Weather may derail a turkey hunt, boating walleyes, even pruning grape vines, but usually for a day.

But sap flow disruption in maples can be a make or break season with less than ideal March days and nights.

William “Bird” Robichaud, a kitchen cook, says the season has been pretty slow, being too cold, and then too warm without freezing nights. “Unless it changes quickly the year will rate poor here, but the syrup looks and tastes good, what there is of it.”

Still he says, that the first sap from two sugar maples he can reach out and touch from his farmhouse were incredibly sweet, but he’ll wait to do the calculation when the complete batch, all be it tiny, is finished.

Otherwise, he’s been able to watch kingfishers’ rituals from near the stove, and the killdeers, too.

The best weather is cold nights, below freezing, and then warm, but not too warm, sunny days. Those conditions have been few and far between in southern Wisconsin. At some point, it’s too late and the flow stops.

Looking back to 2012, gatherers were picking morels by late March until weather problems began to set in, likely caused by a lack of moisture.

Ask any morel hunter about 2021, 2020 or even 2019 and they are likely to give the same answer; “the season was terrible; worst ever.”

What’s the forecast for 2022 morels? It remains to be discovered but normal spring weather, without dry spells, gives good fungal results, but remember that morels do most of their vegetative growth and food reserve storage the previous summer and autumn. A good spring may not be worth a hypha if the marshalling of nutrients was poor the year previous.

Turkey hunters have been seizing bonus authorizations (“permits”). Good numbers remain in Zones 1, 3, 4 and some in Zone 5.

The bird populations are all over the board, however, with poor numbers being reported in parts of Lafayette, Iowa and Green counties and very good in parts of Eau Claire, La Crosse and Vernon counties. In additions, turkeys still rafted and numbers vary from coulee to ridge.

Weather sometimes comes down to day-to-day decisions and activity trickles down to the sports shop activity.

Brent Drake, in Boscobel at Tall Tails says no one wants to go out fishing in rainy, cold, windy weather, so he makes very few visits to the bait tank.

But the walleyes are biting and the perch are really biting, Drake says.

Don Martin, in Monroe says anglers are waiting about for the weather to clear and the ice to crumble on Yellowstone Lake in Lafayette County.

“But a woman, with a pet turtle usually shows to get some of my puffy nightcrawlers; she says the turtle loves them.”

Bonus turkey “permit” sales have kept Martin busy.

Sometimes the weather has a direct impact on the outdoorsperson.

Wayne Smith, an avid trapper and turkey hunter in Lafayette County says wind is a killer for turkey outings, even scouting, and pushes him down in a valley.  But no weather keeps Wayne from making numerous trips to see if there are more bonus tags available.  Unfortunately the beavers are now getting active, just as the season winds down.

“Wind and rain make it extra difficult to call a gobbler, or hen, away from a raft of birds,” Smith said. Still he often tries.

Wet and cold seem to be good weather for arthritis to kick in, sending attitudes farther south, according to Doug Williams, at DW Sports Center in Portage.

One sure downer was lightning hitting a tree, flushing a nearby tom, sending even Doug back to return another day.

“On the brighter side, the grass is greening and turkeys are fanning, even when rain makes their fans resemble spokes on a wheel.

The fish are still biting on the Wisconsin River,” Doug opined.

Willow pollen flowers on catkins are opening.

— 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.