Fish mystery highlights 2014 trips

Hello friends:

This is my annual summary of the past year's highlights and some thoughts on what I will be doing in 2015.

I participate in camping trips every month of the year and last winter was brutal for man, beast, and fish. In the 25 years that I have been writing this column, last winter was the first time that I saw massive amounts of outdoorsmen just say "to heck with it" by mid-January and spend more time inside than they normally would have.

Because of 40 inches of ice and two to four feet of snow on the ice, there was very little oxygen left in the water, which shuts down fish from feeding. Simply put, when the lake you are fishing is running out of oxygen, the fish in it quit feeding. If the oxygen level gets too low, the fish (shallow lakes are hit hardest) in it die. The warm spell that we just experienced should keep a good bite going well into the winter of 2015.

Last June, I returned to Shultz Lake in northwest Ontario, Canada, where I have flown into and fished with family and friends since 1982. There is a portage lake that can be reached by walking from Shultz and it has lake trout in it. Until the summer of 2013, no one in our gang had ever caught one.

I was fishing with my 13-year-old daughter, Selina, when we broke the ice on that subject and last year I watched my nephew, Riley Schuster, net a beautiful 30-inch laker for Selina.

The story behind the story is I had a surprise for Selina in that I was having it mounted for her for a Christmas present. I was at deer camp when my taxidermist called and said that my laker was not a laker, but actually a brook trout. My friends, the state record brook trout is 24 inches.

I contacted some friends in early December and was told that if this was a brookie, it was going to be huge news.

My taxidermist, who is a very respected man, put his guarantee on it that Selina had a world-class trophy. I made some calls and had a good friend with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources work with another and they determined that Selina's "brookie" was actually a laker.

On Christmas Day, I gave Selina her mount, which is truly beautiful, and as of this writing, she has never heard the story I just wrote.

I watched my 21-year-old stepson, Joey Dushek, go through the grueling and expensive sport of bear baiting last May through early September, as he had his first bear tag.

I helped Joey out early in the game, but he soon proved that he did not need me. Once the season rolled around, I was Joey's cameraman and filmed him harvesting a 260-pound bear with his bow and arrow. The footage is awesome, as is the memory.

In mid-October, I had my first wolf tag. My buddy, Jody Bigalke, and I spent six days beating the heck out of my truck and our bodies. On the last day of the season, I was pulling traps and one of them had a beautiful wolf in it. Unless you pursue these critters, you cannot even describe the emotion and satisfaction of harvesting a wolf.

About all I can say about the loss of our wolf hunting and trapping season this past December is I do not trust our current President, nor anyone in his administration. They ignored biology.

If you think that Wisconsin has dwindling numbers of grey wolf, you are mistaken.

This past week, I hunted bobcat for the first time, as I received my first bobcat tag. I will hunt them until I put a tag on one or the season closes Jan. 31. I am hunting with The Bloomer Houndsmen and am very impressed.

Selina's golden retriever, or mine (ours), Fire has been bred and is due around Jan. 10.

Fire looks to have a belly full of pups and no matter what the numbers are, we are going to have a really cool January and February, as we watch the pups next to the woodstove in our living room.

On the matter of wolf hunting and trapping season removal: For those of you who think it is cool that hunters and trappers cannot harvest a limited number of grey wolves, that our WDNR biologists determine works in each zone, I have spent more time camping in more locations in Wisconsin's forests and marshes than most people.

Grey wolf numbers have to be managed by hunters and trappers, but common sense does not always rule the day.

Sunset (Mark Walters)