New Updates in Minnesota...... 8.22.10
Posted By
Tim Filiowich
at
8/22/2010 12:00:00 AM
New Updates in Minnesota...... 8.22.10
We've got 5 groups reporting to you this week, hope you enjoy. Be sure to check back next Monday for more updates.
Southwest Minnesota:
Wow, has summer flown by Team Southwest. We’ve both had hectic travel schedules for work and will have traveled to 4 different continents over the summer before the season opens. But just because we’ve been super busy doesn’t mean we haven’t been tending to business setting up trail cams, Rack Back sites and flinging arrows.
The corn and soybean crops look great and are providing more than adequate nutrition to the deer herd in southwest Minnesota. It is about this time of year that many of our hit list bucks disappear in the corn fields until around Labor Day. This gives us some time to make sure all of our stands are set and we have our shooting lanes cut without spooking our hit list deer.
Due to the regulations last year for Area 288, we should see lots of year and a half year old bucks and does because last year there were only about 100 antlerless permits issued. And, we’ve just found out that our area will again offer 100 antlerless youth permits. What that means is that for the second year in a row, any buck bigger than button will get hunted pretty hard.
Our hit lists are coming together really well, with a blend of last years characters combined with a few new bucks on camera. We are excited to get this season started and to be bringing you the action.
~ Brian Knochenmus & Jeff Knott
Brainerd Area:
Well the season is fast approaching; the cool dry weather at the beginning of the week was just a little reminder of what isjust around the corner, Hunting season is just around the corner! Is everyone as excited as I am?
As a new prostaffer it is especially exciting to purchase all the new sponsor gear it’s kind of like Christmas! I've been shooting the new Hoyt and I love it. I've also hung some new muddy stands over the Frigid Forage plot where I got a trail cam pic of a nice 10 point I call "BIG LOU". So far he is the only hit list deer to pose for my camera but be patient there will be others. My patner Chad Stengein has had some sightings of a buck he calls "GRAMPS" on his food plot.
Now we just keep checking our trail cameras and glassing the fields on some of the properties we hunt and wait for the season to open, but its not that easy to wait so, we are headed to North Dakota during the first week of Sept. The North Dakota season opens on Sept. 3rd! I`ve done some hunting and scouting out there this past winter and have several hit list bucks out there as well. One buck I call "HI-8", I found both his sheds in March and he is a solid 140 inch + 8 pointer with a very high rack. There is also a deer I call "OH MY GOSH". This buck is such an enormous 8 pointer you can`t help but say that when you see him. So stay tuned in here with the show because we hope to bring some of these bucks as well as others as a bonus to you before the Minnesota season begins!
~Craig Warner & Chad Stenglei
South East Metro
I can’t believe it. I was just listening to the radio and I heard a commercial for Halloween. You know what that means. Bow opener is just around the corner. We are happy to be back with Midwest Whitetail again this year and are hoping to have an even better season.
The off season has absolutely blown by. We spent the spring Turkey hunting and transitioned right from there to planting food plots and preparing stand sites. We hung our first trail cams in early June and have had them running ever since. To this date the trail cams have captured well over 5,000 pictures. We have at least 2 bucks that we consider mature shooters. There is a 3rdthat we have not yet decided on. Of the 3, one of them should be very hunt able come opening weekend. He seems to be living on the property we hunt and has been showing up at our mineral lick about every 5 days on average. He has showed up at all times of the day and is proving to be very comfortable during daylight hours. We will be after this guy opening weekend for sure. The 2ndbuck has not been so friendly to the cameras. In fact, up to this point he has only shown up on a trail cam twice. That was in early June. We have been lucky enough however, to catch him in a nearby field on 3 occasions and were able to get some brief video footage of him. We are thinking our best shot at this buck will come during late October or early November. Tune into the hit list show to get a good look at these two bucks in the upcoming weeks.
If you watched some of our hunts last year you more than likely are aware of a buck we called “Stud”. We have yet to get this buck on film this summer. For that matter, we honestly have not seen any deer that we recognize from last year. We have been hunting this property for 5 years now and it seems every year we have a couple of new shooters who are using the property in the early season. When the rut comes we get a half dozen other different shooters that hang out for a few weeks. It definitely keeps things interesting as you never know what you are going to see. So check back from time to time as we will try and keep you up to date with the latest action from the Southeast Metro. Thanks for watching and good luck this early season.
Jason Christianson
East Metro Area:
Ever since attending the Midwest Whitetail Minnesota meeting in early July I have been hard at work preparing for the upcoming season. In July I spent most of my time getting my gear in order, planting my first ever food plots, and trying to capture some velvet footage. It seemed that each day in July and midway through August was either extreme heat and humidity or strong storms and rain. This really hampered my ability to get much done, but I managed to accomplish what I needed to, including getting velvet footage of a 160 inch buck to add to my hitlist. The weather finally changed this week and was able to hang 8 stands and check my trail cameras. I was happy to have the stands up, and fortunately I was able to get some good trail cam pics of a nice 10 point on the land I hunt in Wisconsin.
Although most of the physical preseason work of is done, I still can’t relax just yet. I will be using four different cameramen throughout the season and I need to work with each of them to brush up on what we need to do in order to make the best film possible.
Mike Versland
Northwest Minnesota:
Ryan and I were blessed over the off-season with the births of our first children, both girls. So between late night feedings, wet wipe runs, and being up to our elbows in dirty diapers it has been a fast spring and summer! But, we are ready to roll into another exciting year, and hope to make it even more memorable.
We were dealt a tough blow when crop rotation on our properties left a lot to be desired; no crops on one property and wheat on the other. It is also a wet year again in the Red River Valley and we might need an Air Boat to get to a few of our stands, but adjacent properties do have beans and corn, and coupled with small strategic food plots, we plan to capitalize on travel routes during the early season.
There is a solid amount of buck activity popping up on our trail cameras and a fair amount of that activity is still occurring in daylight hours. So although the first month of the season can be hot and bug filled, we will be getting after it in hopes of capitalizing on the lowered defenses of those bucks.
We will be able to hunt in ND over the archery opener (Sept. 3-5) and are chomping at the bit to get a chance at a big fuzzy horned whitetail. Remember, luck is a crossroad where preparation meets opportunity.
~Jeremy
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