Dragonmaster's Blog

And that is what it has been. I had high hopes of finding some sheds even with our deer numbers being as low as they are. Insted I found dead deer. I found 11 and my little brother has found 6. So far it's 15 button bucks one adult buck and one small doe and two adult does. On the two adult does one was a road kill the outher was shot in late season. All the rest died of starvation. Worst part is I know there a lot more out there. I haven't even covered 1/4 of the public ground yet that hold the only food plots for miles around. And all of our deer winter yards are on private ground and the deer are walking a mile+ just to go from the yard to food, so God only knows how many dead deer are in the yards.

We have lost two big winter yards this last season due to development. I belive that one of the winter yards that is being hit hard by starvation is due to the loss of one of the yards. And with the deer population double in that yard and with them haveing to walk about a mile up and down hills and in deep snow put a lot of stress on them. And what little corn that was left in the food plot was eaten long ago. I have been looking for sheds in 5 spots so far,and have six more spots to go, and out of the 5, 3 corn fields have been picked bare. One I looked at today was striped bare and at first I thought I was seeing a lot of rubs on small trees but on a better look. I could see that the bark had been stripped off by the deer. No sheds today but the best part was I didn't find any dead deer on this ground (yet).

Iam not sure what the policy is on food plots. But I do plan on finding out. I know that farmers plant so much and then take a % off and leave the rest till spring. For myself I would like to see that changed. Plant it and leave it all winter, and take it off in spring. Our hay fields are mostly grass. When by all rights they should be planted with high quality alfalfa and red and white clover. The farmer can take most of it but leave a few round bales so the DNR can go out and break them apart later in the winter. Why can't we plant winter peas, winter wheat, pinfold kale, sorghum, winter rye, turnips, dwarf exess rape and so on. I know that it will coast some big bucks, but there is a cickadee check off on your tax return, why not a deer check off to pay for seed. Like I say, I don't know what the policy is but Iam going to find out. I would like to change it and am going to do my best to make it so.

The ice fishing was good at Waubay even with the two cold fronts that came in on us. I stayed with the same old Jigs that I alway use. And as always they paid off. They have worked in Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota.

This year at the Iowa Great Lakes the fishing was outstaning And with the new slots it's only going to get better. You can keep any walleye under 17in and one over 22in. It is still a 3 fish limet. If the DNR can keep this program going in a few more years eveyone will have a chance at a walleye of a life time.

The 3 main jigs I use are a black and silver Jig-N Rap, a glow rap and glow jig. The best way I have found to charge a glow jig is with an old Kodak Dc3200 Digital Camera. With a Digital cam you only have to recharge about evey 45-50min or so. I also tip my jigs with a minnow head. I like to put the hook through the brain and out the bottem. If you go the outher way, or start from the lower jaw and up through the nose. The head will not stay on the hook as long.

The Vexilar and Aqua-Vu play a big part. I use the Aqua-Vu to look for what I want to find. Sometimes I may have to drill 20 holes or more. This year I was lucky ( good old GPS ) only had to drill 3. Once I have what Iam looking fore. I put the cam away. Don't need no big eye gettin tangled up in the cam or some big old muski takeing a swip at it. Been there , done that. I set the iceshack on the weed line in a horseshoe pocket. Weeds behind and to the left and right. Sand below and to the front. I put a big minnow down on a plain hook and split shot at 12-18in off the bottem on the out side holes and jig on the two inside holes.

This is were the Vixilar comes into play. With the vix not only can you see your jig but can also see the fish. I jig the same 12-18in off the bottem. When a fish comes in and dos'nt slam the jig right off the bat, I will start to pull the jig up slow. 99% of the time the fish will fallow. When the fish stops I stop. Wait for the fish to start to drop back to the bottem. When the fish starts to drop, drop the jig down with it. 6 out of 10 times the eye will trun and slame the jig.

Thanks to everyone, and especially to John and Matthew, Thank you from both of us. It means a lot. More than you will ever know.

Iv got to make this short. My Boss can beat your Boss I have a post in the Field Staff Forum that tells all. It's in the fishing site. Its an all paid expenses, four day with a sleeper ice shack with all the bells and whistles. And the walleye bite is HOT. As I type this , my wife is packing my gear. Am I blessed with a beautiful woman or what. God I love her.

Will post in 5 days, on how when and where. Oh pics will be in the Field Staff Forum and the Walleye site. The Dragon has gone Fishing.

Wendell

Last night at 7:20 (Feb 7th ) My wifes cousin died of cancer. Back on Feb 2 she was given 2 weeks to two months. She didn't even make it a week.

