Lakes Area Outdoors 2019

LAKES AREA

2019

OUTDOORS

Once in a lifetime

ELK HUNT TRACKING DEER WITH

DOGS

An Echo Press Publication

Sweet

NOVEMBER nears

Lakes Area Outdoors | PAGE 1

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Once-in-a-lifetime elk hunt

Brian Krebs, a native of Alexandria and current resident of Fargo, North Dakota, had his name drawn for a once-in-a lifetime elk tag. Here, Krebs’ truck is packed with meat and antlers from his bull.

Once-in a lifetime page 18

inside this issue Many opportunities for doe harvest locally........................ 4 Tracking whitetails....................................................................... 8 Map of D.A.T.A Trails.......................................................... 12-13 Good season on tap for waterfowlers?................................14 Hoping the numbers lie............................................................. 16 Once-in-a-lifetime bull.............................................................. 18 Sweet November is near.......................................................... 20 Minnesota hunting and trapping seasons......................... 21

Jody Hanson, Publisher Eric Morken, Sports/Outdoors Editor­­ Lori Mork, Designer A publication of Echo Press, October 2019 225 7th Ave. East, Alexandria, MN www.echopress.com

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Yellow lab, Ole, with a drake mallard he retrieved through the cattails on a hunt in southern Minnesota during the 2018 season. (Eric Morken / Echo Press)

Lakes Area Outdoors | PAGE 3

A buck and a doe stand at attention.

Regulations for the upcoming deer season were announced by the DNR in early August. (Courtesy photo / Minnesota Department of Natural Resources)

Many opportunities for doe harvest locally Youth season runs statewide

Eric Morken emorken@echopress.com

Youth deer hunters in Minnesota will have expanded opportunities this fall. That’s part of the regulations released by the Minnesota DNR in early August for this upcoming hunting season.

Significant changes for the 2019 season include a youth deer season that’s expanded statewide, expanded deer feeding and attractant bans, and other updates related to managing chronic wasting disease.

“We heard a lot of support for a statewide youth deer hunting season,” Barbara Keller, big game program leader for the Minnesota DNR, said in a release. “We’re excited to make it easier for parents, relatives or trusted adults to share their hunting PAGE 4 | Lakes Area Outdoors

knowledge and traditions with the next generation of deer hunters.”

The 2019 full Minnesota Hunting and Trapping regulations handbook is available on the DNR’s deer hunting page at mndnr.gov/hunting/deer. Hunting licenses went on sale Aug. 1 and are available at any DNR license agent, by telephone at 888646-6367 or online at mndnr. gov/buyalicense.

The statewide youth season runs from Oct. 17 through Oct. 20 for youth hunters ages 10-17. In the past, the youth season was only available in the southeast, northwest and Twin Cities metro permit areas.

There are also changes in regulations regarding chronic wasting disease. In addition to hunters, all Minnesotans in central and southeast Minnesota should pay close attention to the deer feeding and attractant ban rule. The area where deer feeding and using deer attractants is pro-

hibited will expand starting Sept. 1, in areas of central and southeast Minnesota where CWD was detected in farmed or wild deer.

Feeding and attractants increase the risk of disease transmission between animals by bringing them together in close contact, which is a mechanism for CWD spread.

There are several changes to deer permit area numbering this year that will clarify where CWD management and surveillance occurs.

Deer permit areas within a CWD management zone, in southeast and north-central Minnesota, will now be part of 600-series permit areas.

The metro deer permit area will be renamed to 701 from 601.

The DNR is, as in previous years, enforcing carcass movement restrictions to limit the spread of disease. Hunters will also need to be aware of mandatory sampling during all deer

seasons in the CWD management zones (southeast and north-central), and over the opening weekend of the firearms season in the CWD control zone (southeast, bordering the CWD management zone) and in surveillance areas (central). Areas directly around Alexandria, including permit area 213, are not part of the mandatory sampling areas. The Central CWD surveillance area includes permit areas 277, 283, 219 and 285.

Full details about CWD sampling, including sampling locations, carcass movement restrictions, and management and control zones are available at mndnr.gov/cwd.

AREA PERMIT AREA LIMITS The limit for the number of deer a hunter can take in each permit area was also made official for the 2019 season with the releasing of the regulations.

DOE HARVEST page 20

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Tracking whitetails New law opens doors for hunters, creates opportunity for local dog trainer

O

Eric Morken emorken@echopress.com

sakis’ Cassie Mead was closely following a piece of legislation this past winter in Minnesota that had the potential to affect hunters this fall.

