My annual trip to Winthrop to chase mule deer through the hills was one of my most memorable.

Opening weekend was extremely slow and warm, and the afternoon hunts had me tromping around in a short sleeve T-shirt.

By Tuesday we had some substantial rain and we figured the deer would be on the move, and we figured right.

My hunting partners and I saw more deer that day than the previous three combined, and were getting very excited. No bucks but many does, and most of them had twin fawns. That should mean some good hunting in two or three years if we have mild winters.

Wednesday morning’s hunt was the normal doe fest but on the drive back to camp, I saw the biggest rear end of a deer I think I have ever seen running up the hill. I stopped and went after it, but never saw what it was. They don’t get that big just hanging around. Unfortunately my buddy Lenny had to head back over the hill, so Doug and I headed out for the evening hunt. We hunted the area were I sighted the huge deer but only saw a few does.

Then we decided to move up the road and hunt a nice clearcut for the remainder of the evening.

I walked about a mile down an old drag road and found a nice area to watch as the sun went down and the first thing I saw was a black animal moving on the ridge across the valley from me. I figured it might have been a bear but realized it was a cow and just below it, was a deer standing broadside. However, I moved into the woods before I could ID it as either a buck or doe.0

About 4 p.m. I realized I was paying too much attention to the ridge and not the area I was hunting so I looked around the clearcut and about 150 yards below me, I spotted two does and a fawn eating.

I watched them for a while and they decided to bed down. Now this is really what I wanted — my very own alert alarms! They would clue me into anything that moved into the area which they did.

Before too long, the fawn is looking off to my right and then jumped up and ran about 50 yards followed by her mother.

Now I am frantically looking through my binoculars to see what scared them; then I spot a doe with her twin fawns. Now I have six deer below me— my alarm system just doubled in size.

Five minutes later I see the legs of another deer coming up from the creek and when it gets into full view, I realize it is a buck.

I could clearly see it was at least a two-by-two and my heart began pounding now as the buck fever took hold.

I see it has a small fork on one of the branches of its antlers and I know it is a legal buck. I get into position, say my little prayer, and with one shot my deer season was over. I had a small four-by-two to fill my tag and my freezer.

Now that we have gotten some good hunting weather, duck hunters should see a lot more migrating ducks and geese. Hunters reported doing pretty good the opening weekend with a lot of local ducks being taken. Unfortunately local ducks become decoy shy fairly quickly.

Anglers are also faring fairly well with the wet weather. Local rivers still have plenty of silvers in them but the big chums have also arrived.