The strangeness beyond having to write 2011, beginning tomorrow, leads this Wild Weekend Wandering around Chicago outdoors.

Mulling things on my morning ramble

with Storm, the family's mixed Lab.

Mulling things on my morning ramble

with Storm, the family's mixed Lab.

Bill Peak is one of my three favorite photographers of the Chicago outdoors for sending photos like this from Wolf Lake, a perfect lead for the Midwest Fishing Report.

Click here for Joe Spillone's first buck bowhunting.

It only seems apt to run the Stray Cast here.

Click here for the three Fishes of the Year.

Goose hunting leads this Illinois Hunting Report.

Click here for the column on the pairing of suburban ice fishermen, Bart Sitarz and Joe Jaworski, and how they won the NAIFC championship in Rhinelander, Wis., on Dec. 19.

By now, most readers know the Kankakee is my favorite river; unfortunatley, things turned ugly on it yesterday with an explosion at the Kankakee River Metropolitan Agency plant.

Click here for the note on Ryder Olsen's BOTW: Unplugged in Burnham.

I didn't expect one of these from Ken Gortowski.

Digging in, digging out and getting out leads this Wild Weekend Wandering around Chicago outdoors.

Spence Petros sends around a fishing report and thoughts every few weeks.

Mulling things on my morning ramble

with Storm, the family's mixed Lab.

I've been waiting a long time for Ed Mullady to get his due from the Illinois Outdoor Hall of Fame, well the great protector and promoter of the Kankakee River basin is in with the 2011 class.

Ice fishing, even on Chicago harbors, leads this Midwest Fishing Report--it should make for a good wintry holiday weekend.

Mulling things on my morning ramble

with Storm, the family's mixed Lab.

It only seems apt to run the Stray Cast here.

Click here for Buck of the Week.

Pete Mavrakis' nearly 40-inch northern pike caught from Willow Slough on Sunday takes Fish of the Week honors.

I had hoped to get some photos of geese pouring into open water about sunset last night to lead this Illinois Hunting Report.

Harvest by bowhunters in Illinois is down slightly from last year at the same time, according to Paul Shelton.

Some rare mornings are so strong in immediacy there's no mulling matters on my ramble with Storm, the family's mixed Lab.

Bill Peak is the guy who originally sparked the idea for Buck of the Week: Unplugged.

A rumination on shoeshoes leads this Wild Weekend Wandering around Chicago outdoors.

Mulling things on my morning ramble

with Storm, the family's mixed Lab.

If you sense cynicism, you sense correctly; but the Obama administration has come out with the latest big plan for dealing with Asian carp.

Ice fishing, obviously, leads this Midwest Fishing Report.

Considering even the Fox is icing in, I didn't expect

a rumination from Ken Gortowski.

It only seems apt to run the Stray Cast here.

Illinois' deer hunting tradition is being passed along as this Buck of the Week shows.

Any fish too big to measure is worth Fish of the Week.

Considering the weather, it was expected that harvest during llinois' muzzleloader-only deer season would be down; and it is, way down, from 4,704 deer in 2009 to only 3,276 during the 2010 season from Friday through Sunday.

It was a good year for raising penned pheasants, so there are expanded options for pheasant hunters in this Illinois Hunting Report.

Mulling things on my morning ramble

with Storm, the family's mixed Lab.

I am not sure if this is just another layer of bureaucracy or something with long-rangle potentional to protect the Lake Michigan lakefront in Illinois, but Gov. Pat Quinn has set in motion the Illinois Coastal Management Program.

Tom Harris sent some wonderful images from the Chicago lakefront this morning.

Mulling things on my morning ramble

with Storm, the family's mixed Lab.

Chicagoan Nikki McInerney sent this nomination for Buck of the Week: Unplugged from Miami Woods in Niles.

The weather casts a long shadow (forgive me, I couldn't help myself) on this Wild Weekend Wandering around Chicago outdoors.

Controlled pheasant hunting season has been extended at Iroquois County SWA until Dec. 26 and hunter quotas have been increased at the Jim Edgar Panther SFWA.

Mulling things on my morning ramble

with Storm, the family's mixed Lab.

I set up a Facebook page for "Outside," the radio show that Joel Greenberg and I are doing.

A federal grand jury in Springfield returned a 23-count felony indictment today against one of the biggest names in Illinois waterfowling, professional duck hunter Jeffrey B. Foiles.

I'm surprised, maybe it was the snowy weather second season, but deer harvest dropped slightly from 2009 during Illinois 2010 firearm seasons, from 99,419 deer to 98,700.

The start of ice fishing obviously leads this Midwest Fishing Report.

It only seems apt to run the Stray Cast here.

Some fish go beyond big, beyond Fish of the Week, out into Rick Jamesian ``Super Freak'' range. Steve Fiorio caught one of those Saturday.

Ken Gortowski had this cold-weather fishing report

for the Fox River

and an extended rumination on ice and ice fishing.

The buck Don Van Byssum shot on opening day of Illinois firearm deer season was a first for him, and for Buck of the Week.

For a project, I am compiling a list of places to eat while fishing or on the way to or from a fishing spot.

Beginning Jan. 3, I am scheduled to begin hosting ``Outside'' with Joel Greenberg on WKCC-FM (91.1).

Deer, snowy pheasant hunting and open-water waterfowling lead this Illinois Hunting Report.

Long-time readers know my feelings on Northerly Island.

It isn't often that birders and hunters are in lock step, but feral cats are a common ground: both groups spend enough time in the outdoors to know the destruction caused by wild cats and even free-ranging house cats.

My deer season was a mixed bag.

Let me catch up.

Ed Pasiewicz took this photo in John Clarke Woods in Waukegan.

Steve Sarley invited me to do a segment about future goals for the IDNR for

his ``The Outdoors Experience'' radio show Sunday morning.

Find some excuse to revel in the snow--it's coming--and why not lead with that for this Wild Weekend Wandering around Chicago outdoors.

I can't wait to hear what those hunters who saw nothing think when they hear the Wisconsin DNR preliminarily reported an 11-percent increase in deer harvest during the nine-day gun season from 2009 season.

Mulling things on my morning ramble

with Storm, the family's mixed Lab.