Thankful Outdoors: Fishing, Bows, & Bear Activity

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Photos courtesy of Scott Hopperdietzel

Thankful Outdoors: Outdoor Journal Week of August 16th through August 22nd

As summer continues to move forward, the amount of time that I have been spending on the water is decreasing, which is typical as I work on preparing for the upcoming hunting and trapping seasons. As I write this post, it is six days before some of the early season hunts begin.

Boone continues to run over to the boat and look at me, wondering why the heck we are not hooking it up to the truck. His rides in the vehicle instead have changed to driving around glassing the bean fields, trying to see where the deer are active.

Connor and Bryce have been keeping Boone plenty busy, though during the day, as they take him for walks and work on his commands for hunting. With that brief update, let’s check in with the rest of the things that we have been doing.

August 16th – Bad day fishing is better than a good day working

It had been a while since Connor, Bryce and I had shared time in the boat so we decided that we would head to Price County to give Cranberry Lake a try, this body of water is one that we usually fish a few times a year but this season we had not gotten to it yet.

As we pulled into the parking lot, we saw a more massive crowd than usual. Cranberry does get quite a bit of fishing pressure, but today everybody in Price County must have thought this was the lake to be fishing.

Well, our efforts that day sure didn’t produce much action on the water. Connor got bitten off by a northern and I had put one decent bluegill in the livewell, as we headed back to the boat landing later that day we decided to release that fish.

This time on the water was one of those days that supports the saying, “A bad fishing is better than a good day working!”

August 20th – Boys learn how to sight in a bow

Connor and Bryce have been increasing their shooting sessions while on summer break. They were just a little bit off on things. I had suggested to them that they work on getting the grouping tighter. YouTube has a bunch of videos on how to sight a bow in.

They watched one that was well laid out and easy for them to follow. Later that afternoon, I had received a text message from Connor showing his grouping at 20 yards. He was putting arrows within an inch of each other.

Bryce was getting his bow dialed in, and a pin broke on him, so it’s now back to square one for his efforts. With a little bit of work, though, he will soon have himself dialed in at that 20-yard mark.

In years past, when it came to shooting sessions and sighting bow in, it was always Dad taking the lead and helping get that stuff done. This shooting session was the first time that the boys stepped up and did it on their own. They have had a lot of exposure to archery, and it was time for them to start applying the knowledge of how to sight a bow in. As the boys get older, I keep telling them that these are things that they can do on their own, and they don’t have to wait on Dad to decide when its time to get things lined up. I hope that the good Lord is going to give me many, many more years to enjoy the outdoors, but you never know when that final outdoor adventure will come.

August 22nd – Bear activity increases 

Craig and I head out on the Saturday morning bear bait check, the first bear bait was hit, but the camera failed to function, so we don’t have any idea as to the time, dates, or how many bears were coming in. We decided to change this camera mode from video to picture to see if that works better for that camera. It’s disappointing when you walk in to check the camera, and it doesn’t work for you.

On the next bait check, the camera showed great video activity. This particular set has four or five different bears coming to visit it. This bait right now is our favorite and is making it hard to wait for opening day to get here. Only 19 more days until we get to climb into the tree, but who’s counting!

In closing, I hope you find a way to get into the outdoors, create your adventure and memories, but most importantly, find a way to “Celebrate the Experience.” Go check out www.thankfuloutdoors.com for more content and share your “Celebrate the Experience” moment with us!

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Author: News Desk

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