Fan Outdoors: Tommy George, Tony Mariotti, Tackle Terry

The Captain is back and is joined by Tommy George, Tony Mariotti, and Tackle Terry!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:16):
From the fish filled Midwest lakes to the deep woods
of the North Upland prairies filled with pheasants, to the
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 kfan dot com. Here's your host,

(00:38):
the Fans, Captain Billy Hildebrand.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Good morning, Fan Outdoors, faithful, Good morning to you on
the Saturday, the first day of November, and for twenty
twenty five it's my life vast cabin cast of this year.

(01:05):
That's a sad day in my world, but it's still
a day, and it's still one that at this time
of day it's dark, I mean really dark, and it's
cloudy out too, which enhances the darkness. And I was
thinking last night, gosh, and looking across the lake at
all the lights when it got dark early in the evening,

(01:27):
all the lights on it. There's an awful lot of
people that are here, either they're late seasonals as I am,
or they're permanent on the shores of the lake, and
so many more than years ago. Because when I looked
across the lake. I was aware of most of the
people that lived there, because my aunt had a cabin

(01:49):
just across from this one, and the family would spend
time on that side and this side, and we would
run back and forth with small fourteen foot boats twelve footboats,
back and forth, varrying things for meals and people and whatever.
But it's got to be permanent now, because it's getting

(02:12):
a little bit nippy in the mornings out here. Right now,
it's thirty seven degrees and I'm told I haven't looked
at a forecast, nor do I necessarily believe it, but
I'm totally it'll be back in the fifties next week,
but for highs anyway, a little bit different than years ago,

(02:35):
although not different last week. One day day before yesterday,
I believe, I woke up and it was dark, getting
out of bed and having a cup of coffees, as
I usually do. In fact, this morning, I'm on my third,
But looking out, I noticed a lot of activity on

(02:57):
the water and didn't really well. It got lighter, the
divers had moved in, blue bills, ruddy ducks, there was
some golden eyes in it, and honest to goodness, there
were a couple of thousand ducks and they were in
small groups of five to ten, winging right over the

(03:18):
top of the water, back and forth. And I thought, oh, oh, Hildebrad,
you better get go out that green shed that's just
out by the road. And there's about two hundred blue
bill decoys out there right now. And I got to think, no,
I'm all alone out here right now. We'll just bree

(03:38):
and I got to go out. If I put decoys out,
this is kind of end middle of the game here,
so to speak, because the birds are here and they're moving.
Put a bunch of decoys out, I just got to
pick them up. And let's say I get a couple
of shots. Picking up decoys in the fall is cold,
at least on my hands. It's always been cold, less

(04:01):
so now than it was fifteen years ago, though, But
and I decided, nah, because then I've got to clean
them and it's no I'm just watching. And I did,
and I called my son Eric and told him, and
he was all fired up about it, but couldn't come
up because he had obligations at home. And it was

(04:25):
it was really pretty fun, and it lasted until fifteen
minutes after nine and things settled down and there were
no birds flying whatsoever. Boat went up the lake, this
huge flock of ducks took off. I'm guessing a thousand,
two thousand. There was just this giant flock of ducks.

(04:47):
They took off, and eventually they came back. By two
o'clock that afternoon, there wasn't a duck that I could
see on this body of water. They had stopped in
the middle of the night, I think, in their migration
and rested, and they were away off headed south or

(05:09):
wherever they're going to go to spend the winter, and
I think Stan would say probably down around the Gulf
of Mexico or someplace down in those waters. And it's
they used to stay when when I was much younger,
we have shot an awful lot of ducks off this bank.
They had a lot of decoys put out and and

(05:31):
an awful lot of fun was had. And I still
when we get down there, there's some empty shells in
the brush just before the water's edge that Jack found
one the other day, and we were sitting down there
because he thinks that's great fun, but it's it was.
It was. It was pretty cool just to think back

(05:52):
on those times Dad was here and and we shot
box after box after boxes, shells, divers, and it was
always the last thing to freeze. This lake was because
it was the biggest body of roter in the area.
So these birds would pile into the lake and they'd
be zipping up and down just as they were day

(06:12):
before yesterday, So it was it was fun to watch.
No shots were fired, no birds were shot. And yesterday
I saw just a lone hand mallard right down off
the bank and I thought, oh, she's definitely get the bull,

(06:33):
and I don't want to do that. That's a hen.
It was a drake could be a little bit different.
I'd go sneak down there and jump it and see
if I could knock it down. But nope, so she
was He's gone. And that was kind of the uh,
the the extent of my water fowling this week on

(06:54):
a pheasants a few times with Brie, we put up
some hands no roosters, and that's not so unusual for
this time of year. A lot of those young birds
are gone and a lot of the older ones now
this time right now, they've been educated and they're tougher
to get a lot of things make a difference too.

(07:16):
And along the same note, one week from today will
be the firearm opener of the Minnesota deer season. And
you know, one thing comes to mind, and as I
was thinking quite a bit about that, and I know
that this year, the slug season in farm country is

(07:39):
still it's still the rule of the land, and there's
no rifles to be had down here yet, and that
maybe will change next year. Although in talking with some landowners,
some farmers, not a lot, probably eight to a dozen,

(07:59):
I haven't talked to one person that's in favor of
that yet. If you live out in the country, they
are not in favor of it, as I am not
in favor of it at all. I think that the
one particular legislator that has been driving this for the
last few years is a hundred down in southeastern Minnesota

(08:20):
and he compares Minnesota to Wisconsin, and evidently Wisconsin they
can shoot rifles over there. And I'd just like to say,
to be on the record, this is not Wisconsin. This
is Minnesota. When you get out in farm country, the
landowners I talked to said that often they're in the

(08:42):
field and a rifle slug is not a shotgun slug.
Even though even though some of these Sabbath guns with
rifle barrels are accurate out one hundred and fifty yards,
they are not rifle slugs. These legislators have not hunted

(09:04):
when their people are dry. A group of people are
driving a cornfield, so to speak, they get up in
a line and go through and hopefully move the deer out,
and somebody is sitting on the end. I me, I
have done that. I have had rifled slugs. Whistle. You

(09:24):
know what they sound like going over your head? Yeah,
it's just sounds like a jet going over your head.
It's no. I am not in favor of that. Minnesota
farm country is not Wisconsin. But it's up to the counties.
They have to decide. So if you definitely have an opinion,

(09:47):
call your county commissioners, let them know some people in
the county and county government. Let them know your thoughts
for or against, because that's the only way you're going
to be heard. And just give it a little bit
of thought too. If you've got experience hunting in farm
country for deer, and I have done both. I have

(10:08):
hunted in the big woods. I have gone into the
deer woods for no longer. We never lasted longer than
six days. But it was so much fun going up
to deer camp and getting back in there. It was
just awesome. It gets a little it gets a little

(10:31):
stinky sit, so to speak, when you've got five or
six guys staying in a very small area after a
few days. But it's still a blast. It's really fun
getting up in the morning, putting that sling over your
shoulder and heading out into the abyss. Yeah, it's a
different feeling than walking out in farm country in the dark,

(10:55):
but it is. I have shot deer in the woods
with rightf I have shot deer in farm country with slugs.
It's still still a really, really exciting time. And I
wouldn't change it for one moment. Nope, wouldn't change it

(11:17):
for a moment. And I know we have we being myself,
Eric and Chad, and mainly Eric and Chad have started
hunting muzzleoder and I'm hopefully going to join them this
fall on some private ground with blinds already on it.
Heated blinds man. When I grew up hunting, Oh, we're

(11:40):
going to have to go to break soon. I was
sitting on I knew nothing about deer hunting. I just
decided I wanted to go. It took me three years
to finally see a deer. And I remember I'm sitting
on this little platform I had built. Called it, well
it was, I called it a deer stand. It was
a death trap because there were little saplings about an

(12:02):
inch and a half in diameter that I had nailed together,
cut down earlier and nailed together, and it was about
a two x three square between three trees. So it
was the most uncomfortable thing you'd ever heard of. But
I sat there. I had a piece of paper. I
probably told this story in the past. If you're a

(12:24):
regular listener, write a piece of paper page from Outdoor
Life tore that showed how to field dress a deer
folded up in my pocket and it was there for
three years until I finally got a shot a deer.
I thought it was a man walking out of the
woods shooting an old thirty caliber rifle way up north

