Who's getting antsy?

So hardwater season is pretty much a wrap. Personally i had one of my best seasons to date. 6 weekend trips on Nip and 2 on Abitibi (4 solo on Nip one solo on Big Ab) all with multiple keepers, no skunkage and a PB Northern. That being said i am just a casual fisherman and my real passion is the hunt.

With the warm weather my wanderlust is starting to heat up (actually it never really cools off too much) thinking about possibilities. I am mostly a solo hunter but do enjoy deer camp with friends and family every fall. My current conceptual plans for the season include the following:

- Spring turkey on local area farms
- Spring bear - probs solo by zodiac at a yet to be determined location - but somewhere new - maybe little Abitibi.
- Regular weekends at the camp and cottage preparing for deer, doing maintenance and stockpiling firewood
- Fall bear if spring is a dud
- Early season solo deer with the crossbow
- Fall deer at the camp in a group setting
- Late season solo deer with the crossbow

Deer hunting will be influenced by the availability of extra tags. Of all the above bear hunting is probably my favourite. The meat is so good and the options for disappearing off-grid and camping and side fishing on crown are endless. I spend hours pouring over sat images thinking - I can get in there that looks good - sometimes it works out other times meh. Getting to an age where the end of my days of solo wandering off-grid are in sight so i cherish every trip at this stage - wife makes me take a SPOTX now when i go a wandering.

What are you planning?

I'm not a bear hunter, no interest whatsoever? Nor Turkey. However, my nephews are planning a moose hunt this fall and my health willing, I'll be up there to keep the gang fed n watered. Plan is for me to go up ahead of time to set up cook shack, firewood, etc. It'll be all ready for them when they start their holidays. Really looking forward to that and hoping it all works out with tags n such?

Now that ice fishing season has closed, I’m starting to make plans for some hunting prep work. Once the bush is finally snow-free, I’ll be heading out to the deer camp to set up my trail cameras. I’ve been doing this now for 4-5 years and set up in 8-9 spots. I set them up over mineral licks that I created. I have to time the trip just right as the bush needs to be snow free and before ticks get bad.

I also plan to get out to our moose hunting spot and to cut and maintain some trails. We hunt natural openings in the woods and you can never have enough spots. IMO, there’s nothing more satisfying than shooting a moose from a spot that you discovered and cut a trail into.

Turkey hunting in the spring. Clay target shooting until hunting season. Scouting deer in the bush lot. My version of scouting is observing their behavior, identifying the better specimens and seeing how close I can get to them.

""Getting to an age where the end of my days of solo wandering off-grid are in sight so i cherish every trip at this stage - wife makes me take a SPOTX now when i go a wandering.""

Don't ever say that with the right people at right age I am 57 the the wandering just started not solo but Duo could be Duo/trio....

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Originally Posted by Species8472

So hardwater season is pretty much a wrap. Personally i had one of my best seasons to date. 6 weekend trips on Nip and 2 on Abitibi (4 solo on Nip one solo on Big Ab) all with multiple keepers, no skunkage and a PB Northern. That being said i am just a casual fisherman and my real passion is the hunt.

With the warm weather my wanderlust is starting to heat up (actually it never really cools off too much) thinking about possibilities. I am mostly a solo hunter but do enjoy deer camp with friends and family every fall. My current conceptual plans for the season include the following:

- Spring turkey on local area farms
- Spring bear - probs solo by zodiac at a yet to be determined location - but somewhere new - maybe little Abitibi.
- Regular weekends at the camp and cottage preparing for deer, doing maintenance and stockpiling firewood
- Fall bear if spring is a dud
- Early season solo deer with the crossbow
- Fall deer at the camp in a group setting
- Late season solo deer with the crossbow

Deer hunting will be influenced by the availability of extra tags. Of all the above bear hunting is probably my favourite. The meat is so good and the options for disappearing off-grid and camping and side fishing on crown are endless. I spend hours pouring over sat images thinking - I can get in there that looks good - sometimes it works out other times meh. Getting to an age where the end of my days of solo wandering off-grid are in sight so i cherish every trip at this stage - wife makes me take a SPOTX now when i go a wandering.

What are you planning?

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Yes taking a break from putting winter stuff away.
Also solo fisherman/hunter most times unless with a few friends and family.
It will be 3-4 weeks before I can drive to camp without getting stuck in snow and/or rutting up the road.
Hunting Turkey with three nephews down south first weekend, great times and awesome quality time with family.
Still have some Bear in freezer so might not be too serious about it unless I see something at the camp.
Planning to fish a bit more this summer instead of always working 7 days a week.
Then the long wait for a Moose tag.....and the annual two week solo Deer hunt.
We grow older faster thinking and waiting for the next hunt....lol
Be safe and yes I also go everywhere with a Inreach.

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Originally Posted by Deer Hunter

yes I also go everywhere with a Inreach.

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How do you like the Inreach? Debated between it and the SPOTX and ended up with the SPOTX. SPOTX does everything i need it to but can be awkaward to use depending on what you are trying to do. I mostly chose it because you can message anyone with it not just people with a garmin account.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by alfoldivandor

Don't ever say that with the right people at right age I am 57 the the wandering just started not solo but Duo could be Duo/trio....

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Been doing solo multi day trips for 41 years and i too am 57. Recognize that it will soon be time to spread the risk and start travelling with others.

Be heading out some time this week to scout for a good spot to put out my bait. Will get the bait out around a week before season. Have a trip planned to Renfrew with a buddy to do a turkey hunt. Besides that ice out trout fishing, and lots of firewood to cut. Will be picking wild leeks in not too long.

Am at 2 full time jobs this year, so it might be a bit challenging to get out for hunts

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Made the first trip into camp today, the chainsaw got a good workout and so did I, there were 4-8" hemlocks down about every 20 feet along the back trail and likely hundreds of them down throughout the bush. I'm assuming from heavy snow? It looked like a tornado touched down, but none of the larger hardwoods seemed affected.

Set the cell cams on the bear stands and checked out the future site of our food plot (to be planted this spring). What a beautiful day.