A trout angler meeting another during a summer day suggests, “stop and listen,” after seeing a perplexed look on his face while pondering a box of flies.
“They usually get they the idea and answer themselves, ‘Oh, yes, try crickets,’” Brett Schultz, a Dane County angler, said. “They catch on quickly with summer approaching and hearing a chirping cricket’s sound.”
It may be a bit early, Schultz admits, to tie on a cricket pattern, but hoppers might work soon. “Still, the creeks are very low and spooky to the fish. They see us without any clouds or a little murky water.”
There aren’t enough weekly rains, plus there’s a need to catch up on groundwater for the springs to flow normal again, according to the man from Black Earth.
Now the heavy weed growth requires cleaning the hook after each cast, Brett knows, so he fishes on top if possible or looks for deeper holes.
“I’m also watching for wild parsnip, and the gnats are fierce so I carry some vanilla or bug spray. Still, the fishing of late has been really good,” he says.
Summer is full of indications and other alerts as to what to do or try, or to leave alone.
Walking through a woods or garden, the sound of bumblebees can be defining. Big ones and small ones, they’re all pollinators working the blooming blackberries; while the raspberries are already setting fruit.
The mosquitoes’ drones and gnats’ humming calls out for a facemask and insect spray of menthol or vanilla in the weeks ahead when strawberries, raspberries and blackberries turn ready.
Berry prospectus is positive.
A more notable drone sound of a ruby-throated hummingbird offers an aerial search toward a tulip tree’s top, where tulip-sized, and shaped, blooms are already noticeable on this landscape tree from Indiana.
A snorting deer wants our attention and a follow to get out of the area where her fawn is resting. Wait, look around to see one and then leave.
Wind in the oaks, aspens and white pines mean many insects are at bay or that fishing is not going to be productive until the leaf-blowing sounds silence a bit, but many anglers might try just to be sure.
A gobbler’s sounds make one rethink the population and registration number complaints from some areas. Are the numbers really that low?
Back in 2020 44,982 turkeys were registered. Then a 17 percent drop in spring 2021 to 37,179, and a preliminary number after F closed of 36,458 turkeys taken.
Were these gobbles trying to tell us many hens lost their nests and were roaming without a raft of poults behind? Are there too many raccoons and skunks or are there problems with weather during hatchings? Maybe it’s a general downturn in places dictated by the ecosystem’s holding capacity?
Or several of the above, but not in all areas?
Getting out in autumn, beginning Sept. 17, to see what the new turkey numbers are if not to bag a bird, could be a start to more scientific answers.
If the mosquito droning is loud, and the soil sandy, turtle egg-laying is likely to be apparent, according the Doug Williams, at D W Sports Center, and a local farmer in the Portage area. “The blooming berries, several sorts, are profuse,” he says. “The little bunnies are cute, so at least slow down on the roadways.”
He likes to think target shooting, camping, fishing, sandbar stopping, and just watching the birds are high on summer’s list of activities.
“I used to have six racks of fishing rods for lookers, but am down to one,” Williams said. “Sales are not that good; supplies coming in are just that far behind.”
Williams wants all who observe to continue looking for bird activity, or the lack of it. Are we still seeing an impact from avian influenza?
Don Martin, at Martin’s in Monroe says fishing continues to be going at a summer’s pace in Browntown and Yellowstone Lake areas. “Gun and ammunition sales continue good as hunters remember last bird and deer season shortages,” according to Martin.
Those in the business are suggesting beating the gas prices by staying closer to home and enjoying those more often.
Of late, wild asparagus growth, and in gardens, too, has been phenomenal. Still there is a question of that chemical smelling up the urine of some who eat even a spear or two. The answer is complicated and forked. Some individuals cannot detect the smell even if it’s there, while others digest just differently enough so it’s not there.
The result is about half the folks are in each camp.
A long time morel gathering guru of about 50 years, ended up with 11 pounds, which means 2020, 2021 and 2022 are his three worse years in 50. His average for the last three years is eight pounds per year and prior his totals ran 25 to 95 pounds, annually. The three years prior to 2020, his average pick was 80 pounds each. Still a tree or two gave up 100 this year, he said.
While the numbers for most pickers were much lower, the general trends were about the same.
Go figure!
A few depressed morel gatherers were delighted when they stumbled across some very early chicken-of-the woods (sulphur shelf fungi) last week. During most years this edible morsel appears between late July and early October, usually once annually on a tree, fallen log and buried root system. That, too, is variable but not as much as the morel’s inconsistent, shifty behavior.
Understand it or not, savor the next fungal opportunity, but be sure, or you, or your dog, may become ill.
— Jerry Davis is an Argyle native and a freelance writer who lives in Barneveld. He can be reached at sivadjam@mhtc.net or at 608-924-1112.
