Northern Wisconsin waterfowling networking needed

U

uncle mike pierce

Active member
I am new to this site, and am asking for some help. I formerly duck hunted in Illinois and Iowa. I relocated to Wausau, WI, in 2000, and have not hunted since moving to Wausau. I am now semi-retired, and wanting to do some duck hunting this fall, mostly targeting divers. I want to acquire some diver study skins for future carving projects, including common mergansers, cans, and redheads.

I am having trouble getting any contacts here to learn what waters are hunted, what the rules are, and finding potential hunting partners. I am a decoy carver, I have a 14 ft wide, welded Lowe jon boat (no seats) with the factory camo paint job over a bedliner base with a 15 horse outboard. I plan to have at least 7 dozen decoys by fall, and 10 dozen or more by 2012. I can call and know how to set decoys for both puddle ducks and divers. While I realize most duck hunters really don't want more people on their favorite marsh, I am probably the best kind of person to be added to your marsh or flowage. I am a good partner who can bring decades of duck hunting experience to the blind if allowed to join a group, but I am more than willing to hunt on my own. I have considered hunting some of the flowages like the Big Eau Pleine, Miller Dam, etc. but would like some pre-season direction/information from local hunters on these or other waters on ettiquette of blind placement, use of boat blinds, etc. so I don't show up one morning and piss off all the regulars on the marsh because I do not understand the local policies and conventions. My work schedule is such that I can hunt mid week and do not have to hunt weekends.

I will trade carved decoys, decoy carving lessons, decoy painting lessons, repainting of rigs, calling, etc. for information and assistance.

Thanks!

Mike
 
Hey Mike,

I have only limited hunted experience in the Stevens Point/ Wausau area. I do know you are in a great area for early in the season with the exception of hunter crowding. If you are willing to get off the beaten bath you will have no problems finding consistent wood duck action as well as teal and ringers. Most of my later season is spent on big waters(Green Bay, Michigan, ect) so I can not be much help there. If you have any questions on WI's messed up regulations I should be able to interpit for you. Shoot me an email if you want to discuss further.

rschmalzaa@gmail.com
 
You guys better jump at the chance. Mike's a heck of a guy and a dedicated sportsman. I just wished he lived closer to wherever I'm going to end up living. If you ever get south, there's always room for you in my boat.
 
You are way too kind Bill. Hope your summer is going well. WEather has really screwed up our fishing this year (so far). If it would stabilize, we'd start doign some damage to the smallies, but it goes from super hot, to very cold to torrential downpours and flooded rivers. On a bright note, I did catch my first muskie on a fly rod a few weeks ago a 38" fish that weighed in at 12.5 lbs. No monster muskie, but a biggy compared to 22", 4lb smallies.

How is your carving coming? Haven't seen any of your work since I last saw you in Arkansas. Forward some pics when you get time. With Rick's MBA crap, not sure when we'll be doing another painting/carving class...................

Thanks for the invite to gun with you, and the endorsement. Keep in touch

Mike
 
Hey Uncle Mike -

If you lived closer to the MN/WI border I could set you up. You sound like the type of guy I would love to help out.

My experience on the westrern side of WI is that the smaller rivers and streams are not hunted much at all. I can pretty much go out any day and not see another soul depending upon where I go. You boat wouldn't work very well for these hunting situations unfortunately. I also don't see many of the diver ducks you seek except for very late in the season and I think I only get the real dumb and lost ones come through my spread. There aren't many of them.

Godd luck to you. If you ever make it over this way, look me up.

Mark W
 
Mike,

I cannot be of much help that far north either. My suggestion would be to start attending a few DU banquets in your area and make contacts. Thats what I did and now have a solid group of reliable people to hunt with come Fall. Also a lot of waterfowl regs meetings take place in Wausau. A great place to poke your head in on as well
 
Thanks for the support and suggestions. I am suggesting that maybe the personalities of people here in the northwoods are a bit different than those closer to metropolitan areas. In the past, I have attended a couple of DU banquets and made contact with members of the WI Waterfowlers' Alliance with little to no result. A couple years ago I met a group of WI Waterfowlers at a youth outdoors day where I was working teaching fly casting and fly tying. I gave them my name, address, email, and phone, asking that I be contacted for their next local banquet (their banquet for that year had just taken place) and offered to donate a carved decoy. Never heard a word back from the local group. Had a similar result when I talked to an officer at a local DU banquet and offered a donation. Never heard a word back. Friends at work have offered to hook me up with local duck hunters, but the local duck hunters never seem to be able to schedule me a day in the marsh, or even to talk with me between seasons.

