm very careful about that. But what I

(11:28):
had a federal federal taxidermy licensed for a number of
years and it was one of those things I started
as a way to prolong hunting season, and my neighbor
taught me how to do it, and he was very
good at it. The only time I got stuck, I'd
call him and he got me going. Well, all of
a sudden, somebody said will you do Somebody else said,

(11:49):
well you do. And it turns out I was working
seven nights a week this on taxi stuffed birds and
deer and not fish. Fish stunk the house up too bad, huh,
And I thought, this is this is a job I
don't want to do. It was no fun anymore. Was
this after you were retired or during during school? Yeah?

(12:10):
Actually before I was fishing very hard. But anyway, well,
this morning, not this evening. This morning, we're going to
take you up before we get too Farral, We're going
to take you all the way up to Lake Oh
the woods in Buddette, Minnesota. Is that froze yet? We'll
find out. I will ask him. Jeff Anderson is going

(12:35):
to join us right after this, and then we're going
to talk bears with the bear specialists for the Minnesota
Department of Natural Resources. And a friend, mister Andy try
And he was working CWD last weekend, he told me,
and work in a station up in Grand Rapids. But

(12:55):
talk to Andy about some things. I got a notification
last week from the an email from the DNR, and
there's some things that they are looking for as far
as help goes from hunters, and you can assist in
some research that Andy is part of and we'll tell
you about that when he joins us.

Speaker 3 (13:16):
Well, we'll have to find out if seventy degrees means
that bears came out of hibernation or if they are
still sleeping.

Speaker 2 (13:25):
It means that Bob Saint Pierre is going to be
stuck on a bear day.

Speaker 3 (13:29):
Well, that might come up too. That was the focal
point of the last conversation. Would would Billy go into
a bear day?

Speaker 2 (13:36):
I will? I decided I will. Anyway, we're going to
take a pause and we'll be back with mister Jeff
Jiggy Anderson right after this. We're back eighteen minutes after

(14:01):
the hour of six a m. On a fan outdoor
Saturday morning, Bob Saint Pierre in studio with your true
ears truly, and I am Billy Hildebrand. Brett Blake Moore
is the man in charge of the button and running
the whole show, and he is doing a fantastic job.
We always appreciate him. Our next guest is here, I believe,

(14:25):
and he is coming to us from way up north
and I don't know. We'll ask Jeff Anderson if the
snow is on the ground yet, or have you experience
are you experiencing spring as we are.

Speaker 4 (14:40):
Hey, good morning guys. We you know, we have experienced
I think all types of weather. We had, you know,
nineteen degrees I think one morning, and then you know,
yesterday it was fifty five degrees, and I think tomorrow
it's going to be a high of thirty five. So
I think I think it's going to be here to stay.

(15:01):
But yeah, we've made some ice though, actually, so we're
not far off.

Speaker 2 (15:07):
Well yeah, I suppose do your guides and all the
the mechanical people do they get pretty twitchy now this
time of year getting everything ready or is everything ready?

Speaker 4 (15:20):
Well, you know, we go through a transition here. It's
everybody says, well, your your down season is coming, and
for us, it might be down season for customers, but
we have you know, thirty thirty sportcraft boats to put
away that have diesel engines and and everything else, and
we have you know, over one hundred and fifty fish

(15:42):
houses to pull out and make sure the heaters work
and all the things. So there's not much rest for
the weary. I guess that is what they'd say. But
we're we're we're ready to go in. We're ready for
We're ready for the ice to come. We're we're obviously
along is out from that, but we get the right night,

(16:02):
a few right nights for its flat comb and cold
will be uh, we'll be gaining headway.

Speaker 5 (16:08):
Well, have the fish move shallow yet, Jeff, they have
You know, our fishing was it was just absolutely and
I know everybody hears this, but this year was was
just an exceptional year of really really.

Speaker 4 (16:23):
Good fishing all the way from fishing opener all the
way through fall. And we had a we had a
push a fish, uh, push a fish shallow. It took
a while for the shiners to to find their way
into the river. But you know, the fishing and the
conditions were were so good. The water was low, the
current was low, the water clarity was high, and which

(16:45):
just made for a good recipe of of great river fishing.
So anytime we have that, you know, it usually sets
up for a good early early ice by you know,
pinning a big giant wind that would stir everything up
and and you know, muddy the water up. Uh, We're

(17:05):
we're going to catch them good this or this early
early ice.

Speaker 2 (17:09):
Well, I I spent you spent a lot of years
since I've been up but we I remember one of
the guys that we talked with saying that they trapped shiners,
the emerald shiners off the docks. One of the guides
then off the docks and then froze them up for

(17:29):
the winter season. They still do it. People still doing that.
Are you to rely on somebody else to do it?

Speaker 4 (17:37):
No, we we still do it. A lot of resorts
do it, a lot of the bay chops do it.
And yeah, it's it's it's quite the quite the experience.
I'm not the expert middle trapper. There's some there's there's
quite the nuance to it, just like anything right the outdoors,
but there's it's quite the experience to see, you know,

(17:58):
thousands and thousands of shiners that that are on the surface.
And yeah, they're a special little mintal They they bring
a lot of a lot of forge to our predator
fish and we appreciate that they're in the system.

Speaker 2 (18:14):
Well, what about yourself the muskie fishing, the muskie bite.
Did you get into that this fall?

Speaker 4 (18:24):
Well, yeah, my son and I did that. The Max
Foundation tournament. Uh, we had it's it's a it's a
Walleye Musky combo tournament that you take your largest muskie
each day and your largest walleye and combine it and
there's points system, and oh, we just had a blast.
It's one of my favorite times with with some really

(18:45):
special people at the Northwest Angle. It's a great community
that really comes together the rally around the you know,
the Marvin family, Izzie and Cally and and uh Lisa,
Lisa Marvin who's fishing guide up there, just put their
heart and soul into it. And you know, just like
the year before, Gavin and I we were in the

(19:07):
We were in the first place after day one. We
won it the first year and then last year. This
is a real conundrum, so I would love to hear
all the all the listeners would handle this whe or
I'd even love to hear how you guys would handle this.
So we were in the lead by day day one.
We had a forty eight my son got a forty
eight inch musky, and we got a twenty seven and

(19:29):
a half inch walleye. Really good day for the tournament.
And second day it starts literally I don't know five casting,
we catch a we catch a forty I think a
forty three incher or forty two inch musky and I

(19:50):
look at Gavin, and of course our musky spots are
thirty five miles. Yeah, you can catch walleyees up there,
but you got to drive a long way to really
fine the upper twenties right there, or even a thirty
inches for the most part, consistently in a tournament. So
I look at Gavin and I said, well, do we
upgrade our muskie or do we go upgrade our walleye

(20:14):
because we were head by I think five ish flourish
inches and we said, well, we could spend all day
upgrading into a forty eight inches, but that's only going
to get us, you know, five inches. What if we
go catch a thirty inch walleye. Well, we we drove
to our walleye spot. We had a walley spot in
Canada and a walleye spot.

Speaker 2 (20:36):
In the Big Water, and.

Speaker 4 (20:39):
Our first drop we catch a I think we got
a twenty five inch walleye. So we said, well, boy,
now we're sitting with a forty two inch or or
forty three inch or and a twenty five incher. Do
we drive way out to the Big Water to try
to catch a walleye or do we try to catch
a muskye in some waters? That I don't fish a lot. Well,

(21:02):
we sat there and we talked about it and it
was such a fun sun dad dad son moment. But
we looked and we're like, we're sitting pretty good. You know,
in a tournament scenario, it's tough to do that. It's
tough to catch a musky in a while, a decent
musky and a decent walley and in the tournament, we're sitting.

Speaker 2 (21:19):
Looking at each other.