Mead does not hunt herself, but her husband and other family members and friends spend plenty of time in the woods. Her passion is in working with dogs.

Mead also knows what a popular pastime hunting is locally. All of that factored into why she was happy to see a bill pass that allows the use of dogs for tracking wounded deer or bears starting this season in Minnesota.

“My interest in this is the conservation portion, obviously. I hate to see animals go to waste,” Mead said. “But this is a very mentally stimulating game that dogs can play. Physically, it’s a good activity to get them out of the house. From a dog trainer’s perspective, this is a great activity for highly-motivated dogs. My interest in this is from a trainers perspective, but I also realize there is a need for it in the area.”

Mead, 35 years old and a 2002 graduate of Osakis

High School, has a history of working with dogs from all different backgrounds.

Mead served in the military for four years and was a government contractor when she got out.

“Part of the side gig of what I did when I was a government contractor was fostering dogs,” she said.

“I’d go down to the animal shelter and see if they needed help fostering dogs. I got involved in a German Shepherd rescue and I fostered dogs with them for about four years. In the process, I was helping rehabilitate them so they could find homes.”

Mead was working with one dog in particular that she could not help and needed some professional guidance with. She called a business called Off Leash K-9 Training. After seeing the impact their work had on that dog, Mead knew she wanted to join their team.

“That’s where I got my start. That was back in 2012,” she said. “I became a trainer with Off Leash K-9 training.

I owned half of the location that was in Charlottesville, Va. After a couple of years, that was going really well so I decided to bring it up here with me.”

REACHING CASSIE MEAD FOR TRACKING Hunters who wound a deer they have trouble finding this year have an opportunity locally to call Osakis’ Cassie Mead, a professional dog trainer through Off Leash K-9 Training.

Mead has trained her dog, Bear, to track whitetails.

She is charging just the cost of mileage to get to the location for hunters in central Minnesota this first season.

Mead can be contacted at 320-491-3347.

PAGE 8 | Lakes Area Outdoors

Cassie Mead, a dog trainer from Osakis, with her 4-year-old German Shepherd, Bear. (Eric Morken / Echo Press) A NEW OPPORTUNITY Mead’s business, with the local location just north of Osakis, offers a wide range of canine obedience training for clients. The passing of this new law that allows the use of dogs in tracking wounded bears and deer has opened up new doors for her.

The tracking law went into effect in July, but Mead started operating under the assumption that the legislation would pass once she first heard about it in January.

Part of getting the most

out of her dogs while training would be understanding the science of how odor moves.

For that, she reached out to a scent-detection trainer from Las Vegas who she had worked with in the past.

“He’s a specialist in his field that has helped me learn a lot about odor and the training component,” Mead said.

“I have a team of trainers that works with me down in the cities. One of them is a former instructor for tracking for the military. I’ve gotten a

TRACKING page 10

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Before the advent of agriculture, human beings hunted and fished for their food. Even after agricultural practices had been established, hunting continued to occupy an important role in sourcing out food for survival and trade. Still today, hunting and fishing are important food sources for many people.

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TRACKING from page 8

lot of information from him.

I’ve been reading everything I can find on tracking and doing a ton of research.”

Mead knew it would be too late in the summer to bring in a lot of client dogs to have ready by the fall as people slowly found out about this new opportunity.

She had trained four tracking dogs, including one for bears, from other dog owners through the first part of September.

TRAINING TO TRACK Mead also worked with her 4-year-old German Shepherd, Bear, to make sure he was ready so hunters can call her to help track deer if they wound an animal this season.

Mead started Bear’s training by performing hunt games with him to see if he was interested in hunting for food. That’s a first step in knowing if a dog can succeed at this.

“Any breed can do it,” Mead said. “They just need to be motivated and have enough energy to do this.

There’s not a specific breed of dog that will work best for this because they all have amazing noses. They have to have that level of motivation.”

For Bear, that motivation is food. Mead placed hotdogs in a small area of her yard that Bear was eager to hunt for. The odor of the food was eventually paired with the odor of a wounded deer from a small piece of hide and some artificial odor that was available until she can get the real thing from a recovered deer during this hunting season.

“So he’s following the PAGE 10 | Lakes Area Outdoors

scent of the food and picking up on the scent of the animal at the same time,” Mead said. “Then we gradually transition him to there’s a bunch of hot dogs and a bunch of deer odor, to there’s a couple hot dogs and a bunch of deer odor, to eventually we work him on gradually longer tracks where it’s just deer order and he gets a reward at the end.”

