2014 November Newsletter

www. Hunting 4 Land .com
Fins, Feathers & Fur
NOVEMBER 2014
VOLUME 49
The Other Day in the Woods… with Dad’s Inventions
Rick
Patridge
OUTDOOR
REAL
ESTATE
810-597-1327
www.
Hunting4Land.
com
Hunting4Land@
gmail.com
This newsletter is to
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commercial ad. You
can opt out of
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In God’s all-out
pursuit of my heart,
of your heart, He
sings through a
child’s voice, speaks
through a bird’s call,
shouts through the
claps of thunder and
calls out through
the rising sun.
- Sharon Jaynes
My dad was always coming
up with inventions for us to use in
the outdoors. He was one of
those guys who was always thinking about how to improve something. Much different than his
son, who is usually thinking of
ways to get away from this computer and out into his deer blind.
Dad never was a big fan of
computers. Google searches
weren’t for him, he just thought it
up and started building. One of
his ideas was to find something
he could use to get his fishing
bait further away from the shore
when he was fishing from land in
the St Clair River, near Port
Huron. Dad figured if he
could get his bait away
from other people fishing
he’d catch more fish. He
saw how charter boat
fisherman used planer
boards to get their lures
out away from the boat,
and figured that was just
what he needed. So away
he went to the garage.
Days later he emerged
with his invention and he
headed to a small river by
the house to give his new
rig a shakedown cruise.
Took him a bunch of tries,
but finally he called me and said
it was time to head to Port Huron
and try out the planer board. It
was an interesting day to say the
least.
We got lots of attention
when we showed up with dad’s
board. The local fisherman slowly
sauntered down to check things
out. Dad got things all set, attached a line on to the board and
tossed it in the river. The board
did as expected, went slowly sailing out into the river. The more
line he gave it the farther out it
went, perfect. Heck he had that
thing about 150 feet out in the
river. Fisherman from up and
down the walkway were closing in
to get a peek at his invention. Dad
was the center of attention. Things
got real interesting when dad decided to pull in his contraption so
the fisherman could get a better
look. We quickly found out that
when you tried to pull the board
back to shore it did it’s best to go
steaming up the river. A real tug of
war ensued, much to the delight of
the crowd. The board appeared to
have no thoughts of coming back
to shore. In the end the board did
win, the rope broke and last we
saw of dad’s planer board it was
headed downstream toward Detroit. Back to the drawing board.
Dad had a real love for turkey hunting. Nothing he liked better than chasing a long bearded
tom on a cool spring morning. His
interest in turkey hunting led him
to work on building his own style
of turkey calls. His preferred call
was the box call, and he made a
bunch of them. The first couple
calls he made were mostly mimics
of the store bought calls he carried
and used. I still have one of the
first, a maple wood variety, that he
spent hours constructing. He
spent hours sanding and clearcoating that call. Used to say a fly
would slip right off if he tried to
land on it. When he finally took it
in the woods to try, he found out
he had glued a couple important
parts on backwards and the call
sounded more like raking fingernails on a chalkboard than a
turkey.
He came up with several
different designs—some really
out of he ordinary. One call attached to your knee and incorporated a slate call and a box call
all in one. It looked pretty rough
but he did take a bird or two with
it. Another call attached to the
barrel of your shotgun and
worked by pulling a string. But no
doubt his best call was a sort of
slate call that was made of wood
and aluminum and used a
corncob striker. To my
ears it sounds like air
being let out of a balloon,
but those toms do seem
to like it. That call still
resides in my turkey hunting vest and has taken its
share of birds.
Dad liked to tinker with
deer blinds and stands
too. There are a few properties here in the thumb
that still have some of
dads blinds in use. One of
those is over in Lapeer
County. It was a three legged
tower stand. Dad found the
plans for this one in a hunting
magazine and decided we
needed one for a swampy piece
of hunting land my wife and I
owned near Columbiaville.
The stand was 16 feet tall,
made out of treated lumber and
weighed a TON! Because of
where it was going we had to pre
construct it in the garage and
take it in the woods in pieces.
Fortunately I was able to find a
buddy of mine to give us a hand
putting the stand in the woods.
Rick Patridge 810-597-1327 [email protected] www.Hunting4Land.com
Continued
FINS, FEATHERS & FUR
DNR 2014 Deer
Season Forecast
is available online.
Deer program biologists predict that,
overall, hunters will
see similar success
rates as in 2013.
