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Posts: 56
Location: Appleton, WI | My husband (you may know him as Muskynightmare) introduced me to both musky fishing and deer hunting last year. I got an early start to the musky affliction, catching one my first year. I was told that muskies are very eluvise fish. (I know now that they are.) I do continue that enthusiam.
But, in my second season of deer camp (t-zone), I had my first shot at a deer! I did not inflict a life-threatening wound, but it felt GOOD!
My husband extended our fishing this year to capitalize on our musky opportunities, which I embrace and he capitalized.
But, I am SO caught up with my feelings towards deer hunting. I have told him that I would rather bow hunt next year, (of course, I need to practice) and he can pursue musky.
I've got the spirit of the wild in me. I think that I should put some meat on the table...hopefully.
I think that this a fair trade. I'll hunt and he can fish for his trophy!
I love both sports. So fish or hunt? | |
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| Personally, I like to fish. More movement involved. When you're hunting, you have to sit and be quiet, unless you're pushing deer for others. For me, it's fishing all the way. | |
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Posts: 56
Location: Appleton, WI | I am not fond of the sitting, either. So, that is a good point. I do like the constant movement involved with musky fishing.
I think that it has to do with the gun. (and the fact that I am a novice!) I really enjoyed shooting at that deer. | |
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Posts: 1060
Location: Palm Coast, FL | Lolleita,
I know exactly where you are coming from. I am a musky guide and love to deer hunt also. So, I do both. I am very fortunate to have an extremely good place to hunt. I have been hunting about 10 times year and have averaged seeing about 15 deer everytime I go out! I am waiting on a certain buck and have seen him 4 times now (12-14 point). I mainly bow hunt as the area I hunt is a protected forest inside of city limits. It is about 80 acres and 5 of us hunt it with bow only. I have also caught muskies almost everytime I have gone out in the past 3 weeks.
Maybe you could hunt one weekend with your husband and fish the next??? I used to hunt all the time and it got to the point where I was in the stand thinking I could be out fishing. Well, that urge took over and now I mostly fish.
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Posts: 654
Location: MPLS, MN | Fishing by far. | |
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Posts: 303
Location: Valentine, NE USA | If you wanna hunt....hunt.
Wether it's with a bow or a rifle, just make sure you:
a. take a hunter safety course.
b. practice, practice, practice.
c. don't get excited.
d. kill what ever it is you're shooting at. wounded game is bad.
e. have fun.
f. pass it along to your kids.
Brian | |
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Posts: 4266
| Now you understand why I wish November took up half of the year.
You have entered the world where the sign reads, YOU CANNOT SERVE TWO MASTERS.
I love fishing muskies. Always have and always will.
I also have land in western WI where I see Pope and Young bucks every year, and I have been lucky enough to take a couple.
(I don't know if you have kids, but then your options become even harder because your window of opportunity gets smaller depending on their activities.)
My fall philosophy used to be "hunt the new moon, fish the full moon", but now that my 9-year old daughter plays hockey, we lay the calender on the table next to the hockey schedule and I see how many days I can squeeze into the woods. I'll pick bow-hunting over fishing every time, unless the weather is very warm, then I'll go to The Mississippi River where the walleye fishing is awesome this time of year.
I'll be missing my 4th gun season in a row because of a hockey tournament. But I'll make that trade any time. Watching my daughter do something that she loves means more to me than doing something that I love.
As far as hunting vs. muskie fishing, I'll take a bow at this time of the year. I have a legitimate chance at a book buck every time I enter my woods. There is something about being within 20 yards of a huge buck that changes you. Sure four-footers get you excited, but 160" bucks make me shake and make my heart pound and sometimes I even think I'm going to puke or shake myself right out of the tree. As long as I'm physically able, I'll bow-hunt when I can. I'm still waiting for a year when I can arrow a big boy in October, because then I'll spend my November on the water......though most of it will still be on the Mississippi River where you can catch fat walleyes and saugers and smallies all over the place.
Make your choice, and don't spread yourself too thin, because YOU CAN'T SERVE TWO MASTERS and do them both justice. I know, because I've tried.....and I'm an old fart!
Sitting still? Yes, sitting still is boring at times, but it also affords you time to really sit back and think. My wife asks me what the hell I do when I'm out on an all day sit? I think. I reflect. I count my blessings. I turn the pages of my life and think about what I've been through and what is to come. There is always something to watch, whether it's birds or squirrels or other critters. There is something about being in full camo and have an animal almost step on you. Sitting still builds character and takes discipline. Some days I have it and some days I don't. Some nights when shooting time is past I'll even sit in the darkness and just listen and be amazed at how much nocturnal activity there is.