Speaker 4 (21:20):
We're we're like, well, somebody's gonna have to have a
really good day to beat us. Well, we went back.
Gavin wanted to go back to muskie fishing, so we did.
He ended up catching another forty one incher and I
had a really nice one, like just know that my
top water baiting, and that would ended up being the
game winner. But we ended up not taking first place

(21:42):
by an inch or two. And we still had a
blast and it was a it was a fun tournament.
And yeah, second place again in the in the tournament.
So yep, that was our That was my big hurra
offer for for you know, the fall monsky fishing.

Speaker 5 (21:59):
But I did a lot of walleye fishing with.

Speaker 4 (22:01):
My wife and we had a blast. We had and
good friends. We had such good fishing and some summer
f days in October that it was hard not to
take full advantage of it.

Speaker 2 (22:14):
You know, the description you laid out for everybody, Jeff,
I think the real thing that you said, which I
would hang and I know you do hang it on
the wall, is you had a blast with your son
and I had such a don't make any difference. It's
you had a great time, You made a memory. And Gavin,

(22:35):
he'll take that with him forever. Man, he'll take it
with him forever.

Speaker 4 (22:39):
Yeah, I mean, if I could, if I could replay,
and of course I have the fish catch on GoPro
and oh yeah, you know from from where where we
started three years ago, and he got a forty forty
eight and a half inch on the figure eight our
very first muskie Bacation tournament. And I ended up catching
a fifty into that that year. And so we really

(23:02):
we really had just a tremendous time in the first year,
but all the way from the first year to the
second year to the third year, just to.

Speaker 2 (23:11):
See how he's grown.

Speaker 4 (23:13):
And I'm I'm I'm taking advice for his opinion, I
should say, uh and and do it and do account
on uh on the on the strategy, and I love it.
And you know there was times where you know, of
course we're using the live scope, not for muskie fishing,
because that's not my.

Speaker 2 (23:33):
Thing, but for the walleyes.

Speaker 4 (23:35):
We put the live scope down and.

Speaker 2 (23:37):
He's like Dad.

Speaker 4 (23:38):
I was like Gavin, I'm not.

Speaker 2 (23:39):
Even gonna grab rod.

Speaker 4 (23:40):
You're you're catching all of them today. And you know,
you watch him sit there and pitch to him and
work them and yell at me to move over this way,
move over that way, position the boat this way is
great memory, great memories for a father son and and
and that's and that's what what you know, the great
oat ors is for is is for somebody you know

(24:03):
that's forty six years old, like like myself that I
still think I can move faster than most most of
the young bucks, but sometimes my body tells me you can't.
But we u.

Speaker 2 (24:16):
We made it.

Speaker 4 (24:17):
We made a great memory. And you know that's you know, Captain,
That's what my mom would always tell us before before
we'd go fishing. I was eighteen years old, nineteen years old,
and I was, you know, going and fishing a tournament
and she goes, you know, I don't care about how
big that check is. I don't care about how big

(24:37):
that fish is. All I care is that you made
a memory. And whatever it is, you make a memory,
and and that's what what I try to live by.
So we we did definitely that.

Speaker 3 (24:50):
It sounds like Gavin might be following in your footsteps
in making this a career choice.

Speaker 2 (24:58):
Is that accurate? You know, Well, that's a good question.

Speaker 4 (25:01):
I I uh, I tell Gavin he's got to figure
out of course, he's got to figure out a source
of income and to help support you know what he is, endeavor.
He's a junior in high school. He's uh, he's a
pretty good hockey player. So we we enjoy that. You know,
his aspirations right now is to play play college hockey

(25:21):
somewhere and and uh maybe uh maybe grab a fishing
rod wherever that might be.

Speaker 2 (25:27):
So we h.

Speaker 4 (25:29):
I don't think he knows yet, but he's pretty pretty
pretty dang good uh fisherman as well as hockey players.
So so I I enjoy, uh, I enjoy both of them.

Speaker 2 (25:40):
You know, Jeff, my oldest son is forty years old.
Now he's telling me what to do. There's still a suggestion, Well, you.

Speaker 4 (25:53):
Only realize what we always know more than than them.
They know that that that dads are allways always right.
And I don't.

Speaker 2 (26:03):
Say any I might think something different, but I'm not
gonna argue because he's he's right more and he's wrong.
And that's okay.

Speaker 4 (26:15):
I think I can still take my son.

Speaker 2 (26:16):
And well maybe not.

Speaker 4 (26:18):
I eat couch the other day. But he's he's getting
he's getting a little bit tougher, a little bit stronger.
He's putting on, putting on some muscle, and and I
don't know if I can take him in a wrestling
but I still think I can.

Speaker 2 (26:32):
I look up to my youngest and he did every
once in a while he picks me up and sets
me down someplace harassal.

Speaker 4 (26:43):
Uh and and and we got deer hunt going on
up here, you know, And it's been a fun season.
And you know, I talk a lot about Gavin alot,
but my my daughter Brooke, I you know, she's been
sitting in the deer stand with me, and you know,
it's been really fun.

Speaker 6 (26:57):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (26:58):
She's much like her.

Speaker 4 (26:59):
Brother, and she she has shot a dole and of
course with our great great you know, trail cameras and
everything else. I showed her a picture of a buck
and she's like that, I I want a much bigger
than that one than that. And I think she wants to,
you know, make an impression on all the book you
know boys around around the world here that she wants.
She doesn't want to. I'm like, that's a pretty nice buck,

(27:21):
you know, you don't want to shoot that one. And
she's she's like she's home out for for the for
the right one.

Speaker 2 (27:27):
So buddy, well yeah, and it's I mean, it's the.

Speaker 4 (27:33):
Same thing as fishing, you know, all the fun memories
with your child. I mean, you know, the truck rides
in the truck and walking in the dark and you
know all the noises. We saw Bobcat the other day,
which was which was you know, so cool in the
in the wild like that, and you know the grouse
hopping around and I had a I had a you know,
a little yearling yearling buck that hung around my dear

(27:56):
stand and it was chasing the grouse around and prancing around,
and it's just it's just what the great outdoors is
all about. All the fun memories you are shared with
shared with your kids, you know, that's that's really what
drives drives me now is making those memories, you know,
like my mom would always.

Speaker 2 (28:15):
Say, yeah, yeah, you're very right, Jeff and I have
often told people, Bob included, that, you know, there's a
lot of stuff. I'm just not as mad as I
used to be, so I don't make any difference.

Speaker 4 (28:30):
Yeah that somehow, somehow with the Max tournament, you know
that or any tournament. You know, Gavin and I still
fish a walleye tournament and you know, I think I
talked about this on the show, but you know, he
he had his broken wrists from spring hockey. And we're
sitting in the safe side of the shore. We knew
where we had to go, and of course we were out,

(28:50):
and somehow that that that that flip gets switched inside
my internal body where the competitive spirit, and we both
looked at each other and said we're going, And all
of a sudden we found ourselves in six foot waves
and we're catching walleyes. And we didn't win the tournament,
but we we caught a lot of walleyes in the

(29:11):
big waves, and we stayed in the boat. That's all
that mattered.

Speaker 2 (29:13):
But good, yeah, it's uh good. Sorry, Well, Jeff, I
thank you for your time this morning. And uh, it's gosh,
it's fun talking to you, buddy, it really is. And
I wish his success. But we're going to talk before winter.
I hope that's okay.

Speaker 4 (29:35):
Yeah, I hope so. And I'll keep everybody updated on
on the ice reports. And like I said, we are
going to have just we're going to have a great
early ice bight. So you know, I hope people are
getting excited about ice fishing. It's that transition time and
and we hope to see up here on the Great
Lake of the Woods and making making memories in the
great outdoors.

Speaker 2 (29:55):
If Jeff one question, if people make reservations now for
ice fishing, and let's say the ice isn't good yet,
what do they do.