(12:47):
by International Falls on some property my own. It was
just a stop step step, crunching leaves as somebody was
walking out of the woods. A buck walked out about
fifteen yards twenty yards away and stopped broadside out on
this clearing with open sites. I picked the rifle up,

(13:11):
shot deer dropped, didn't move. I walked up to it,
shaking like a leaf, and I looked at it and
I thought, no, Hildebrand, what have you done? Now? What
do you do? I got that piece of paper out
field dress that deer, and I was blood from the
top of my shoulders all the way down to my

(13:33):
waist and on my knees. We wore red coveralls then,
and I got it field dressed. It was a mess,
but I got it done. The smell. I went back
to this old house that we were staying in that
my aunt again owned, and I proceeded to get sick
for two days. But that was the beginning of my

(13:56):
deer honting, and it was with a rifle. Also shot
deer driving cornfields. I've shot deer in the grass. I
have shot deer a number of different ways, all legal,
but I've shot them and it's been a hoot. And
the adrenaline when you see one, you hear one, it

(14:17):
still runs rampant. The thing that I started this with,
I wanted to tell everybody that you'd need to see
your target, but look beyond the target opening the pheasant season.
I put up a bird, a rooster, and it flew
right over the top of the grass and between me
and the rooster, I could see Bob's dog standing there

(14:41):
because the bird was that low. You can't shoot when
something's in the way, and too many people just focus
on the target and they don't think of what's between
them and the target or after the target behind it.
Those bullets will go a long way, So you need
to keep that mind. Please be safe if you're going

(15:03):
to go next weekend. Okay, we are going to take
that pause, but we've got a full show for you
this morning, and I'm really looking forward to it. Bob
is not going to join us today. He is down
in Missouri for the quail Opener and he is filming
that for his a job, and he creates a video
of opening day a number of different places around the country.

(15:25):
So we will take our first pause of the morning
and we'll be back with mister Tommy George pro angler.
Tommy George, you think he's been fishing, we'll find out
right after this.

Speaker 3 (15:38):
We'll be right back man.

Speaker 2 (15:55):
We're back, Happy fan outdoors morning to you. Yes, I
am Billy Hildebrand and you're listening to Fan Outdoors, and
in just a moment you'll be listening to pro angler
Tommy George. Good morning, sir, Tommy. Are you there?

Speaker 4 (16:16):
Yes?

Speaker 5 (16:16):
And you hear me?

Speaker 2 (16:17):
No, I can hear you now, buddy. I was worried
maybe you pulled the plug and sank.

Speaker 5 (16:25):
Not yet, okay, anyway, No, I'm still I hope I'm
not losing you too.

Speaker 2 (16:34):
No, you're not. I'm here. Oh.

Speaker 5 (16:36):
Oh, okay, good, everything's good.

Speaker 4 (16:39):
Dull up.

Speaker 5 (16:40):
The water temperatures really low. It's in the low fifties now,
and so that that says a lot to me. And
it's like you said, it's really chilly in the morning
in the thirties, So I don't know this next week.
You said you don't check the weather very much. I
check it every day and I want to know what

(17:03):
if it's going to rain first, And the second thing
I check is the wind. I'm always, you know, checking
the wind to make sure it's not going to howl.
And that says a lot to where I'm going to
be going, if I'm going to take my boat or
if I'm going to actually fish off shore, and lately
I've been fishing off shore really and I sent you

(17:24):
some snapshots of or text besleages of some of the
trout I've been catching, which are biting now. Whis is
fabulous And these were brook trout that I sent and
there just got to be the prettiest trout out there,
and with so many different colors. They are beautiful anyway, Yeah, yeah,

(17:46):
they truly are. And I'll tell you if a person
really caught it, I mean, you know, we're was fishing
for say sunfish or whatever, like I actually was, and
you get a trout on God, they fight so much.
I mean, if you ever caught a big bullhead, like
a bullhead is constantly rolls, that's basically what you've got,

(18:09):
and you can kind of tell you got one trouta
is just unbelievable. Then they don't run long distances. They
just sit and bulldog it and they just sit and
roll and roll and roll and ate their fames at
getting unhooked that way. But anyway, so I was lucky
enough to catch a few and they were absolutely beautiful
and they're biting right now. And just to let some

(18:32):
of the people know, I caught them over at Glen Lake.
It's in Wisconsin, and it's in Glenwood City, and it's
a small park and everybody's welcome, and it's a park
where you have to buy a sticker to go in
for the day. It's ten dollars. For the whole year's

(18:53):
thirty dollars. And it's well worth it because Billy, it's
a small lake and it's crystal clear, and it's it's
in a sixty foot deep range. But I'll tell you
it's got some of the most beautiful sunfish and nice crappies,
But the sunfish is what really gets me going over there.

(19:14):
And that's where I was fishing, and it didn't excuse me.
I was actually using the worms and I had a crawler.
I put a crawler on, but Billy, I dunked it.
I dunked the crawler in gulp juice itself and I
threw it out there and it didn't take long and

(19:35):
that trout just ate it up. And after that, I
ended up putting on just a golt minno and that
did the trick. So it was just it's just a
fabulous fun day fishing, and so I'm going to I'm
going to get back out there, even though it's supposed
to be misty and kind of rainy today, it's going

(19:55):
to be a perfect data fish trout.

Speaker 2 (19:57):
Well, have you given up on your marshmallows already?

Speaker 5 (20:02):
You know what Billy has to got?

Speaker 6 (20:04):
I tried.

Speaker 5 (20:05):
I didn't have any marshmallows with me that day because
I was basically fishing for sunfish. And I mean when
I fish trout. I have a little bucket that I
use when I go with you know, Fort Trout Fishing.
It's got all the stuff in it for trout. I
got all the different trout dates from you know, pure
fishing from Berkeley, and I have a couple bags of

(20:29):
marshmallows in there, and it's it's amazing. And I went
to Perch Lake, another lake that I'm used to going
to Fort Trout, which I'm going to be going the
day over there to Perch Lake in Wisconsin, and that
one is when I use my marshmallows, and but I

(20:50):
didn't have with me. So I'm going to be going
today over there and we'll see if I can get
some of the rainbows that are in there, which are
pretty plentiful.

Speaker 2 (20:59):
Well are you are you fishing out of a boat
or are you fishing from shore Tommy from.

Speaker 5 (21:04):
Shore Glenn Lake is from shore and from Perch Lake
is from shore, and you can get a boat in there.
But both those lakes you can only use the trolling
motor and I use it, and I used my boat
at Glen Lake in the you know, basically in the summer,
I'll take a lot of the grandkids out or some
of the neighbors and stuff, and we're using the trolling

(21:27):
motor and it's so much fun. It's beautiful lake and
it's nice and quiet. No jet skis, no outboards, no skiing,
no nothing. And when you fish a lake like that,
it's it's just it's got I sit back and Billy,
like you said, sometimes you just sit and look at
nature itself and it's it's we've been blessed to get,

(21:52):
you know, had this quality fishing and some of the
prettiest scenery ever. And that's what I that's why I
enjoy going to these lakes and I'll just run out
there sometimes when even when I've got a couple of
hours to fish, I'll just run over to Edith, Perch
or Glenn and just fish for a couple of hours

(22:12):
from shore, and a lot of times it's it really
really proves successful.

Speaker 2 (22:18):
Do you have to have since you're paying a fee
to get into the park, do you still have to
have a Wisconsin non resident license.

Speaker 5 (22:26):
Yes, and you also have to have a trout stamp
when every you're When I get my license, I always
buy that extra trout stamp, which is only ten dollars more,
and it's well worth it. And the trout are just amazing.
And I didn't really fish trout very very much before

(22:50):
my buddy Jimmy Baki called, you know, introduced me to
it many years ago. And it's it's so much fun.
And they're fighters too, and rainbows and and these brookshows.
But these brooksh ought are big. I mean, the one
that I caught the other day was I don't know,
ten twelve inches and the some of them are eighteen

(23:12):
to twenty inches. They're huge. This is the DNR puts
broodstock in this lake and they just they're just gorgeous fish.
So I'll be trying to, you know, do or have
a little more success today. We'll see what happens.

Speaker 2 (23:27):
They must be all stocked fish, then, aren't they, Tommy.