I have made one contact with a hunter within an hour's drive who wants some carving and decoy painting lessons in return for some guidance on duck hunting some larger waters. This is a great start and exactly what I am looking for. Hopefully, I'll eventually meet a few more hunters like him who are willing to trade information and guidance for one of my skills, like carving, decoy painting, fly tying, fly fishing, etc.

I am talking with a state rep of WI Waterfowlers today and have been in contact with the DNR, so hopefully I'll find some contacts in the Wausau/Merrill/Eau Claire/Stevens Point areas who can give me direction/assistance.

Again, thanks.

Mike
 
Glad to see you signed up...

Turned in the Stat final and Finance final this weekend, but the Stat prof says he can't open the pdf...have to hand deliver in the morning...

Be glad you aren't down here. Went for a bike ride tonight at about 5-something...101 degrees...did a few miles and said, "enough."
 
Wis Pete (who is on this page) lives right up in your neck of the woods. He posts here from time to time and should be able to get you started. I live quite a ways from you so I am not much help personally.

I do carve from time to time however, might have to get together some time.

Post up some pics of your dekes.

I must say, I am shocked really at anyone from DU or Trout boys saying no to a donation. Normally they are like flys on stink.

I will say that you are in an area of the state that gets overrun with out of towners a lot (think Chicago people) who come in and muscle around the areas and often ruin good 'local' things so a lot of the locals tend to be rather standoffish on their "thing" so that it doesn't get ruined. I have 3 relatives that live over in that neck of the woods and I have seen that first hand, they don't even want to talk at family parties for fear of Susie's boyfriend shooting his mouth off.

Welcome to the site nontheless.
 
Thanks for the support and info. I have noticed that a lot of the hunters up here seem to form their hunting buddies and hunting groups in high school, or through family connections at an early age and they maintain those groups through old age. So if you are a relative newcomer to an area, it is tough to break into an established hunting group unless you marry into it or get brought in by an existing member.

There seem to be a fair number of people who hunt ducks on a casual basis, whose real passion in hunting is for deer, turkeys, or grouse. They have a few decoys, jump shoot smaller rivers or sit on the shores of lakes and marshes and bang the woodies, teal, and a few mallards until there is something more enticing to do, or the local ducks have moved out. They probably aren't going to be on this site.

The number of serious, hit the marsh 40 days or more per season, have a retriever, 20 dozen decoys, and various custom calls waterfowlers seem to be pretty few in the Wausau area, and they seem to primarily hit Green Bay, Lake Micihgan, the Mississippi river, or field hunt for geese and mallards. So I understand it will be difficult to break into serous waterfowling groups and learn quickly here. If I were 20 or 30, I'd take the ten years to learn it all from scratch (like I did on the Mississippi River in Illinois) But at 60, I don't have the time to take 10 years to figure it all out from scratch. Heck I may not have 5 more good years of duck hunting left in me, so I am asking for some help to accelerate the learning curve and so I can get in a few good seasons before I hang it up for good.

The good news is that I am meeting some good people, slowly, a few at a time, who offered to help me with little parts of the puzzle, and who, rightly so, are a bit slow to embrace this new guy. The help I have been promised so far will assure that I will get a few days on the marsh this fall, and do so in the right way.

I really don't have any pics of my decoys, but I'll take some pics of the next ones I have in progress later this summer and into the fall. I used to do pretty fancy decoys (in the 70's) with texture and detailed paint to use as decoratives. I quit carving in 1983 cause I was burned out. I started again in 1997 by carving smooth finished, gunning decoys to give away at Christmas to family and friends. They are hollow carved of pine or cedar with pine or basswood heads. I painted all of my decoys (until 2010) in acrylics, but will be painting all future decoys in oils so I can gun over them if I wish.

My email is: webetrout@aol.com If you shoot me your email address and/or contact information, I'll send some pics as I take them this year.

Also, advise me via email if you'd like to get together and do some carving or even just talk about carving decoys. I am a fairly experienced carver, and can offer some good assistance to carvers who are just starting out, or who haven't really mastered the use of power tools to cut carving time. One of the demos I used to do is to carve a head for a decoy in 20 minutes or so, and I try to carve a dozen gunning style decoys per year. I was fortunate enough to know Dick Lemaster and a lot fo the really great carvers of that era, and I was also fortunate enough to take a seminar from Keith Mueller in 2010 on using oil paint for painting decoys.

Mike
 
There seem to be a fair number of people who hunt ducks on a casual basis, whose real passion in hunting is for deer, turkeys, or grouse. They have a few decoys, jump shoot smaller rivers or sit on the shores of lakes and marshes and bang the woodies, teal, and a few mallards until there is something more enticing to do, or the local ducks have moved out. They probably aren't going to be on this site.
Click to expand...
you pretty much summed up the state of affairs rather readily and accurately. I know Rick posted on the Refuge WI page for you as well, hopefully it will pan out. Keep in touch, occasionally there are openings in the boat on short notice if you don't mind a drive.
 