Speaker 4 (30:05):
There's there's two places you can find us.

Speaker 2 (30:07):
You can find us.

Speaker 4 (30:07):
At Sportsman's Lodges dot com or and or border View
Lodge dot com and both are both are tremendous places
to stay income ice fishing. We have we have a tremendous,
tremendous group of people that want to take care take
care of you when you come up here, and we
do just that, you know, from the transportation to food

(30:29):
and food and beverage and and uh, of course a
really professional team that knows how to how to take
people of people fishing.

Speaker 2 (30:37):
Wonderful. Jeff, I thank you, sir, and we will chat
real soon. Buddy, have a great.

Speaker 4 (30:42):
Fall, always always a pleasure, boy, Stay in touch. We'll
talk soon.

Speaker 2 (30:47):
You bet. That's Jeff Anderson and he's love and life
and that's pretty cool, very very cool. Good for him,
and we will take a pause. And another man who
loves life a great deal and very good at what
he does. Coming up next, mister Andy try the bear
specialist for the d n R. Next on Fan Outdoors,

(31:22):
We're back Fan Outdoors, coming your way until the eight
o'clock hour. Yours truly, Billy Hildebrand, I'm here, Bob Saint
Pierre's here too, and hey, he's here for the moment.
He will be going again next week. But it's hunting
seasoning season. Yeah, I've got states to swing back and

(31:42):
forth between. You're doing a heck of a job. I'm
telling you you gotta have about a million miles on that.
I hit one sixty. Yeah, I'm twitching and I get
that high.

Speaker 3 (31:54):
Yeah, yeah, it's uh yeah, I don't want to jinx anything.

Speaker 2 (32:03):
Anyway, let's welcome our next guest, because he is with
the Department of Natural Resources and he is the bear
researcher for the d NR. Mister Andy Try has agreed
to join us this morning. Andy, Good morning, sir.

Speaker 6 (32:20):
Good morning guys. How are you not bad?

Speaker 2 (32:22):
How about you pretty good?

Speaker 6 (32:25):
Watching the woodrow in my house start to wake up,
We're just we're just in the pre dawn hours and
I'm sipping coffee, waiting for waiting for the morning to start.

Speaker 2 (32:36):
Well, that's a you know, Andy, if I didn't have
to get up sometimes I would have missed it today.
But that's one of the things I really like about
the outdoors is watching the world wake up from darkness
again every day. It's a special time.

Speaker 6 (32:52):
For sure. For sure.

Speaker 3 (32:53):
I've thought about our conversations with you in the last
couple of weeks because of weather has been so.

Speaker 2 (33:04):
Inconsistent.

Speaker 3 (33:05):
Let's say that yesterday being one of those, and I've
been thinking, wonder what bears are doing right now. It
would think that they'd have to be hyberdating, but then
you look outside. Yesterday was seventy degrees. What the heck
are they doing?

Speaker 6 (33:22):
Andy, That's a good question. I think they're probably just
as confused as we all are. But most of the
females that we have are in the den, at least
in the Grand Rapids in the Brainerd area. Those females
that are pregnant, on average, they're in the den sometime

(33:44):
around the first week of October, and then the rest
of the females will head to bed usually about two
weeks after that, and then the boys are the ones
out latest. And so it's obviously variable by latitude and
where you guys are and what the food conditions are.

(34:04):
You know, I gotta we put that post out on
the DNR, and I got a fair shot of people
just seeing bears out and about in there that their stands,
And that's not uncommon for this time of year. We'll
always get pictures from Ellen Candler's or the u of
M's awful study. There's usually bears on their munching on

(34:25):
gut piles and stuff. But pretty typically those are kind
of those males that are trying to get that last
snack before they head in. But you know, they've got
their dens built well before now, and they'll just kind
of hunker down, keep their energy expenditures low, and you know,
if there's food available, they'll keep munching, you know, if
there's acorns around, et cetera. But they'll kind of stick

(34:48):
local to that that den hole or wherever they're going
to be and just kind of hang around.

Speaker 2 (34:53):
Do they use the same den year after year, Andy.

Speaker 6 (34:58):
Almost never, that's a that's a big misconception. You know,
if it's a cave or something, bill they'll head to
that same place, you know, depending on the year, and
kind of spruce it up, freshen up, get some new
bedding material in there. But aside from southeastern Minnesota and
the Rocky country up in the Canadian Shield, up in

(35:20):
the Boundary waters and the shore, we really don't have
a lot of caves available for them, and so most
of those bears will dig dens and brush piles and
they'll be out in the middle of the bog just
hanging out, making a nest wide in the open. So
the den roof will often collapse in the summertime as

(35:42):
the rains hit and the sand saws and all that,
or the soil paws, so it's a little harder to
have a nice cozy den year after year. In the
sand and the loam, you've.

Speaker 3 (35:53):
Talked about how bears will make a den kind of
out in the open, in the bog in the woods.
Every time we've had you on and I've thought, why
am I not coming across them when I'm out rough
grouse hunting with my dogs.

Speaker 2 (36:10):
You know, I've never encountered a bears sleeping in the woods.
What what am I missing the bear? I'm not gonna go.

Speaker 3 (36:22):
Look, I'm not going looking for them, but I mean, I'm.

Speaker 2 (36:26):
Covering a lot of ground with dogs. What What's what?
What's the disconnect?

Speaker 6 (36:35):
I think there's probably two things going on, maybe three.
One is that you have dogs, and so bears can't
really tell the difference between a wolf and a dog.
Generally they just go to an eleven right away, and
so their first instinct is to flee, and it's quite

(36:56):
likely that they're long gone before the dog even catches
the scent. And Bob, you've got well trained dogs. I
do not have a well trained dog, and so they're
often sniffing all over. But yours are probably following birds
rather than the bear. Hopefully, if they're in a nest,
they can just get up and leave long. You know,
they can hear you guys coming, You know, depending on

(37:17):
what you use with your dogs. Some people use bells
or beeper collars and stuff, and that's so noisy in
the woods. The bears can hear you long, long, long
before you get there. But also the timing. You know,
they're just out forging around the grouse opener and they're
still out munching generally, even as you get into some

(37:39):
of the best parts of grouse hunting in October, when
the leaves are down, and so it's just you know,
bears are smart. They can smell you from a long
way off. And the density isn't super high. It's maybe
one per square mile and a half or so statewide.
Obviously some places are denser and some are lower, but

(37:59):
those places that are frequented by a lot of people,
the bears just start hanging around there.

Speaker 2 (38:05):
That makes sense, Okay, you're going to accept that. Good.
I hate to be you got one corner that wouldn't
be good for you.

Speaker 3 (38:16):
No, No, It just and definitely makes sense, especially early
season because it's i mean, think about it, September we
were still having ninety degrees early even phezanhing. We have
to take break midday because of the temperatures in recent
years but you know, I think about now, like tomorrow,

(38:39):
I'll probably go grouse hunting in northern Wisconsin, and my
assumption is, well, bears are hibernating at some point, and
if they're hibernating in the middle of the woods, like
I would come across them at some point.

Speaker 2 (38:54):
But Andy, even if they are sleeping, hibernating or whatever,
will they if let's say a wolf or a dog
gets near, will they wake and move?

Speaker 6 (39:09):
It depends on the severity of the situation. If if
they're in an above ground nest, yeah, they'll they'll move
and go find another spot, especially if it's early and
the ground's not frozen. But more of those traditional underground dens.
Oftentimes it's either late season grouse hunters that are out
and about or kyote hunters that are out hiking looking

(39:32):
for you know, sign Sometimes. You know, though, I can
think of two or three last year that we're found
with one guy with a really smart German short hair.
He just is like, oh, that's a new smell, went
over to check it out. And then the guy peeked
in the hole and you know, pulled the pull dog
back and there's a bear hanging out inside there.

