The winter undoubtedly thwarts many outdoor plans in most parts of the country. If you don't believe me, just wait until the first warm weekend in February. There will be more lawnmowers heard than any other time of the year.

As I type this, I'm also getting ready for my last deer hunt of the year. The South Alabama bucks are just now in the prerut phase, with the rut only a few days away.

It looks like we can dust off those dollflies. The walleye are finding their way upstream to spawn and need a tasty meal. I'm hoping some of them will become a good meal for me.

As the deer season comes to an end, I'm sure we all have our idea of how it went. Some will consider this the best year ever, some will call it a success, and some will bemoan its disappointment.

Each morning I walked about threefourths of a mile to get to my stand. I had cut limbs and bushes out of the way and yet there was one area where I had to navigate around several tree-laps and weeds.

Hunters and fishermen will tell you about the importance of confidence. It is really a major part of the battle when it comes to patience and persistence.

This time of year, the pictures from successful deer hunts are everywhere on social media. The trophies are not defined by size but by smiles. Each hunter has his or her own story to tell about that special day.

Are you obsessed over something? Has something gained your attention in such a way that you have made some drastic changes in order to accommodate that matter?

Nearly twenty years ago I was in Alabama hunting. I went there for many years because the license was cheap, and the deer were numerous. On occasion I would hunt public property.

I spent Saturday morning with about eight other friends and acquaintances, hunting deer. My mood was still melancholy because of the unseasonably warm weather, but the company and camaraderie made up for it.

Have you noticed while everyone else is enjoying the beautiful fall days, the hunter is crying "bah humbug"?

I never like to see a doe with a fawn coming toward my tree stand. Nothing ever gets by a momma that's looking out for her young one.

It rains in my barn. I don't mean rain blows into my barn. I mean, it rains in my barn. As you may remember, my hunting perch is on the second level of a barn. It's perfect.

My favorite time of the year starts right now. It begins on Halloween and goes for about six weeks. In deer hunting terms, these few weeks involve the pre-rut, rut, post-rut, and secondary rut.

Change is a merciless taskmaster. It is both consistent and impulsive. It arrives both expectedly and unexpectedly. At times it is welcomed and at other times dreaded.

I've been waiting for this coming week for a while. I sort of pick the third week of October as the official time the pre-rut starts. I think the weather either hastens that or stalls it

I had been in the stand only 15 minutes when the doe appeared. When it crossed the path I came in on, she immediately smelled an unfamiliar odor and followed it with her eyes to my tree stand.

One of the conditions that hunters must face this time of year is the fog. Sometimes it lingers seemingly all day, making it difficult to see especially when hunting with firearms.

The weatherman said our temps were ten degrees below normal for this time of the year. I discovered he was right as I sat shivering in a treestand on opening morning.

One of the benefits of hunting is getting to see so many different animals and other things that one just doesn't get to see otherwise. I have renamed one of my trail cameras, the zoo camera, because it always has pictures of so many different kinds of animals.

One of the best places to put up a tree stand or blind, is in a funnel. A funnel is a small area where two or more ridges run out or down into a small hollow or trail.

Just drive down the road and you can learn a lot about someone. For instance, if I see a truck with a NWTF bumper sticker and a Remington logo surrounded by camo accents, I'm sure they will pretty much help me if I have a need of any kind.

At six a.m. my temperature gauge read eighty degrees. The humidity was stifl ing. The recent weather has not been fi t for man or beast and it's showing up in the lack of success most fishermen are enduring

It's fun to see newcomers to the hunting and fishing sports. Whether it's an adult or youth, both bring a fresh sense of excitement that is contagious. And after a few times in the activity, they consider themselves a part of this special group.

My fishing experiences as a youth were either alone or with the gang that made up Ford's Woods. What I learned about fishing came from the
same sources.