Eric:
I don't mind a drive, as I have been known to "pop" down to Appleton for lunch because I like a particular restaurant a lot. So for a chance to hunt the Green Bay area or big water, a drive is not an issue. While I love food, uh, a chance to spend a day in a blind beats the heck out of a 4 star meal.

I work every Thursday, and every other Saturday on 24 hour shifts, so my Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday are always available. Some Saturdays and Sundays are available. I work in Medford and get off work at 7:00 AM, so Fridays are pretty much out for duck hunting as are Thursdays.

If you have an opening, let me know. My email is: webetrout@aol.com

If you shoot me an email, I can pass on the rest of my contact information. Also, if you want help on a blind, repainting decoys, etc., I could drive down, give you and your group a hand, and you could get to know me, so the first time we meet is not getting into the boat in October at a dark boat landing. If I do not "click" with you or your partners, it is a lot easier to gracefully back out of an invitation than it is at the landing.

Thanks for the help!

Mike
 
Mike,

oddly enough I have experienced the same situation since moving to Illinois from NC 3 years ago. Even with the DU guys, everyone has hunted together for years and gets amnesia when you ask about duck hunting. My wife even laughs about it now, mention duck hunting to another "local" duck hunter and its like you have the plague. Some will even start talking about deer hunting instead! Working through it though, slowly but surely.

its the same way in any area you move to, have to crack the local code first. NC was the same way when i lived there, most guys would just tell you to hunt this lake or that lake but little else.
 
Hi Mike,

Well, that makes it easier. Though we are rich in opportunities in this state, most of us have to travel to get to them "at the right time". Typically my travel is 3 hours for my best spots so having someone willing to travel to hunt is important. I'll keep you in mind. PM me your contact info., email, phone #, etc. I can't promise anything right now as I have other guys on the hunt 'list' but will keep you in mind. The difficulty is that I have quite a few guys who want to hunt with me because I have all the gear, ie. boats (5), decoys (150), chessie, etc.
 
Mark:
Ah, Hampton, Illinois. I lived in Moline for most of my life. Much of my early duck hunting was done in the Andalusia Islands part of the Miss. River. But back then, they held ducks.

Illinois has a long history of bi-polar duck hunting, some exclusive private clubs and public areas to offer egalitarian experiences. As the ducks desert the Miss river and Illinois rivers, and move further to the west, it won't matter whether you hunt public or private marshes, the ducks just won't be there. Good luck on "breaking in" with some of the in crowd. Sometimes working on the DU committee helps, sometimes not. The biggest thing that broke ground for me was being a waterfowl artist (decoy carver). This got me invites to judge calling contests, decoy contests, and those positions usually got me into hunting opportunities. Once you hunt with some people and they see you are competent, safe, and fun to be in the blind with, then a few small doors start to open. At least that is the way it worked for me.........

Like I said, good luck. I miss hunting the Miss. River, but not the days of staring at empty skies, which happened evan back in the 1960's and 1970's.

Mike
 
Mike, I just sent you a PM. Look up on top to the header. Click on messages. You can generate a PM by clicking on anyone's name and then when you get to their profile click on Private Message.
 
Slowly getting there, tough crowd though. looking to hunt the river more this year, most of my hunts have been on iowa public lands so far....

wish i knew something about your area.....
 
Get maps of the registered blinds in the pools you want to hunt, then take the time to run the blind areas before the season, learning the blinds sites and trying to predict which ones might offer some okay gunning. The illinois DNR should be able to get you blind maps. Registered blinds work like this: There is a drawing for blinds every so many years (used to be every two years). The winner(s) of a blind site get to build a blind up on that site for two years. A card is put in the blind with the names of the blind builders (up to 3). Once the seasons starts, the blinds become public, anyone can use them, BUT, if one of more of the blind builders is at the blind 1/2 hour or more before shooting time, they have the right to the blind. If not, then you or anyone else is free to hunt it.

My policy, when using another person's blind was simply this: if they showed up at any time, I offered them the opportunity to use their own blind, but I would ask (if there were nto too many in their party) if I could stay and gun with them. If they said no, I let them ahve the blind. Did I have to? Nah, but my experience is that life is a circle and what goes around comes around. One other nuance, you have at least one dozen decoys out to claim a blind, so always carry at least a dozen decoys to claim a blind in case none are left out by the blind builders. It used to be common to leave decoys out by blinds for the entire season (on pretty substantial decoy cords and anchors), and then add to them everal (or more) dozen when you showed up to hunt. Of course you can lose a bunch of decoys in a big blow, or if a big log comes through.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top