Mead plans on devoting all of next summer to training tracking dogs for clients. She charges $30 per session, and how many sessions are needed depends on the dog.

Bear was a farm dog with Mead’s parents near Osakis before he came to live with her. His training took two and a half months of working with him about once a week to get him ready for this fall season. Mead said most client dogs can work through the training much faster by working with them three or four times a week.

READY TO PROVE HIMSELF Bear quickly identified the start of a track that Mead put down on Sept. 10. He went downwind of the trail a little ways at one point to use both air and ground scent to really determine his path. The trail led Bear through grass and then nearly knee-high vegetation before he found his prize of hot dogs waiting for him on the piece of deer hide he had been tracking.

That was four days before Minnesota’s bow hunting opener for whitetails. Mead has loved watching the satisfaction Bear gets out of learning how to track. She is eager to see him help hunters get that same satisfaction of finding a deer this fall

Four-year-old German Shepherd, Bear, lifts his nose to catch some air scent as he leads his handler, Cassie Mead of Osakis, on a track on Sept. 10. Mead trained Bear to track whitetails this past summer so hunters can call her if wanting help tracking a wounded deer this fall. (Eric Morken / Echo Press)

DETAILS OF THE LAW New for this year’s hunting season is that dogs will be allowed to locate and retrieve a wounded deer or bear in Minnesota. Here are the details of the law: The person attempting to locate the wounded deer or bear must have a valid hunting license in their possession. Dog handlers who do not have a license must be accompanied by the licensed hunter with the license in their possession.

The licensed hunter and dog handler must be on foot and wearing blaze orange or pink.

Any light used must be an artificial light carried in the hand or attached to the person.

The dog must be on a leash no longer than 30 feet and the hunter or dog handler must control the leash at all times.

The dog owner’s name and telephone number must be on the dog while it is used to locate a wounded deer or bear. that they may have otherwise lost.

“Based on the training we’ve done so far, I feel extremely confident,” Mead said. “I don’t have a fresh kill and a wounded deer moves differently than the track I put out, but he can follow

a track like he’s out for a Sunday stroll. The ones who call me are going to be the ones that are really tough to find. If we’re even 50 percent successful, that’s 50 percent more of the time than those people would have had success on their own.”

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WINTER FUN ALONG THE TRAILS Your guide to

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ATV/SNOWMOBILE SALES & SERVICE

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PAGE 12 | Lakes Area Outdoors

Associa of sno yellow) in

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The Douglas Area Trails Association maintains 370 miles of snowmobile trails (shown in llow) in West Central Minnesota.

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Lakes Area Outdoors | PAGE 13

A lot can change throughout the season

Yellow lab, Ole, looks over a drake and hen mallard he retrieved on a hunt on Oct. 21, 2018. A wet fall last year meant a small slough that was often dry in the fall was full of water that mallards were piling into during late October. Finding spots like those while scouting can be a key to success that time of year. (Eric Morken / Echo Press)

Good season on tap for

T

Eric Morken emorken@echopress.com

he U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released its 2019 report on trends in duck breeding populations and those numbers indicated a 6 percent decrease from the 2018 estimates.

This year’s numbers, based on surveys conducted in May and early June by the FWS, Canadian Wildlife Service, and other partners, put total populations of breeding ducks at an estimated 38.9 million. That’s down from 41.2 million in 2018, but 10 percent above the long-term average since 1955.

Ducks Unlimited Chief Scientist Dr. Tom Moorman said in a story for the Ducks Unlimited website that important breeding areas in southern Alberta and Saskatchewan were much drier than last year, which contributed to the lower numbers.

“Fortunately, eastern North Dakota and South Dakota saw an increase in both ponds and breeding waterfowl, especially mallards, blue-winged teal, gadwalls, northern shovelers, and northPAGE 14 | Lakes Area Outdoors

WATERFOWLERS?

ern pintails,” Moorman said in the story.

“Typically, when the Dakotas are wet and southern Alberta and Saskatchewan are dry, we see the aforementioned species settle in the Dakotas, reminding us that we must conserve habitat across the prairies because it is rare for the entire Prairie Pothole Region to be wet.”

Like the neighboring Dakotas to the west, Minnesota also saw a wet spring across much of the state. Kyle Momsen, the West Central Minnesota regional director for Ducks Unlimited, said the wet conditions across the local area this fall could make for an interesting hunting season.

Momsen heard of youth hunters in early September finding young ducks that could hardly even fly yet, indicating a late hatch this year. A lot of standing water in the area might also mean that the ducks are more spread out than hunters are used to seeing.