Speaker 2 (39:53):
Yeah, Yeah, that makes me a little twitchy.

Speaker 3 (40:01):
You brought up wolves a couple of times, and I
don't think of wolves as a major bear predator.

Speaker 2 (40:07):
Is that ignorance on my part?

Speaker 6 (40:11):
No, that's absolutely correct. Bears are rarely preyed upon by wolves.
You know, I get calls to the office every fall, like,
well I heard somewhere that you know, DNR pulled all
the permits back because too many cubs were getting eaten
by wolves, and that's just not the case we have had.

(40:34):
I can, I don't know. We've had something like eight
or nine hundred bears called over the last four decades
on this project to look at reproduction survival to help
inform those harvest quotas, and all of the animals that
have been killed, it's like less than a dozen that
we can confirm were were killed by wolves or died

(40:55):
from something else. And then we're predated upon by wolves.
We don't have a good idea for in general, but
you know, cub survival is something like eighty five percent,
and so it's not a even if if wolves were
taking cubs when they found them. In general, it's not
any sort of effect on the overall population. So Bob
you're absolutely right. It's it's not a big deal for them.

(41:17):
We have lots and lots of den camera photos, and
this gets back to that dog thing. Lots of den
camera photos are like a pack of wolves will come by,
they'll smell the bear den, they'll look inside. They'll kind
of do a standoff, you know, a few wolves out
and around, and then the bear's nose will come out.
They'll look at each other. The wolves will realize it's

(41:39):
not worth it, because if you're injured wolves, you're dead
out there on the landscape. You know, you're just you
can't hunt. It's it's a big problem. And so they
look at each other and then the wolves leave because
it's easier to go, you know, catch deer or other
stuff in the wintertime, and so it's it's just a
non issue generally. It has been. You know, if they're
in the more open dend and they can't escape, or

(41:59):
they're injured or something beforehand, you know, that's a different story.
But in general, it's just a non issue for bears.

Speaker 2 (42:06):
Our guest is Andy try who is a bear researcher
for the Minnesota Department Natural Resources. Andy, I take it,
then bears are not territorial as far as where they
live and exists, is that crue. They just kind of
wander around.

Speaker 6 (42:24):
They have kind of a set area. We call that
the home range, and it's generally fixed. For females, it's
about between like eight and fifteen square miles, depending on
the resources in the area, and for males it can
be well over one hundred square miles. The females will

(42:47):
kind of set up on a honeycomb pattern, like one
female next to each other, and they don't harshly defend it,
but they generally stick to their own area. And then
when the cubs are growing and it's time to give
them the booth at eighteen months, that mom kicks the
boys out they have to leave, presumably to prevent against inbreeding,
and then she'll give a little bit of her home

(43:08):
range to the daughter, and so you'll have like mother
daughter little clusters on the landscape as they're growing.

Speaker 3 (43:18):
It's pretty fascinating I think about you know, it's super
easy I think for society for people to gravitate towards
moose like great big megafauna, but it's a little harder
for bears, and I think that's we don't see them

(43:38):
on a daily. They're just so nocturnal, or I perceive
them to be nocturnal. But when I think about it,
I think bears, particularly in Minnesota, are underappreciated for how special,
for how complicated and just awesome that they are as
an animal.

Speaker 2 (43:55):
What's your reaction to that.

Speaker 6 (43:59):
I think I did agree that they are special and
amazing and wonderful and complicated. My god, Like you know,
I don't know how many times I have to say
to anybody I talk to, like, these are not deer,
and management is more complicated, it takes longer for them
to reproduce, blah blah blah. But yes, they're maybe not

(44:20):
as iconic as moose in our north Woods, as this
paragon of wildness. But I think, I mean, humans and
bears have had a kind of intertwined history, you know,
since humans have come around, and you know, they're a
spiritual animal for a lot of our a lot of people,

(44:41):
whether that's as you know, spirit animals for some of
the the Ajibwe and the da Code of people here
in Minnesota, or just in general. You know, it's a
it's a big wild animal. I think you lose some
of that appreciation if it's knocking over your trash cans morning,
and you know, yeah, but in general, I think people

(45:02):
respect them. There's probably more fear perhaps than there needs
to be, Like, yeah, these are wild animals, but they're
not inherently dangerous and we can coexist with them just fine.
But I think for the most part, people are real appreciative.
It's just maybe they just haven't had as many interactions
as they have with other fitters.

Speaker 2 (45:22):
I know, And we're gonna have to take a break,
and I've got a question beforehand. But I know when
Eric and I were turkey hunting one spring, he went
to the north and I went to the south. I
got back to the car and he came out of
the woods, taking really big steps with big eyes, and

(45:44):
he said, I got back there, and there were two
little cubs up this tree. And I backed up the
same way I came in, and I said, mama bear,
I'm leaving, Mama bear, I'm leaving. Is that good advice
to get the heck out of where cubs are? Do
you just keep going?

Speaker 6 (46:04):
That's great advice. You know, the the mother and cubs
thing is more of a grizzly deal than it is
for black bears. But again giving them respect, and you know,
mom will defend their cubs, and so Eric did everything right,
backing out of there, making noise. That's that's the main deal.
When you encounterbear and just give them their space. You know,
if it starts to follow you, sometimes it just thinks

(46:27):
you smell interesting. You know, people we're not so great
at scent control in general, and so if you're you know,
munching on a candy bar on the way out to
the deer stand, you know, you have a little bit
of sweetness on your breath and they can smell a
lot of that. And so it's not often that they're
just trying to eat you or your kids or whatnot.
They just it's a new new novel smell. They'll rear
up on their back legs to get a better look

(46:48):
at you. They're not going to like rear back and
charge like the movies.

Speaker 2 (46:51):
I'm andy, I no, we have to take a pause.
But I question when we come back. I know that
hunters can play a role with some of the research,
and one of the things I wanted to first conferm

(47:12):
if that's accurate, and second ask you how hunters can
help you and what they can do if they come
across bear dens.

Speaker 6 (47:21):
Okay, that sounds great, we'll get to it after the break.

Speaker 2 (47:24):
Wonderful, we will do. So take that break and be
back with more of Andy tri bear researcher right after this.
Come back two minutes after the hour of seven o'clock
on a fan outdoors Saturday morning. You're truly, Billy Hildebrant,

(47:47):
I am here. Bob Saint Pierre is here temporarily, Brett
is here permanently. Are you permanently here?

Speaker 4 (47:57):
Brett?

Speaker 2 (47:58):
I hope so. Yeah. And our guest is mister Andy
Try from depart Natural Resources. He is a bear specialist,
a bear researcher. And as far as research goes, Andy
can how can hunters or people out in the woods,
how can they be of value to you in some

(48:19):
research way?

Speaker 4 (48:22):
Sure?

