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Posts: 1196
| How close to home do you have to go to fish and/or see wildlife? |
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Posts: 359
Location: SW Ohio | I see wildlife (deer, fox, squirrels, skunks, raccoons, etc.) in our suburban neighborhood. Birds of all types including a few Coopers Hawks are seen almost daily. Had a nice 8 pt walk past me while I was cutting down overgrown brush a few weeks ago. He was definitely looking for a "date".
It's 35-40 mins to the local lake. Musky (stocked), bass, saugeye, crappie, blue cats (stocked), all the normal fish are available. |
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Posts: 1208
Location: E. Tenn | 10 min. to a state park on a TVA tributary lake, and 20 min. to a 4500 acre. city park/nature preserve with plenty of wildlife, including deer, coyote, bears, bobcats etc.
Unfortunately the nearest musky water is a two hour drive, but there's a lot of woods and waters around. |
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| Live on a musky lake, we have lots of Northwoods wildlife around us. Birds, deer, bobcat tracks on the front porch, wolf tracks on our patio couple winters ago. Otters, muskrats in the water. The one thing missing the last 10 years are bats. 20 years ago you could sit on the dock after dark and the bats were out feasting on skeeters but, they are gone and the mosquitos are a pain again. Tried a bat house without any luck.
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Posts: 157
Location: West Central WI | I walk right down to my dock in the front yard with fishing pole in-hand. There, I test new muskie, bass, and walleye poles I made, but have yet to catch a muskie off the dock in 30 years. Just not a good location on the lake with any kind of structure - at least so far. There, I see otters, muskrat, ducks, geese, eagles, osprey, sea gulls, bass, and walleye. In my yard, deer, turkey, possum, raccoon, squirrels, and dozens of varieties of birds. There's always something happening if you sit still long enough to become part of the natural landscape. |
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Posts: 157
Location: West Central WI | I walk right down to my dock in the front yard with fishing pole in-hand. There, I test new muskie, bass, and walleye poles I made, but have yet to catch a muskie off the dock in 30 years. Just not a good location on the lake with any kind of structure - at least so far. There, I see otters, muskrat, ducks, geese, eagles, osprey, sea gulls, bass, and walleye. In my yard, deer, turkey, possum, raccoon, squirrels, and dozens of varieties of birds. There's always something happening if you sit still long enough to become part of the natural landscape. |
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Posts: 2280
Location: Chisholm, MN | I live 45 minutes from Vermilion and we have critters all around us. Found a dead wolf 2 weeks ago just down the road hit by a car. |
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Posts: 1188
| I'm essentially a country kid that's been living in the city for over 35 years. Would have moved away long ago, if I hadn't found my little oasis about 30 years ago. Got an acre surrounded by big trees, on a 20 acre wetland, inside the Twin Cities freeway loop. 6 muskie lakes within 15 minutes of my house, and several more within another 20 minutes. If it weren't for the 3 million other #%&@!*s surrounding me, it would be paradise. Getting closer and closer to retirement, and can't wait to find my country place. I've kept a list of animals and birds I've seen in my yard over the years. It's mostly complete, but I'm sure I've forgotten to record a few.
critters
deer foxes coyotes river otter woodchucks opossums raccoons grey squirrels red squirrels flying squirrels muskrats mink painted turtles snapping turtles chipmunks
birds
bald eagles red tailed hawks coopers hawks sharp shinned hawks great big owls(don’t know what kind) very small owls(don’t know what kind) bats pileated woodpeckers red bellied woodpeckers red headed woodpeckers
hairy woodpeckers downy woodpeckers Canada geese swans wood ducks mallards wigeons gadwals teal buffleheads goldeneyes hooded mergansers common mergansers blue herons green herons night herons egrets pheasant turkeys mourning doves rock doves (pigeons) crows orioles hummingbirds redstarts yellow rumped warblers yellow warblers chestnut sided warblers bay breaded warblers blackburnian warblers palm warblers red winged blackbirds
brown headed cowbirds cardinals cedar waxwings flickers rose breasted grosbeaks scarlet tanagers indigo buntings white throated sparrows purple finches house finches gold finches pine siskin crested flycatcher |
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| Rotorhead - 12/27/2023 1:11 PM
I walk right down to my dock in the front yard with fishing pole in-hand. There, I test new muskie, bass, and walleye poles I made, but have yet to catch a muskie off the dock in 30 years. Just not a good location on the lake with any kind of structure - at least so far. There, I see otters, muskrat, ducks, geese, eagles, osprey, sea gulls, bass, and walleye. In my yard, deer, turkey, possum, raccoon, squirrels, and dozens of varieties of birds. There's always something happening if you sit still long enough to become part of the natural landscape.
