Deer gather around fallen tree-tops to feed in the winter

Today was one of those days when another 10 degrees of upward temperature movement would have felt nice, but it was a grand and wonderful day with a lovely sunrise.

It also led to this question. Do deer like the tips of branches to eat? We are getting DISH High Definition so we can better view the playoffs with the Detroit Red Wings over the upcoming weeks.

We were told that six trees had to be toppled to clear a good line of sight for DHD television. Those six trees were toppled a week ago, and now three others need to come down to provide us with the perfect line of sight to the satellite.

Some mature trees had to go

The trees cut down last week already are attracting deer. I went out with the DHD guy as he pinpointed the exact trees to down, and there were deer tracks all around the tree-tops.

The ends of the branches have been nibbled, and some new tops will fall tomorrow or Saturday to add a wee bit more food as the snow melts.

Did I want to cut the trees? Not really. I could see the Red Wing games just fine, and it will be interesting to see how much better the game appears than with regular television.

I watch so little television, other than the Winged Wheels and the Tigers, that one could say I don't watch it. I'd rather waste my vision reading a good book than watching what passes for good television. Most of it is not good at all, and too much of it is awful, and much of it borders or crosses the line on obscenity.

I refuse to insult my intelligence by watching most of the garbage and pap on television. Sure, some of the stuff on the National Geographic channel, the Discovery channel and a few other channels offer programming that suits me, but 99.9 percent of the stuff causes me to hit the "Off" button.

Much of television disgusts me and is insulting

Ah, but I digress. We were talking about deer feeding on tree-tops. We had 101 trees cut last December around my land, and the neighbor had quite a number cut as well. There are deer tracks around those tree-tops. Lots of fresh tracks.

The periodic thinning of mature trees, and their sale for fire wood or for saw logs, can provide some money. Certainly not enough to get fat and sassy on, but perhaps enough to pay the taxes.

Several people have asked to cut wood, and I've granted permission providing they place all the tops from each area into a pile at a place of my choosing. I want the piles placed in strategic locations where they will provide a certain amount of cover and food next winter.

There is nothing worse than walking (or trying to walk) through a recently cut wood lot, and every two or three steps it becomes necessary to extricate your feet from clinging branches of tree-tops. I much prefer they be piled up, and I don't care if the pile is 10 feet tall.

The winter snow, and deer nibbling on the tips will cause them to slowly settle. It provides a nourishing source of food that comes as a direct byproduct of improving our forest.

We provide deer with winter browse in key locations

Briers, brambles, saplings and shrubs will spring up this year as a result of that opening in the woods, and this too will increase the bounty of new food for deer, rabbits, ruffed grouse and other critters.

Bunnies will eat on some of the smaller branches and use the brush piles as cover. Grouse do the same thing, and I've found spots where deer have bedded in the lee of a large brush pile and then pass their time in relative comfort.

My ideal spot for a brush pile is near a small roll in the ground. Most of our storms come from the west, northwest and north although southeast storms occur each winter. A bountiful brush pile on the west, northwest and north edges of a small roll in the ground, and another on the southeast side, will give some protection for winter-weary deer. The food is there, and some evidence I've found indicate that is exactly what the deer did last winter.

So, in some obscure way, DHD television will be instrumental in giving winter deer a spot to get out of the worst of the winter weather, and I think that is a grand use for our new technology.

And, I'll bet you wondered how I'd end tonight's blog.

Poachers often glass from a car & often shoot pheasants & rabbits for sale.

Bob was sitting pretty. He was making about $1,500 per week, and was able to set his own hours. No time-clock punching for him.

He owned a boat, motor and trailer, and fished or hunted every day. He was a laid-off factory worker, and was entitled to some rather sizable work benefits.

However,  Bob’s life was a little bent. He and his wife were divorced, and she was collecting Aid To Dependent Children (ADC) benefits, welfare and all other benefits available to women whose former spouse no longer made child support payments to the Friend of the Court. He knew his life was a can of worms, but this was a big game he played: it was a case of him against them.

