The leaves are falling, footballs are flying and so are the ducks. The Minnesota waterfowl hunting season opens on Saturday, October 4th and pheasant season opens the following Saturday on October 11th. The 2008 roadside survey conducted in August predicts this hunting year will be consistent with the ten year average with the best hunting forecast for the southwestern part of the state. The deer archery and small game seasons all opened Sept. 13.

With all the hunting season going full bore with the exception of the deer firearms season there are already many opportunities for any outdoorsman to enjoy.

In October my brother-in-law, Lynn and his wife Margaret will be coming home from Alaska for a couple of weeks and we plan to head to the cabin for a little hunting and fishing. The last time they came home we had some of the coldest weather of the fall with some snow thrown in for good measure. Hopefully the weather will cooperate this time. When he comes home he buys his hunting license and hunts ducks and pheasant. One year the first time I saw him after he came home was when I came home after work and he was cleaning a couple of pheasants in my kitchen sink. Didn’t mess around, bought his licensed and commenced to use it.

The falling leaves and cloudy damp days of fall bring back memories of my youth when we considered it football weather no matter what the conditions. If you didn’t come home with grass-stained knees and mud on your face, pants and sweatshirt then you weren’t playing hard enough. I guess I always thought of that as some sort of right or as a sign of being tough. Now my mother on the other hand had a different view of things, I guess that wasbecause she was the one that had to try and get the stains out of my clothes. Tough went away fast when she spotted grass stains on my good clothes.

There were a lot of Saturdays when the neighborhood kids would get together for a football game and the reward for winning the game was bragging rights at school the next week. It was fun and very seldom did anyone lose their temper because it was just a bunch of kids who were friends getting together and having a little fun on a weekend.

Once in a while there would be kids from another neighborhood farther away and they’d bring their cousins and various other (ringers) kids to play. Some of them were older than us and could run harder and tackle harder and in general would usually give us a good pounding. The one thing we never did was play much touch football. It was almost always tackle but once in a great while we’d do the two handed touch thing but it had to be below the waist. I never really cared for touch football as a kid, but when playing older kids it was a way to avoid a real pounding.

When I returned from the service a bunch of us would get together and watch the Vikings on Sunday and then after the game we’d head to a nearby park for a game of touch football. This was a lot of fun but like so many traditions it slowly dwindled as we got families and as our families grew.

When I look around the neighborhoods in town I don’t really see many pickup football games going on. I guess kids today have too many other things going on to do the things we considered fun. When my boys were small we’d spend hours in our small back yard just hiking the ball and running out for a pass, I’d have them run routes and timing patterns, showed them what a button-hook pass was and just have fun. It just didn’t seem like they could ever get enough but eventually the old guy‘s arm would get tired and we‘d have to call it a day.

My grandsons who live in the country play football in their yard every chance they get. Their dad is out there throwing them the ball and I can always hear one of them saying “watch me Dad”. Watching them is fun for me and it always brings back those memories of years past when their dad was yelling “watch me dad“.

Musky Talk

The October meeting of Southern Crossroads Chapter 54 of Muskies Inc. will be at 7 p.m. Oct. 8 at Eagles Club in Owatonna.

Our speaker will be Jeff Woodruff, a Leech Lake muskie and walleye guide, as well as a professional tournament fisherman. We invite any fisherman that is interested to attend and hear how to catch big fish.

Our meetings are 2nd Wednesday of each month, and include door prizes, raffles and updates. Check our web sight at:

“/do/redirect?url=http%253A%252F%252Fwww.michapter54.com”. Musky hunters bring a friend and join Muskies Inc. Help improve musky fishing in southern Minnesota.

TIP program works

Two Ohio men were fined a total of $2,600 for having 99 sunfish over the legal limit. An anonymous caller informed conservation officers that there were two men fishing on Lake Hattie in Cass County. Conservation officers observed the men fishing and then checked their catch and asked if they could look in the cabin’s freezer. This is where they found a total of 139 sunfish that the two men had. “Over the years, the DNR has received valuable information through the Turn In Poachers hotline, assisting us in ending a variety of natural resources violations,” said CO Nikki Shoutz. “This case is another example of how the concern of Minnesota sportsmen and women can be used to protect Minnesota’s natural resources.”

Until next time, play safe, good hunting and enjoy the outdoors.

Please continue to show your support for those that have chosen to proudly serve their country.