Where a lot of water in the spring can hurt the production of a species like the pheasant, it is often good news for waterfowl production.

“I think that is definitely a bright spot,” Glenwood Area DNR Assistant Wildlife

Manager Jason Strege said of this year’s waterfowl prospects locally. “I saw a lot of broods on our wetlands across our work area from Douglas all the way out to Traverse County...It doesn’t necessarily hold over into the hunting season. You start to get what they call the fall shuffle where birds from North and South Dakota come over. A lot of our teal that we see are actually Dakota birds.

“With that said, I saw very good brood production. Any wetland that was any quality at all with good emergent vegetation, if you watched it long enough you saw at least a brood out there.”

Strege loves to waterfowl hunt himself and will chase flocks through every portion of the season. He made those comments on Sept. 10, less than two weeks before the regular Minnesota duck opener on Sept. 21.

The first portion of the season in the central zone, which includes the Alexandria area, runs through Sept. 29. The season closes for five days and then reopens on Oct. 5 and runs through Nov. 24.

WATERFOWL page 15

WATERFOWL from page 14 Waterfowlers are often thought to have a window for their best hunting. The beginning of the season can provide some great shoots with more local birds, and the end of the year under the right conditions can bring great waterfowl migrations.

“Geese can be a saving grace,” Strege said. “I’ve had seasons when the geese keep piling through in that October time period. I’m an avid waterfowler and the beginning when you’re dealing with local ducks and late season with the migrants coming through, it can work a little better if you have your favorite spot you’re going to hunt.”

Success in October often depends on how much extra time a person is willing to put in on finding the birds.

“I hunt almost all public land, and if you’re willing to scout and get out there, I have success throughout the season,” Strege said. “You do have

to scout. That’s definitely the key for that October doldrums time frame.”

Through his work, Strege is familiar with almost every wildlife management and waterfowl production area in Pope, Douglas, Stevens, Traverse and Grant Counties.

There may be portions of Minnesota that offer more consistent shoots, but he’s confident that the area has opportunity out there for waterfowlers.

“I think the waterfowl opportunities are pretty good with both our WMA system and WPA system,” Strege said.

“We’re sitting pretty good from Douglas County and west. As you get further into the farmland zone, you get less and less quality hunting areas. It can be crowded that first weekend.

After that, you might not have the best success all the time.

It’s hunting, not shooting, but I think our state land and federal land really gives some good opportunities.”

2019 WATERFOWL SURVEY BREEDING DUCK NUMBERS SPECIES 2019 2018 Mallard 9.423 million 9.255 Gadwall 3.258 2.886 American Wigeon 2.832 2.820 Green-winged Teal 3.178 3.043 Blue-winged Teal 5.427 6.450 Northern Shoveler 3.649 4.208 Northern Pintail 2.268 2.365 Redhead 0.732 0.999 Canvasback 0.651 0.686 Scaup 3.590 3.989 TOTALS 38.899 41.193

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Hoping the numbers lie Pheasant August roadside count numbers not good locally Eric Morken emorken@echopress.com

Glenwood Area DNR assistant wildlife manager Jason Strege has a unique view when it comes to the annual August roadside counts that pheasant hunters look for each year.

Strege pays close attention to the numbers because of his job, but he’s also an avid pheasant hunter himself. He has seen situations in the past where the numbers in August did not quite add up to what he was seeing a couple months later when out with his dogs in the field.

That’s what he is hoping for again this year after the roadside counts did not paint a favorable picture for pheasant hunters this season.

“I wasn’t surprised it was down. I was surprised it was down as much as it was,” Strege said of the local counts. “I thought it was going to be down just based on what I saw out in the field working, but it was lower than I thought it was going to be.”

The roadside pheasant survey showed a 17 percent decrease in the overall pheasant index this year from 2018.

The 2019 index was 11 percent

below the 10-year average, and 60 percent below the long-term average. This year’s statewide pheasant index was 37.4 birds per 100 miles of roads driven.

Both Pope and Douglas County fell in the “poor” or “very poor” range on the DNR’s 2019 pheasant hunting prospects map with bird counts between 10-24 birds per square mile and less than 10 birds in parts of both counties. That’s after Douglas County had some high counts in 2018 and was rated as having “good” hunting prospects a year ago. Strege can’t quite put his finger on the main culprit for such low numbers this year.

