Jason. The ice is terrible here - well under a foot thick. You'd think it was Iowa when you stepped outside its been so warm. Good for the deer herd though. LOL.

Anywhoo, I'll take my portable out a few times a year every winter but haven't yet this year. Ice is usually too soupy or covered with thick snow. Not one for driving a vehicle out there so I have taken up other pursuits.

Bought a cheap digital camera ($99, Wildview Digital 2.0) and have been keeping track of the deer herd by spreading horse feed and cracked corn in front of it once a week. Counted nine different does and a handful of smaller bucks who've lost their horns. Kind of fun and good to know what made it though the season.

Kind of excited thinking of next year and am going to apply for our Camp Ripley Archery Hunt. Not sure if you've ever heard of it, but basically, they open up a huge military base/wildlife area for two weekends of the year to archery hunters only. They have over 2,000 hunters in there each weekend so the deer get pushed around. Kind of like gun season with a bow. Your chances of seeing deer are good and a handful of guys leave every year with some very big, mature bucks (or so I've seen from the pictures). The overall success rate is like one in ten hunters leaving with a deer, but a big part of that is because a majority hold out for Mr. Big, which Ripley is known for producing. Hopefully I will get to experience it.