If you choose to take up bow-hunting, be prepared for long hours of cold and damp.....that you'll forget about when you see that first flash of brown. Practice, practice, practice....and then learn to pick a spot on the deer, a hair, and dark or light spot, because nothing is worse than hitting a deer in the wrong place. Think you feel bad watching a fish turn belly up? Try watching your arrow pass through the guts of a whitetail and then spend the better part of 2 day trying to find it knowing it is suffering a painful death. On the other hand, I've seen several deer jump and run 20 yards and stop and look back in my direction and then fall over. If you missed with a rifle, be prepared to practice alot with a bow. It's all about letting them get close and then putting the arrow where it has to be.
Do which ever makes your heart pound more.
Beav
Edited by Beaver 11/9/2005 8:43 AM
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| If it's just deer hunting - hunt. The season is so limited, you should take advantage of it when you can. You can fish when the season is closed. | |
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| When the DEER season is closed I meant. | |
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Posts: 2427
Location: Ft. Wayne Indiana | Go fishing and buy your meat at the local store. | |
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Posts: 2112
Location: The Sportsman, home, or out on the water | Ok, now my side of things.
First off, I'm blessed to have a wife that is awsome as Lori, and that she loves to hunt and fish.
I decided to forgo bowhunting this year to chase muskys later into the season. I am happy that I made that choice, although I do miss bowhunting. I am still gun hunting for deer because I like it. If I were to win the lottery, I would do nothing in the fall but bowhunt and fish Muskys. I gave up bowhunting, because the only thing that excites me more than a musky is Lori! | |
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Posts: 294
Location: Sakatchewan,Canada | Love to fish and hunt.Dont waste your money at the grocery store,put that meat in your freezer yourself!! | |
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Posts: 720
| HI
I say put your hands together and do both. | |
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Posts: 8788
| Personally, I don't hunt.
I've always enjoyed shooting very much, and while I enjoy eating wild game, I don't enjoy killing things...
Now hold on, I'm not opposed to it at all, I just feel guilty killing stuff. I don't doubt the excitement, the adrenaline, the personal reflection, and I LOVE the woods. I certainly could and WOULD hunt if I were in a place where that was how I sustained myself, and I'd have no problem at all with that. I guess it's just shooting something that I didn't need to shoot that would bother me.  | |
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Posts: 1316
Location: Madison, WI | Agreed, if i could trank em and take a picture i'd much rather hunt that way... I don't have th energy to strip em and drag them though the forest. I'll leave that up to my friends and then invite them over a BBQ. | |
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Posts: 336
Location: Lino Lakes, MN | I couldnt agree more addict. I have nothing against hunting and it needs to be done, but Im not gonna be the one to do it. I just couldnt bring myself to kill something. I think I have seen too many people do cruel things while hunting that really turned me off.
Eric | |
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Posts: 686
Location: Tomahawk, Wisconsin | Too many options here in the northwoods, I focus on fishing. | |
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Posts: 2112
Location: The Sportsman, home, or out on the water | Between family, work, carting my daughter around, and my lure business, I simply do not have the time (or the energy left) to do both, so I decided to focus on the one I enjoy more. Musky fishing is just more enjoyable to me. | |
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Posts: 1310
Location: Washington, PA | I hunt when given the opportunity, I can fish the rest of the year. I love both, but can't imagine giving up bowhunting. I've given up for the most part, all hunting, with the exception of bow hunting.
Edited by tomyv 11/9/2005 11:58 AM
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Posts: 294
Location: Sakatchewan,Canada | esoxaddict - 11/9/2005 11:24 AM
Personally, I don't hunt.
I've always enjoyed shooting very much, and while I enjoy eating wild game, I don't enjoy killing things...