“We talked about it a lot in the office here,” he said. “I thought we had a dry enough spring. I thought we had the seed birds. That first of June was relatively dry. We didn’t have the three-day rains that can really knock out some broods. Maybe the roadside counts just didn’t pick up the birds, which can happen. It’s a trend, not a population estimate. I have been pleasantly surprised in the past where August roadside counts don’t turn out real good and then you get out hunting and there’s birds.”

The Minnesota pheasant season opens on Oct. 12 and runs through Jan. 1, 2020.

Hunters are likely to find some areas across the state

“I thought we had a dry enough spring. I thought we had the seed birds. That first of June was relatively dry. We didn’t have the three-day rains that can really knock out some broods. Maybe the roadside counts just didn’t pick up the birds, which can happen.”

Jason Strege

Glenwood Area DNR assistant wildlife manager

PAGE 16 | Lakes Area Outdoors

with plenty of pheasants and other areas where the birds will be tougher to find.

“Birds are still abundant in some areas,” upland game research scientist Tim Lyons said in a release. “But after a prolonged winter and wet spring, hunters may need to be choosier about where they go.”

The pheasant index decreased throughout much of the pheasant range, except in the south-central and east-central regions. There, the index grew by 24 percent and 13 percent, respectively, from 2018.

The highest pheasant indexes were in the west-central and south-central regions where observers reported 43 to 49 birds per 100 miles driven. Areas of Yellow Medicine and Brown counties had the best numbers of anywhere in the state.

Weather and habitat are the main influences on Min-

nesota’s pheasant population trends. Weather causes annual fluctuations in pheasant numbers, while habitat drives long-term population trends.

Winters that linger can delay the start of the breeding season and reduce the success of early nests. Heavy rain, particularly at or just after hatching, can reduce chick survival.

This year, deep snow cover blanketed most of the pheasant range in February and March. Snowmelt and rainfall in April and May contributed to widespread flooding and estimated hatch dates indicate that nesting activity was delayed over much of the pheasant range. The rangewide hatch date in 2019 was nearly a week later than in 2018, and also a week later than the 10-year average.

“This is just my opinion, but the late hatches tend to

PHEASANTS page 17

be harder to pick up in the August roadside counts,” Strege said. “I’ve seen that in the past where those counts were down and those first two weeks of the season it’s actually pretty tough to ID the roosters from the hens because they’re so young.”

Grant, Douglas, Todd and Otter Tail counties are on the northern edge of what is considered the pheasant range in Minnesota. That alone makes these birds more susceptible to the variables that drive population trends.

“Absolutely. Any time you get to an extreme part of any animal’s range, whether it’s birds or mammals, it doesn’t really matter,” Strege said. “As you get to those edges of the range, you definitely get a higher fluctuation in populations, and that definitely could be the case with pheasants.”

The numbers may not show a good outlook this fall, but the best indicator will still likely be what hunters see when they actually get in the fields in the coming months.

“It’s a trend. The August roadside counts aren’t a population estimate,” Strege said.

“It can capture them pretty good, but it can miss them where birds just aren’t out.

I refine my idea of what the population is after a couple weeks of the hunting season on my own experiences and talking to other hunters, as well.”

HOW DNR CONDUCTS THE SURVEY Monitoring pheasant population trends is part of the DNR’s annual August roadside wildlife survey, which began in 1955. DNR wildlife managers and conservation

A rooster pheasant courts a hen during the spring season. (Minnesota DNR contributed photo) officers in the farmland region of Minnesota conduct the survey during the first half of August. This year’s survey consisted of 172 25-mile-long routes, with 152 routes located in the pheasant range.

Observers drive each route in early morning and record the number of farmland wildlife game species they see.

The data provide an index of species abundance and are used to monitor annual fluctuations and long-term population trends of pheasants, gray (Hungarian) partridge, eastern cottontail rabbits, whitetailed jackrabbits, mourning doves, Sandhill cranes, and white-tailed deer.

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Lakes Area Outdoors | PAGE 17

Brian Krebs, a native of Alexandria and current resident of Fargo, N.D., took this bull after drawing a once-in-a-lifetime elk tag to hunt in western North Dakota this September. (Contributed photo)

Once-in-a-lifetime

Alexandria native draws unique elk tag in North Dakota

Eric Morken emorken@echopress.com

Brian Krebs has experienced elk hunting in Montana and Wyoming, but none of the three hunts he had been on before carried quite the same weight as the rifle hunt he experienced in early September.

Montana and Wyoming are typical western elk-hunting destinations that hunters PAGE 18 | Lakes Area Outdoors

think of when they dream of chasing screaming bulls through the mountains.

North Dakota? Not as much.