Speaker 6 (48:22):
So this is a fun one. So we're working on
a reproductive project right now. You know, in the old days,
we used to be able to get the age of
firs shoe production from the teeth of theirs, all the
teeth that the hunters send in. We get those sectioned

(48:44):
and you can count the rings to figure out how
old they are, and you can also look at the
narrowing in the rings to find out which years were
cover years in which were which years were yearling years
in the females. I did a retrospective look at this.
I've been working on this project a while. But the
long and short of it is that bears seem to

(49:05):
be growing faster than they ever have before, especially out
on the you know, the traditional edge of range. And
so these are our permit areas, you know, kind of
on the edge of the Quota no quota line, and
then out in the no Kota country we have bears,
some bears that are three years old that weigh as
much as a five year old bear did back in

(49:26):
the nineteen eighties. And so yeah, it's a big deal.
And so you know, if your toothage comes back goofy.
I was like, oh, that was a two hundred zone
pound bear that should be you know, three four five
years old. That's you know, that's not really the case
anymore because the bears are growing so fast. So we
are collaring a number of bears, both in the traditional

(49:49):
study areas near Grand Rapids and Brainerd, but also in
a few other areas. There's a collaborative project with few
of them delut sorry in ruri at umd on some
more like urban bears, coyotes and bobcats that we're calling
some bears for. And then we're also interested in just
general bear dens out on the edge of that bear range,

(50:11):
so like the north end of the Twin Cities up
through Hinckley all the way over to like Park Rapids
and then kind of on the west side of Amigie there.
And so you know, what we learned in the short
period is that bears certainly have shifted that age of
first reproduction down and so a good proportion of them,

(50:31):
about half of the bears are having cubs at three
now rather than what we thought was five. But we
need to confirm that this is widespread, and so we're
asking hunters, admittedly we're doing this early while people are
out and about in the woods and they're just thinking
about it while they're heading their deer stands, you know,
last weekend, this weekend, and you know next weekend, if

(50:53):
you're in the hundred series, to just keep a lookout
and if you happen to find a bear den and
or a bear in a den, that we like to
know that information where it is. If you can get
some locations and maybe snap a picture two and then
get in contact with us either my office at the
Grand Rapids Research Unit. You can just call up to

(51:15):
the Grand Rapids office and and havent transfer to Andy
the ver guy. Similarly, you can call the infocenter with
that information on the back of your license. The info
Center numbers right there, and uh, we're we'll come check
it out. If it's female, we'll certainly want to call it.
We're most interested in young females or females confirmed with

(51:41):
with cubs of the year, because we call those cubs
that become year links and then follow them till they
have that first litter. And if it's you know, if
it's on your property, you know, we obviously need permission
to enter. But when we work this thing up, you know,
you're you're welcome to join us out on that that
had been So that's how hunters can help.

Speaker 2 (52:04):
With the dens. Andy, is if a bear is sleeping
on a pile of brush, is that considered a den?

Speaker 6 (52:14):
That is considered a den? And you know, for fair warning,
disturbing animals in a den is against you know, state
statute and rule. And so what we're mostly asking is
just kind of take a picture of the area from
a safe distance, this is, you know, thirty forty feet away,
just to get a general idea to lay out of

(52:36):
the land. Picture the hole if you can find it,
and then we can come take a look and confirm
that it's a bear or not, and then we'd come
back once they're in deeper in hibernation.

Speaker 2 (52:49):
With the bear in brush, will there be a hole
there or will they kind of pull brush back over themselves.

Speaker 6 (52:59):
It really kind of depends on how deep the brush
is packed, and so sometimes they'll just like scoot under
and make a little nest and so they're semi covered,
and then when the snow falls, it'll cover the pile
and you know, then it's a nice little insulated area.
In other cases, you know, if you get like one

(53:22):
big tree top, sometimes they'll just crawl under that and
you can see them all winter long. And so it
just kind of depends on, you know, how obscured they
like to be. But in general, this time of year,
you'll be able to see them pretty clear.

Speaker 3 (53:37):
Do you have a hypothesis as to why bears are
growing faster than they did ten twenty years ago.

Speaker 6 (53:46):
I have a couple hypotheses but they all relate around food.
So the first of which is that we have more
corn on the landscape than we ever have before, or
you know, hybrids are shortening the rotation the rotation age
you know, we have like we're getting sub ninety corn.

(54:09):
Who knows you might be at sub eighty corn. You know.
Eventually they're planting the rose tighter than they ever have before.
When I was a kid, you used to be able
to walk the rose. Now I can only walk them
if you're sidling along the sideways, you know. To be fair,
I'm a little more rowe Ton than I was. But
they're also growing corn farther north or farther north, and

(54:31):
so I never figured when I was a kid that
they'd be growing a lot of corn, you know, up
in the Rose oh Country, Marshall County, the northwest, but
it does find up there now and more people are
are growing corn that far north. So that's for the
edge for the core bears. They're also heavier, you know

(54:52):
than they used to be, just not at a not
as much of an increase in that rate. And so
the other thing is that where we have oaks, you know,
the foresters will say, oh they're they're upper middle aged oaks.
They're getting past the point to stump sprout, and so
that actually is the best time to be producing masts,

(55:14):
and so they are cranking out jillions of acorns. Anybody
with oaks on their property over the last couple of years,
I think it's three or four years ago, it was
like walking around on marbles. There's so many. And we
have oaks farther north than we had before.

Speaker 2 (55:29):
Yeah, about two or three years ago we had the
lake we had Honest to goodness, I had to shovel
them away with a luminum scoop shovel and yeah, you
just put them with a pile and scoop them up
and chuck them off in the woods. Because you couldn't
walk on them. It's amazing.

Speaker 6 (55:48):
Yeah, it's it's absolutely craziness. And then you think all
the small mammals and blue jays and stuff are out,
you know, hauling them off and stashing them and they
often forget where they are. You get more oak farther north.
It's not a huge amount of oak in the far
northern part of the state, but we are seeing more
oak there. And then lastly, baiting has changed. We don't

(56:10):
have as many hunters as we used to do. You know,
we had a population peaked around twenty five thousand. That
was too much for society to handle, lots of proper
damage issues, but that's when you could get drawn like
every other year, and so we had a bunch of
tags out and the population started to decline. We kept
pulling tags down, pulling tags down, pulling tags down until

(56:32):
like twenty thirteen, and then we cut tags to nineteen
eighties level. So the population to recover. Now in the
those kind of edge zones that's where age of first
Street production was youngest, that's where the population recovered first,
and that's where we've been doing increases in tag numbers.
But commensurate with that, the baiting game has changed. We
have a ton of commercial bait dealers now and lots

(56:56):
of people are using trail mix. It's nuts, stuff that's
really nutritious for the bears and not that different from
what they'd be eating normally in the fall. And so
even in bad food years, the bears that are smart
enough to eat during non daylight hours when it's not
legal hunting hours, they're getting a big old pulse of

(57:17):
resources that they wouldn't normally and then they're able to
carry out pregnancies when they you know, normally wouldn't. Usually
when a bad food year happens, they don't have they
skip a litter and then they sync up with that
red oak cycle every other year. But now we just
don't see that, and so there's a lot of high
quality baits in the woods across the state and that's

(57:39):
certainly got to be playing a role.

Speaker 2 (57:42):
Last question, Andy, Eric's youngest son, Chad or youngest brother, Chad.
He works with farm people and landowners and stuff, and
he was telling me yesterday that there is a lot
of farmers that he talks to with that are now
seeing bears in their corn that they've never seen before. Now,

(58:07):
is that something that you're noticing.

Speaker 6 (58:09):
Too, Yes, we are noticing that. It's not necessarily that
they're using more corn than they have in the past.
But without question, bear range has changed. And so you know,
bear range was most constricted in the sixties before they
became a game mammal. Than by the eighties, we had

(58:29):
a bear range that essentially was like the northern forty
ish percent of the state, and now that's expanded to
like sixty percent of the state. So we have bears
showing up from the Red River of the North in
the far northwestern corner of the state all the way
down to the ninety four corridor and sometimes past that.
We have bears showing up in Glenwood and Fergus and

(58:52):
moving out into the former prairies. We also have bears
showing up in southern Minnesota. We've had a small pot
in the driftless country down in the those old three
hundred permit areas for deer, which I think there's only
maybe one left. Mostly those are all those six hundred
series now and you know, that's been a pretty small population,

(59:14):
but it is growing, and we're starting to see more
bears showing up and Winona close to Owatana. I got
a call about a bear showing up in Elko new
Market and this summer, and you know, bears in Northfield.
There hadn't been bears in Northfield for one hundred years,
but we've had sightings the last couple and so that's

(59:34):
definitely expanding. It's a slow, steady expansion, but Minnesota is
bear country except in the far southwestern like the heavy
duty corn areas in the far southwestern part of the state,
and it's just part of the new normal, and so
if farmers and egg producers are having issues with bears

(59:55):
in the corn, their first stop needs to be calling
their local area wildlife manager. We have a number of
tools that are available to them, from technical advice all
the way up until you know if the if a
bear needs to be removed, we can do that. We
don't trap and move bears anymore, they've done that for
twenty five years. But in general, area while life managers
should be your first call, and they can authorize a

(01:00:16):
fair number of things to help those producers out.

