This has been a peculiar winter entering 2025.  Farmers are still hoping for more snow to cover alfalfa and then satisfy drought hampered seedlings and perennial stems after frost moves on.

Squirrels are looking to maple buds, boxelder bark, and kitchen throw outs for food.  Skunk cabbage has very little snow and ice to melt with their vegetative furnace heat that also scents the surrounding air. 

Those depending on plowing and shoveling snow for pocket change are playing euchre for nickels instead.

Early antler sheds are common suggesting that some of the last deer hunts may have included more than a rare antlerless buck.

Wisconsin’s early trout season, artificial lures and zero creel limits only, has confirmed winter trout fishers are as crazy as always according to Bret Schultz, of Black Earth.  He doesn’t expect to get skunked and picks his times carefully.  He’s anticipating no strikes from noon until one pm then a lone trout comes after his nearly-still, floating streamer passes by.

“Half my catches were barely felt and the others were enough to call it a fight,” he said with a grin.  “It might be two hours fishing at a maximum but it’s enough to catch a trout and then everything else is to ratify we do what we have to do while winter fishing.”

Schultz speaks of iced up line guides, hoping for calm and not windy weather, and maybe adding a tad more weight to take a lure lower and have the streamer drift in a stream’s trouth where the water is deeper. 

His first stream run produced three fish opening weekend, so he was beyond getting skunked.  A 16-inch brown trout was the strongist.

Air temperature is far different from water temperature, and Richland County streams are packed with fish and warmer water-feeder springs.  Chill factor is something that impacts fishers, but not equipment and water temperature.

Were someone to travel to the State of Iowa or other locations where live bait and keeping fish are permitted in winter, Schultz would fish a night crawler as though it were a streamer.  He has no desire to do that now or come May either when the later season opens.

Kate Mosley, at Kate’s Bait on Highway 23 near Governor Dodge State Park in Iowa County, said the two lakes, Cox Hollow and Twin Valley, held ice well during warms spells and is now approaching 12 inches.  

“Early fishing produced nice perch and bluegills, while Blackhawk Lake and Birch Lake are behind Gov. Dodge’s  two lakes,” she said.

Mosley’s fishing contest is January 19, the same day as Hyde Store’s organized winter squirrel hunt in Iowa County.

Doug Williams, always one to put a positive spin on things, talked of seeing ravens - larger than crows - mature and immature bald eagles, and deer continuing to be hit by vehicle drivers.  “Years are what you make them,” Williams said.

Deer seasons registrations have about wrapped up with 319,107 total deer.  A few more numbers will trickle in, though.  The late seasons suggested venison, not antlers, was on hunters’ minds.  Muzzleloaders killed 7,821 animals; 8,214 were registered during the four-day antlerless hunt; and 7.388 more during the Holiday hunt.  

           Of the grand total, 168,862  deer were antlered and 158,345 were antlerless.                     Turkey hunters took 4,482 birds home, more than the 4,343 taken during the 2023 fall season.

The red mark on February’s calendar page reminds us that blossoms have a way of putting smiles on faces regardless of how they show up and whether they are decorating a table or desk.

Part of enjoying flowers is growing, collecting or admiring them.  Several real, live wild flowers are possibles to appreciate by forcing blooms of pussy willow catkin buds.  Red-osier dogwood has been known to respond, too.  

Skunk cabbage is not as bad as it sounds and these crowded blooms are beginning to push through the muck in swamps and marshes.  Finding them under the snow is not difficult.  Unless the white blanket is a foot thick, skink cabbage will melt its way into Valentine’s Day by generating its own heat known to attract early insects in search of warm and food by the smell of something only a fly would appreciate.

The scarcity of nuts last fall has sent squirrels and birds looking to freeze-dried fruits, tiny conifer seeds, and carcasses of animals who found winter more than they could handle.  

Deer and turkeys are still gleaning fields, bare spots in pastures, lawns, and roadsides, as well as lichens, mosses, and tree bark.  

Ice, if not snow, makes for some interesting sculptures and heavy frost, especially near springs can consume many moments when moisture freezes on watercress and overhanging twigs and stream structures.

Be careful on ice, snow, and super-cooled surfaces.  Don’t drive with heavy boots or boot chains.  Blow warm air on glove fingers to operate dash touch pads to control buttons in a vehicle,

Contact Jerry Davis, a freelance writer, at sivadjam@mhtc.net or  608.924.1112.