Speaker 5 (23:32):
Yes, they are, Billy, And you know, if you if
you catch these fish right away when the DNR stocks them.
They're basically pellet fed fish, and if you catch one
and you clean them, they're kind of white. But as
the fish, you know, feed in that lake and they're

(23:55):
feeding on their bugs and their natural you know, pray
minnows and stuff like that, then they get a nice
pink color to the meat, and it is a different flavor.
It truly is. Oh, that's why I don't mind wait,
you know, waiting until the fish are stocked to fish,
you know, for them.

Speaker 2 (24:17):
Interesting. I've seen pictures and stories about people that were
just they'll follow almost I don't know if they actually
do follow, but they're right there fishing when these fish
are stocked because they I think they feel that well,
it's probably like fishing at a fish pond at a
sports show or something, because they just drop in. They're hungry,

(24:40):
and they they're fairly easy to catch.

Speaker 5 (24:45):
That could be true, Billy, but I've never been there
when the DNR put them in, and it's usually in
the fall when the water's cold, and but it's it's
better if you, you know, if you catch these trout
and you clean them up, and you notice the wheat
is the meat I'm sorry, is basically white. You know that,

(25:07):
you know, they just stock them fish and they will
taste a little different than they will if you catch
them even a month later in that same lake, because
they do change a little bit and they're feeding on
their normal prey that they that they like, and they're
usually when they're pelant fed. The pellet feed is not

(25:29):
as good favor if you've eaten some of the fish
from the sports shows and you know some of them
little ones like my kids used to fish at the
trout bonds and stuff. I would be working the sports
show and they bring home some of the trout and
we'd cook them up, and it's a different flavor trus me.
It's it's it's okay, but it's not as good as

(25:52):
a trout in the waters that have been feeding there
for a while. So that's one thing I do notice, Tommy.

Speaker 2 (26:00):
I noticed on this particular body water there aren't very
many boats fishing anymore, but there's in the last week,
there's you know, half a dozen maybe that are on
the lake. But I am told I watched one boat
for three days right across the lake and he was
in the same place each day for about four to

(26:21):
five hours and just very very little movement, and I
know that they aren't just sitting there killing time. They've
got to be on the mosh and they must be
catching them.

Speaker 4 (26:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (26:36):
Yeah, you know.

Speaker 5 (26:36):
Only talked to a guy just last week and he
was using an ice jiggle stick and he had a
tiny little tube jigger. It was a bluen and sharp
trouse and he caught some of the nicest crappies at
Cedar Lake in Wisconsin. And I says, how'd you guys

(26:58):
do them? They said, oh, we got our them. I
got their twenty fish. And I says, wonderful. I says,
were they deep or shallow or what? And he says, no,
they're they're writing about fifteen feet of water on the
edge of the weeds. I says, wonderful. He says, here
he got out of the boat because I was just
going to put my boat on the trailer. He got

(27:18):
out of his boat and he comes over to the
end of the dock and he brings his jiggle stick
and he says, here's what I got him on. And
he was I mean, he wasn't trying to keep any secrets.
He showed me exactly what I says, And you got
a jiggle stick he was right over the side of
the boat, he says, just real quiet, he says, And
he says, I caught the motor and his buddy was

(27:41):
kind of arguing on him because he wasn't doing as
well as as his partner was. But anyways, it was
it was so much fun. I went out there the
day later and I caught a nice mel ficker. I
sent you a picture of him in the live oak,
just my motor runner.

Speaker 2 (27:58):
It was.

Speaker 5 (27:58):
It was just a quick meal that I wanted to get.
And the fish are really going now, Bill, they truly are.
I know you guys are hunting. God blesses. I hope,
I hope you're the best success out you know, in
the field and on the lake. But this is my
time of year, and to me it's it is the best.

(28:18):
I've had a fabulous summer. But now it's time to really,
you know, go out there and hunt these fish.

Speaker 4 (28:26):
And the fish are deep.

Speaker 5 (28:28):
The crappies are very deep. Some of the sunfish and
fishing are in ten to twelve feet of water and
they're still biting. And I'm catching lots and lots of
little ones. I'll catch ten fish and I'll keep one
that you know seven and three quarters to eight inch sunfish,
and those are nice and I only keep like ten

(28:49):
and that's enough.

Speaker 4 (28:50):
For a meal.

Speaker 2 (28:51):
Tommy. Last question for you, my friend, and that would
be if you find some sunfish, or you see some
people fishing an area that you know are catching sunfish,
is that a place? Will those fish stay until we
get some mites?

Speaker 5 (29:08):
They will build, But there is a transition now that
the fish are going through. And because of the temperature
the water, that's why it's a big time. You know,
it's always good to have a temperature gauge in your boat,
and the surface temp tells you a lot. And now
being in the low fifties, it tells me that these fish.

(29:33):
Most of the fish will stage out in deep water
and they'll sit out there until it's freezing. And if
you get some nice weather and it gets in the
sixties or whatever. Now it's supposed to be nice next
week for a couple three days, and it's going to
be in the fifties and possibly in the higher fifties
or maybe sixties, some of these fish will move right

(29:57):
into the shallow water. Billy, this is when you can fish.

Speaker 2 (30:01):
Off shore again.

Speaker 5 (30:02):
So this is a good time. To fish off shore,
to tell you the truth, and if you're lucky enough,
these fish will move in right where you're fishing and
you can catch a bunch of fish right there. But
then after starts getting cold again, these fish do tend
to stay in the deeper water for the whole winter,

(30:22):
and that's why you'll get some of the nicest schools
of fish in some of the deep holes in these lakes.
And that's why you see all these fish houses sitting
in basically one area, and if you look it over
on a map, they're sitting over some of the deepest
water in that lake. So that just tells you where
these fish are moving.

Speaker 2 (30:43):
Okay, well, sir, I'm assuming you're going to fish today.

Speaker 5 (30:47):
Yes, okay, and it's going to be for trout again
and I will have marshmallows.

Speaker 2 (30:54):
Okay, Tommy, Well, we'll catch up in a week or
so and find out if you had success or having
success and if we can share that with our listeners.
As you're so good at my friend, thank.

Speaker 5 (31:04):
You, thank you, thank you, Billy, and you have a
fabulous weekend yourself, and we'll talk soon.

Speaker 2 (31:11):
We will. That's Tommy George, prom angler, Tommy George and
he is never afraid to tell somebody where he is
and what he's doing, and that's helpful to a lot
of our listeners, including yours. Truly. We'll take a pause
and be back, and we've got some deer talk coming up,

(31:33):
some fish talk coming up, and general it's some random
conversation right after this with mister Tony Mariatti. We'll be
right back few minutes after the hour of six am

(32:03):
on a Fan Outdoors Saturday. I am Billy Hildebrand, really
glad you're here being taken care of very very well
by our executive producer, mister Brett lake Bourne. He has
done just a fabulous job for the time he's been here,
and he's been here quite a while. We're glad that

(32:23):
very pleased that he is able to stay with us too.
I like that it's welcome on next guest because he's
a pretty much of a regular on Fan Outdoors and
I know when last I spoke to him, he was
not able to join us because he was on his
way to Lake Winnipeg on an open water fishing trip

(32:48):
up there. Mister Tony Mariotti, Well, the experience on Winnipeg
was it as positive as the last time you were
were up there on hard water, well, it.

Speaker 4 (33:05):
Was not quite as positive simply because Big Windy lifted
up to his name, and uh it was windy and
blowing and we got some beautiful fish. But it definitely
was a challenge because we dealt with four and five
foot waves, very visibility.

Speaker 2 (33:25):
Holy smowy, wow, those are those are big waters.

Speaker 4 (33:31):
Man, big waters, big big Windy, And I mean it's
such a cool fishery. But yeah, we I think we
were up for three and a half days and we
were only able to get on the water for about
seven or eight hours could be out there safely. So
it was tough. But the fish that were there definitely

(33:54):
cooperated at times. But I think you know, there were
the state we had three and four inches of visibility.
Dropped your jig down and three four inches was all
you could see. And then on day three it calmed
down and we had about fifteen inches of visibility. You
could drop that jig down, you know, see it for
a foot foot and a half and then it was gone.

(34:16):
And when when you had that much visibility, the fish
definitely cooperated a little bit better. But she was she
was tough, and uh, you know, but Billy, I say
it every fall with you. This is my favorite time
of the year. So one one tough outing doesn't doesn't
make the whole fall.