Speaker 2 (01:00:20):
Andy, I thank you for your time yet again. It's
always fascinating to chat with you, my friend. I really
really enjoy it, and I hope you'll do it again
with us.

Speaker 6 (01:00:31):
Absolutely anytime. I'll be getting ready to put the boat out.
Today I'll be out out chasing after some whitefish and
hopefully we're done today. It's been a slow run, but
it's going to get real cold the next couple of days.
My little baby raynods fingers aren't going to handle it
very well. I hear you today.

Speaker 2 (01:00:51):
I hear you well. Good luck, buddy, good luck and
take care in yeah, good luck with everything and everything
get fishing and hunt and the whole works. Take that
and he will talk again.

Speaker 6 (01:01:09):
Bud, appreciate it. I got a dog's all going crazy
for some reason.

Speaker 2 (01:01:14):
They have see you later. That's Andy Try and he
is with a D n R. He is a bear researcher,
a bear person, full of knowledge, and it's really really
fun chatting with him, and we thank him too. We'll
take a pause. Tackle Tereus next right here on k

(01:01:36):
f A N twenty one minutes after the hour of
seven o'clock. We'll be with you until eight, and keep

(01:01:58):
it right here on the fan because in the zone
follows Us and Tucker and Synec and are awesome fun
to listen to. YEP, I guarantee you're going to enjoy
it if you're not a regular listener already, Tackle Terry
joins us, and he joins us right now. Tackle, are you?

(01:02:22):
Are you thinking about getting your boat back out?

Speaker 7 (01:02:25):
Yes? I am, good morning, got in good morning? I
want yet, I sure am, But I just took the
extended forecast up and we're gonna get a little bit
back to reality next week.

Speaker 2 (01:02:37):
It's pretty hard not today. Yeah, it's pretty hard not
to because I saw nobody on the water day before yesterday.
But I just can't believe it. Bob saw him on
white Beer Lake.

Speaker 7 (01:02:49):
They were both yep, yeah, it just you know, but
who ever thought that we would have? I woke up
to smoch forty nine degrees here at our house soon.
But the wind is picking up and a friend's coming through.
So but it's and it's hard even shore fishing on
guys that when you got to fight the wind all

(01:03:10):
the time.

Speaker 2 (01:03:11):
Well yeah, yeah, And there are a couple of days
that it was dead calm too, but there are yeah,
And being on the calm side of the lake, the
lee side, I think that's the best board if you're
going to be I'm sure.

Speaker 7 (01:03:27):
Oh yeah, you really have to, you know, take a
look at that. It's just uh, it's just you know,
too hard. You've got the wave of action and trying
to cast you know, into the wind that you don't.
It's just more difficult.

Speaker 2 (01:03:39):
If you will you're going shore fishing today.

Speaker 7 (01:03:43):
I'm not one hundred percent sure I got everything in
the truck, So I'm just waiting for a phone call
then I'll make a decision.

Speaker 3 (01:03:50):
And what would be your strategy if you if you
were to go, what are you fishing for and how
how would you go about it?

Speaker 7 (01:03:58):
Well, first of all fish or bathroom for sunfish. Take
the rods and be all plastics today with a wacky
worm and a net rig that would be one and
then the other will be sunfish and that'll be either
plastics or and a barber system with wax. From when
I was out, it was just amazing how finniky these

(01:04:20):
fish were. I just I tried a piece of a nightcrat.
I might have have a home run here, not even
a bite. And then I tried two wax rooms.

Speaker 4 (01:04:30):
Nothing.

Speaker 7 (01:04:31):
One wax firm was the ticket. It's just amazing all
these minor details. But that's not just shot fishing at
this time of the year, it just all throughout the
whole year, winter in summer house. Small details make such
a big difference.

Speaker 2 (01:04:44):
Are people starting to even think about ice fishing yet?

Speaker 7 (01:04:47):
Terry, Oh, you see our big time. In fact, I
her sales were from a local bait shop. They were
selling ice fishing equipment about three weeks ago already. And
then I talked to a rainy river resort and if
anybody's looking at it, making reservation to do it soon,

(01:05:09):
especially if you're going to pland of fishing in the
in December because the bite is really on. So there's
just a lot of people definitely are thinking about I say,
I don't know there's any question about that whatsoever.

Speaker 2 (01:05:20):
Well, I think that when you get to the destination fishes,
people are making the reservations and planning ahead that way.
But that's not so unusual either, is.

Speaker 7 (01:05:32):
It not really? Except you know, it's just you know,
I think everybody thought that we would have, you know,
more of a normal fall pattern, and so so many
people put their boats away and but now there and
especially when you've got a good bite going and anticipation
is going to keep going. I think it's you know,

(01:05:54):
I think you're right to a certain point for the
people that made already made a decision. But some people haven't.
They're just sort of waiting to see what really happens
with the weather, for instance, and then see what kind
of a bite. But it is a good time, you know,
even if it's locally guys, uh, you know, pick out
a couple of lakes that are new to you, uh,
and then challenge those lakes for ice fishing too, with

(01:06:16):
the specie and the equipment, and it's just it's fun
to get out there and do that. It sort of
opens up and gains you a little bit more knowledge
how I should approach, what I should do, and so forth.

Speaker 2 (01:06:30):
Terry, there is no normal anymore.

Speaker 7 (01:06:33):
No, there is no normal.

Speaker 2 (01:06:38):
The normal the normal today is not normal. Does that
make sense?

Speaker 7 (01:06:45):
Yeah, it does, It definitely does, And I think we
just have to accept that. You know, we were talking
about the other day too, about the amount of ice
ice fishing people on these bodies of water.

Speaker 2 (01:06:55):
Yeah, I mean yeah, I in talking to the bait
friends and I have up in sock that he had
said that the number of hours spent fishing fishable hours
are much higher in the winter, and also a lot
of the smaller fish get taken through the ice too.

Speaker 6 (01:07:16):
Oh.

Speaker 7 (01:07:16):
Yes, we had a big conversation here the other day
about that, in about people you now with forward facing sonar,
which technology is here to say, we're not going to
change it, but we had anglers have to change it,
meaning that we don't want to take as many fish.
In fact, as individual told me, he thought two ballys

(01:07:36):
for a limit would be great plenty, And I was
sort of shocked at that comment. But then if you
think about it, we do have to respect mother nature,
we have to respect the fishery itself, and we cannot
and we know ice fishing anglers do have tendency to
take a full limited fish. Like you said, bill size

(01:07:57):
doesn't make a big difference in the world time, and
then you go out day after day and take limits
the fish home. You just can't eat a limit of
fish every single trip out.

Speaker 3 (01:08:10):
What do you think that is that people take more
fish home in the winter versus summer.

Speaker 7 (01:08:16):
Well, I seek partially do. It's so easy. You know,
you got either portable, you've got a skid house or
a wheelhouse, so it's so easy to do. You don't
have a launching of the boats too, you can jump
around from lake to lake and h and many times
there's several people that are unemployed in the wintertime. Then

(01:08:37):
also too you got several English fish all night for
croppies or for walleyes, So that's another factor. So I
think at angling hours that's really a big ingredient of this.
And too, I've seen it many many times. You guys
have too, where people go go out and catch the
limb the fish, go back home and come back out

(01:08:57):
a couple hours later.