Residents have very limited odds of drawing a license, and when they do, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime tag.

Whether they take an elk or not, their chance is up.

Krebs, an Alexandria native who lives in Fargo, N.D., applied for a tag in Unit E3.

There were 6,140 applicants in 2018 for that zone and only 51 tags handed out.

“It was an interesting moment,” Krebs said of seeing he had drawn the tag. “I was kind of struck with disbelief.

The way North Dakota does

their big three is they draw the elk and the moose right away and then the bighorn sheep comes out at the end of the summer.”

Krebs had applied for all three through the lottery, and the information he received listed three different results.

“Unsuccessful, successful, submitted,” Krebs said.

“The first thought that hit my mind was did I mess up and apply for a cow tag instead and that’s why I got it on my first try? I had to double check my application and make sure I applied for what I intended to. Then I was riding on cloud nine for the rest of the week.”

bull

GOING ALL IN The E3 Unit in western North Dakota features nearly 2.2 million acres of land centered around Medora and Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

The landscape features a couple hundred feet of elevation change with a lot of steep, bald clay faces on the south sides and a mix of cedars and spruce trees. Private land is scattered across the terrain where elk tend to gravitate near the Little Missouri River.

Krebs, 24, was already working hard to get himself physically in shape for an archery elk hunt in Mon-

tana this September when he found out he drew the tag to hunt his home state.

That provided even further motivation as he dropped 51 pounds by the end of the summer.

It was part of going all in on his hunt. Krebs made the nearly 330-mile drive west multiple times throughout the summer and spent 16 days scouting.

“I had a mix of emotions going on,” Krebs said. “Everyone I talked to that had this tag in the past told me it would be very hard to find elk. They didn’t see any elk scouting and there’s not a lot of activity in the summer.

Then I asked them about their hunt, and they’re like, ‘Oh, yeah. I shot a bull on the second day.’”

Krebs found a lot of elk during his early scouting –

about 160 across the summer and some of them really good bulls that he was excited to go after. Then August came.

“I lost all of the bulls I was chasing,” Krebs said.

“I couldn’t find any mature bulls to save my life. My confidence was starting to waver as the summer went on.”

Krebs had identified one bull in particular that really caught his eye. It was a big Brian Krebs with his bull elk he took on Sept. 8. The elk had an unofficial gross 7-by-8 that he figured would antler score of 351-1/8 inches. (Contributed photo) easily eclipse the 380-inch mark. The problem was private and the park itself Jerry and Brian worked where he was located. wasn’t too far away. I knew it together to try to locate that “I had thought about it a was a little bit of a risk.” bull with no success. After a lot as the summer went on.

The chances of finding that couple days of no elk sign or How much time do I give bull on public land in season bugling to be heard, Brian this bull?” Krebs said. “I de- did not seem good, and that’s decided to change his focided I wanted to give him how it played out. Krebs and cus with a cold front moving a fair shake come season. his parents, Alexandria’s Jer- in that he hoped would get Once we got out there and ry and Sandy Krebs, were more elk sounding off. got into that valley we found out there with him over the him in, that’s a peninsula of opening few days of the seapublic that is surrounded by son in early September.

BULL page 22

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Lakes Area Outdoors | PAGE 19

Sweet NOVEMBER is near November.

It’s a month that’s always on my mind. I have heard some successful bow hunters talk about how they don’t prefer the rut. The deer are too sporadic. The buck they have been trying to pattern the first month of the season is too unpredictable.

Maybe that’s why I love November. I don’t target one specific buck, and I don’t run as many trail cameras as I used to. I like the unknown -- that feeling of reading sign and trying to figure out the land before climbing into the tree wondering what might show up.

Then there’s the weather.

Something about a morning with temperatures in the low 30s adds to the ambience in the hunting woods.

It’s the kind of morning where everything in us is

saying, “This is the day. It’s going to happen.”

I felt that when I climbed into a stand before light on Nov. 5, 2018 in North Dakota. A cold front had moved in overnight. Winds were building out of the northwest as the day progressed and there were snow flurries in the forecast.

Darkness hung around the woods a little later that morning with grey skies holding back the light. It was five minutes after legal shooting time when a buck paralleled the river and walked to within 20 yards.

The silhouette of his body was that of an older deer, but I could not make out his rack in the low light. I quickly determined that if it was too dark to see horns at that distance, then it was too dark to take an ethical shot.

He passed unscathed.

