Pass shooting

I was going to field hunt today, however when I got to the field and the wind was coming from the wrong direction. So I headed for home, on the drive I had an ide'er. I'll chill at the house for a while, then head down to the local frozen body of water for some pass shooting. Now once I got there I had determined that under no circumstances shall I shoot at flocks passing from behind me. The outcome would have the goose land on the ice and I would have no way to get it.

Yeah that lasted all about 2 flocks coming from behind me. The second flock flew by and one goose was in the way of the 3 1/2" BB I sent his way. Ok.....Ok so I sent 3-3 1/2" BB his way and he ate all but one, and kept flying. They were probably just inside of the effective range of my full choked steel shot choke tube. I knew I hit him at least twice so I kept an eye on in him. Disgusted at my goose flying away I reloaded when I looked back at him I saw him drop and skid on the ice to a dead stop.
Now the fun starts..... how do I get him?
I packed up and went back to the car. I got permission to park and walk to the waters edge. I stood on the ice and realized there is no way my skinny butt is going to get out to my prize. Within 3 minutes I had a plan, go to the house and get a fishin' pole and some weights and hooks.
When I got back to the ice I put my plan into action. After multiple casts, 5 hook ups, and 1 broken line, I was able to snag my goose and drag him over to the edge.

Now how's that for a story?
The only thing I have yet to figure out, did I need a hunting license, a fishing license or both?

Today I slept

I couldn't sleep at 12:30 am, so I got up had breakfast and coffee. I went to lay down at 2:30 am, got up at 2:40, still couldn't sleep. Went downstairs and watched some tv. Finally around 5:30 am it was time to get ready to go. So I packed up my gear and headed for the goose field. I got to the field in plenty of time to set up my dekes and layout blind. Around 11:30 the clouds cleared off and the sun came out. That is bad news for a cold weather goose hunter. If the geese haven't flown by the time the clouds clear and the sun comes out chances are they they won't fly 'til late. I closed my eyes around noon and hunted with my ears. I woke up at 1:30 and came to the conclusion that it's just not going to happen today, so I packed up my gear and headed for the house. I only had 5 flocks of migrators fly near enough to see my spread throughout the day. Apparently they had somewhere else to be and a schedule to keep. I called to beg them to come down for a visit, but they're wings never even skipped a beat So..... no pics, no geese to clean, nothing to do but dream about tomorrow's hunt.

Merry Christmas

Well I hope this finds everyone lazing around and content after the Christmas holiday. The bad news is for the first time in as long as I can remember.I didn't get to go goose hunting Christmas day. The wind was very bad and we had rain all day long. I hate hunting in the rain.

So I ended up just lazing around with my wife, we watched some movies and did some cleaning, sad isn't it? Anyway last Wed I went out with weed again to my property it was the fourth time I've shot it and the birds knew it. They really weren't skiddish and flaring but they knew something was up. We finally had a flock work pretty good, until they got into within 45 yrds. Then they just kinda lifted, we were able to bring one down. Most of the birds made a B-line to a field about a mile from us, so after the hunt I went down and got permission to hunt it. I was going to hunt it Christmas day, but we've already been over that. I'll save it for Tues or Wed when I'm off. This day shift I've been on, is really screwing up my hunting.

Now just keep in mind that this next picture, for all intensive purposes was a joke. No matter how well it worked, and it worked well. Since I've been field hunting the one problem I've had is, the birds are having to come from behind me to get to my spread. I have been going home with a sore and stiff neck from cranking it around to see if birds are moving. My solution is "the goose view mirror". It really worked good, I just placed it so I could see behind me where the birds usually get up from. Anyway if your done laughing (I'll wait for you to wipe the tears)....... Here's the pic.

Now who's the problem solver?