The forecast also
gives an overview of
changes for this
license year, including information on
multiple-year deer
regulations, the
new hunting and
fishing license
options, deer management unit
boundaries for
southern Michigan,
and updates on
wildlife health and
diseases. For more
information including location of deercheck stations,
antler point restriction FAQs and hunting digests go to
www.michigan.gov/
deer.
Nearly 6,000
Juvenile
Lake Sturgeon
were released this
fall and summer
into various public
waters across the
state by the DNR
and its partners in
an effort to
rehabilitate this
culturally significant
fish species.
Sanilac County
Carsonville Area
Partially Wooded
Asking: $36,000
Sold: $31,000
Page 2
Continued from page 1
Deer License Changes
Piece by piece we carried that monster thru the
swamp. The construction site for the blind was a
“dream”; brushy, wet, uneven ground, and we were
constantly covered with swarms of biting flies and
mosquitoes. Reminded me of places I had seen on
National Geographic. You know the ones, where you
see people slashing their way thru the jungle with
machetes.
The new license structure took effect March 1st.
Among the most significant changes affecting deer
hunters, a base license is now required for all hunters. The purchase of a base license includes small
game hunting. Whether they choose to hunt small
game or not, hunters' base license dollars will be
used to enhance and expand hunting opportunities.
Took us a few hours to get the stand built to the
point where we could raise it up and nail it in place.
Honestly, raising it was the easy part. The bad part
was somebody was going to have to climb up the
stand before it was secured to anything and nail it to a
tree for support. That’s where my buddy, Smurph,
came into play. Much younger, and probably a few
pounds lighter, he got the job. Hammer in hand, up
the wobbly stand he went, high into the tree canopy.
Dad and I stood below trying to steady the swaying
behemoth, its legs firmly planted in a heap of water
filled moss. Smurph eventually announced from high
above he had found a place to nail our stand to the
tree and commenced to pounding. He had taken a
pocketful of nails up the stand and was intent on using all of them to steady the stand. Somewhere
around the 30th nail the hammer slipped from
Smurph’s hand and came rocketing down thru the
tree canopy. I just happened to be looking up when
the hammer came loose. I can remember clearly seeing Smurphs eyes go wide, his voice seemed in slow
motion, as he tried to announce the incoming hammer. Before a word got out, the hammer had dealt its
blow squarely on the top of my dad’s head. Dad was
wearing a baseball cap, and that hammer hit right on
that little button thingy on top of his hat and bounced
off into the woods. Dad let go of the stand, made a
sort of OOOOOHHHing sound and grabbed for his
head, Smurph gasped from above, and me, well, I fell
over laughing. Yeah I know not what I should have
been doing, but I just couldn’t stop. Dad, fortunately,
was okay. Smurph, however, he kinda kept quiet and
stayed out of dad’s reach and AWAY from any of my
dad’s future inventions.
Deer licenses available include:

Single deer license, valid
throughout archery, firearm
and muzzleloader seasons.
This license has replaced the
separate archery and firearm licenses. Hunters who
buy a single deer license may not buy a second single deer license or the deer combo license.

Deer combo license, which includes two kill
tags, one regular and one restricted. Hunters who
want two deer licenses must buy the deer combo
license instead of the single deer license. This is
required to implement antler point restrictions,
which apply based on whether the hunter has purchased two deer licenses. The deer combo license
is valid for use during the archery, firearm and muzzleloader seasons. A hunter can use both kill tags in
the firearm seasons, both in the archery season or
one in each season.

Antlerless deer license, available based on
license quotas set for each Deer Management Unit .
To see how the single deer and deer combo licenses
may be used in each deer season, based on which
DMU a hunter wishes to hunt, see the Antler Point
Restriction Regulations map and chart on pages 32
and 33 of the 2014 Hunting and Trapping Digest.
More information about the new hunting license
structure – including license prices, is available at
www.michigan.gov/dnr under "In the Know."
Proposals 1 and 2
It’s a simple concept, with complicated consequences. We’ve already won the battle on wolf hunting and naming game species by passing the Scientific Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act (SFWCA) in
August. This is about the next anti-hunting attack.
The anti-hunting machine had already purchased
$750,000 of media in July BEFORE the SFWCA was
passed. They already paid for the airtime, now
they're using it. This vote will actually not have any
effect on the wolf hunt. By voting YES on Props 1 and
2 hunters are sending a message that anti-hunters
cannot buy your vote and it will have the fight of it’s
life the next time it comes back to Michigan.