Eric Morken

OUTDOORS EDITOR

An hour later, a half an inch of snow had covered the fallen leaves. The flakes melted once they hit the worn-to-mud deer trail that ran past my stand, creating a dark highway that jumped off the bright white forest floor.

It’s the kind of scene that keeps a person sharp in the stand. “Any minute now,” I thought. And I was right.

The buck first appeared almost 100 yards away -- his dark rack much wider than it was tall. His body was rutted out with the characteristics of a mature deer.

His walk was the kind one sees from a good buck in November. Brisk. He’s on a mission going from one bedding area to the next to check on does. For one of the only times all season, he seems to have let his guard down.

This buck was coming on a string. Step after step, he followed that trail that would

lead right past my tree. I grabbed my bow and started talking to myself. “Wait for the right time. Don’t rush.

Stay in the moment.”

Things slowed down as the buck neared my location -- 40 yards, 30 yards, 15. I drew back my bow and waited for him to take one more step with his front leg before stopping him with a bleat. Anchor. Aim. Release.

That deer would have been long bedded down a month earlier. I found that perfect tree in early August, but hunting it when it would perform at its highest potential meant showing patience and staying out until the time was right.

Some hunters long for the mountains of the west -- for a screaming bull elk in September.

Give me a cold morning chasing whitetails on a riverbottom. The kind of morning where each step creates a crunch of the leaves and your breath hangs in the air.

The kind of morning that screams, “This is the day I’ve waited all year for.”

Give me November.

DOE HARVEST from page 4

A fresh coating of snow covered the trees and vegetation along the open water in North Dakota last November. (Eric Morken / Echo Press) PAGE 20 | Lakes Area Outdoors

Permit areas across the state are broke down into bucks-only (one legal buck per year), lottery (one deer total per year where an either sex permit is required to take an anterless deer under most circumstances), hunter choice (one either sex deer per year), managed area (two deer bag limit with any combination of licenses and bonus permits), intensive area (three deer bag limit with any combination of license types and bonus permits) and untlimited antlerless areas.

Permit area 213 surrounding Alexandria is an intensive area with a three-deer limit.

Area 273 south and west is a managed area with a twodeer limit. Area 218 to the southeast is a hunter choice zone with a one-deer limit and areas 215 to the east and 240 to the north are an intensive area where hunters can take three deer.

Season information and bag limits for every area of the state can be found at https:// www.dnr.state.mn.us/hunting/deer/map.html.

MINNESOTA 2019

hunting & trapping SMALL GAME

SEASONS WATERFOWL

Rabbit and squirrel............................................... Sept. 14 - Feb. 29 Ruffed and spruce grouse and Hungarian partridge.......................................... Sept. 14 - Jan. 1 Sharp-tailed grouse................................................ Oct. 12 - Nov. 30 Mourning dove......................................................... Sept. 1 - Nov. 29 Pheasant....................................................................... Oct. 12 - Jan. 1

Ducks: Central zone:.........................................................Sept. 21 - Sept. 29; (Includes Alexandria) Oct. 5 - Nov. 24 North zone: ................................................................Sept. 21-Nov. 19 South zone: .............................................................Sept. 21-Sept. 29; Oct. 12-Dec.1

FALL WILD TURKEY................................ Sept. 28 - Oct. 27

Geese: Central zone: ..........................................................Sept. 21-Sept. 29; (Includes Alexandria) Oct. 5-Dec. 26 North zone:................................................................ Sept. 21-Dec. 29 South zone:...................................Sept. 21-Sept. 29; Oct. 12-Jan. 2

DEER

Archery......................................................................Sept. 14 - Dec. 31 Muzzleloader............................................................Nov. 30 - Dec. 15 Firearms, 100 series.............................................................Nov. 9 - Nov. 24 (Northeastern Minnesota) 200A and 300A series.......................................Nov. 7 - Nov. 17 (Most of Minnesota excluding northeastern and the metro deer management area) Season 300B................................................................Nov. 23 - Dec. 1 (Only valid in southeastern Minnesota)

FURBEARER HUNTING & TRAPPING

Beaver (North zone)............................................... Oct. 26 - May 15 Beaver (South zone).................................................Nov. 2 - May 15 Mink and Muskrat trapping (North zone)......Oct. 26 - Feb. 28 Mink and Muskrat trapping (South zone)....... Nov. 2 - Feb. 28 Coyote, Striped Skunk and other unprotected...... Continuous

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BULL

from page 19

“After two days of that, it was a pretty clear decision, especially with the cold front moving in, that we were going to have a good opportunity in other areas and it was time to pull the plug and move on,” Krebs said.