Last day duck hunt

My definition of addiction: Laying in a field waiting for some ducks or geese to cross your path, through snow,wind (13-20mph),temp drop (25-12 degree's), from 2 and a half hours before sunup to sundown.
That's how I spent the last day of duck season. 9 and a half hours of mostly watching clouds pass by. I did see alot of waterfowl flying in the distance. You see, I wasn't hunting the X but the closest field that I could get to the X. There was a pond a half a mile away that wasn't froze up and it has alot of ducks and geese on it.
Even though the day didn't have me shooting my limit, it was still a great day. You see the ducks that did decide to visit me worked awesome. Classic duck response, they would come right over but they would circle 4-5 times getting lower and lower on each pass until finally committing. The wind was blowing soo hard that it was hard getting them into position for the shot, they would be high one second and in range the next. As soon as you squeezed the trigger they were off and out of range. They just lifted up into the wind and poof, gone.
I had 3 flocks (12-15 birds) come over and work.
The first flock came over and I muffed the shot (that was only after 6 hrs in the field).
The second flock came over and wanted to drop on my right, when I sat up to take the shot I remembered that there was a road to the right, so I didn't squeeze the trigger.
The last flock to come over worked great and dropped right where I wanted them too. This was only after I moved my spread around to accommodate the new wind direction. After the smoke cleared 1 duck had fallen.

Yep all day for one duck, and he was beautiful.

Third field shoot this year

With the SE wind today a field hunt was my best bet. So I got up this morning @ 5:15 am and threw the dekes and layout blind on the cargo carrier on the car and off I went. I got to the field and set out my meager spread of 2 dozen geese and 1 doz mallards. Laid back in the blind and waited. Around 8:30 I had a flock of geese come through and I peppered the closest one but didn't drop him. I watched him for as long as I could and he didn't drop so I figured he's ok. The next flock through was the one I was waiting for. They came over me just a talkin.' So I started talkin' back to 'em real sweet like. I let 'em get out 100 yrds and hit 'em hard, man they doubled over and hooked right to me. I couldn't have asked for a better working flock, they slid right in front of me, and I dropped my 2 geese. Limit of geese by 9:23, so I settled in for some mallards. While I was waiting for the mallards I was covered up in geese. I had 6 land 10 yrds from me, they milled around for at least 30 min. before joining a passing flock.
Here's the pic:

Here's the blow up of the 6 geese

Even though you can only see three heads there's six out there.

The bad news is I only saw 4 mallards, of which I should've had at least one. I had a hen make 2 passes getting lower each pass, so I was going to give her one more pass. Well she never gave me the third pass, she just up and evaporated. Oh well, I had a great day and would've had some great video but my batteries died.

Well another great hunt until next time, be safe and get out there.

Well it happened again

I got out yesterday for a duck/goose hunt. Unfortunately someone forgot to tell the ducks and geese.........or maybe someone did??? Not a whole lot flying yesterday, only had 1 shot at a highflyer. All the ducks and geese around here are really stale. The majority of the resident flock is staying in town, and not venturing too far. No cold weather means no new waterfowl. Coulda shot a couple divers but decided to give em a pass.

Here's the pic.

The second half of the day was spent on a hope and a prayer coon hunt. I knew the moon was going to be full (bad for me) and the winds would be gusty (also bad for me).I went down to some public property to try for some coon. Only saw one set of eye's, by the time I figured out it was a coon and not a possum. He figured out I was trouble and vacated. So with the wind gusting more and more, and the moon getting brighter and brighter I gave up and went home after only 4 hours. I sure hope we get some cooler weather sooon.

2nd field hunt

Well it wasn't a barn burner, but we had a good time. I got weed away from work long enough to shoot a couple geese and a mallard. I will say that it rained for a short time (I hate hunting in the rain) and right after it stopped the greenheads blazed in. That's all I'm going to say about that. The geese flew a little late cause of the fog and just acted hinky all day. We finally had a couple groups work OK and culled a couple out of the flocks. We should've each had our limit but we can't seem to shoot at differ geese.

Just a pic of part of the spread

Some of us (weed) got to sleep all day while the guide (me) kept a vigil watch. Ready to wake him with "get ready" at a moments notice.

Weed had to leave early "for a meeting".

I stayed til sunset and only saw a couple flocks of qwackers but didn't improve my body count.All in all we had a great hunt. Man are those field hunts alot of work, but the layout blinds are so very comfortable.

Maybe when I get a guide I can trust to stay awake, I'll try sleepin.

Naw it's kinda like drivin', so very tired behind the wheel and wide awake in the passenger's seat.