Rick Patridge 810-597-1327 [email protected] www.Hunting4Land.com
NEW!
VOLUME 49
Page 3
Tuscola County
Caro Area
40 Acres $122,900
When You Purchase
Your License
this hunting season
you can donate to
MSAH, Michigan
Sportsman Against
Hunger. Your donation will be used to
help process venison donated to the
program. Hunters
can also support
the program by
donating a legally
taken deer to one of
the supporting processors across the
state. Each year
venison processed
through this program helps provide
a healthy source of
protein in over
100,000 meals.
For more info go to
www.sportsmen
againsthunger.org.
Let’s keep this important tradition of
helping others that
need a hand going
and growing
stronger.
DNR
Shooting Ranges
will be open seven
days per week from
November 1-15,
including Veterans'
Day. The weekday
hours are 10 a.m.
to 5 p.m. at Ortonville and Pontiac
Lake, and they are
9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at
Rose Lake and
Sharonville.
The last shot is fired
15 minutes before
closing.
Easy access hunting camp. Wooded acreage right on M-24 backing up to hundreds
of acres of state land. There’s also a 3
bedroom home with garage, workshop,
and shed to store the equipment. Woods
are a good mix of high and lower ground,
small ridges and swales. Mixture of maple, cherry, poplar and some pines in the
woods. There is a large power line running
across the parcel part way back that could
provide a potential food plot location.
Good deer and turkey sign in the woods.
You could
bring up the
buddies on
this one,
lots of room.
Michigan Woodcock Hunting
Woodcock are small birds that inhabit cover similar to that of the
ruffed grouse and Michigan is prime breeding ground for woodcock.
Woodcock numbers are stable according to DNR hunter surveys
from last season. 75% of respondents said the population was either increased or holding from previous seasons.
Woodcock prefer new growth forest with small clearings providing
singing grounds for males during mating season. Forestry operations in the state have produced a lot of young, second-growth
shrubs like alders, birch and aspen hardwoods in Northern Michigan, and young stands of maple and ash in Southern Michigan.
These areas provide nesting and brood-rearing cover. The birds
often roost in old fields, hayfields, grasslands, or cut young forest
areas. These areas also have moist, rich soils that provide the
earthworms that woodcock eat.
While you may find some success hunting entirely on your own,
hunting with a dog is the key to success. A close-working flushing
dog or pointer will put you on woodcock. The little birds behave like
pheasants in that they hold tight to cover and will run before taking
flight. Woodcock are social and there will most likely be others close by. Unlike grouse, which rely on speed for
their escape, Woodcock rely on an erratic path—both when they run and when they fly. Their flight speed is
much slower than grouse, and they are much smaller. These things all combine to frustrate and challenge
hunters. Practice quick shots at the range. Some Michigan ranges offer a “Woodcock tune-up” sporting clays
round.
Like many game birds, Woodcock make for great table fare. The meat is very rich, but doesn’t have an overly
“gamey” flavor. The meat is, however, extremely lean, so most recipes call for some form of added fat.
Woodcock season begins September 20 in Michigan and runs for 45 days.
Rick Patridge 810-597-1327 [email protected] www.Hunting4Land.com
FINS, FEATHERS & FUR
Page 4
Honored for Lifesaving Efforts
Two Men Ticketed
for being over the
bag limit for redhead ducks in October. The bag limit
for redheads is two
per hunter. When
the hunters arrived
on shore with their
boat, an officer
noted the hunters
were acting nervous
but they had only
two redhead ducks
in the boat. A Report All Poaching
Line (800-2927800) complainant
found a stringer of
18 redhead ducks
shoved underneath
the boat dock at the
access site. Officers
tracked down the
hunters encountered the previous
night and obtained
a confession from
them that they shot
20 redhead ducks
while hunting that
day. The men were
ticketed for being
over the bag limit
for redhead ducks
and face restitution
payments of $100
to $500 per duck.
They have previous
waterfowl hunting
violations, according to the officers.
30 Year Fixed Rate
Vacant Land Loans
are available at a
number of financial
institutions. Many
people don’t know
that. One of them is
Greenstone Farm
Credit Services.
Find out more on
their web site
www.Green
StoneFCS.com
The DNR recently honored four Natural Resources Conservation Officers
who worked as part of a search and rescue operation in Newaygo County
last year who ultimately found a missing 2 1/2-year-old girl within 24 hours
of her disappearance alert and unharmed.
