Off Season

As the snow is falling & temps are downright damn cold I am slowly realizing that the days of being able to fish daily are pretty much over. This is always a challenging time for me, going from being on the water pretty much everyday to having to pick & choose my days because of poor weather. This is really enuff to cause an early case of cabin fever, right now the forecast is terrible-everyday for the near future highs is the low 20's.

This shouldn't be happening this early in the Winter, but I guess we have had a very mild Fall-so this is kinda some pay back from the rotten lady (mother nature). Tasks & projects around the house that have taken the back burner since Spring are now being taken care of.  I was kinda propelled to sit down at the fly tying bench today, but it is much to early to start that Winter routine.  Instead I decided to take a walk through the woods in one of my Deer hunting areas to see what kind of activity was happening.  I was actually surprised at the amount of tracks I saw in the snow, it is so nice from a hunters prospective once the snow is on the ground.  It pretty much blows the cover of the deer movement, areas that didn't seem to have much for tracks now come alive once the ground is covered with snow.  Today upon following a track I stumbled upon an extra large rub from earlier this Fall, probably the largest I have ever seen on a tree that had a diameter of around  approx 20 inches.  I'm not sure if this buck made it through the rifle season mayhem, but if so this is a magnum sized deer that should be a real trophy next season.  That is what is the compelling aspect of hunting & fishing-the hope of the trophy of a lifetime :)