“Them” was any government agency. Bob was fighting a losing battle because of his life style. You see, Bob was a full-time poacher. A hard-core lawbreaker.

Bob poached fish, fur and small game, and sold his swag for tax-free dollars.

He was 28 at the time, father of two children, and poaching was his lifestyle. The tax-free booty was a direct result of selling fish for cash. Bob was a great fisherman, and he easily caught his limit daily. He often caught three or four limits each day.

The large sums of money he made during May and June were from the illegal sale of walleyes caught from the St. Clair River between Port Huron and Algonac. His fish were sold to individuals or restaurants—whoever would pay his price.

His dream life suddenly fell apart. One customer was a Department of Natural Resources special investigator for the Report All Poaching (RAP) unit. After 60 days of intense investigation, the officer had gathered enough evidence against Bob to arrest him and another full-time poacher. Both men pleaded guilty to selling fish and have since served their prison sentences and paid their debts to society.

A conservation officer present at the arrest felt Bob would be lucky if he didn’t lose his boat, motor, trailer and all fishing tackle that was confiscated at the time of his arrest. He agreed to talk with me providing his proper name was not used.

Each man paid court costs, fines and restitution costs, and  it came to many thousands of dollars. The jail time was an added problem, and Bob (not his real name) begged me not to reveal his identity. He agreed to discuss the reasons why his life became a big lie, a matter of cheating the state government, and stealing fish that belong to every state resident. Sadly, his wheels  fell off the track early in life.

“I admit I’ve done wrong and deserve punishment,” he said during the interview. “My major concern is for my ex-wife and children. They will suffer because of my actions, and the family will probably face investigation by the Internal Revenue Service (it did) and some other state agencies because we never paid taxes on my poaching income nor did we report it to the IRS or state welfare agencies.”

Bob’s personality problems began as a youngster. He was a below-average student in high school, and had very few friends. He also suffered from low self-esteem.

“I needed recognition as a teenager and was able to get it by poaching,” he said. “Other kids thought I was crazy to break the law on a daily basis (he also hunted rabbits and squirrels, and took more than his legal limit of game), but for him, it was fun killing animals or catching fish for profit.”

He’d been profit poaching for many years, and had only been caught once before.

He decided, in 1977, to poach full time. He led the easy life for five years. He slept late, collected ADC benefits every two weeks, and food stamps once a month. He was slicking the state government out of a lot of money. For him, life was good.

It was during fishing season that he poached every night. And when hunting season rolled around, he poached rabbits at night using a spotlight and a .22-caliber rifle.

“I sold 150 to 200 rabbits in Detroit over a year, and the going rate was $3 per bunny, in season or out. I sold 40-50 rabbits every time I went to Detroit. There was a great market for cottontails down there.”

He also sold raccoons in Detroit, saying “It wasn’t uncommon to sell 20-30 raccoons every time I went to the city, and they paid up to $4 for skinned carcasses. The pelts were later sold to local fur buyers, and that created another lucrative sideline.”

Coon hunting led to Bob’s first and only ticket before his big bust. He and another man were driving through a field and shining for raccoon eyes in the trees after dark. They were stopped by a CO, and the officer found a loaded .22 rifle on the back seat. The firearm was confiscated, and both men paid a minor fine.

Law enforcement offices cite the too-low  fines as a chief reason poaching continues. Bob agreed, stating: “The fines were so low, and the courts so lenient with first-time offenders, that it didn’t keep poachers like me from repeating these crimes.

Catching and selling St. Clair River walleyes was Bob’s biggest money maker.

“I sold up to 1,500 pounds of illegally taken walleye fillets each year.  The going rate at that time was $3-4 per pound. Walleyes were the money fish, and I could catch 25-30 fish every night during the April-May spawning season. My best night was 37 trophy walleyes, and each fish weighed from five to 10 pounds. It was a lucrative night.”