Now hold on, I'm not opposed to it at all, I just feel guilty killing stuff. I don't doubt the excitement, the adrenaline, the personal reflection, and I LOVE the woods. I certainly could and WOULD hunt if I were in a place where that was how I sustained myself, and I'd have no problem at all with that. I guess it's just shooting something that I didn't need to shoot that would bother me. :-(
So...sticking hooks in the mouth of a fish that you didn't need to stick hooks in doesn't bother you?  | |
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| If you have the energy and the time, do both. If not, pick the one you like best. For me, that is trophy musky hunting | |
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Posts: 8788
| Sometimes... But then they swim off and I figure that they're probably not smart enough to even have any idea what just happened. Sort of like when a girl throws a drink in your face, LOL! | |
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Posts: 1083
| I just fish. I can't do the hunting thing. I've just always fished...only time I shoot a bow or a gun is for fun with target practice. I do miss shooting a bow...I was pretty darn good at it back in the day...actually got a few awards for target shooting back then...haven't shot a bow for probably 15 years... | |
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Posts: 2112
Location: The Sportsman, home, or out on the water | It was a tough descision, one that was not made over night. I've been bowhunting since I was 12 (I'm almost 39 now), and I've missed only a few seasons while being enlisted in the Army. Do I miss it? Ubetcha. But, I'll never get a 50" perched up in a tree. | |
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Posts: 723
| this has been the worst year for me deciding what to do. october was unseasonably warm so I put off sitting in the tree waiting for it to get colder. Now that its gotten colder, the rut is here, and I start doing well on muskies. To make it worse, my buddy is calling me telling me of the bucks hes been seeing in our area. Making the right decision as far as what to do when is not working out anytime I do it, when I choose to sit in the stand, I feel it would have been better on the water and vice versa.
Im so lost!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So Im hunting tomorrow and friday and fishing the weekend. | |
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Posts: 56
Location: Appleton, WI | Thank you all for the feedback!
I guess that I will learn what I truly enjoy more as time goes on. Right now, I know that I want both. Okay, I haven't shot and killed a deer, yet. So, maybe I will be turned off by that experience. But, I know that I enjoy it, thus far.
I understand that sitting in the woods takes patience and discipline. I do enjoy solitude and the sounds of nature. It is quite amazing. But, you also get that musky fishing. God, I love these sports!
Thank goodness for my husband, who has had the patience with me in the stand. I am a hyper person by nature. It is hard for me to sit still.
I fished as a young girl with my Father (not for muskies, for bait). So, taking to musky fishing was a natural transition for me. Still, I have learned tons from my husband and other musky anglers.
November all year round sounds fantastic to me!
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Posts: 4266
| I have to say something here.
Please don't take any of it personally, because I'm not directing it anyone.
Some of you make comments that you could not kill anything, though I'd wager that you aren't vegitarians. The fact that you don't kill the cow that you eat or the chickens and pigs that you eat, makes it alright. I understand.
I've been hunting my entire lifetime, and the highlight of every hunt that I've been on has never been the kill. Guys that get off on killing are killers, not hunters.
I started a ritual many years ago after I heard about it from a friend. Whenever I kill a deer, I spend at least a half an hour or more with the animal and give thanks to God for having put the deer in the woods and the fish in the lakes and rivers and the birds in the sky. I think about the animal and what it had gone through or may have gone through during it's life.
Nobody loves animals more than true hunters do. We respect them in life and in death and we carry their spirit with us in our memories of the hunt. I remember every deer that I've ever killed. I never once was jubilant because I had taken a life.
Along the same lines, I have stopped my vehicle and got out and wrestled with and slit the throat of a deer laying on the ground suffering after being hit by a car while many people stood around and nobody had enough respect for the animal to end it's pain. I was called names for killing the animal and telling the onlookers to get back in their cars and get going because the show was over. I was a killer. I was many bad things. What I was, was the only guy on the scene who was sickened by watching a deer with broken legs and other injuries crawling in the road, so I put it out of it's misery.
Killing is not the only part of hunting, but it is the end of it.
I am saddened by taking a life, but I get over it quickly and give thanks and realize that as the top predator of the food chain, I will take the life of an animal and eat it's flesh.
I also club walleyes and cut off their flesh and fry it up. I do the same with pike and perch and panfish. Are you bothered by that killing, or is it the fact that deer are bigger than we are or that we see them as cute little creatures who don't deserve to die?
I realize that not everyone is capable of pulling the trigger or releasing the arrow, and I respect that. I also expect the same type of respect for being able to do it without making a spectacle of it and getting off on taking a life. I hunt alone, because it's kind of a spiritual thing for me and soon my daughter will be coming with me. She's only 9, but she says she wants to come with me because she wants to see if it's something that she'll enjoy. If she wants to hunt, she'll have the opportunity. If she doesn't enjoy it, we can spend time in the boat, because I know she loves to catch fish and loves to eat them.
Beav | |
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Posts: 56
Location: Appleton, WI | Beav,
I concur entirely. It takes all kinds of people to make this world what it is. I accept everyone. We all have our role in life.
I look forward to my next musky, but it will be in the spring, hopefully.