Speaker 2 (01:08:59):
Well, I know when the crappies and some of the
fish are biting. I've seen that happen on lakes with
pontoons and local people. And I don't know if there's
an entitlement thought and there's mentality that way that you know,
this is okay because I live here, that kind of thing.
But I think it's changing with a younger generation a bit.

(01:09:23):
But I will be curious Terry, very honestly in all
sincerity too, the Bass Master Elite next fall or next summer,
they are only going to allow about half of the
tournaments to be able to use forward facing sonamar sonar.
And my curiosity is that are people that are using

(01:09:47):
it now? These are really good anglers, the cream of
the crop, the best of all. But are they relying
on the technology more than the person who is really
looking for fish and trying to find them the quote

(01:10:07):
unquote unsports the uh typical old fashioned way. I don't know,
what do you think.

Speaker 7 (01:10:15):
I think you're right. I think with the forward facing uh,
you know, there's some comments who that's knowledge are only
picking out big fish, you know, in anybody of water.
I think there's a lot to be said about that
that all of a sudden, you know, shall we say
the uh, you don't have to be that knowledgeable about

(01:10:35):
finding these fish location wise. You know, we're sure you
need to know, you know about where to look, but
so many times down and you're in the big comments, well,
we didn't know these fish were suspended in this deep water.

Speaker 3 (01:10:47):
Uh.

Speaker 7 (01:10:47):
So you know that is going to definitely take a
toll on these fish. And you know, looking I don't
want to call it the old fashioned way, but that's
not the correct state word to use. But I do
think that there is a certain amount of people that
are lying solely I'm ford facing sonar, and that is
going to definitely hurt the fishery. But then if you

(01:11:09):
think about it too, you know, if they don't have
to go out and search so much, you're don't have
to look for you know, pods of fish. They can
just go and pick out the fish that they want.
I was in boat where we used it, and it's
just amazing what ford facing so I can do. In fact,
you can see a fish and you can coax it

(01:11:29):
into coming. You can see that it's going to turn away,
or you need to jig a little bit more, do
something a little bit different. To trigger that fish. It
is literally amazing what it's helping.

Speaker 2 (01:11:38):
Yeah, I agree with that, Terry, and I have nothing
against it. I mean, I really don't. Right now, I'll
see more people in the middle of a lake than
I ever have in my lifetime, and that's a lot
of years, no man. And the other thing, the one
thing that I'm concerned about too, is there is no

(01:11:59):
place for fish to get away anymore. There's no place
that's called or like a refuge that the middle used
to be or the suspended fish used to be. And
that's a concern. But I can't take anything away from it, because,
as you said, Terry, it's fun. It really is.

Speaker 7 (01:12:21):
Yeah, But you're right though, You're hit the nail right
on the head bill when you said there's no place
for these fish to hide anymore. You know, the only
thing that we can rely on is that they're going
to keep moving away, and I think we see that
in night fishing. In fact, I purposely watched, I saying,
a couple of guys using ford facing sonar on the lake,

(01:12:43):
and I just sort of was real cure. So I
was fishing, but I was watching them. They would go
and they set up and drug fuell no fish, and
they move again, they move again, they kept moving and moving.
And then sometimes that's not the greatest because if you
can be on fish, like for instance, for some or whatever,
and you catch a few fish and then you start
to move it, they're not marketing them, but they usually

(01:13:05):
many many times will come back, and so therefore them too.
There you know, there's some I think drawbacks with some
of this. But then on the other hand, you know, yes,
we're not going to go down technology.

Speaker 2 (01:13:16):
No, we aren't going to. And I think the challenge
is how to regulate it so it's fair and the
industry itself doesn't hurt from it, because that's crucial. Well,
the dollars that are spent on this are very very

(01:13:37):
important for the economy and for those that do contribute
to it.

Speaker 7 (01:13:44):
So you're right, you know, and you know, and I
can see you know, fishing. Just say, some of the
smaller tournaments, like local tournaments, your club tournaments and so
for it were many many kinds of people using four
facing so I win the tournament. So there has to
be some you know, either they either ban it or
they can all use it. I think that's a big

(01:14:07):
it's almost like a handicap if you don't have it
with you. And I heard a lot of comments where
they had four face sonar so they won the tournament
we're talking, you know, like club tournaments or small locational
tournaments for whatever species. It may be.

Speaker 2 (01:14:22):
Well, now, if you don't have it and you're going
to competitive fish, you're not competitive. You're just all right.
That's the name of direct.

Speaker 7 (01:14:32):
Yes, you're a one hundred percent correct there. You just
can't compete with that.

Speaker 4 (01:14:37):
No.

Speaker 2 (01:14:38):
I again, I take nothing away from it. It's the
people that use it to choose to abuse it. And
the same conversations were had when the underwater camera came out.
The same conversations were had when the green box came
out with the or the vexelars, when that the flashers

(01:15:03):
came out. You're going to rape and pillage all the
fish in the in the in the end, in the
place GPS you are.

Speaker 7 (01:15:11):
I can remember that very very much. So when the
green box came out, Oh my god, there's such an uproar.
If you will or there's not going to be any
fish left in the lake, you know, and uh, and
we know that didn't happen, but it is a tool,
you know, versus not using what vexba or whatever it
may be throughout the wintertime. It is a great tool

(01:15:34):
to have, but here too it really falls back on
except for tournament fishing about the up to the angler
that they have to practice catchinities just take enough fish
home to eat. And I think too partially, Bill, is
that you know, we're seeing so much of people now
young and all ages, really pursuing bass because they're all

(01:15:59):
should we say they're I don't want to see. They're
easier to catch, but they're very abundant, so many bodies
of water, so they're forgetting about fishing for walleys and
northern pike and even crappies and sunfish, except for the
anger that I just want to want to pursue those species.

Speaker 2 (01:16:13):
Terry. We're going to let you go, my friend, but
I thank you for your time and interesting conversation. Buddy.

Speaker 7 (01:16:20):
Really we'll pick up more on that conversation.

Speaker 2 (01:16:22):
Oh we probably will.

Speaker 7 (01:16:24):
Everybody have a wonderful weekend you guys too, and enjoy
the win that's supposed to be coming up today.

Speaker 2 (01:16:31):
Yes it will. That's tackle Terry. Every other week, he
joins us, and we will take our final pause and
be back with We'll let Bob talk. Okay, how's that
right after this last segment outdoors? Be sure you keep

(01:17:01):
it right here. M Mister Sinicon just walked into the
control booth and he is ready to roll, locked and loaded,
So keep it right here. Okay. Hey, I've got a
gift if people want are interested for Christmas or Roth
and it won't cost your mind, not even Thanksgiving yet, No,

(01:17:23):
not even Thanksgiving. But because I get this and you
probably do too. The Minnesota Conservation Volunteer magazine comes out
every other month and it's just I read it from
cover to cover and they're great short articles, they're local
and you really it doesn't cost you anything. And they're

(01:17:44):
asking for some donations and it goes to the DNR.
But it's the magazine itself is a DNR publication. It's
very very well put together, very well done. This current
one has got a rabbit on the cover. What did
you get at I haven't seen it? Oh really, yeah,

(01:18:05):
it's like that. Oh I have seen that at the office.
It didn't come to my home.

Speaker 6 (01:18:10):
Noo.

Speaker 2 (01:18:11):
It might be time for me to renew. Yeah, my
father used to get it. It's been has an old
it's been around a long time and I'd read it
then too, But this is a good one.

Speaker 3 (01:18:22):
Christmas, Wow, get Christmas on the mind. No, not necessarily,
but you've got to.