Sgt. Mike Bomay and conservation officers Jeff Ginn, Brian Lebel and Mike
Wells were presented with Lifesaving Awards by DNR Director Keith Creagh
and DNR Law Enforcement Division Chief Gary Hagler for their role in locating Amber Smith, a toddler who disappeared Oct. 8, 2013, from her Barton
Township home. The officers responded to a request from the Newaygo
County Sheriff’s Department to assist with the search of the heavily wooded area around the girl's home. The
area is part of national forest land and contains a maze of two-track roads and power lines.
"Our officers go through extensive training to locate lost persons in the woods and they are experts in the areas
where they work, knowing the terrain better than anyone,” said Hagler. “I would like to congratulate all of the
officers involved for their diligence on this search. Some had already worked a full shift when they were requested to help and did not hesitate to assist.”
Passing It On To The Next Generation
The DNR honored its longtime Hunter Education Class Instructors who have been with the program more than 40 years!
“Our hunter education program has trained over 1 million
hunters since its start in 1946 and currently trains about
20,000 students a year,” said DNR Director Keith Creagh.
“We could not do this without the help of our hunter education instructors who volunteer because of their love of the
outdoors and their deep interest in passing that interest along
to the next generation of conservation leaders.”
There are at least 40 active hunter education instructors who have more than 40 years of service to the program, including Charles Duncan of Bay City who is the longest-serving instructor, volunteering for 49 years.
While having a crop of seasoned, veteran instructors is an advantage for Michigan’s hunter education program, there also is a need to recruit new instructors for the program in all regions of the state. For more information on Michigan’s hunter education program, visit www.michigan.gov/huntereducation.
Silver Carp Environmental DNA
Recently the DNR announced a single positive result for silver carp
environmental DNA (eDNA) on the lower Kalamazoo River. Although this
result is alarming, the DNR is already working closely with other natural
resources agencies to investigate and determine the extent of the
situation. The positive detection can be the result of the presence of
genetic material of silver carp, such as scales, excrement or mucous. In
addition to live fish, genetic material can enter water bodies via boats, fishing gear and the droppings of fisheating birds. In response to the finding, the DNR has already worked with the USFWS to implement a third
eDNA surveillance effort to collect an additional 200 samples on the lower Kalamazoo River.
Significant effort over the past several years assessing fish populations with specialized gear capable of capturing carp has shown no evidence of a viable population of silver or bighead carp. Also, there has been no
reports from anglers that indicate the presence of live Asian carp. However, the danger remains. Asian carp
pose a significant threat to the Great Lakes. Silver and bighead carp are likely to compete with native and recreational fish species and are known to quickly reproduce.
"It's important for anglers to understand they are our first line of defense in our fight against Asian carp and all
aquatic invasive species," said DNR officials. "The State of Michigan will continue to press for hydrological
separation of the Great Lakes from the Mississippi, which until this is completed continues to be our number
one concern."
For more information on Asian carp, including how to identify juveniles and adults, visit www.michigan.gov/
asiancarp
Rick Patridge 810-597-1327 [email protected] www.Hunting4Land.com
VOLUME 49
Page 5
Deer 101
Oak Wilt
poses a serious
threat to Michigan’s
red oak trees. Infected trees die
quickly, often within
a few weeks. The
disease, which occurs across much of
the state, moves
rapidly to healthy
oak trees through
root systems that
have grafted with
diseased trees.
While oak wiltinfected trees cannot be saved,
healthy trees can
be protected by
breaking root grafts
before the disease
can spread. A 5-foot
-long steel blade
mounted on a vibratory plow is used to
sever the root systems below ground.
Red oak trees growing inside the treatment lines are then
cut and chipped,
burned or sawed
into lumber to help
prevent overland
spread of the disease. Leaving diseased trees standing increases the
risk of spread by
beetles that can
move oak wilt
spores long distances. To report a
suspected oak wilt
site, email DNR-FRD
-Forest-Health@
michigan.gov or call
517-284-5906.
To get more info on
symptoms visit
http://michigansaf.
org/ForestInfo/
Health/E3169OakWilt.pdf.
White-tailed deer are the smallest of the three members of the deer family
found in Michigan, the others being elk and moose. As a species, they extend
from the southern edge of the arctic prairies in Canada, all the way to the northern bank of the Amazon River.