Oh well, until next week take care.

Things to be Thankful for: landowners that allow hunting. Thanks Tom

I hate hunting in the rain

That's right I said it, give me a bluebird day anyday.

That being said I had my first solo field hunt today. I found out last nite that the corn had been picked, and there were already geese in the field. So I hastily readied for a impromptu field shoot. I made it to the field 1 hour and a half early. I started putting out a spread and setting up my layout blind. As shooting time rolled around I was putting the finishing touches on my blind. Finally it was time to relax.........what the??? rain, man I hate hunting in the rain. So I was laying in a layout blind, in the rain, waiting for the arrival of some waterfowl.

8:00 am is what my watch said. I was going to give it another hour, and if I don't see any birds, I'm going to pack it in. I hate hunting in the rain.

8:22 am- goose limit filled, now I'm only shooting ducks. I had the first flock of geese come in and 3 shots later I had my 2 geese. So I figured what the heck I'm already wet, and I can take 4 qwackers. I had pairs filter in, from which I took my duck limit. The first 2 I took 1, the next 2 I dropped 2,the third pair I took a nice drake. There ya go limited out by 9:45.


I packed everything up and made it home by 10:30. Cleaned my birds, opened and hung everything up. This took until 3:00 pm, of course I had to rearrange the whole garage to get all my soaking wet gear propped up and open enough to dry. I'm hoping that it will all be dry by next week cause I might give 'er heck again.

Yep, I hate hunting in the rain....... but it's still better than workin'.

New Lake

I called weed up and asked if he wanted to go duck hunting today. When he asked where, I told him the name of the lake, followed by "it's my first time there". So not knowing what kinda birds to expect, if any, he agreed. We met up in the dark hours and went over to the lake and set up. I knew where we were going to set up from fishing it, so that wasn't the hard part. The hard part was paying attention watching for birds. It wasn't hot and heavy as they say, it was more like cold and light. We did have one group of mallards work in really well. Actually they worked in a little too well. We didn't see them until they were cupped and dropping in, we only had to wait seconds before the shot. Then when we "took 'em" I just slung steel, three misses. Weed on the other hand only had 2 misses he was able to make the last one count.

I told my wife this story and her response was "what's wrong with you?" I guess I've even been missing too many for her too.

Oh well, had a good time and the day was perfect, just a little warm.

Bonus hunt

Well Thursday I got out to my local lake and was able to redeem my prior days shooting. Before the missing started I was in great shape with a one shot one kill mallard. Then I reverted back to my missing ways on another mallard that was flying by. I think I'll say the tree limb was in my way, even if it wasn't I pruned it back a bit anyway. Got this hunt in before work so had to leave early, around noon.

For whatever reason grebe's love my spread and boat this year.





Yesterday I got an invite to shoot some geese off my buddy Weeds pond. So I got there in the wee hours, waited in town (in the car on main street) for Weed and Ron to wake up and roll in. After a phone call and 25 mins, headlights were in my rearview. So were off, we get to the property and spend some time figuring how to set up. Now the work starts, get all the gear across the fence and to the small hill. Set out the dekes, put out the blinds, get set and snooze. The fog was pretty thick in the morning and into the early afternoon. Had a flock come in early they landed and stayed on the other side of the pond, until they flew out. Then we had a couple smaller flocks cycle in and out. We took a couple birds here and there. The whole time Weed was making excuses why they weren't dropping in blindly. His favorite was "they see the blinds", we should get rid of the blinds. Anyway had a couple flocks work great except for the fact they kept comin' in over my left shoulder.

After we filled out,we picked up the gear, turned and burned back home, cleaned the birds and caught a nap before going to work.

I want to thank Weed again for the invite, and Ron for bringing the dekes. I was there for the luck of it (I saw the birds) and just kept a general watch of the area. This was the maiden voyage for my layout blind and it was pretty cool. I think I still like boat hunting better, but you can definately whack em' in layouts. It's also more comfortable to sleep in a layout....... isn't it Ron.






Taught our retriever to wave.