On a good night Bob could net about $225 of tax-free money from the walleyes he caught. Such nights just fueled his desire to catch and sell even more fish.

The spawning run of big walleyes usually lasts two to three weeks although the smaller males will hang around the spawning areas for another month. It’s likely that Bob made a large amount of money during that period. He made it by catching fish that belong to everyone in the state and selling them for his personal gain.

Bob says he isn’t bitter about being arrested but claims other poachers sold more fish and that the big money was in whitetail deer, which he said he did not poach.

“Poaching is big business,” he said. “Some poachers are making in excess of $50,000 each year while drawing unemployment benefits. Some poachers also are dangerous individuals.

“Some of these people wouldn’t think twice about wasting (killing) a conservation officer or anyone who becomes suspicious of their activities or how they make their money,” he said.

He noted that many poachers regularly carry handguns and are willing to use them. Several Michigan conservation officers have been killed while protecting the state’s fish and game laws since 1926.

Although Bob claims otherwise, it’s obvious he felt poaching was a high-stakes game. He knew he could get away with his crimes for a period of time but sooner or later the odds would tip in the favor of state law enforcement.

Cracking down on profit poachers is a high-stakes job for the DNR.

“I knew sooner or later I’d get busted, and I’m convinced someone in my family turned me in,” he said. “If it were just me it wouldn’t matter as much, but the DNR knows of my outlets and other local poachers in the business. It doesn’t look good for me.”

It’s unknown whether a family member tipped off the authorities about Bob’s poaching activities or not. Family members often turn in someone else from the family, and often some of their best tips come from a disgruntled ex-wife. Tips are kept anonymous, and in some cases, a reward is possible for valuable information.

After a great deal of soul-searching, Bob said he has decided that his career as a poacher is over. He quickly learned that this was a dead-end street for him.

“I’ll go to jail,” he whispered sadly. “They just have too much evidence on me, but when all of this is over and done with, my poaching career will be a thing of the past. I deeply regret the animals I’ve killed, and the fish I caught for the market. They’ll probably haunt me the rest of my life.”

Maybe so, but one conservation officer isn’t too sure about that.

“Bob will be back,” he said. “It’s hard not to be skeptical of such people and their comments. If he poaches again, we’ll catch him again, and the penalties will be much stiffer the next time around. Hardcore  poachers are tough to put out of business unless the public cares enough to turn them in.”

Bob was trapped by his own greed. He has paid dearly for his many years of profit poaching, and claims he no longer poaches. It would be nice to believe him but, sad to say, DNR statistics indicate he will probably return to the poaching life.

The late John Cartier with a big crappie from Michigan's Hamlin Lake.

Very few things about fishing are really new. Granted, new reels, lines and lures may be new and different, but when it comes to catching fish, new techniques are slow to be developed. Most of what we really know is isn't really new, but  occasionally an angler may find it new to them,

I'm so mindful of a day I spent several years ago with the late John Cartier of Ludington, Mich. He was the long-time regional field editor for Outdoor Life magazine, and he was writing a book on cooking fish. My wife Kay was doing the lay-out for his self-published book, and we were visiting. A mix of business and pleasure.

“Feel like catching a bunch of crappies?” he asked. “It's mid-May, and I've got a sure-fire method for locating these tasty game fish, and once we've found them we can anchor and cast to the fish. Pere Marquette Lake has an excellent population of them.

The hope of learning a new fishing method was good news to me.

I'm almost always game for catching fish, and was more than a little curious about his method. It turned out that his method was a take-off on an old method of slow trolling a No. 0 Mepps Aglia spinner with a silver or gold blade. He tied a short leader to the hooks, tied in a No. 12 treble hook, draped part of a nightcrawler on the treble hook, and began trolling it slowly over eight feet of water.