"White-tailed" refers to the distinctive white tail that when raised is a flag and
provides a flash of white, signaling other deer when there is danger. Deer are
swift runners, up to 35 miles per hour, but do not generally run long distances,
preferring to seek the nearest shelter whenever possible. Deer tend to live in
female-led family groups of up to 25 deer and may live to ten years or more. Their size ranges between 125 to
225 pounds, although really healthy bucks may be even larger. Their coat is a reddish-brown color in the summer, but becomes much more gray in the winter. Their tubular or hollow hairs provide insulation, allowing
them to lie on snow without melting it, as well as creating enough buoyancy for swimming.
Males and occasionally females have antlers, which are made from bone and are shed annually, usually midwinter. It may be surprising then that antlers are rarely found in the woods. Since they are rich in calcium and
other nutrients, antlers are usually eaten by animals such as porcupines, rabbits and rodents soon after they
are shed. Although older bucks generally do have larger antlers, the size and number of points of a buck's
antlers are primarily dependent upon the amount of nutrients, vitamins and minerals in the deer's diet, not
their age.
Deer have a good sense of smell, keen hearing and eyesight, but they are color blind, which is why they may
not notice humans dressed in "hunter orange."
Deer are ruminants, like cows and have four stomachs. Like cows, deer will occasionally regurgitate food and
"chew their cud" to aid in the breakdown of food particles. The remaining three stomachs complete the digestion process.
Deer have been a valuable resource in Michigan since the first Native Americans began to hunt them. Prior to
European settlement, Michigan had an abundant deer herd in the south. The mixture of hardwoods, wetlands,
bogs and forest openings was perfect for deer. There were few deer in the virgin forests of the north, which
were inhabited mostly by elk and moose. The mature trees were so dense that sunlight could not reach the
forest floor and therefore little deer food was available.
As farmers and settlers moved into southern Michigan, deer were exterminated by removal of cover and by
unregulated shooting - deer were mostly gone by 1870. Logging of forests in the north produced an opposite
effect--more openings, brush, and young forests - the northern herd climbed to estimated 1 million deer in the
1880s.
As railroads were developed and provided access into the wilderness, market hunters slaughtered hundreds
of thousands of deer. Early measures to control market hunting were not very successful, but finally in 1895 a
law, which really marked the beginning of deer management in Michigan, established a deer hunting season
and limited the number of deer that could be harvested.
Alec with his nice 6 Pointer
Dave Parrello with his Fall Turkey
Lilly and her FIRST deer!
Rick Patridge 810-597-1327 [email protected] www.Hunting4Land.com
Possible New Slogans for the Great Lakes State ...
1. Snow Me state!
2. It's pronounced Macki-NAW... I don't care if it has a "C."
3. We're actually north of Canada.
4. Where used cars from Florida bring top dollar.
5. The Orange Barrel State...
6. The last line of defense against Canada.
7. We know the rules to euchre.
8. Yes, the Porcupines are real mountains.
9. Soda? We say pop here, buddy.
10. Sandy beaches without severe undertow.
11. Happiness is a warm pasty.
12. Imagine an island where horse manure still litters the streets.
13. Water enough for any drought.
14. Visit Hell and Paradise all in the same day.
15. Where Ontario is a shortcut to New York.
16. It's called snow. Get used to it.
17. Deer processing available here.
18. Once a swamp unfit for habitation.
19. Big on flannel.
20. It's not the heat. It's the humidity.
21. Smoked fish sold here.
22. Good people with camping trailers.
23. Our biggest bridge makes yours look puny.
24. Nearly went to war with Ohio once and will do it again if they pull any
funny stuff.
25. Land of snow machines and bass boats.
26. Speed limit back up to 70, so move it.
27. Canadian money accepted.
28. Yes, it gets even colder than this.
29. Probably north of wherever you're from.
30. Where troll's live under da Bridge.
LOOKING TO BUY OR SELL PROPERTY?
GIVE ME A CALL.
1727 Flowers Mill Ct. NE
Grand Rapids, MI 49525
2149 Village West Dr.
Lapeer, MI 48446
810-597-1327
[email protected]
www.Hunting4Land.com
Rick Patridge
810-597-1327
[email protected]
www.Hunting4Land.com
This newsletter is to be considered a commercial ad.
You can opt out of receiving further emails by replying to this email with UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line.
Rick Patridge 810-597-1327 [email protected] www.Hunting4Land.com