And watch for geese

And make decoys








Ron and Weed
End result: 6 geese and a bonus mallard. Thanks guys

Same result

I went out duck hunting yesterday saw some ducks, even had some good shots. However like the title says.......
I could've gotten up, went outside beat my head on a tree 4 or 5 x's, came back inside grabbed 20 bucks off the counter, flushed it down the crapper and gone back to bed. That's how productive I was, not only with my shooting. Which was deplorable, but the wind didn't help at all either. It was supposed to come out of the NW all day, so I went to my NW spot and low and behold it was out of the W,SW all morning. Somewhere around noon it switched to WNW so I had to move my spread 3 x's. Trying to make the best out of the wind direction. Man what a pain in the axx. Anyway I didn't even shoot well enough to loose a feather on a duck. I would shoot, then lower and shake my head in shame. That's all I could do, it was terrible.
I'm home now because the weather was spose to be rainy all day. Again I must say I wish I had become a meteorologist. It's the only gig you can be wrong at every single day and still keep your job. Yep you guessed it it's partly sunny with no rain. So here I sit updating my blog instead of hunting. Yeah, yeah, I know I should've gone no matter what, point taken I'm not taking any chances next time. I'm just going to go and if the weather turns bad, so be it.
I got some video of some goosers that kept me company. The first couple actually swam in from....I'm not sure. I only saw them when they got within 40 yrds. Anyway the larger of the two was double cluckin' as they swam in. When they got to within 30 yrds of the decoys they flew right at them, and actually chested one of my decoys. I had never seen that before, unfortunately I didn't get the video rolling until after, but they're still pretty cool. The single came in and stayed for 1 decoy move, geese and all. He finally left after hangin' out by the dekes for over an hour, after a small flock flew by and asked him to join them.

Goose season opens on Sat, if anything will salvage a bad duck hunt it's a flock of geese workin' in.

Wednesday

Shoulda stayed in bed today it was really cloudy and fairly warm. The wind was not coming from the direction the weather channel said. To top it all off I got out to my spot got my dekes set out and realized I left my jerk cord dekes at the landing. So back to the landing I go, grab my dekes and head back out to my spread. I had a couple shots if I wasn't sleeping but I was so nothing to clean today. So when I got home today a spray painted my grass again. I usually end up painting the boat at least once a season. So now I'll have to get it back out and check my work with the boat on the water. Here's the pic.

Had a grebe swim through my set he got within 5 feet of me. Wish these were good to eat.

Duckers

Went out today close to home had some good chances to fill a limit. However there was 1 problem, yep you guessed it my shooting was the problem. I did however manage 2 lessers and a susie. Coulda had another hen but I was asleep at the wheel. I also coulda shot my weight in geese (thats alot) they were everywhere and willing to work. Can't wait for goose season to kick off. Anyway gotta git ready for tomorrow so here's the pic.

Today at the range

Went down to the range today to sight in my new savage 22 mag and my triple deuce. Just put a Leopold on my 222 this fall so I had to sight it in. Finally sent back my Rem. 597 never to be seen again, it never worked right from the first time I shot it.

Anyway here are the results of 45 mins at the range.

Shot the .222 @ 100 yrds and ended up with a decent group.

22mag after 5 rounds @ 25 yrds I was on dots and after 10 more fully sighted in with a bonus @ 50 yrds.

This is a blow up of the ladybug I demolished at 50 yrds

Yep kilt it dead

Public Property

As you well know I do most of my hunting on Public Properties. Now let me pose this question: Do people have a right to Public Property?
Let me explain, I got up this morning at 6 am and hit the ramp by 6:15. When I arrived at the boat launch I noticed another truck there with a trailer. I thought my day was over, so I looked down the shoreline and listened. Nothing, so I hoped he had motored up the lake. I dropped in and made my way down to "my" spot.
I've been hunting this body of water for 11 years and with my setup there's only 3 spots for me to hunt. Each differ spot has a differ wind direction for it, the SW spot was where I was heading. This is the same spot I had hunted the last 2 days. The closer I get I start straining to see if someone is down there. I get within 50 yrds and I see a red light. Instant sadness came like a wave over me, I continued down to say hi.
I asked if that was his blind (I knew it wasn't) he said no, but it's been down there forever and the wind was right and the place was close. I agreed then I asked him if he had hunted down here before, and how long he might stay. He answered a handful of times, (I've never seen this rig before and I hunt there all the time), and that he was only hunting for a couple hours. After talking to him I wished him good luck, and headed back to the ramp to pack up my boat and head home.
OK so here's my issues: do I have the right to be upset that he was in "my" spot.
He's only going to hunting for a couple hours, I would've spent 7 or 8.
From his setup he's not very serious, he only had a spread of about 16 dekes. Shoot, just for duck season I put out 6 doz. On top of that this was my last day off, and probably the better of the three days.
Now I know what your going to say- why didn't you hunt with him?