The task at hand is gun-deer season, which is soon upon us. I am pumped for that! I will venture out into the woods with a new vigor after T-zone. I simply cannot wait. Maybe, I will be disappointed and not see a deer. I am a Fruedian thinker, so I know this and am prepared mentally.
Good luck with your daughter. I admire you (and it reminds me of my Dad) in how you are bringing up your girl. That is great!
Sidebar: My husband exposed his young daughters to hunting and fishing. Now, as teenagers, they have resisted both. Again, it goes back to all kinds of people make our world great.
Best of luck to you! | |
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Posts: 16632
Location: The desert | Well put Beav.....I like what you do after the kill....mind if i steal the idea?
Mike | |
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Posts: 32892
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | I expect no one to understand my heritage or my instincts; I am cursed and blessed at once. The woods call to me the minute there is the first frost, and do not release me until the snow prevents my walking on the game trails. I study the Whitetail as much as the Muskie, and obsess as much over missed opportunity and error. The snowshoe is tough prey, no dog; just my son and I moving softly, slowly in the swamps on a misty snow filled day, looking for white on white carrying the open sighted .22 and imagining a full crock pot for the kitchen. We eat almost no store bought meat here, it's venison, fish, and an occasional antelope from the Wyoming hill country.
Grouse are small bombs, exploding from the ground and rocketing out from the balsams over the bead of that 12 guage, and filling the house with an aroma guaranteed to make you hungry no matter. Ducks and geese, bounty for the oven, no city slaughterhouse plastic wrapped undefineable dinners here, we remember and are delighted with the retelling of every Deer hunt as the processing begins transforming the forest's bounty into things like home made brats, breakfast sausage, bacon cheeseburgers, canned venison sandwich meat, and much more, all on the kitchen table as my sons, wife, and family all pitch in. Hideout fare, this is, best with a hot coffee after a long day on the water.
Does that mean I don't fish in the fall? Of course not, but one must use one's time a bit more carefully, Beav has it right, as usual. Hunt when you can, fish when it feels right, and above all, revell in the fact you have a choice to do either. Not many other places on this fine planet will allow you that freedom.
This says it all:
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Posts: 2112
Location: The Sportsman, home, or out on the water | Alot of great points brought up in this thread. My outdoors pursuits are spiritual to me as well. What better place to be closer to God than in his living room? When I'm out in the boat or up in the tree, I can feel my ancestors' presence, looking over my shoulder to see what I am doing, and keeping us safe. Good luck and safety to all of you this season, whether you are in the boat or up in a tree.
Rob | |
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Posts: 4266
| Mike, be my guest.
I kick back, lay on the deer, and we spend some time together.
We are lucky people, and it becomes very evident when we take time to reflect.
Have a good season.
Beav | |
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Posts: 8788
| Hey, Beav
I feel exactly the same way, believe it or not. And all those things you mentioned, about giving thanks and all, that IS what it's all about, and I do that when I clean fish. It's a common misconception that hunters are just bloodthirsty killers, and the funny part is that comes from people who have never set foot in the woods, and think meat comes wrapped in those little plastic trays.
I have said this before and I will say it again to anyone who doesn't understand hunting:
EVERYONE should kill and eat something at some time in their lives, because it's the only way you can truly appreciate your place in nature. We (many of us) have lost our connection to the land, and that makes it all too easy to destroy it, ignore it, and take it for granted. When I'm crappie fishing or walleye fishing, and I'm eating those fish later that night, I'm thinking about the same thing -- how they may have lived, where they may have been yesterday or earlier today, and I am humbled by the fact that I have taken something from the land, something God put there for me as food, and it makes me want to give something back. Balance what I have taken. Usually this takes the form of picking up garbage, or simply giving thanks.
I've been thinking about why I don't hunt, and while part of it IS the guilt I feel after killing something, it's more that I just don't NEED to hunt. I am one man. Even a duck or a pheasant is more food than I need. And a deer? I think it could be put to better use if YOU shot it, Beav. You can feed your family with that deer, and do all those things you mentioned with it. I'd be eating the whole thing myself, or trying to give it away to my fellow urban dwelling sidewalk rats who would probably run screaming if I told them what it was and where it came from. I'd have to lie and tell them it was pork.
Our ancsetors hunted to feed their tribes, their villages, and they used the entire animal, none left to waste. For one man to kill a deer, only for himself, it just doesn't seem right. | |
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Posts: 294
Location: Sakatchewan,Canada | esoxaddict - 11/10/2005 10:29 AM
Hey, Beav
I feel exactly the same way, believe it or not. And all those things you mentioned, about giving thanks and all, that IS what it's all about, and I do that when I clean fish. It's a common misconception that hunters are just bloodthirsty killers, and the funny part is that comes from people who have never set foot in the woods, and think meat comes wrapped in those little plastic trays.