“The trick,” he said, as we began letting out our lines on both sides of the boat, “is to troll this rig about 40-feet behind a slow-moving boat. Set your drag fairly light because crappies have a paper-thin mouth. A tight drag will tear the hooks out and you'll lose the fish.”

We'd covered perhaps 30 feet, when my ultra-light rod with 6-pound line jerked back toward the stern of the boat, and no hook-set was needed. I saluted the fish softly, and the black-and-white speckled crappie rose to the surface behind the boat. In he came, and the first of many crappies went into our live basket.

“Seen this method before?” Cartier asked. “I've been using it for many years, and it's a quick and easy way to find crappie concentrations in the spring. We'll keep trolling, and see if we can find a bunch of them. There are several fish shelters of old Christmas trees up ahead that a neighbor placed on the ice several years ago, and they are weighted down with cement blocks. The fish like to suspend around those brushpiles.”

We headed that way, and less than a minute later, just as Cartier told me we were going past the brush, we had a strike at the same time. Both of us were soon lost in the delight of hooking slab crappies on light line. He netted mine and then his, and held up both fish for inspection.

These crappies were big fish and hard fighters.

They were about 14 inches long with a big mouth, and when laid in Cartier's palm, they covered his hand and wrist. They followed their cousin into the wire mesh live well.

I told Cartier the only difference between my method and his was I used a small willow-leaf spinner with a single long-shank No. 10 gold hook. The method meant keeping the lure down about four feet, zigzagging a little one way or the other, and never getting into too deep water this early in the season. The fish like the lures presented slow, a good distance behind the boat, and the spinner blade barely turning over. Using a small electric trolling motor allows a slow and quiet approach when these fish are in the shallows.

“What I like about this particular method is that it's quite easy to survey a small lake or to section off various areas on a larger body of water, and it seldom takes long to find the fish. I usually start fishing in shallow back bays with a black marl bottom and some vegetation, brush or weeds. The water warms faster here, and that gets spring fish going.

This little bay was near his lakeside home. and it wasn't hardly big enough to be called a bay but it produced some nice fish. We head on down the lake, and finally found a spot where we caught several fish. We anchored, and began casting the same rig.

The crappies were there, and apparently hungry. We caught one fish after another, and soon had caught a limit  each of these tasty fish.

We each caught a limit of fine-eating game fish.

“It's time to quit,” he said. “We can head in, clean the fish and there's nothing better than a passel of spring crappies deep fried to a golden brown. Cartier's fish cook book has numerous recipes that can be used for cooking crappies, and he had a captive audience of hungry people.

He deep-fried some of the fish, and grilled some with another of his recipes, and along with some fried potatoes and baked beans, it was a fitting end to a fine day with an old friend. His fish recipes are interchangeable, and just a recipie and try it. Cartier been gone for a few years now, but this hard-boiled outdoor writer was a good and kind friend, an excellent writer and very knowledgeable about fishing and hunting. And I miss him.

Note: I have a few copies of his book, Best Fish Ever.

• Only a few copies remain
• If interested send a check for $15.95; postpaid to

David Richey
c/o Scoop's Books
PO Box 192
Grawn, MI 49637

• Email me first daverichey1@gmail.com, to determine availability.

Shoot the left buck while aiming for the off-side shoulder, and wait for this one to turn.  If shooting from the other side, the twig in snow could deflect an arrow.

It happens to everyone. Learn from your mistakes.

If necessary, use binoculars from different anglers, to spot twigs.

Know exactly where you can or cannot shoot & stick with the best spots.

Bucks often bed down in open grassland where visibility is good.

Looking for a good buck, not a 1 1/2 year old.

The problem with hunting big bucks is few shooting opportunities.

It would have been an easy shot on the little guy.

An easy shot but again I passed on this buck.

Patterning this animal was easy. His buddies were much more difficult.

Their desire is simple: to hunt only a big buck.

These hunters usually have one to three ways into and out of the area.

They shoot once, shoot straight and never miss.