Have owned the property for 20 years and while I have had a couple hot follows, never caught musky from my dock. Actually good spot on inside turn. Have seen a lot of fish caught off the end of dock. Watched one nephew catch a musky 30 feet away while I was talking to his older brother in the front of boat. First day we owned the property saw musky caught of end of dock in a tournament. Have seen 4 more caught there during tournaments since then including in this year's Hodag.
Have caught couple big pike and 5# large mouth testing musky lures. |
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Posts: 32800
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Right out my back door for wildlife (deer, bears, the whole deal), 1 mile to fish muskies. |
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Location: Athens, Ohio | Deer in the front and back yards, muskies are a two hour drive each way. m
Edited by mikie 12/28/2023 8:42 AM
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Posts: 315
| I killed a nice 10 point November 3rd right behind the machine shed sitting on the ground over a decoy. If my wife was home she could have looked out the kitchen window and watched the whole hunt and even see the buck drop on the field edge. Deer, coons, coyotes and eagles are pretty common sightings from the house. |
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Location: PA Angler | All depends on what I’m fishing for and what do you mean wildlife. Fishing can be done about a half hr away. Maybe an hr for Muskie. As for wildlife like deer some foxes. A lot of small four legged critters. Coons, possums, skunks… All in my backyard. Travel a little distance out and away from the city you start to see more and more. |
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Posts: 1203
Location: Walker, MN | I live on Leech Lake, it's a few hundred yards to my harbor slip where the water is deeper. Lucky enough to have all the wildlife right in our back yard too. I have a dozen or more decent muskie lakes within 40 miles as well. I feel pretty blessed. This coming February marks 20 years since I took a chance and bought this house, I very feel fortunate to have been able to make it all work out. |
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Posts: 1276
Location: Hayward, Wisconsin | Lots of bird species, fox, coyotes, the rare wolf, 54 turkey's one spring, herds of squirrel, and more. About 50 muskie lakes within 40 mile radius, the closest less than 3 miles. |
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Posts: 368
Location: On the River | Wisconsin River right out the back door. |
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Posts: 216
| Live on LOTW in the summer, and drive 30 minutes to fish Melton Hill in the winter.
LOTW...eagles, hawks, osprey, bear, otters, mink, a few bears, several wolves, dozens of deer, a lynx, some bobcats, 2 moose, 2 pumas on fish gut piles in the middle of the lake and lots of humming birds as well as some owls and orioles.
Tennessee about the same without the wolves, pumas, bear and moose.
Edited by Abu7000 12/28/2023 4:14 PM
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Posts: 1196
| When we moved to Colorado we had big house up in the foothills west of Denver at 7300 feet in a housing development with pine trees and wildlife everywhere. One late spring day I came home from Denver in the rain and it turned on our street and that was the snow level.(snowing on our street) Walked in the house went down 3 or steps to the living room and stood by the fire turned and looked out the window and it was raining on that side of the house. Went back up the steps by the front door snow turned and looked thru the windows of the great room rain. There were Deer and Elk everywhere in fact there were four big Mule Deer bucks Baxter, Buford, Barney, and Burt. We had a Fox that lived in our yard, only one Bear and other members of my family saw a mountain Lion three different times. One killed a Deer on our drive way and dragged it off into the trees. When my Grandma was on her death bed we moved her from Eagle River into our home and I moved to Aurora CO. by Quincy Res. it was past it's prime. Aurora is in the eastern part of the metro. After Grandma pasted and time went on my dad was feeling the effects of elevation so they moved to Brighton CO. on the most north eastern part of metro Denver and on the edge of town. Coyotes everywhere went they first moved in. My dad was a volunteer at Barr Lake state Park witch was twenty minutes from home. Deer and wildlife everywhere and Birders paradise including nesting Bald Eagles.
