December 2008 Almanac
This Month: Dark, Festive Season Keeps Us Hopping
True baby boomers born in 1946 remember a time when December seemed like a sleepy time. A few ice fishers would get onto freshly frozen ponds for pickerel and perch, rabbit hunters would chase a few bunnies and duck hunters would find solitude in December marshes.
Those days are gone. DIF&W extended the gray squirrel, rabbit, pheasant and grouse seasons through Dec. 31, and duck hunting has picked up in popularity. These sports keep folks hopping, and those who don’t find the above options titillating enough discover other options — like catch-and-release trout fishing on the ice in December.
Open-water fishing has been extended, too, through Dec. 31, so folks have lots of opportunities to get out now.
Photographers after wildlife such as deer, moose, waterfowl (particularly), eagles, songbirds and shorebirds find bonanza chances now to shoot images, as do those after landscapes and mood shots. Before snow creates a Currier and Ives setting, those textures with browns, grays and black highlight moody scenes.