Yes!! So far so good. Unlike last year when we got one week of warm
weather, it seems like we are getting a real summer this year. You will not
hear me complain about the heat . I like a nice warm summer.

Speaking of fishing, I have been doing a little bit of that too. Catching
some nice bass lately.I have been mostly fishing lakes Delavan and Geneva.

I just got back from a day of fishing for smallmouth bass around Sturgeon
Bay. It was great fun. We did not put a lot of fish in the boat, but Doug
did manage to catch a 20" fish. Very nice!!



The article for this story should run within the next two weeks.



Terry

Yeah!!!! The open fishing season is here.

The season opened this weekend. However, instead of fishing in WI, I went to
IL to do some perch fishing on Lake Michigan with my good pal Bill Pocius.
We did okay. It was kind of slow, but we brought home 20 fish. The largest
was a 14.5" fish.a couple of 12 inchers were in there as well. We landed one
Coho too..a nice bonus.

Look for the story in this weekend's Kenosha News.



Terry

It's deep into February and I am sure looking forward to the open water
fishing season. I don't mind ice fishing, but I am definitely an open water
guy. I am sure I will be out on the ice a couple more times this winter.
There are still fish to be caught and I figure it will be about a month
before I will be out in a boat again.



Terry

Yes, this year is winding down. This has been quite a year in the Bitz
household. Lots of things have happened..some good, some not so good.



I was able to get out to do some brown trout fishing yesterday on a boat in
the Milwaukee Harbor. It is an amazing trout fishery there.



Just being able to get out in a boat again made me feel good. It was a
little bumpy out there with big rollers bouncing off the break walls, but we
caught fish. The story about that outing should be in the Kenosha News in
two weeks, then posted on my website a short time later.



Terry

Oh boy are people ticked off at the DNR right now. After what many deer
hunters considered the worst gun hunt in decades, people are looking for
heads to roll. That includes some of the state legislators. State Senator
Russ Decker is calling for people to be fired. While I doubt that will
happen, it's a rare thing for the DNR to escape unscathed when legislators
start getting this vocal.



I think the DNR will have hard time convincing people that there needs to
be any antlerless-only hunts. They can probably kiss extending the regular
season goodbye. They were lobbying hunters to extend the gun hunt to 16
days.



Personally, this was one of the worst hunts I had in regards to seeing deer.
Between me and my youngest son, we saw one deer in the woods. Yep, just one.
I cannot recall a season where I only saw one.



I will have an article in two weeks discussing this very issue.

Those who read my Kenosha News columns may recall that I and Motorola parted ways back in the spring. After 17 years they decided that they no longer wanted to pay me for my services....aka I got laid-off along with about 25 percent of their workforce in my location. They have since gone on to eliminate even more jobs to cut cost and try save their wireless business.

I am not bitter about getting axed. I am certainly not happy to have left in such a matter, but I did get a severance package...Plus it gave me the chance to reconnect with myself, my family and my faith. I wish Motorola and all my friends that still work there the best, but overall I am happy that I got a chance to move on.

Today marked the end of my lay-off. I officially started work at a cool company called Rath Microtech. They design/produce emergency telephones and I am very excited to be working for them as a Technical Support/ Product Manager.

Of course today also marked the end of my 3 weeks of pounding the water to try and make up for lost fishing time. The fishing was mostly mediocre, but I did manage to catch - and lose - a few. The highlight was a 38.5 inch musky that I caught on the Chain O'Lakes down in Flatland USA....that being Illinois. I was fishing with my best friend Bill Pocius and Doug Kloet.

So now it's back to life in the real world and I am ready.

Terry

I have been spending more and more time on the water recently. I am not exactly living on the water, but I have fished 5 times in the last 7 days. Its almost like the old days for me when I spent 4 days on the water almost every week from June through September.

In the last week, I have fished Lake Mendota in Madison 3 times. Silver Lake in Kenosha Cty once and just today I was on the Chain of Lake in Illinois.

Today was a very good day. My good friend Capt Doug Kloet landed a 47.5" muskie on a Double Cowgirl. I had a very small muskie take a swipe at a Topraider. But, it was Doug's fish that made the day. A muskie measuring almost 48" is a nice fish no matter where you are at. High fives were given after the successful release.

Stay tuned for an article on today's outing to be in the Kenosha News in 2 weeks. I should then have it posted online a few days later.

Terry

Ouch!

Like many others in Southeast Wisconsin, we were hit hard by the heavy rain/storms that came in last Friday. Our basement ended up with about 16 inches of sewer water in it when the sewer system backed up. What a mess!

Right now we are in the midst of a massive cleanup effort. The water heater had to be replaced, the furnace cleaned and inspected, and the whole basement disinfected. We have been working non-stop, approximately 14 hours a day since Friday night. The basement is almost cleaned and now we are starting to clean up what items we were able to salvage. We lost a ton of valuables, collectibles, keepsakes, furniture, books, etc. This has been a heartbreaking event.

Unfortunately, this has also meant my fishing plans for this week had to be canceled. I was looking forward to some fishing on Delavan Lake in Walworth County. Maybe next week.

Terry

Maybe just maybe I will someday be a true blogger i.e someone who actually blogs on a regular basis.

In the late winter, I really had intended to start blogging more to let people know what I was up to, upcoming articles, events, etc. However, in the spring I joined thousands of other people from my company in the unemployment line. While that would seem to open the door to being able to spend more time maintaining my website, the opposite was true. I found myself spending a huge amount of time working on getting my resume in tip-top shape, working on the job search, calling people, meeting with people, etc.

What I found was that I did not have the energy on the evenings and weekends to sit and write blog material or to keep my site maintained as well as I intended. In addition, while I would love to say that I spent the last few months getting in a lot of outdoor activity, the opposite was also true. I was really burning the candle on the job hunting process and it did not allow me a lot of free time.

However, as much as it is a bit of a downer to be unemployed, I have learned a lot during this process. Certainly, I have learned the power of networking. But, more importantly, I learned more about myself and have had a chance to step back and reevaluate my life and my career choices. I have also met a lot of interesting people and developed some friendships with people I would have never met if I had not been unemployed.

At this stage, after having gone through the personal reevaluation, I know myself a bit better. That does not mean I am finished figuring myself out....I think that is a lifelong process.

FYI. For those who get the Kenosha News, look for my article in this Saturday's paper. It's a piece that is tied to Father's Day.

Terry