Speaker 2 (34:35):
No, No, not at all, not at all, And it's
it doesn't make any difference, Tommy. It's in fact, I've
got or Tony. It's I found a deal on social
media and I copied it, that copied the picture to
my phone that said, one way, one day we will

(34:57):
hunt our last hunt until then, enjoy every single moment
of it. And the same goes for fishing too, Is it,
my friend?

Speaker 4 (35:06):
You know, I've been blessed and been fortunate twenty some
years of getting to play play this game and the outdoors,
and I don't take any of it for granted. I've
been super fortunate and I still love it. I mean,
I was out two nights ago, my son and I, uh,
seven thirty at night, we headed out to one of

(35:27):
our favorite little fall secret spots and we got out
there at about I don't know, seven forty five, and
at eight about eight thirty, he said, I'm cold. We
haven't seen any we haven't caught any. And I just
had to remind him that, no, they're not here yet.
But Hey, Bud, let's come back in a few nights,
because one of these days they're going to be here
and when it all pays off, it's so worth it. Man.

Speaker 2 (35:50):
Yeah, I totally agree. But if you and if you
don't go, you don't know. I mean, that's the key.

Speaker 4 (35:57):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (36:01):
Well you got back from one more question about Winnipeg
through the ice, is it a different ball game then?

Speaker 4 (36:09):
You know, through the ice I've been I've been pretty fortunate.
I I have been up to uh Lake, Winnipeg, I
think for the last four years, and I have never
hit it where the weather's been you know, unbearable, where
you haven't been able to travel.

Speaker 2 (36:25):
I've been out there.

Speaker 4 (36:26):
We've been able to drive pickups, We've been able to
fish outside and been able to hop around. So you know,
this this open water trip was for me. It was
a bit of a fluke because I hadn't experienced the wind,
and I hadn't experienced you know, how how rough the
water can be, how rough the conditions can be. So yeah,
it was just it was different. But during the winter,

(36:47):
I think, you know, you're you're not dealing with the
wind or you're not dealing with the turbidity. Because you
can see where you know, the ice has has formed
rough or you can see where the pressure religions are.
During open water, you don't you don't see what's happening
underneath the water. So you only have that you know,
the visibility to go by where Okay, well I don't

(37:09):
have any visibility, and things are just tougher. But no,
I mean it was a fun trip. I will definitely
do it again. It just was a little bit tougher
than I had experienced in the in the hard water season.

Speaker 2 (37:22):
Well, Tony, we're almost at the Minnesota deer Opener, and
I know that's something that you enjoy also a great deal.
Have you been thinking about that yet? I have.

Speaker 4 (37:36):
Last Friday, I actually headed up to the deer shack
and spent the day getting things ready. I got the
pro painting tanks filled, I you know, made the rounds,
ended up shooting a few grouse, got up and I mean,
I get excited for this time of year. You know,
it's fall in Minnesota. It's you know, like the old
Christmas song, It's the most wonderful time of the year. So, yeah,

(37:59):
we've got deer camp ready, I've got all the cameras
out My wife is getting very frustrated and annoyed because
I sit on my phone and check those cameras and
I talk about this. You know, Hey, I got my
sleeping bag here, and yeah, I love this time of year.

Speaker 2 (38:16):
Well so I understand that. And it's you know, I
years ago, I was I got I got to receive
some criticism from listeners because we weren't talking enough deer
and it was craps. It was like February and he
was already wanted to talk about the next season and

(38:38):
that's months and months away. But if you are a
deer hunter, it's it's an addiction that you have grown into.
You don't just assume that you get that addiction. You've
grown into it and you've earned it rightly so, but
it's it's something that's definitely it gets into your blood.

(39:01):
And I have no idea why other than the adrenaline
rush that happens when the deer comes by. Is it
never goes away? Man, it just never goes away.

Speaker 4 (39:12):
I hope not, because I absolutely love it. You know,
I tell people yesterday there was the mega meat sale
was on at the grocery store in town, and somebody
was complaining, you know, They couldn't believe that ribbis were
going for eighteen ninety nine a pound. And I heard
a guy comment, you know, well, deer seasons next week.
And I thought, if eighteen ninety nine pound is too much,

(39:35):
you don't need to get into deer hunting, because, let
me tell you something. For the seventy pounds the deer
meat I enjoy bringing home, between the gas and the
food plots and the cameras and all, this eighteen ninety
nine pound for my venison.

Speaker 2 (39:53):
Oh yeah, we don't like to talk about that doing
because I don't care if it's fish per pound or
wild pound. You just can't. You can't put a price
tag on that. You really can't. I it's priceless in
my opinion, it.

Speaker 4 (40:10):
Truly is, you know, and as especially as a dad
as you know, you know, getting your kids out there,
getting the their buddies, their friends out there, it's something
that I truly enjoy. And I don't care really if
I shoot a deer. It's about being out there.

Speaker 2 (40:26):
You know.

Speaker 4 (40:27):
My wife on day five or six will be like,
well are you are you coming home? You know, are
you seeing anything? And no, no, not seeing much. As
I you know, make sure she's not checking the cameras
that show the deer in front of me. But no,
I love it.

Speaker 2 (40:39):
I love this the year.

Speaker 4 (40:41):
I mean, the walleyes are cooperating, the crappies are cooperating,
We have deer cooperating. I even had five grouse the
other day in one trail camp photo, sitting in a
food plot, and I just thought, oh, you know, I
should get their grouse hunting. You know what am I doing?
And I love it?

Speaker 2 (40:59):
Yeah, I do, Tony. And there's there's something I don't
know what exactly. We have to take a break pretty quick,
but I don't know what it is, but there's something
addictive about the outdoors. And somebody I would just ask
a few weeks ago if I had any intention of
moving south for the winter and then coming back, and

(41:20):
I said no. I mean I complain about the winter
when it's long and it's cold and it's dark, but no,
I people have to have something to complain about or
they're just not a human. But no, I love the
seasons too, man. And it's a it's really really incredible.
Minnesota is a special place for that reason.

Speaker 4 (41:43):
Yeah, it truly is, and I enjoy it. If we've
got to go to a break. I can certainly hang
on here, but yeah, I look at you know, I'm
ten twelve years away from retirement, and at that point
I think, do I want to leave Minnesota? Well maybe
for maybe for a month, and then I want to
go somewhere warm where I can fish and be in

(42:04):
a boat, and I want to do the same things
I do here. So I completely understand.

Speaker 2 (42:10):
Yeah, I do too, man, I do understand. But I
love being behind my dog or dogs as the case
may be, and I'm looking forward to the plural part
of that. But there's more to it than just what
you put in your game pouch or what you have
in your live well or what you're taking home. There's something,

(42:34):
there's something intrinsic about it that I can't put words to,
but I've experienced it, and I do each time I
go Tony, we will take that pause, and we will
maybe a little literally, but we'll take that pause and
we will be back and you could say with us, correct, Yep,
I'll be here, wonderful, Tony Marriotti is our guest. We

(42:58):
will will take that come back and ask Tony if
he's got some dear stories that he can share with us. Also,
stories are fun because the everybody's got him. And whether
it's a successful story or a miss or one that
you just couldn't find and it's still bothering you there

(43:18):
years later, it makes a difference. So we'll take that pause.
We'll be back with more after this over back. Yep,

(43:44):
we are back. I just watched a green light followed
by a white light heading up the lake to the north,
and uh, it's obviously a motor boat heading up to fish.
And it's dark. I mean it's really dark. Our guest

(44:09):
is Tony Ryottie. We're talking well, deer hunting, fishing, and
all things in between. Tony, if you were going out
it seems in the fall and cold like this, do
you really have to get out this early?

Speaker 4 (44:28):
You don't have to, But for some of us, like
maybe you like me, come six o'clock. It seems like
I'm a lake and the house is awfully quiet this morning,
so it's a perfect time to sneak out. I don't
have anybody wanting to come with me. I don't have
anybody needing an extra pair of mittens or an extra snack,

(44:51):
So I love to sneak out this time of the morning,
and here in Detroit Lakes. You know, the only people
that I'm seeing out on the lakes this early are
the musky guys. A lot of monkey fishermen are hitting
the water early in the morning, and it seems like
even late at night, I see those green and red
lights you know, out in the lake as the monsky
fishermen are doing what they do.

