IOWA BOWHUNTER FALL 2023/WINTER 2024

BONKER’S WORLD FALL ISSUE (Cont.)

in the van followed by loud admonishments not to drive like a poopy head. The good news was the van stayed nice and cool inside despite my best efforts to heat things up. We made it to International Falls without any further, what my passengers would call “incidents,” or Minnesota welcome waves. I pulled into the usual fill up spot and slid out of the drivers seat. I noticed my passengers kissing the ground and looking a little green around the gills. Well, you no longer need to be fearless to drive the van, just fearless to ride in the van while I am driving. It was comfy, it was mostly quiet except for the unheard comments about my driving skills, it was cool on a hot day and it was acceptable. So the new van shall henceforth and forever be known as Fearless V2.0. Crossing the border was easy, we made our usual stops at the Beer Store and the bait shop. Then the last five hours of the drive were uneventful. We dropped our stuff off at the fly in base, checked into the motel and met in the restaurant for our usual double chubby cheese burgers. It was good to be back up north. We had six people on this trip. To say the fishing was fantastic would have been an understatement. Wherever we stopped we caught fish.

Of course some places were better than others, but there wasn’t a bad spot on the lake. There wasn’t any bear sign, there weren’t any forest fires in the immediate area and the mosquitoes were manageable. As usual our stay was much too short ,but we had a second trip planned for the end of August. The end of August found me once again in my personal guide’s driveway loading my gear into the trailer that Fearless V2.0 would pull north. My personal guide admonished me once again not to drive like I did on the way up a few weeks earlier. When it was my turn to drive I behaved myself secure in the knowledge that the power was there if I needed it. We went to the same lake as the first trip, which may have become our forever lake. There were only four of us this time. “Bill,” I called him Bill because I couldn’t remember his real name, was a first timer. As usual the first timer had the best luck. The water had dropped just about three feet from the first trip making the fishing a little tougher except for Bill. The fishing may have been slow for three of us, but Bill was stacking them up. Well, compared to the first trip anything would have been considered slow, but Bill was hauling them in like we were a few weeks earlier. I did catch a bright blue walleye. We had caught them before in this lake but not nearly as full

body blue. The others may have had a tail or top fin that was blueish, but this one was bright blue. What makes them blue? Beats me, but I know they aren’t blue because they are cold. It was hot up there this time, not everyday, but some of the days were in the high 80’s. For that far north at that time of year, that’s hot. Now it’s time to get ready for deer camp. Will Koko make an appearance? Only Koko knows for sure and Koko isn’t talking. So be safe, be successful and above all; be happy that you are hunting.

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IOWA BOWHUNTERS ASSOCIATION

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