Well, I’m at that inevitable point in the year where I’m having major withdrawals from hunting whitetail deer. It’s been just over a month since our regular deer season ended here in Michigan. After several weeks of catching up on projects around the house and articles for the site, I find myself feeling that mid-winter drag. However, looking forward to upcoming hunts for 2021 is giving me the motivation to get things in gear. I’m currently firming up plans for a spring black bear hunt in Arizona in April. Then it will be back to Michigan for our spring turkey season—which I look forward to each year. Being out in the woods while everything is waking back up after a long winter is always fun. The first spring gobbles every year get my adrenaline pumping and then it’s off to the races until I bag my tom.
Then, with spring hunting complete, I am going to get my fly rods out and start mapping a summer of short 1-3 day trips up north to chase some of the finest trout that Michigan offers. Did you know that Michigan was the first state in the U.S. to have Brown trout introduced in 1884? There is a rich and deep history of trout fishing in the Great Lake state. I’m also hoping to spend a lot of time near my home in southern Michigan chasing bass, walleye, perch, bluegill, and pike with family and friends. I want to eat a lot of fish this summer.
As we near August of 2021, I will begin heavily scouting for whitetail deer on the local properties I hunt. Trimming shooting lanes and hanging trail cameras will fill my days. I will also have to decide whether I am going to hunt black bears in the Upper Peninsula this fall. I have enough points to draw a second or third hunt, but the first hunts are typically the hunts with the highest success rates due to the dog hunters hitting the woods during hunt two. It’s always a fun trip into the UP, but setting up a bait site can be a ton of work if the success rate is low for that hunt.
As October closes In, I will begin preparing for Whitetail deer hunting which will consume most of the first 10 days of October. During mid-October when I generally lay off my deer properties before the rut kicks off, I am hoping to chase some waterfowl and take a short trip down to Kentucky to try out their deer season. With reasonable non-resident license fees and only being a five-hour drive, I am eager to hunt in the woods that Daniel Boone hunted in. Then It’ll be back home for the rut and a grueling 3-4 weeks of all-day hunts.
Now before all this, there is still a lot of small game and coyote hunting to do in Michigan. I’m also looking forward to getting out on the ice a few times to do some fishing. By the end of February, I will have started training for my Mountain Bear hunt in Arizona in April. The hunt will be between 4-6000 feet of elevation and I’m planning to be out in the mountains and forests for between 7-10 days. It is going to be a workout.
When I lay it all out like that, suddenly I realize that the “midwinter” drag isn’t so bad. It’s a time to relax for a few weeks and get in the right mindset to work hard. It’s going to be a busy year. I hope you are planning some great hunts too.