Speaker 2 (45:12):
Yeah, that's true. I but you know, honestly, my friend,
I am not equipped to in my either mentally or
with the equipment wise, to be out this early and
try to accomplish anything. I mean, if I can't see
what's going on, there ain't no way I'm going to

(45:33):
get it. And traveling in the dark two by boat
with just the red and green bow light, that's a
little bit. Well, I've done it, but it helps to
be able to see where you're going to It does.

Speaker 4 (45:49):
But you know what, I guarantee that those boats are
younger than you and I. And there was a time
that I was that angry at the fish that I
was out there early. I had my headlamp and getting
things to see. As I'm getting a little bit older,
it seems like I'm not that angry at the fish.

Speaker 2 (46:06):
I hear you. I really I was just thinking that
the other day when I was hunting. In fact, I
had I had a hand mallard. I told people our
listeners earlier in the show, I had a head mallard
right down on the bank, and nah, you know it's
she's definitely she could be dead, but it's just not

(46:28):
that important anymore. Plus then I've got to take the
time to clean it and go put boots on to
get it, and I don't want to do that. That's why.

Speaker 4 (46:38):
That's why I think as we get older, pheasant hunting
becomes more more intriguing and more popular because you can't.
You can't get out there till mine in the morning.
You know, I don't want to. I just I can't.
So I'm gonna have breakfast, I'm gonna sleep and enjoy
that extra cup of coffee and yeah, cosant huntings where
it's that billy.

Speaker 2 (46:56):
I'm telling you, boy, I'm with you, I really am.
Although my oldest son just can't understand that. He just
thinks that's, uh, it's a travesty not to be out
there at be awake at you know, three o'clock in
the morning, can be out there trumping through the whatever.
It just seems like a lot of work. And you're right,

(47:17):
I'm not that mad anymore.

Speaker 4 (47:19):
Hey, go ahead, go ahead, No, I said, I'd still
her kids giggling at eleven forty five last night as
Halloween wrapped up and daughter had friends over. And yeah,
if I'm getting up at four am, you're not going
to hear anybody giggling at eleven pm.

Speaker 2 (47:37):
No, no, no, no, I hear you, man, I really do.
Hey with we were talking deer hunting just before, and
you mentioned you got cameras out and things like that.
You've got to have some memories that of deer hunting,
her deer hunting trips or or shots or a particular animal,

(47:59):
or your kids first dear or just taking them. I'll
bet that they stick vividly in your mind.

Speaker 4 (48:08):
Yeah, there are so many great memories.

Speaker 2 (48:11):
You know.

Speaker 4 (48:11):
I grew up and I had the real interest in hunting,
and my dad didn't hunt.

Speaker 2 (48:15):
My dad was a true.

Speaker 4 (48:16):
Fisherman, was a musky guy back in the late seventies
early eighties, where they would go all day and if
you saw a fish, that was a successful day. And
so I grew up not really getting introduced to hunting.
But then I met a buddy Who's who in ninth grade,
This old dat us as well. I had my shotgun
in my locker and I would have the bus driver

(48:39):
drop me off on the way home so I could
hunt rabbits. And I remember this kid, Adam, said hey,
you hunt, and I said, yeah, I like to, and
he and I formed the friendship. And his dad actually
passed away in March two years ago, and his dad
just kind of took me under his wing and let

(48:59):
me hunt their farms. And I mean, I shot my
first deer on one of their farms.

Speaker 2 (49:05):
And.

Speaker 4 (49:06):
I was drawn to the sport. And I've had both
my kids out for you season. My daughter chose not
to shoot a deer. She had the gun up and
we had deer in front of us, and she looked
at me in one big crocodile teer ran down her
face and she kind of shook her head, and I
just said, it's okay, you know, let's just watch, and

(49:26):
I took the gun and we watched raccoon. We watched
several deer. We had a crow land on top of
the deer stand, and it is a memory in my
mind that wasn't the you know, in the general term,
wasn't a successful hunt, but it was an awesome experience
with my daughter and she still loves to go and

(49:47):
sit in the deer stand, just no desire to hunt.
My son shot his first dole last year youth season,
and it's something I will never forget. But then, you know,
this year, I said, hey, gonna go to you season.
He's like, well, do you have any bucks on camera?
I said, nope, but you never know what's going to
show up and he said, no, I don't. If I don't,

(50:08):
if I'm not going to have a chance of the buck,
I don't want to go. And I said, okay, that's
up to you. And you know, those are the things
for me that really stick out because I had such
a drive and a passion for it at a young
age that I didn't care if I didn't see anything.
I just wanted to be out there. And my kids
don't have that flight, burning desire, but I'm there for him.

(50:32):
If they want to do it, let's do it. They
have that opportunity. So those are both things that stick
out in my mind. I don't know, I get a
kick out of deer camp A couple of years ago,
I gave my brother for for Christmas, I said, this
is for the deer camp. And I gave my brother
a pair of gym Zumbos boots. They were ostrous boots

(50:55):
that came from an ostrich that he killed and I
had him signed and they are our talking point at
the deer Shock. And you know, we go in and
those those boots tho zumbos are there and okay, is
this is going to be the year and we share
stories and as silly as an old pair of boots
to an old hunter, or that belong to the old hunter,

(51:17):
I mean, those are things we go around. Imagine what
those boots have seen. Imagine imagine the stories that those
could tell, and we share them every year, and yeah,
the stories never get old. I just I love it.
I love this time of years.

Speaker 2 (51:31):
Yeah, I totally agree with you, Tony, and both the
stories of your kids are our wonderful memories. And oftentimes
it's not the deer that's hit the ground, the the
deer that died, the deer that provided food for your table.
It's it's the whole activity of the whole experience. And

(51:51):
when you're talking about the boots that you are and wondering.
You know, where they've been and what they've seen. I've
got this giant, giant tree out on my driveway, or
you drive into the cabin and I keep thinking, you know,
you can't get your it would take three sets of
arms to get it around it. And I keep thinking,

(52:14):
if you could only see just glimpse into the past
of what this tree has seen as it's grown, it
would be so incredible, so so incredible, because it's got
to be hundreds of years old. But those are all things,
and the experiences in the outdoors they cause some of

(52:37):
the wondering about the boots that you've got. You know,
what they've seen, where they've been, and you can fantasize
about it. You can you can pretend that you're wondering
what it's about. Maybe you know but it or you
don't know. That's the magical part of all this. And
sitting on a deer stand, at least for me, on

(53:00):
a deer stand, watching for sometimes hours, your mind just
goes through all kinds of scenarios and you imagine a
deer walking, or you imagine something something coming and it's
a squirrel or a pheasant going through dry leaves, or
a grouse. A grouse makes so much noise when they're

(53:22):
going through the woods. You just have no idea until
you've experienced it. And all those things that you'd never
even think about happen on a deer stand when you're waiting,
and when the actual animal walks by, the adrenaline and
my heart just absolutely pounds until it's time to squeeze

(53:46):
the trigger. And then everything goes quiet and you squeeze
the trigger. And if you know it's a good shot,
or if you've missed, you know that too. You had
to hate to think about that, or wound a deer,
You just hate to think about that. But you're going
to wait for a long time, and then you're going

(54:07):
to get down and go look, because if you don't wait,
I've kicked myself too there and I'll bet you have to, Tony.
You don't wait long enough, and you get over where
it was and said it jumps up and it's gone,
and then you're trying to track it, you lose the
blood trail, and uh, goodness, gracious, you got to learn.

(54:28):
And it's hard to wait.

Speaker 4 (54:31):
And I can tell just by that little story that
you shared that that's the allure of the outdoors, and
until you experience it, you can't describe it. And you
just a great job of describing it. I laughed, because
when I'm in a deer stand or I'm on a
fish house, whatever, there's no way that back that hurt

(54:51):
this morning doesn't hurt anymore, that neck doesn't Oh, everything
kind of goes away and you're just in a moment.
And maybe it's that as we get older, I just
I can't describe that feeling because there there is there's
no aches and pains, there's no other thoughts in my
mind than being in the moment. And that's what's so
great about the outdoors. That's what does it for me

(55:14):
that that has become you know, my or my drug
is that feeling of nothingness. Nothing hurts, nothing is missed.
You know, Hey was that a shooting star?

Speaker 2 (55:27):
Hey?

