Not only does the calendar say fall is in the air, it actually feels like fall. Growing up in middle Georgia I could never understand the books and magazines we read talking about fall weather starting by Labor Day. It still felt like summer to me for several more weeks.

Now I realize those articles were written by folks living way north of me. I got a taste of early fall in Wisconsin this year where it was freezing the second Saturday in September and the week before it had been colder than it is here in late October.

It was amazing. We watched the trees on a hillside overlooking Crab Lake change day by day. We fished that lake four days during the week and there was a definite difference in the colors on the hillside each day. They got brighter and more colorful from one day to the next.

Fall is fantastic. Not only is it the cooler weather, it is all the other changes that make is so special. There seems to be a quickening of all activities from the hot, lazy days of summer. Squirrels get busy eating and storing the falling hickory nuts and acorns that start bouncing off my roof this time of year. Both trees and tree rats seem to sense the coming cold.

A walk in the woods shows a big change. Suddenly things start to open up and you can see for a long way through the understory where just days before vines, brush and leaves blocked your view after just a few feet. Not the tree trunks seem spaced out with room between them.

Nights get here quicker every day. No longer can you linger on the water long after dinner time. And fishermen can sleep in a little later in the morning, too. To be on the lake at the crack of dawn now means launching your boat an hour later, at least until Daylight Savings Time goes away with the last of the longer days.

The sky looks totally different now. Rather than the washed out faded blue with hazy clouds of summer, many days you see clear bright blue skies. Clouds are stark white fluffy balls as they float along, with a sharp contrast between their bright side, the blue sky and their gray shadowy side.

At night the stars and moon seem brighter and closer. The “Harvest Moon” in September is big and bright as it heralds the start of fall and the time to bring in the crops. The “Hunter’s Moon” in October will seem close enough to touch and even brighter as it rises over the traditional start of hunting times. And the stars shine hard and bright, losing a lot of their twinkle in the cooler, drier air.

Fall always meant pecan time. I loved it when we picked up all the nuts we could see in our front yard then raked the leaves to the ditch and burned them. The smell of burning pecan leaves always take me back to those times, and I will never forget raking through the ashes finding missed pecans that was roasted just right. Eating them sitting by the warm ashes in the ditch made them taste better than any other time.

Fish get more active just like the squirrels. Cooling water makes them start feeding better than they have since last spring. They gorge themselves on the abundant shad and other baitfish that seem to crowd the lakes. They, too, seem to sense the lean cold months to come.

Best of all it is now time to sit in a tree and watch for a whitetail to come near. Bow hunters get a peaceful week or two when it is cool enough to enjoy being in the woods. Sweat does not drip from your nose as you try to stay still enough to fool a buck like it did the first part of the season. And bugs don’t bother you quite as bad – until the mid morning sun warms them up enough to buzz in your ears.

Even dogs welcome the changing weather. My dog Rip is always active, running around, jumping like a kangaroo when he hears something rustling in the leaves or sees a bushy tail squirrel bouncing away. But now he will suddenly take off, running in big circles like a greyhound on a track, seeming to celebrate the cool air and young muscles that have been lazy so long.

All too soon fall will be a pleasant memory as we shiver in our deer stands and fishing boats, wishing it would warm up a little. Enjoy it while you can.