There's 2 reasons:
1. I didn't know him, I hunt with friends and I don't like being forced into meeting someone just for a hunting spot.
2. If I had hunted with him and he had a good time, whether I did or didn't, he might be at "my" spot more often.

I know I shouldn't feel this way but I feel wronged by someone I've never met. He was there first and I respect that. So now to ensure I get my SW spot I'm going to have to be there just a little earlier.
I realize I had other lakes to go to with a SW wind but they were all an hour drive away and I only had 30 min to shooting light. So instead of hauling butt and busting out a huge spread. I opted to head for home and go sight in my 22 mag and 222.

Just about any other type of hunting when you bump into someone else you can just move down the road aways and try again. Duck hunting is kinda like that, but there's only so much shoreline and most of it can't be set up on.

It still bothers me that I didn't get to hunt today am I in the wrong?

Day 2 of 3

Got out this morning hoping for a good flight. They didn't really fly that good this morning, I'm guessing it was too warm. Anyway after I had a couple flights go by, nothing really close enough for a shot. I was going to town on a single that had gotten past me with some greetings and single feed when.... Well ya know when your dove hunting or duck hunting and your paying attention to the one that just got by you, only to have 4 or 5 blow by you. Yep that was my luck today, so after the 4 pass me and I'm mentally yelling at myself. I turn back to my decoys and notice I have 2 extra and not only that they're wood ducks. Hey I don't have any wood duck decoys. Alright jump 'em up and shoot. 1 and 2 ducks down, another one for the books outside of it being too hot it was a great day.
I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings.

First day out

Got out to my SW duck spot this morning @ 5:40 am. Yes I was a little excited and a tad early. I was set up and waiting on shooting light by 6:30 am. When it was finally light enough to shoot the show had already begun. Seems like it started with a fly bye from a hen wood duck.

Ok now I'm ready, the next one's mine. After watching most of the morning flight fly by just out of reach I had a couple drake mallards bow up and drop in. My calling was ok but my shooting, not so much. I dropped one (not the one I was trying for) I'm alright with that, first day jitters and all. Very happy with putting one in the boat, a gorgeous drake.

Now it kinda slows outside of some geese, which I'm more than happy to play with seein's how they're not in season. Brought in a pair with just 2 dekes and some truly awesome calling, yes it was me. They set up just outside of my spread by my goose dekes. While I let them know how dead they would be if it was goose season I saw 2 mallards swim the corner of the point. So as to make them feel at ease I give 'em some quacks and single feed chuckle. They do an about face and go back the same way they swam in. As I'm kickin' myself for scaring them away, I spot 7 mallards swimming around the point.

They brought friends.

I get ready by switching chokes, keeping an eye on them the whole time. A pair peel off and start to get closer, just when I think they won't come any closer I stand up and yell. The 2 geese and 5 ducks take to the air, the 2 I'm watching are just watching me. So I flip the top on the boat and they take off. I dropped the drake first then swing on the hen, she drops too. She's not done though so I pump two more rounds her way.

A day's work.

What's that? You can't see the hen?.... yeah I couldn't either, so I counted 3 on the limit even though I only retrieved 2.

Oh well there's alway's tomorrow I'll be waiting for them.....just not quite so early.