Speaker 4 (55:27):
Look at that all over there. It's all about the
experience of being in the outdoors.

Speaker 2 (55:32):
Yeah, total, totally, totally, totally agree, Tony. Hey man, we're
out of time, but I want to wish you success
for the upcoming deer season, and I'm looking forward to
catching up with you again. We can talk, we can
talk stories, we can talk about the the hunt that
is going to be and I wish your success that

(55:54):
I hope you good times. You know the other thing, Tony,
that at deer Camp food tastes so much better than home,
and I can't tell I won't tell that to my spouse,
but it doesn't I can't rep I can't duplicate it
when I go home and I'm trying to cook there.
But everything tastes good at dear camp.

Speaker 3 (56:13):
Man.

Speaker 4 (56:13):
Every two day old chili just barely warm enough is
amazing at dear camp. We're at home. Yeah, I'll I
think I'll have a standlmpon said. I agree with you, Billy.
I truly appreciate it, and we're going to be at
first I soon it and I can't wait to talk
fishing even you know, coming up in the next few weeks.

Speaker 2 (56:33):
I'm wonderful. Best of luck, my friend, and thank you
for joining us this morning too. It's much appreciated.

Speaker 4 (56:39):
Appreciate you, Thanks, Billy, good luck this season.

Speaker 2 (56:42):
Thank you man. That's Tony Marriotti. He is. He's an
awesome guy, and he enjoys the outdoors as much as
I do. He really really does. And he's a good guy.
I do. I wish him success. I wish you all success,
I really really do. If you go afield, But like
I said earlier, please please be safe, besed not only

(57:05):
you but your family, the strangers that you're about to meet.
Be safe and know where you're going. Take care of
that gun muzzle and know what's behind your target too.
We'll take a pause, be back with Tackle Terry right
after this man. Eighteen minutes after the hour of seven o'clock.

(57:39):
We're joined now by Tackle Terry Tuma Tackle. Are you
still in your boat or are they put away and
you're watching from the shore just dreaming about fishing again.

Speaker 6 (57:51):
Well, good morning, Bill, and good morning everyone. No, I
just checked the last boat into story, so what a
little shed of tear. I didn't expect whether to stay
this warm. But I am going to be looking at
shore fishing, which can be fat. Company was just asking
me about the shore fishing the other day. You can
have some really some great results, Bill, Well.

Speaker 2 (58:12):
You can. And you know there's not a lot of
effort that people have as far as places to shore
fish other than some piers, not like it was years ago.
Because years ago, Terry, I could walk down to the
park here in town and there would be a whole
line of anglers down there and they're all fishing from shore.

(58:35):
The boats were much smaller, but shore fishing was something
that was a real popular thing, but not so much anymore.

Speaker 6 (58:44):
You're exactly right, Bill, And I don't know the reason
why if everybody's just once they put their boats away,
they're so involved in hunting and maybe thinking ice fishing
that they have, you know, just sort of resigned from
shore fishing. But you're right, you can have some unbelievable
fishing fat I just talked to somebody yesterday and they
were fishing at channel, catching walls up to twenty two

(59:06):
inches in Yeah.

Speaker 2 (59:08):
Yeah, in the channels are something I know when I
was out at Devil's Lake. It's a lot of rock
and things like that, but the channels, the channels afforded
some real success and we have that here on Sock
Center too, the Narrows Bridge.

Speaker 6 (59:24):
There's a lot of areas that do have these channels.
And you know also too, you know, night fishing, evening fishing,
just before dark. If you can find a nice flat
shoreline area where lakes have a lot of water, you'll
see those walls come right up into the shadows to
feed and if you've got a flash flight, you can

(59:44):
see those eyes just glowing.

Speaker 2 (59:48):
You can. The problem I always had terry as a
youngster was I'd put them on a stringer on the shore.
My kids don't know what a stringer is anymore. And
then how did you lock it in? I used to
put some rocks on them, but invariably, once in a
while they pull it out of the rocks and the
stringer and the fish are gone.

Speaker 6 (01:00:08):
But you're exactly I remember those days to using that stringer.
But you know too now what you know, especially fishing
crappies and something you can you know, obviously use a bucket,
but for a wallet, yes, the stringer was a big factor.
And I think a stringer today is almost an antique.

Speaker 2 (01:00:26):
And I think so, well, it's just you and I
remember them, my friend.

Speaker 6 (01:00:33):
Right, I know they're still for say, I was just
at the local day shop and they still have them.
But yeah, we have really really changed, and I think
too right now is in fact, I had another question
about putting boats away, and it's something I or have
you put your boat away? It appears that most angry,
not all of them, by no means of survey angers

(01:00:54):
have put their boats away, and here too, if you
doing the ice fishing, you have a heated garage, or
you into that regular garage, you can fish throughout the winter,
especially on the river system, providing it doesn't stay at zero.

Speaker 2 (01:01:08):
Well, Terry, it used to be on the lake that
I'm sitting on right now, about this time of year,
the lake would be practically froze. All the small bodies
of water would be frozen by now, and this was
the only thing left. But it was unheard of, underheard
of to have a boat on this body of water
when it was this late in the year.

Speaker 6 (01:01:29):
Oh, you're right. I was just thinking about that this morning.
In fact, Bill, you know, I just looked at the
extended the forecast for the next couple of weeks. Yeah,
and it doesn't look like we're going to have It's
going to cool way down, which is normal and probably accepted,
but here too, it's not this real cold weather that
we normally would have. And maybe it's a good thing
to built right now. Anyway, we're getting quite a bit

(01:01:50):
of rain at home, and if it was snow, I
think we'd be pollen snow by now.

Speaker 2 (01:01:56):
You get that nail man that's true.

Speaker 6 (01:02:00):
You know, there's a lot of buses, but you're right,
you know, we can really get out there and have
some you know, great, great fishing right now, even if
the boats are stored. You know, just in fact, somebody
was asking where I fish from shore. I mentioned told them,
And I think a lot of people are sort of
under that aspect of well, we're just not going to

(01:02:23):
have any results, you know, or just too quota we
don't want to stand I'm sure, But to be very
honest with you, I really enjoy short fish. It's a
big change in you know, fishing. It's sort of fun
in sort of relaxing and just getting out there and fishing.
And you know, we always have that early morning concept
early evening, but throughout this time frame, even a nice

(01:02:45):
sunny day, throughout the day, you can do quite well fishing.

Speaker 2 (01:02:49):
What do you look for in a spot to go
darry Well.

Speaker 6 (01:02:53):
Generally speaking, what I do you know some of that
even at this time of the year, for several species
of fish with sandy beaches can be very productive because
there again the water warms up a little bit and
even you know, throughout the day you can have a
good bite going sun or no sun and also to
some of the fishing piers that are out there can
old fish and then any kind of you know, there's

(01:03:15):
some green wheeze left, and there are going to be
a few green wheeze left. Those are going to be
extremely productive. And I do a like where you have
deeper water. If you can cast a deeper water, then
bring your baits and lures back up into the shadows.
That can be extremely productive for it just about every specie.

Speaker 2 (01:03:32):
Would you primarily fish with a bobber or maybe something
on the bottom rather than casting real.

Speaker 6 (01:03:41):
No, I don't, Bill, I do both. I do cast
with and use a bobber, but I also do some
crank bait fishing. And if I'm fishing bass, I'm going
to use a wacky work and net drags. Both those
extremely productive. And then two for walleye fishing. For cropping sunfish, yes,
a barber can be very productive, but it really depends

(01:04:04):
on the bite, you know, how active they are. But
I think so often we feel well in the fall
fishing short needs to be a bobber. I've watched some
of English. In fact, I drew by a lake the
other day and an anger. This was in the evening,
and I'm sure he was fishing crappie.

Speaker 2 (01:04:19):
He was using a.

Speaker 6 (01:04:19):
Bobber and Barbara's are good to a certain point. But
if you got some active fish, or if you're targeting
like walleyes in bass, I would definitely go with you
crank Baker plastics.

Speaker 2 (01:04:32):
You know the other thing, Terry, you mentioned bass fishing,
when years ago nobody fished bass late into the fall, nobody,
not one person. Now, all of a sudden, it's become
quite popular. I'm surprised at that.