Speaker 2 (01:18:27):
You've got to get and you can get a certificate
saying that you've given it. But this issue, it gives
you a number that you can call, and I haven't
got my glasses on, so not very well prepared there,
I'm not. You can call the start or renew gifts

(01:18:50):
for the holidays. You can call eight four four two
four five seven one one five Monday through Friday eight
to six pm. And you can get it online too.
But eight four four, two four five seven reading phone numbers?

Speaker 3 (01:19:12):
Are you going to give us a ski report at
some point just during this show too?

Speaker 2 (01:19:16):
No, although I thought I'll bet you did too. I
thought one of these ski resorts are open. I'll bet
they've got to be just gnashing their teeth with seventy degrees.

Speaker 3 (01:19:28):
Well, after I talked to you last Saturday, from the up,
it's beautiful Saturday transitioned to kind of a temperatures falling Sunday,
and then Monday, I had I was there for a
long weekend lake effect hit yeah, there was a foot

(01:19:48):
of snow.

Speaker 2 (01:19:49):
Oh it was Uh, it was full on winter back home.
So I I, uh, did you go outside roll around
a little bit?

Speaker 3 (01:19:59):
The dog did. I went out looking for Gralise and
they were nowhere to be found once the snow hit.
I think they were in a cedar swamp somewhere. But yeah,
it was a little bit of a shock to the system,
but it was good for me kind of you know,
got my blood ready for cold temperatures and get a
mindset of winter is just around the corner.

Speaker 2 (01:20:22):
I did think of you last week when they had
the southeastern or southwestern Minnesota got snowed on. Surprise, Surprise, Surprise,
sprise prize. It would have been nice to be out
Pheasant Honting. That's what I was saying. As you've talked about.

Speaker 3 (01:20:35):
The greatest well next to the opener, the first snow
of the season is the best second best day to
be out pheasant on.

Speaker 2 (01:20:44):
It and the firearm deer season week two, week two
in Minnesota and day one.

Speaker 3 (01:20:52):
Yeah, it's been open for maybe an hour in the
state of Michigan today and but in Wisconsin where a
week away.

Speaker 2 (01:21:00):
I believe, Yeah, I think it's something like that. Yeah,
I don't care to here, but I believe it's next
Saturday in Wisconsin. And but there are from all the
reports I've read, there are a number of deer being
shot and a lot of tags being filled. And the
other thing is for me, And this is the old

(01:21:23):
guy in me. When they keep people keep talking about
harvesting a deer, I get the similarity, the political correctness
of the word harvest. Yeah, I just I can't I
can't fathom that. I just can't swallow it. I shoot
a deer, bag your buck, Yeah, I mean I tag
a buck, I'll tag a dough. I am not fussy.

(01:21:44):
I'm hunting for something to eat.

Speaker 3 (01:21:49):
But it sort of sanitizes the reality of hunting in well,
the consumption of meat is the result of an animal.

Speaker 2 (01:22:00):
No matter if it's from the grocery. It's just natural. Yeah,
that's I mean, part of life. I can't tell you
how many kids when I was in school thought that
meat came from the grocery store in styrofoam packages with
cellophane over the top.

Speaker 3 (01:22:14):
Although Leopold wrote about that in the sixties, like we're
so disconnected from the food, And you know that was
sixty years ago.

Speaker 2 (01:22:23):
And I spoke last week with there's if I puh
hold a rooster pheasant in my hand, I don't hold
typically hen pheasants in my hand. Good but good, well,
thanks for making that distinction. I look at a rooster,
there's a certain sadness I'll feel when I look at it.

(01:22:45):
I feel the same way when I'm hunting a deer.
If I drop a deer, I'm walking up, there's a
sadness that I feel when I look at the eyes
the animals lying dead on the ground. But it passes then.
Actually Eric said when he shot that deer day before
yesterday that he says, I said, did you find the deer?

(01:23:10):
I'm texting him, do you find the deer? Yep, it
was right here, and shut me. He sent me a
picture and stuff, and then he said, and now the
work begins. You can admire, but then the reality comes
home to roost. You've got to fuel dress the deer,
got the deer, You've got to clean out the cavity,

(01:23:32):
and you need then you had to get it cool
as fast as possible, and you're going to hang it up.
But he also said, I don't know how I'm going
to get this thing in the back of my truck.
It was a big one, A big one. Yeah, And
I said, well, I've done that, but it wasn't with
a big deer. But I got the head up and

(01:23:53):
tied the head to the front on the ring with
a rope and then managed to get the body back
up and push it into the truck. But yeah, and
it's just literally dead weight. But he had the farmer
that owns the property came out and helped him got
into this truck. But yeah, there's there's a sadness. And

(01:24:13):
I said last week too, that's a respect. I really
had appreciation, very much so, very much so. And I
don't know if anybody that doesn't feel that. Maybe not
in the beginning when you're young, but as people get
a little bit older and experienced, there's a certain I

(01:24:34):
admire the color on a rooster pheasant. I'm just it's beautiful,
just drop dead gorgeous. When they get up and they
crow and cackle and they're flying far fast away, it's
pretty incredible. What's your assessment of the season so far?

(01:24:54):
Pheasant season so far? What bird numbers?

Speaker 3 (01:24:57):
Because we had a great opener to get there, and
then I've been points south east west and we haven't.
We haven't been in the field since opening weekend together.

Speaker 2 (01:25:09):
I haven't seen much very honestly. A couple of times
that it wasn't me, Eric. I think it was Eric
on the end of a field. I didn't want to
walk that far, but he did. He put up all
kinds of birds and they must have come out of
the corn or something. I think people are going to
start seeing more birds now, yeah, you mentioned that as

(01:25:32):
a corn corn being out. Yeah, we got this cough anyway,
it's what do you think?

Speaker 3 (01:25:42):
Uh, yeah, well, grouse I think are significantly down. In
my opinion, Pheasants are better than I anticipated, for sure,
based on what happened in the spring with the means
and you know what I was predicting for reproduction being poor.

(01:26:06):
You know, the DNRS August roadside counts, you know, contradicted that.

Speaker 2 (01:26:11):
I think it was accurate.

Speaker 3 (01:26:14):
But you know there's not there's not a bird under
every bush sort of thing, which I think it relates
back to corn. So it would be really interesting. I
haven't pheasant hunted in three weekends, so it'd be interesting
once I get back out next weekend.

Speaker 2 (01:26:32):
That's what I'm doing.

Speaker 3 (01:26:33):
My brother and nephew are coming to town, and I'll
get a better assessment of what the bird numbers are
like after the corn's been out.

Speaker 2 (01:26:42):
Yeah, and I it's kind of typical. I had high
expectations after our opener, which was great. Yeah, we had
a wonderful opener. But since then, very honestly, I haven't
fired a shot. Oh is that right? Yeah, I have
a walked is hard, but I've hunted pretty much until

(01:27:03):
until a week ago. I had a pretty much yeah,
three to five days a week, but I was walking
long distances. But there was a lot of corn up
and I think that the easy birds got taken. Yeah,
but that's just me. I'm not going to quit.

Speaker 3 (01:27:21):
Well, heck no, we still got long time two months, yeah,
almost long time.

Speaker 2 (01:27:27):
Well the music means it's time for end the zone,
so they are going to be up and next. But
I got to say thank you to Jiggy Anderson, Jeff
Anderson for joining us with a fun conversation other than
awesome conversations, to Andy Try for chatting with us Tackle Terry.

(01:27:48):
We're thinking a little bit about fishing and having a conversation,
but thank you for allowing us to travel with you.
For Brett Bigmore. Am I producer executive that is from
Bob Saint Pierre, the one and only who is off
and about next week. I am Billie Hildebrand, wishing you
a great weekend in the outdoors. Until next week, I'll

(01:28:09):
leave you with Tata