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Wisconsin’s fall hunting seasons move into high gear this weekend with the opening of the Canada goose season on Friday, and the opening of fall turkey, archery deer, ruffed grouse, cotton tail rabbit and squirrel seasons on Saturday. This weekend there is also a special two-day youth waterfowl hunt (pdf) open to youths 10 to 15 years of age who are hunter safety certified or participating in a mentored hunt. Participants must be HIP registered and be accompanied by and adult.
There are some changes this year for turkey hunters and archery deer hunters. It will be more convenient for turkey hunters to register their birds this year, either toll-free over the phone at 1-888-HUNT-WIS (1-888-486-8947) or usingonline turkey registration (Note: link will become active when season opens) through the DNR website. There will no longer be turkey registration stations. The fall turkey hunting season will also be extended for turkey zones 1 through 5 to Dec. 31. This late season had a two-year trial period, but is now permanent. There are still plenty of turkey permits available for these zones this fall. Archery deer hunting will now be open during the nine-day gun deer season, which will make this the longest archer deer season on record.
Pleasant late-summer weather in the past week made for very nice fishing conditions. In the Northwoods, water temperatures dropped into the mid-60s spurring on fall feeding activity for most species. Musky and northern pike action continues to improve and anglers have reported some very good success. The hook-and-line sturgeon season into its second week with moderate pressure and quite a few fish being caught, including a couple legal 60-inch-plus fish reported. Bass fishing continued to become more erratic, but some excellent action has been experienced on a couple of days, especially for largemouth. Walleye success continues to improve with some decent catches reported from on and around mid-depth structure on leaches and crawlers. In the south smallmouth bass are very active and feeding on the Wisconsin River and walleye fishing remains good below dams on the Rock River. Panfish action has been good on many southern lakes.
On Green Bay, some very good perch fishing with some limits were being reported along Door County. Anglers were targeting musky on the lower bay and Fox River with some success this week. Lake Michigan trollers continue to work outside of harbors with success for chinook and brown trout as well as farther off shore with a mixed bag of chinook and coho salmon and brown and rainbow trout reported. Lake Michigan tributaries continue to run quite low. A few chinook were reported this week on the lower sections of the Manitowoc and Sheboygan rivers, but additional rainfall is needed to draw fish up tributaries for fall spawning.
Whitetail bucks are now being seen both with and without velvet. Archers are reminded that if they shoot a buck in velvet and want to keep the antlers they must contact a conservation warden and request written authorization.
Coyotes have been very vocal over the last several weeks. Family groups have established rendezvous sites. These are typically open areas including old log landings, abandoned quarries or grassy hillsides, where family groups meet to socialize, and prepare for an upcoming hunt. Pups are especially vocal at this time and will readily respond when howled at by a human voice.
Spots of autumn color are starting especially with some maples starting to turn. Iron County in far northern Wisconsin is reporting the most color at between 25 and 50 percent on the Department of Tourism’s newly revamped Fall Color Report (exit DNR), but peak color is still several weeks off in the north and a month or so in the south.
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