I'v been sitting here now for all most an hr, just staring at the screen. I was a little snappy at my wife tonight. And it's taken me this long to get it worked out in my mind. ( God I can be hard headed ) We have been married now for all most 19 years. And in the last 18 years my wife has had 9 family ( most from cancer ) members die. And for some reson, God only knows, they go in 3s, on her side of the family. And Iam scrard! God sent me angel who pulled me out of a drug and bozz filled gutter, and gave me a reson to live. Not only is she my life , SHE is the LOVE of my life.

Wendell

Last night my neighbor from down the street who works for the DNR stopped by the house and asked if I would make a few bird houses out of natural gourds for a coworker who is retiring after 36 years. The deal was to make two for house wrens and one for tree swallows and one for blue birds.

Anyway he stopped back this afternoon, To check on the progress of the gourds, and I was ready for a break so we decided to take a joy ride. Went out to some plublic land east of the lakes area. Now we just had some new snow, so all the sign was fresh. We had noticed were someone had stop, you could see where there foot prints went back and forth along about a pickup length. Now Iam thinking why would anyone stop here, theres no tracks of any wild animal. So we stop, got out to look around and made it about two steps. There were four deer heads down over the bank and a black plastic bag also. The deer heads were fresh, the eyes hadn't even started to shrink in yet and the neck meat was still bright red. The black plastic bag was half full of pheasant feathers and guts also fresh, no more than a day old. My DNR friend called his superiors to report what we had found. And in there words, this is a case that may never be solved. But this is a heads up, they may not get the lowlife for this crime, but they may get the on the next on.

I put my trail cam out tonight in the back yard. I have been feeding the deer for the last 5 weeks or so. Belive me, when the deer come into my yard there hurting. We have dogs running all over the hood. I sat and watch out the back door last night, and seen something I have never seen befor. In the past few weeks I have seen does with fawns come in and feed together. But last night I had two does and four fawns, and they were beating the liveing daylights out of each outher. I don't konw how to post a pic on this blog yet, so you will have to check out the trail cam forum on Iowadeer, just wait, it will blow your mind on some of the pigmy deer that I have comeing into the feeder. There almost as big as my brittany.

Wendell

Today started off slow. Filled brid feeders, pick up all the corn cobs from last night deer feedings. feed and water the ducks. One of these days I will have to tell the story about my retared ducks, but thats for some outher time . Walked the dogs and got the ice shack of of west lake.Ice fishing for walleye is pretty well over for me here in the Iowa great lakes area. It was a good season, a lot of 14-16 3/4 in fish. Don't known what the deal was but I just could not land the big ones. Brokeoff 4 times on fish that were well over 10 lbs. Any way just had to get out and do a little shed hunting. What a bust that was. Went out to some public land west of the lakes area. Now this is some outstanding ground. On the north side is private and I have permission for this ground and for 75 days straight I watch two 10 points. One is 5.5 year old and going 150+ the outher 3.5 year old about 115-120. One eight point that lookes like a mule deer and might be a 3.5 years old and some where around 115-120. And a 6 point that is in the 130-135 in class. And all kinds of 1.5 year olds. So I had high hopes on finding a shed or two. Wroung One we have about 18+in of snow with a mix of frezzeing rain on the ground. And we just got about 5 in of snow the outher night, with my way of thinking the new snow should show me how and where the deer were going. It took me over a 1/4 of a mi befor I found a deer track. This was wroung, man I have been hunting this area for years. There should have been tracks all over the place. Then one more bend in the river and I found out why, DOGS, dog tracks every where. I don't care where I went or what I did, there they were, DOG TRACKS!! you could see where they jump the deer from there beds. You could see the running deer tracks, and right behind you could see where the dogs started to run after them. Iam PISSED OFF!!!! got to put an end to this kind of BS. So I start to back track to find out where the dogs are comeing from. Man this is not good, right back to the land owner who gave me permission to hunt his ground.

I have got too thank God for two things today. One No one was home. Two he gave me time to go home and cool off. I can be a real hot head at times. It will take a little time but Iam am sure that I will come up with a way to talk to him about his 2 black labs and the german short hair thats running deer.

Wendell

Iv never had a blog befor, so it's a new thing.

A little bit about myself. Iam 53 years old and live in Spirit Lake Iowa. Spent 8 years in the USMC and been a truck driver for most of my life. Eight years of that was over the road. I have been in all 50 of are great states and have been in and seen 15 countrys. For the last 3 years I drive a concrete truck. My passion in life is my wife, hunting, deer, sheds and shrooms. Fishing if it has fins, Iam after it. Birds, my yard is planted and maintain just for them. I also have one of the largest Purple Martin colony in NW Iowa. Thats it for tody. Time to walk the dogs, get the snow blower out, So much for shed hunting today ( 5in last night) Wendell