Speaker 6 (01:04:46):
Yeah, it really has become very, very and you're right,
you know, it wasn't a real space that was pursued here,
you know, a few years ago, but now it is,
and you can have some unbelievable fishing at this time
of the year. In fact, one of the biggest best
ever clock bill was at this time of the year
and two feet of water. And so therefore, then, you know,

(01:05:10):
we I think so often it almost seem that we
sort of follow trends in fishing. You know, this specie,
that specie, this bait, this lower and so forth, and
here too, we can have I think in the fall
lake fall bass fishing is really productive along with walleye fishing.

Speaker 2 (01:05:28):
I know walleye fishing because as they transition, I have
no idea where they're going, but I'm told that they
will transition. It like on this particular body of water,
they go under the they move back and forth through
the bridge, which is a very narrow spot from the
upper lake to the lower lake where there's a dam
down there, and as they move people are fishing in

(01:05:53):
that and moving water. But I really don't know a
whole lot about it because there are Honestly, Terry, I've
never done it.

Speaker 6 (01:06:03):
I fished below there, no real recently, but you know
a few years even all the way up to things giving.
Fact one thing is giving a few years ago, I
put him on my bigger pike. In those conditions, you
can you know, fishing below dam can be extremely productive.
I think, especially for walleye fishing. You can again to

(01:06:25):
provide you've got a walleye population, but you can have
some fantastic walleye fishing and even in the evenings, a
fishing like rip raps along the river bank. Again a
very very productive timeframe of catching walleys and nobody's fishing.

Speaker 2 (01:06:41):
Yeah, that's very true. I mean I have seen one
boat thus far today heading up the lake and with
lights on. That's just well, they still have to have
lights on. But there there's just nobody out now, and
that wasn't the case about a week ago. We had
a number of boats out fishing. But yeah, and like

(01:07:02):
you said too, a lot of people have their boats
put away, but there's more and more people that are
keeping their boats. And whether their garages are heated or not,
I think they just put them away and they seem
to be okay. I don't know if I would do that,
but again I'm the product of winter rise. Put it away,
cover it up, and there we go.

Speaker 6 (01:07:25):
Well, I think if you have you know, I think
a lot of people have, you know, sometimes the room
prop issues and so forth. You know, where can we
store it? What do we have storage available at home?
And yes, you can use your boat drought the wintertime,
you know, especially if you're river fishing. Is all you
have to do is you know, make sure you're life
while drained obviously, and then just hit the key a

(01:07:48):
couple of times on your outboard. Just pump up now
you don't want to start it. And the same thing
with your toting more to just drop it down, let
it drip out the water, and you can go constant,
constant fish through out the winter time. Just use common
sense is the main thing.

Speaker 2 (01:08:02):
Well, And I think dropping your motor down straight, Terry,
so you drain all the water out of it, rather
than tip it up and load your boat on a
trailer and then head home and leave it tipped up
like that. You've got water inside that and that will freeze.

Speaker 6 (01:08:19):
Oh, there's no question about that. Yeah, you know, and
you're one hundred percent right, Bill. If you drop it
way down, it's amazing how much water comes out of
that prop area. And that's another big, big pus factor.
It just and what you can do too if it's
you know, if you go you're making sure that your
life well is you know, completely dry, and hit the

(01:08:41):
bills pump a couple of times too, because that will freeze.
And then you got issues the same thing with the lines,
and you can what you can do if you really
are concerned, like in the wintertime, depending on where you're fishing,
how you're fishing, and what kind of storage, you can
pull the RV and I freeze in there. That'll help
the situation.

Speaker 2 (01:09:02):
Yeah, I agree, Terry does If you do put some
RV any freeze in it? Do you have to pump
when you're gonna use it again? Do you have to
run some water and drain it before you put fish
in there? Yes?

Speaker 6 (01:09:14):
I would definitely do that. Yes, and the bed, you know,
you can easily do that. Not you know, maybe just
before you leave, take a you know, just a little
pail of water just or just before you unload your
boats and wherever you're going to be fishing. It just
rints that out because what's going to have You know,
if you're not going to use your live well, then
you can leave it in. But if you're going to

(01:09:36):
use your live well, especially for walleye fishing, you need
to pump it up. But you don't want that a
freeze in there would fish.

Speaker 2 (01:09:43):
I know that. I've talked to some people that have
seen boats that are bunk boats, bunk trader boats. Do
they up in the rainy or something up on rainy
river They might fish and then load the boat. Well,
the bunks freeze to the boat's freeze to the bunks,
and it makes it a little more difficult to launch it.
Plus they'll slide right off if you don't tie them

(01:10:06):
down too.

Speaker 6 (01:10:07):
Well, you're exactly right. In fact, I'm glad you brought
that up, Bill, because I remember this is not you know,
in the last couple of years, but maybe three four
years ago, somebody had a brand Ulan boat and this
was up on the rainy and they backed in with
the bunk trailer and they the bunked froze and they

(01:10:29):
loaded up the boat. But makes some sort of easy loading,
of course, but they didn't tie them tie it down.
So the boat brand new land sip right off on
the ram laying there. That's not a good situation, No,
it's not.

Speaker 2 (01:10:45):
I mean then you scratch your head. You get out
and look at it and wondering, first, stupid, what did
I do that for? Next to what am I gonna do?

Speaker 6 (01:10:53):
Exactly right? And you know, and all the damage. You know,
how are you going to load it? Doing?

Speaker 2 (01:10:57):
Thing?

Speaker 5 (01:10:57):
You can do it?

Speaker 6 (01:10:58):
Just try to push it back in the water.

Speaker 2 (01:11:01):
Yeah, Yeah. And the other thing I'll do, Terry. I
always keep my humbird electronics down in the basement. I
keep warm and I don't let those freeze up. I
don't know if it'll hurt them or not, probably not,
but I just don't like that.

Speaker 6 (01:11:16):
Yeah, well, and there's nothing wrong wrong with doing that
same thing with batteries. You know, you don't have to,
you know, the old philosophy used to be, I'll take
your batteries out and put them in a warm area,
and you don't have to do that anymore. But I do,
you know, on the vexas I do, I'll turn that
power off completely, and on the smaller boat, I disconnect
the battery and I do leave it in, just making

(01:11:39):
sure that you're fully charged. And I think you said
too that you have a trickle charger that you usually
all winter long.

Speaker 2 (01:11:46):
Yeah, I've got a Hummingbird on board charger in it
or a Minkota on board charger, and I just leave
it plugged in all year long, so it requires it
knows when it wants some charge, and the trickles at
all winter long. I get in the spring, I'll just
uncover it, unplug it, and we're ready to roll. I mean,

(01:12:07):
that's it's been working for years and years like that,
and I'm not going to stop doing it.

Speaker 6 (01:12:12):
Well, and there's no reason too, you know. And you
know by doing all this, you know, cleaning out your boat,
taking your rods out and so forth, and then in
the spring, then you're all set to go. I don't
know how many times you've talked there, Well, we got
to do this, we got to do that. We need
to get the oil change or whatever. Do it now,
or do it in the fossil when open water does come,

(01:12:34):
or if you're going fish river system, you're ready to go.
You don't have to do all that prep work of
launching and getting the boat ready.

Speaker 2 (01:12:42):
Are you going fishing today, Terry?

Speaker 6 (01:12:44):
No, I'm not as raining here. Okay, just you know,
it's been sort of goofy week for weatherwise, but I
just in fact, I just looked at the forecast. I'm
gonna be fishing out next week, but you're talking maybe
even sixty next week.

Speaker 2 (01:13:00):
Yeah, we had rain all day yesterday and it's pretty
wet outside, but neither.

Speaker 6 (01:13:07):
Of the two yesterday, and then we had rain prior
to that. So we've had a few rainy days, which
is fine for the trees and the grasses and lawns
and so forth before it freezes up.

Speaker 2 (01:13:18):
Terry, we'll catch up in a couple of weeks, sir.
Until then, I hope you have a great day and
some fishing if you go.

Speaker 3 (01:13:26):
Well.

Speaker 6 (01:13:26):
Thank you, Bill, you to take care and hate to
all of us. We don't have to put our boats
away yet, but if you are show for a shame.

