So it was a flashback treat when my oldest daughter joined me on a short outing over the holiday weekend. Our goal was not only to enjoy nature and have fun, but to catch enough good-size fish for a pan-fried supper.
Fifteen keeper ‘gills and a pile of throwbacks later, it was a success.
Wisconsin’s inland lakes and rivers are teeming with panfish, the most abundant sport fish in the state. Bluegills, crappies, pumpkinseeds, rock bass, sunfish and yellow perch provide more action than any other. On ultralight tackle, they put up a great fight.
And, most importantly, when larger predators sometimes go into a funk in the heat of summer, panfish continue to produce all-day action.
A small hook tipped with a worm and a split shot pinched a foot above is my go-to when fishing the deeper weeds (10 to 20 feet) in mid-summer. You can use a slip bobber if you have consistent depth, but I usually just toss it out, let it sink, and wait. If there’s no quick bite, I lift and move every 5-10 seconds. The wait usually isn’t long.
Weed edges, deep timber, cribs and rock piles are all worth a look. If you want more variety in your catch, mix in small minnows, baby leeches and other live baits.
Elizabeth Kligge of Pennsylvania is the National Deer Association’s Director of Hunter Recruitment. She likes to garden, forage, fish and hunt, and sees hunting as a way to connect people to their food and the natural world.
I recently came across a story she wrote for the NDA, “How I went from vegetarian to deer hunter.” It’s good stuff!
Kligge wasn’t raised vegetarian. In fact, she loved meat as a child. She adopted vegetarianism in high school.
“I was at that age when people often decide they want to stand for something, and I had vegetarian cousins who were the perfect age to be role-models for me,” she wrote. “The imagery I’d seen coming out of factory farms plus the fact I was a life-long animal-lover sealed the deal. I was going to stop eating meat. After all, if you love animals, why kill them?”
Fast forward through college, and she was attending a primitive survival school, first as a student, and eventually as an instructor.
Though still a strict vegetarian, she began to gravitate toward deer as a species and soon found herself delivering hide-tanning lectures and field-dressing demonstrations. To acquire demonstration subjects, she would routinely drive the local roads looking for roadkill I could wrestle into the trunk of her Nissan Sentra.
“One day, a friend of mine convinced me to try a piece of backstrap he had just seared in a cast-iron pan,” she wrote. “This animal was not intentionally killed. It was accidental, and the deer would only go to waste on the side of the road. I couldn’t really argue with that, so I gave it a try. It tasted as good as it smelled, and that was the end of me being vegetarian.”
So how did she end up becoming a hunter? Find out at https://deerassociation.com/how-i-went-from-vegetarian-to-deer-hunter/.
Any landowners involved in the Deer Management Assistance Program — as well as their families and friends — are welcome to take a road trip for a free, in-person workshop on creating young growth for wildlife at a workshop in the Grantsburg area July 19. Participants will learn about creating habitat for deer, grouse and woodcock by managing for young aspen and alder with the practice of shearing.
Register by July 14. For more information, log in to your MyDMAP, select the “Resources” page, scroll down to “Workshops and Events” and select “RSVP” next to “Fresh Growth for Wildlife.” If you’re not currently involved in DMAP and want to learn more about it, visit https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/topic/WildlifeHabitat/DMAP.
White grubs, the larvae of Wisconsin’s native May/June beetles, can cause significant damage to forest plantings. To help those who plan to plant seedlings and saplings, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’ Forest Health team has produced a fact sheet on white grubs, aimed specifically at forest plantings.
It’s the 25th in a series of Forest Health fact sheets which now includes 22 fact sheets on insects, diseases and environmental events that impact forest health, and three fact sheets on invasive plants. See the new sheet, and all the rest, at https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/topic/ForestHealth.
The 43rd annual Kewaunee/Door County Salmon Tournament begins a 10-day run Friday. It’s been a great summer of action on Lake Michigan at spots like Algoma, Kewaunee and Sturgeon Bay, though no legit 30-plus-pounders have been weighed to date. The past 10 winning K/D fish have all been larger than 30 pounds. Learn more and track the big ones at https://www.facebook.com/kdsalmon2025/.
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