PREPARATION PAYS OFF Krebs woke up at 3:30 a.m. on Sept. 8 to make an hour-and-a-half drive to the opposite side of the unit.

The roads were slick from the rain that had covered the area the day before and he was running late with a 5:50 first light looming.

Krebs passed a valley where he had spotted plenty of cows grazing during his summer scouting. An infamous phrase among elk hunters came to mind – “Never leave elk to find elk.”

He had not seen any elk in the area he was planning to hunt that day, so he put his truck in reverse and parked on the side of the road. He made it 200 yards from the truck when he heard what he thought was the sound of a faint bugle on private land behind him.

Krebs took out his bugle tube and a reed and made his first call. A minute passed and a response came in front of him on the public he was hunting.

Krebs hurried over a ridge and saw his first elk of the morning – two smaller bulls and a few cows. As he was capturing some photos of the elk with his camera, another

bugle rang out. Krebs again gave chase. He dropped into a draw and climbed up a muddy face before reaching the elevation needed to see the next ridge and the source of that bugle.

“A great looking bull and his cows were working their way from a ridge into what looked like a draw with some feed in the bottom,” Krebs said. “I had a clay peak in between us with a sage bench off one side that I figured I could sneak up behind and then crawl across.”

Krebs moved up until he got to where he could not go any further due to the open terrain. The cows were nearly 400 yards away and easily within sight. That big bull was hanging back, tearing up a cedar tree with its antlers.

Now it was a waiting game.

Krebs placed a cow decoy out in front of him so he could sit up and get his bipod ready. The cows fed their way to about 350 yards.

Every five to 10 minutes, the bull let out a deep, throaty bugle that spiked Krebs’ heart rate all over again.

With the bull falling further behind the feeding herd, a cow finally turned and let out two of the loudest calls Krebs had ever heard one make.

“I looked over the cedars to the area I’d get glimpses of ivory every now and then as he beat up on that cedar,” Krebs said. “To my surprise, they were moving. I briefly wondered, is the sound that

“The magnitude of the bull, you’re kind of in awe. Then to put all the work into it and for the hunt itself to go so fast, that feeling of closure that this is the last time, it’s the end of my North Dakota elk hunting.”

Brian Krebs

Alexandria native and current Fargo, N.D. resident

PAGE 22 | Lakes Area Outdoors

Brian Krebs (left) and his father, Jerry, break down Brian’s bull before packing the meat, along with the head, antlers and cape all intact, nearly 1.25 miles back to the truck. (Contributed photo) cow made the elk version of, “Let’s go. We’re going to be late!”

Krebs had shot many times throughout the summer with his Tikka T3 .300 Winchester Short Mag on the range. He felt comfortable under the exact right conditions in making a 500yard shot. The bull was closing the distance to an opening now at about 375 yards.

Krebs dialed in his Vortex Viper PST Gen II scope for the correct yardage and went through his shot process. He settled the crosshairs right behind the bull’s shoulder before the shot rang out.

The impact sent the elk tumbling down a hill before getting back to his feet.

Krebs found out later it was a double-lung hit. Not wanting to take any chances, he chambered three more rounds to put the bull down.

BITTERSWEET ENDING Anyone who has hunted big-game animals knows the range of emotions that come after a kill. Krebs felt them all in what he called a bittersweet feeling as he walked up on the bull.

“This was my first elk, so right off the bat there’s a whole flood of emotions from finally being successful after four years of elk hunting,” he said. “The magnitude of the bull, you’re kind

of in awe. Then to put all the work into it and for the hunt itself to go so fast, that feeling of closure that this is the last time, it’s the end of my North Dakota elk hunting.

I’m disqualified from even applying again. All of those emotions are kind of going on at the same time.”

The bull had an unofficial gross score of 351-1/8 inches. Krebs had help from his dad in breaking down the elk and making the nearly mile-and-quarter trip back to the truck.

“Definitely a sense of gratification and accomplishment washes over you when that last load hits the tailgate,” Krebs said of the grueling work on packing the animal out.

With seven total tags this fall between elk, whitetails and mule deer, this was just the start of Krebs’ hunting season. The rest of those trips have a lot to live up to.

“My time in the field with a rifle was short, but I count the 16 days behind glass, the hours spent scouring maps, the rounds sent downrange dialing my rifle, every step on a stair climber or weight on a bar, all the elk hunting podcasts and phone calls, the miles across I-94 and the conversations with elk hunters as part of the hunt,” Krebs said. “In that regard, it truly was the hunt of a lifetime.”

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