Speaker 2 (01:13:34):
There you go. That Stackletary joins us every other week
on Fan Outdoors. We will take a pause on our return.
We're going to talk some more stories with Andy Peterson
of Wellman Sports Marketing. Andy has two youngsters that love
to hunt, and I think, well, we'll talk to Andy

(01:13:55):
about whether or not they've had success and what his
plans are for next weekend's Dear season, Dear opener. Right
after this last segment, The music tells you that doesn't

(01:14:40):
it If you've been listening for a while, That is
that particular music was selected by our executive producer. And
so we all know that it is the last segment.
But we have certainly not we're not shortage of information
coming out because our next guest has he's a friend,

(01:15:04):
but he's also an accomplished hunter and fisherman too. Mister
Andy Peterson from Wellman Sports Marketing is going to join us,
we hope, and the delay is my fault because I
gave I gave Brett the wrongful number for Andy, and
I hope he's trying to contact him now. But I

(01:15:25):
know Andy has two young children that are loving the
sport of deer hunting, and he has some stories that
we've shared and over the years we talked about another
one of his relatives who is now an adult and

(01:15:47):
she's just married. But it was the cutest interview I
think I've had on this station because she had just
gotten her first dear and she explained it word for
word to us, and that was pretty special. And I
thought I had a copy of that interview, and I
can't find it if I do, And so I'm not
sure if if Brett is having any success with Andy

(01:16:12):
or not.

Speaker 5 (01:16:13):
Not a lot.

Speaker 2 (01:16:14):
All right, well we can. I'll tell you one of
my stories then about I think I have shared it
in the past, but we talk about youngsters and hunting,
and one of the for my youngest son, his first
deer was we were out on some private land up

(01:16:35):
around Detroy Lakes. It was actually around Audubon and he
was up on a knob on the top of a
hill and he wanted to hunt by himself. Well, Dad
didn't want to be very far away because this would
be the first time he would be on a stand
by himself, making their own decisions. And so I went

(01:16:58):
down below this hill and I'm sitting there and I'm
watching for deer, but I'm more thinking about him and
this particular instant, and I waited. It was for a
couple hours, and all of a sudden he was shooting.
He was shooting a shotgun, a twenty gage and all

(01:17:19):
of a sudden the gun blast went off. Startled me
so much that I almost fell out of the tree.
And I wasn't very high. I was about four feet
off the ground on a portable stand so and I
have visions of falling out, and if I'd fought doze
or fall asleep. I didn't like that anyway. So I'm

(01:17:40):
sitting there and bang, and I'm jumped, and I thought, oh,
I wonder if he got it. I just but I
had hammered into his head that he couldn't he couldn't
move for a long period of time, and just wait,
You've got to wait, you gotta wait. And at about
twenty minutes later, I heard this little tiny voice above

(01:18:03):
me say, Dad, I think I got one. And he
was excited, I could tell in his voice. And he
waited until I got up there to the top of
the hill, and it didn't take me long either, because
they wasn't real far away. Well here, about fifteen twenty

(01:18:23):
yards away, lay a dough in the leaves. He made
an excellent shot, and we did a lot of high fives,
took some pictures, and he told me the story and
exactly how it happened over and over again, and he
was just thrilled, thrilled with it. And we got it

(01:18:45):
field dressed up there and drug it down to the
bottom of the hill, and then we went back into
the farmhouse and got a four four wheeler, took it
out there and hooked it, put it on the wheeler
on the rack, and came back into the house. But
it was his first dear and it was an It

(01:19:07):
was really really fun. Now. The other one with Eric
was before that, obviously, because he's oldest, and we were
hunting farm country and once again he's shooting a youth
model twenty gauge and I was shooting the twelve gauge.
I had five shots, he had three. A buck came

(01:19:27):
on full sprint across a field full sprint, and I
picked the gun up and he was he was a
ways away, but not that far. I picked the gun
up and I shot not once, but five times at
that buck. It was a big one too, and I missed,

(01:19:49):
just flat missed. Eric took that twenty gage and he
was a little ways away from me. He took one
shot with that twenty game and that buck rolled down
the ravine absolutely tipped head over tea gettle and rolled

(01:20:10):
down the ravine. I looked dumbfounded at him, and he
was pretty excited because he had knocked it. He had
tipped it over, and we hustled over to see if
he was dead, and he was dead as a door nail.
That big buck was dead. And he had taken him
on a dead, flat run and one shot and he

(01:20:35):
dad had shot five and not touched a hair on
that animal. So both of them both are memories that
I will never have and they will be with me
until my last day on this earth. And it was
so much fun. And I think there's a lot of
us that have first memories or have memories of it.

(01:21:00):
I mean, when I was in I mentioned earlier, I
had hunted up in the big in the north Woods.
We took a camp or trader back into the woods
quite a ways back away from everything, and set the
trader up in camp. It was an annual thing went
up there and we had a place that we put it.

(01:21:21):
And it was three years I had gone without filling
a tag. Well, I filled my tag, but I didn't
shoot them. And on the fourth ear I walked back,
as I mentioned earlier, in the dark, walked all the
way back, had a stand back there in a clearing

(01:21:43):
and the corner of a clearing, and for some reason
that particular year, the deer came through there and I
tipped him over as they came, I mean one back
to camp, and then the cup more later that day,
and the next day I think I got two more,

(01:22:07):
and they were all hanging in a pole. We referred
to it as the meat pole in camp, and they
all were tagged legally because we were party hunting. And
I shot five of the six that we had that year,
and it was absolutely phenomenal. I mean, the guys walked

(01:22:30):
back because we had to drag him back and we
got him and they looked around at the at the
piles of well they're referred to his gut piles, and
looked around and they were spread around that clearing, and
he said, unbelievable. I can't fathom that number of guys.
A couple of guys did. They were just amazed as

(01:22:52):
I was. I had been three years without seeing a
live animal, and all of a sudden, I've got an
influx of them coming through this particular spot on it again.
Never did see another deer back there another year and
a year after that, never saw another deer. But it

(01:23:13):
was sure fun and it was exciting when it happened.
And they were dandies most I think they were. Of
the five I got, I think four were bucks and
one whatever. We must have had some dop permits or something,
because I think I had a dop permit and use
that on one of the animals. But the rest were

(01:23:36):
all tagged with the buck tags and they hung there
and it was It was quite a It was quite
an experience. And those are memories too, and they sit
vividly in my head from times past, as vividly as
the ones I've missed, the ones I didn't see. The

(01:23:59):
ones when you walk back to camp and there's some
snow on the ground, you walk back to camp because
your froze your feet or froze your hands are freezing.
Your body gets the shivers and you've got to get
warmed up again, walk back to camp, and when I
come back after getting a bite to eat, there's always

(01:24:21):
always deer tracks in your tracks when you head back out,
and I think all the time, if I just would
have waited, if I just wait, they'd come back around.
And the other things that you see while you're hunting.
We talked about that earlier today. It's phenomenal. I mean,

(01:24:43):
it's so exciting and just the peace of mind when
you get out there and I found myself and I've
thought about this a number of times too. You're racing around.
It takes me a day to a day and a
half to just slow down and just enjoy the moment.

(01:25:03):
And that's what deer hunting brings to me. That's what
hunting brings to me. You just slow down, enjoy that day,
and there's nothing that's really more important than that particular
point in time. It's pretty special. And I hope you
have that special time too. I hope you have time
that you can enjoy and you can spend time, and

(01:25:28):
you can get out in the wild. Whether you put
something on the ground, you put meat on the table,
you put a bird in your bag, doesn't make that
much difference really when you stop and think about it.
I've got a pointer. My little bree dog is in
the other room sleeping, and she just she came out,
looked at me once and thought, there's no sense in

(01:25:51):
getting all excited about this. But I'll tell you what.
When you get out in the field and she goes
on point, it's it's as exciting as anything I can
imagine a little dog. And I showed my grandson. I said,
see Jack, he's on point. A little bit later, Jack says, Papa,

(01:26:14):
she's froze again. She's froze again. And we go back
out and look it as hens, but it's fun. So
the music is playing, which means I will say thank
you to our guests, to Tommy George, to Tony Mariotti
for sharing his stories with us, or tackle Terry Tuma,
and thank you for allowing us to travel with you

(01:26:37):
on this Saturday morning. Andy, I'm sorry we couldn't catch up, buddy.
We'll do it another time. For Brett Blake Moore, my
executive producer and friend. I'm Billy Hildebrand saying I have
a fabulous week, get outside today. Okay until next Saturday.
I'll leave you with tatas