As my parents aged I moved back home. My dad has passed and my mom is going to be 90. I stay close to home but I do go to Barr Lake to fish and watch wildlife. My mom misses our foothills home. |
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Posts: 408
Location: MN | I live about 2 miles drive from a boat launch. I'm in suburbia but tucked away from busy roads and next to a swamp - lots of wildlife around. |
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Posts: 682
Location: Sycamore, IL | Moved north of Wausau a few years back. Wisconsin river boat launch at the end of our street. Lots of wildlife in the area. Good grouse hunting 30 minute drive. Lots of lakes within a two hour radius including Green Bay. Feel very fortunate to live where we do! |
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Posts: 490
Location: NW WI | Your typical northern WI animals in the back yard, everything except wolves, id like to keep it that way,. Plenty of waterfowl flying overhead head to a wetland less than 1mile south. 3min drive to the closest landing. 10 minutes to a river with naturals. 20minutes to an overdeveloped vacation lake with loads of walleye and musky being stocked and a darn good self sustaining smallie population. |
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Posts: 1188
| Even in the city, Mother Nature does her thing. This happened Thursday night. So far this morning, I've seen a fox, a hawk, a crow, and an eagle, all scavenging on the carcass. Cars aren't the only thing that kill deer in the city.
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Posts: 166
| Backyard for wildlife, 20mins to world class muskie fishing. |
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| I was reminded of this thread yesterday when I followed a bald eagle down the county road by my house. As an old guy, I remember a time when there were no eagles in northern WI. First one I ever saw was fishing a remote lake in Canada in 1970. My children find it interesting how I and my wife still get excited to see eagles, even though there are a couple nests on the chain where we live. Turkeys are also something not around when I was growing up and only a fool would eat a fish out of the Wisconsin river below the dam in Rhinelander back in the day.
Still lots of challenges to the environment but a few small successes help. |
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Posts: 22
| 10min to Tonka. A special place that holds a different type of wildlife. In fact you see species around that lake that some may consider "alien"  |
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Posts: 94
| 30 minutes to closest musky lake which is slowly dying and returning to a slough because of the nearly 4 year drought in South Dakota. Past that, 2 more within an hour. |
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Posts: 596
Location: Duluth | Boat is in the backyard at the dock 40 steps away and beach is front yard 100 yards the other way. Living on an island has its perks. |
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Posts: 1196
| I made a trip up north in 1972 and was happy and shocked to see Bald Eagles, I spent my summers from 1976-79 on a lake in the Eagle River area and didn't see a single Loon , I saw my first one in the fall of 1984. Hard to believe. Saw my first Wild Turkey's up north in 2008 and was up in 2021 and saw a bunch of Sand Hill Cranes for the first time in the north country. |
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Posts: 735
| Wildlife is not just observed in rural areas, but in inner cities and burbs as well. When I was still on the job, I observed raccoons on garage roofs, coyotes running down alleys, deer blocking intersections, and hawks on telephone and electrical lines. A few years back, Chicago PD killed a mountain lion somewhere on the north side, I believe near the border with Evanston. Kdawg |
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Posts: 8721
| We're hard core suburbia here, 15 miles outside Chicago. Surrounded by highways. Amazingly, though, we have red and gray foxes, coyotes, ground hogs, racoons, skunks, opossum, coopers hawks, red tailed hawks, great horned owls and a local population of deer around on a regular basis. Used to have a ton of voles, mice, and squirrels on the property but our dog took care of those, along with most of the bunnies. Good Boy. Closest musky fishery is the Fox Chain which isn't worth fishing between memorial day and labor day. 1.5 hours to S/WI fisheries Like Silver Lake, Twin Valley, Pewaukee.
Yes, they did shoot the cougar. There was footage going around that showed this overweight cop in full on combat mode trying to be a hero, while the mountain lion strolled past him unnoticed about 20 feet away. They also shot a few houses and an air conditioner in the process. Good job. |
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