Mulling things on my morning ramble

with Storm, the family's mixed Lab.

Better enjoy this mild weekend while we can, so the late fall favorites of perch hunting, deer hunting and sandhill crane watching lead this Wild Weekend Wandering around Chicago outdoors.

Mulling things on my morning ramble

with Storm, the family's mixed Lab.

Estaban Uriostigue worked to arrow ``The Bull,'' one of the great bucks of the fall, in eastern Kankakee County.

Ovidijus ``Ovi'' Burbulis caught a muskie so big Sunday that guide Jim Templin considered calling the Illinois DNR to check for a possible state record, before they released it.

The DNR Sustainability Bill--Senate Bill 1566--passed today; now the work begins to make it more than a band-aid; but, all in all, this is a great day.

Mulling things on my morning ramble

with Storm, the family's mixed Lab.

It only seems apt to run the Stray Cast here.

It's that time of year: a slight chance of some ice fishing in northern Wisconsin later this week, a hope that better weather rebuilds the southern Lake Michigan perch fishing for the weekend and some wackiness among river fishermen lead this Midwest Fishing Report.

I had expected a major push of ducks over the weekend, but reports from the public sites in northeast Illinois certainly don't indicate that; so a reminder on turkey permits and the upcoming second firearm deer season lead this Illinois Hunting Report along .

Mulling things on my morning ramble

with Storm, the family's mixed Lab.

A dispatch arrived via the 10th Ward from John Vukmirovich, just as waves of sandhill cranes poured through Chicago outdoors on Friday in a widespread, impressive display.

Mulling things on my morning ramble

with Storm, the family's mixed Lab.

Dave Mueller talks about the nature and wildlife art of the Porter family, as well as fly fishing and stream management out West, this afternoon on ``Outside'' on WKCC-FM (91.1).

Mulling things on my morning ramble

with Storm, the family's mixed Lab.

As promised in Sunday's column about the upcoming outdoor show season, here is the expanded list of outdoor shows for 2013 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.

That great favorite of Chicago fishing--perch--were in good for the traditional Thanksgiving outings, and that leads this Wild Weekend Wandering around Chicago outdoors; though I wonder what will be going with the blow.

Fears gales off the back side of Sandy ended the fall lake trout fishery at the Port of Indiana appear overblown.

Mulling things on my morning ramble

with Storm, the family's mixed Lab.

It's Buck of the Week as a love poem.

It only seems apt to run the Stray Cast here.

Mulling things on my morning ramble

with Storm, the family's mixed Lab.

Looks like a weekend going from mild to a hint of winter for this Midwest Fishing Report, but at least there are beginning reports of perch around southern Lake Michigan.

As expected, the first firearm season was a strong one for Illinois deer hunters.

The second firearm season will come soon enough, well next week, but deer still are the lead for this Illinois Hunting Report; although it might be worthwhile for waterfowlers to watch the skies as the front drops through Friday.

Mulling things on my morning ramble

with Storm, the family's mixed Lab.

Mike Rendak caught this buck resting in Forest Glen, one of the great spots on Chicago's Northwest Side for seeing big bucks.

Mulling things on my morning ramble

with Storm, the family's mixed Lab.

A couple weeks ago, district fisheries biologist Frank Jakubicek dropped a note of concern about the possibility of winter fish kills because of lingering impacts from the Drought of 2012.

Mulling things on my morning ramble

with Storm, the family's mixed Lab.

A faithful reader, a Chicago-area hunter, emailed from deer camp in Pope County in far southern Illinois that they already had 12 deer by Saturday.

Click here for Sunday's column about spending the morning at the check-in station at Gebhard Woods State Park.

Mulling things on my morning ramble

with Storm, the family's mixed Lab.

Stable fall weather should help with two fall favorites--deer hunting and perch fishing on Lake Michigan--of Wild Weekend Wandering around Chicago outdoors.

Mulling things on my morning ramble

with Storm, the family's mixed Lab.

Bet you were expecting a photo of a deer; well, it does relate to deer hunting.

Mulling things on my morning ramble

with Storm, the family's mixed Lab.

Stephen Lanigan Sr. earned FOTW honors with this 44 3/8-inch muskie caught Saturday from Indiana's fabled Webster Lake.

Click here for Buck of the Week,a big Bureau County buck arrowed by Court Spain of Downers Grove.

It only seems apt to run the Stray Cast here.

On one hand, hints come and go to our north of first ice, while on the other, the forecast looks like 10 days of fairly stable weather and gives hope for some late perch fishing on southern Lake Michigan for this Midwest Fishing Report.

Signs of the rut continue to show in the latest update on deer harvest so far by bowhunters in Illinois from the IDNR.

Mulling things on my morning ramble

with Storm, the family's mixed Lab.

John Gardiner found a prime example of the rut in North Riverside last week.

Mulling things on my morning ramble

with Storm, the family's mixed Lab.

Steve Pescitelli talks about the Yorkville bypass on the Fox River and the flathead studies on the Fox this afternoon on ``Outside'' on WKCC-FM (91.1).

Mulling things on my morning ramble

with Storm, the family's mixed Lab.

Click here for Sunday's column, which came off two examples of what would otherwise have been two Wild of the Week.

Mulling things on my morning ramble

with Storm, the family's mixed Lab.

It's called ``The Early Show'' and aptly enough opens the outdoors show season early and leads this Wild Weekend Wandering around Chicago outdoors.

Click here for word on Vic Santucci taking over as head of the Lake Michigan Program for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

Mulling things on my morning ramble

with Storm, the family's mixed Lab.

Click here for the tale of Czeslaw Czaia catching and releasing a muskie on the Des Plaines River, as caught by Cicero photographer Nicholas Kriho

Mulling things on my morning ramble

with Storm, the family's mixed Lab.

Click here for Bull of the Week, an elk arrowed near Antioch by Ron Mulholland last week.

This is that in-between period, before ice fishing starts dropping down from the north, for the Midwest Fishing Report.

Bowhunting for deer, as expected with the rut building,

is spiking and leads this Illinois Hunting Report.

Mulling things on my morning ramble

with Storm, the family's mixed Lab.

By the looks of the harvest report in the past week,

rut is building quickly for Illinois hunters, leading to a higher than normal harvest so far.

I strongly urge watching the debut of ``Everglades of the North: The Story of the Grand Kankakee Marsh'' at 8 p.m. today on WYIN, the presenting public television station in Merrilleville, Ind.

Mulling things on my morning ramble

with Storm, the family's mixed Lab.

Shannon Johnson talks about the opportunities in the outdoors of Williamson County in southern Illinois on ``Outside'' at first this afternoon, then we move on to parallels to Kankakee County, another county with a core wild draw on I-57.

Click here for Friday's column in the Post-Tribune on the 15th year of stocking walleye in Wolf Lake.

Mulling things on my morning ramble

with Storm, the family's mixed Lab.

Click here for Sunday's column about how central big government has been to conservation issues around Chicago outdoors--Chicago River to Wolf Lake to the Kankakee River.

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.

The election, upland hunting openers and the debut of ``Everglades of the North'' lead this Wild Weekend Wandering around Chicago outdoors.

Mulling things on my morning ramble

with Storm, the family's mixed Lab.