I have said this before and I will say it again to anyone who doesn't understand hunting:
EVERYONE should kill and eat something at some time in their lives, because it's the only way you can truly appreciate your place in nature. We (many of us) have lost our connection to the land, and that makes it all too easy to destroy it, ignore it, and take it for granted. When I'm crappie fishing or walleye fishing, and I'm eating those fish later that night, I'm thinking about the same thing -- how they may have lived, where they may have been yesterday or earlier today, and I am humbled by the fact that I have taken something from the land, something God put there for me as food, and it makes me want to give something back. Balance what I have taken. Usually this takes the form of picking up garbage, or simply giving thanks.
I've been thinking about why I don't hunt, and while part of it IS the guilt I feel after killing something, it's more that I just don't NEED to hunt. I am one man. Even a duck or a pheasant is more food than I need. And a deer? I think it could be put to better use if YOU shot it, Beav. You can feed your family with that deer, and do all those things you mentioned with it. I'd be eating the whole thing myself, or trying to give it away to my fellow urban dwelling sidewalk rats who would probably run screaming if I told them what it was and where it came from. I'd have to lie and tell them it was pork.
Our ancsetors hunted to feed their tribes, their villages, and they used the entire animal, none left to waste. For one man to kill a deer, only for himself, it just doesn't seem right.
It is plenty alright for one man to kill a deer for himself.He can eat for the next year and feed family and friends that come over,not to mention giving some of it to the less fortunate. | |
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Posts: 294
Location: Sakatchewan,Canada | Excellent posts by Beav and Sworrall.A lot of guys have never killed any of the cow's,pig's,or chicken's they eat every day, then they think it is wrong to kill a deer,moose,elk,walleye,pike,etc.to eat.I just don't understand how they think that way... | |
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Posts: 8788
| Pikemaster...
If you understood the way the people in this area lean you'd get why you can't just feed your friends venison.
I've been accused of torturing animals because people have seen the musky pictures on my desk. Maybe you have those types up there, too, I don't know. But down here, man... it's like a PETA paradise. They freakin protest the sporting goods stores because they sell weapons that people use to kill animals. Too many Bambi movies in their childhood or something... I showed someone a release picture and they said "why don't you just leave the poor fishies alone?"
Dude, please stop reminding me that I live in a place where people are nuts... | |
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Posts: 294
Location: Sakatchewan,Canada | esoxaddict,are all of those people vegitarians?If not than they should have to butcher a cow,pig or chicken themselves.Someone has to kill it...I wonder if the same people who complain about the "poor fishies" buy Captain Highliner frozen fish and chips and think that it's okay??They certainly have a distorted way of thinking...I won't even get started with the PETA people... | |
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| A lot of them are, Pikemaster. Anyone who has any idea how commercial livestock lives and dies can't possibly say hunting is less humane. Like I said before -- I've got nothing against hunting -- it's part of nature's way. As much as we try to pretend we're not part of the food chain, we're still animals, and we still need to eat.
Doesn't stop them from protesting Thanksgiving, though.
On a related note, did you know that in a few weeks millions of innocent turkeys will be needlessly slaughtered so we can partake in some barbarian ritual? Oooooohh give the animals a voice, they have rights too!
Yep they got lefts, too and both sides tase equally good, now shut up, LOL!
Only in America
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Posts: 4266
| Like Ted Nugent says....When the $hit hits the fan big time, those tree huggin' PETA people are going to be coming to people like us to help them to survive. And you know what? We will.
Discussions like this one are just more proof that anglers, hunters and outdoorsmen all have to stick together. Whether you agree with it or not. Whether you do it or don't. Do not criticize your brothers and sisters, because in-fighting just makes us appear weak and unorganized.
Whether we hunt or fish, we all enjoy freedoms that are unheard of in other countries. We get outside and we spend hours in The Creators world that He made for us, and He put us in charge of it. Let's not argue over how to do it. If we stay within the laws laid out by our States, there is nothing wrong with what we are doing.
Life's short. Enjoy getting closer to nature.
Beav
Edited by Beaver 11/10/2005 3:27 PM
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Location: Appleton, WI | Amen, beav. | |
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Location: The Sportsman, home, or out on the water | Yes, Beav, At our house, Ted Nugent's "Spirit of the Wild" is our "must see T.V." on Thursday nights. | |
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