Tag: Column

An Outdoorsman’s Journal: A Great Trip to Chequamegon Bay

Follow along each week on the adventures of Mark Walters, a syndicated outdoor adventure columnist who lives in Necedah, Wisconsin. He began writing his column, An Outdoorsman’s Journal, in 1989. It includes hunting, fishing, lots of canoeing and backpacking. He currently writes for around 60 newspapers on a weekly basis. He hopes you enjoy reading about his adventures!

This week’s column has way more to write about than I have space, so here it goes. Ashland, Lake Superior, Chequamegon Bay and ice fishing/winter camping along with two buddies that are all pushing 60 that have known each other since the early 70’s.

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An Outdoorsman’s Journal: Return to Little Bay de Noc

Follow along each week on the adventures of Mark Walters, a syndicated outdoor adventure columnist who lives in Necedah, Wisconsin. He began writing his column, An Outdoorsman’s Journal, in 1989. It includes hunting, fishing, lots of canoeing and backpacking. He currently writes for around 60 newspapers on a weekly basis. He hopes you enjoy reading about his adventures!

This week I am writing to you about an ice fishing trip that I took with my good friend Doug Cibulka and my golden retriever Ruby. Back in 1997 I fished Upper Michigan’s Little Bay de Noc for the first time. On that trip I was driving and sleeping in a Jeep Eagle and I did not catch a fish.
The following year I arrived with my Chevy pickup camped in a tent and caught a couple of walleyes in the six-pound range. The following year many of the guys from my deer camp came up with permanent shacks and we would spend three weekends each year catching big walleye and laughing a lot.

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An Outdoorsman’s Journal: Devil’s Lake, Hard Fishing, Hard Playing!

Follow along each week on the adventures of Mark Walters, a syndicated outdoor adventure columnist who lives in Necedah, Wisconsin. He began writing his column, An Outdoorsman’s Journal, in 1989. It includes hunting, fishing, lots of canoeing and backpacking. He currently writes for around 60 newspapers on a weekly basis. He hopes you enjoy reading about his adventures!

This past week I stayed in a 17-foot Ice Castle fishing shack on Stump and Devil’s Lake near Devil’s Lake, North Dakota. Dakota Jeffords, Ross Moll, Joey Weber, and Weston Sexton all grew up near Niagara, Wisconsin and graduated in 2012. Dakota is stationed at Grand Forks, Air Force Base and is the man responsible for hooking us up with the Ice Castle. This week’s column will literally be all over the map as there is a ton to write about.

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An Outdoorsman’s Journal: The End of the Easy Season

Follow along each week on the adventures of Mark Walters, a syndicated outdoor adventure columnist who lives in Necedah, Wisconsin. He began writing his column, An Outdoorsman’s Journal, in 1989. It includes hunting, fishing, lots of canoeing and backpacking. He currently writes for around 60 newspapers on a weekly basis. He hopes you enjoy reading about his adventures!

My original plan for this week’s column was to hike from my house with a backpack loaded with essentials and hunt rabbits and coyote for three days. That plan changed and became the “I am going to launch my canoe at a public landing and go on an ice fishing trip on The Wisconsin River trip.”

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An Outdoorsman’s Journal: Sturgeon Spearing/The Big Chill

Follow along each week on the adventures of Mark Walters, a syndicated outdoor adventure columnist who lives in Necedah, Wisconsin. He began writing his column, An Outdoorsman’s Journal, in 1989. It includes hunting, fishing, lots of canoeing and backpacking. He currently writes for around 60 newspapers on a weekly basis. He hopes you enjoy reading about his adventures!

This week I made my annual trek over to Lake Winnebago (Stockbridge on the east side) to camp on the ice and try to spear a sturgeon. As always there is plenty to say so here goes.

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Column: Funding Our Priorities While Respecting Taxpayers

The Governor’s budget message, once again, is a wish list of things for Madison and includes several divisive policy items that should be discussed in the regular legislative process. Despite the fact that Wisconsinites have weathered an unprecedented pandemic, economic impacts and ongoing uncertainty, the Governor’s budget does not focus on our most important priorities, nor does it respect taxpayers.

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An Outdoorsman’s Journal: Late Season Squirrel Hunt

Follow along each week on the adventures of Mark Walters, a syndicated outdoor adventure columnist who lives in Necedah, Wisconsin. He began writing his column, An Outdoorsman’s Journal, in 1989. It includes hunting, fishing, lots of canoeing and backpacking. He currently writes for around 60 newspapers on a weekly basis. He hopes you enjoy reading about his adventures!

Early this fall I decided that I was going to do a squirrel hunting story. I have been writing this column for almost 32-years and although I was an avid squirrel hunter as a kid growing up in Columbia County, I have not hunted squirrel since the 70’s.

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An Outdoorsman’s Journal: Home on the Ice

Follow along each week on the adventures of Mark Walters, a syndicated outdoor adventure columnist who lives in Necedah, Wisconsin. He began writing his column, An Outdoorsman’s Journal, in 1989. It includes hunting, fishing, lots of canoeing and backpacking. He currently writes for around 60 newspapers on a weekly basis. He hopes you enjoy reading about his adventures!

This weekend all of my immediate family and much of my extended family was supposed to be having a great time celebrating our Christmas together for two nights and days of being together while fishing, eating really good food, and laughing. Covid 19 put an end to that and so Michelle Chiaro and I along with my pup Ruby went on a four day winter camping and ice fishing trip on the Mississippi River near Buffalo City.

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An Outdoorsman’s Journal: Eleven Christmas Trees

Follow along each week on the adventures of Mark Walters, a syndicated outdoor adventure columnist who lives in Necedah, Wisconsin. He began writing his column, An Outdoorsman’s Journal, in 1989. It includes hunting, fishing, lots of canoeing and backpacking. He currently writes for around 60 newspapers on a weekly basis. He hopes you enjoy reading about his adventures!

This week I am writing to you about an annual trip to Sawyer County, where I ice fish and generally have a blast with six friends.

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An Outdoorsman’s Journal: Beaver Trapping with Musky Joe

Follow along each week on the adventures of Mark Walters, a syndicated outdoor adventure columnist who lives in Necedah, Wisconsin. He began writing his column, An Outdoorsman’s Journal, in 1989. It includes hunting, fishing, lots of canoeing and backpacking. He currently writes for around 60 newspapers on a weekly basis. He hopes you enjoy reading about his adventures!

The fur market has been decimated the last five years by low or nonexistent fur prices. My guess is that at least 50-percent of the people that were trapping five years ago are not laying steel anymore. Joe Flater has come up with a simple solution that is not going to get him rich but at least his pelts are being sold and a small profit is being made. In his tavern he is selling hats and gloves from muskrat, beaver and other animals, and this process requires a tanner and a hat maker.

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