Long hard road

Well finally got out deer hunting for the first time after 4 days of wind and rain. Got off work yesterday at 2:30 p.m., after getting my stuff ready I got to my deer stand at 4:05. I was on stand for what seemed like days (3 hrs to be exact) when what do I see but a corn stalk moving.....there's very little wind. After what seemed like hours (15 min to be exact) I caught a glimpse of my buck. He was walking slowly along the fence row, when he got to the corner of the corn he looked down the edge. He neglected to look up, I had my bow drawn and waited for him to clear the corn stalks. As soon as he cleared I loosed my arrow, he gave the tell tale good shot kick, ran 30 yds and went down. I wish I had my camera going, the video would've been awesome. Regretfully, I didn't even think I would see a deer let alone take my biggest buck off this property to date. The bestest part is the pressure is off, I might go out for muzzleloader or maybe even another bow hunt (the video will be recording) but as of right now the only thing on my schedule is waterfowl.

Sarah loved the crime scene at the top of the driveway.

Is it possible that after a lifetime of hunting I have no more dues to pay?????

2 days to go

DEER SEASON STARTS OCT 1 and I'll be at work. I will however be in the deer stand in the later hours of the day. Then after a week of work and hunt I will have 3 days off to try and bring home a deer. Just remember duck season starts on the 17 of Oct and runs til Dec. My goal this year, as it was last year is to get a banded duck. It's a needle in a haystack but everyone's gotta have goals. So until I post a pic and/or some vid of my deer, wish me luck.

Sept. 15 last day early goose

Well ended up hunting only 4 days and gathered 6 geese one of them today. Work really didn't help me this year I have been on first most of the time. Anyway I didn't get a pic of the goose,I did however get a pic of the egret that landed behind me

When I got home I cleaned my goose and took all my goose decoys out of the boat and loaded up my duck decoy's in anticipation of duck opener. Hopefully it will start early for me this year. As we all know duck season starts on oct 17. Deer season opens on oct 1st so I have to put something brown down before something that flies dies. Wish me luck and if I have any I should have a great deer vid to post. I'll let cha know.

The reason not to practice fatigued

Well I was shooting my bow today and somewhere around the 32 shot mark I missed. Yep happens to the best of us and it happened to me. Nothing else really I can say sooooo here are the pics.

Now for the tip section of my blog: How to repurpose a carbon arrow into something useful.

1.) Take your turkey decoy stake and cut 3-4" off both ends (the metal stakes with the plastic tips) so you can make 2 stakes (you can figure it out).

2.) Then attach the end to one end of the arrow shaft. Save the other end for your next miscalculated shot.

3.) Leave practice tip intact for the easy placement of stake.

This is what you will end up with.

You can also use the arrow as a post for a spinning wing dove decoy.

Dove and Goose

Well I've been getting out as much as I can without wearing myself down too much. Been out for dove and a couple times for goose. Just got done with this mornings hunt and managed the only goose I saw. I went fishing at my buddies lake last night and heard and saw geese all evening. While I was goose hunting today I saw 10-15 doves. These critters obviously have not read my script. Anywho hope your doing as good if not better than I. Here's the pics

might try for some more dove this week works got me in the morning but the afternoons are all mine.

Today is the day

Today kicked off the hunting season with a wonderful day in the goose boat. The first day with the first flock downing the first double of the year not a bad way to start. All told I ended up with 4 geese. Sorry so short but gotta get ready for the rest of the week. I'll try and update as soon as I can but the first 2 weeks are hunt sleep hunt sleep work hunt work sleep well you get the picture. Hey speaking of pictures....

I'm Done

Yep this week happens every year. It's a sad time but the turning of the season is upon us. So after fishing at Max this week I winterized the boat and am ready for Sept. 1 early Goose and Dove season opener. Now I still might get the itch to wet a line so as a back up I've got a buddy who has a lake cottage. I have an open invite anytime to show up and fish, so I kept one rod ready for small lakes. I will also probably get up to the big lake and cast for some kings off the pier. So I probably still have at least 2 fishing trips left in me. However the first 2 weeks of Sept. are reserved for as much waterfowl and dove hunting as I can fit in. From the looks of my work schedule I just got, my waterfowl is off to a good start. So until next week take care......oops almost forgot my fish here's the pic.
hope you had as good of a season as I have. and just remember with the sadness at the end of fishing season, hunting season will put a smile back on your face.

2nd to last outing (maybe)

Ended up at Maxinkuckee this week. It was a pretty cloudy day and I worked for the fish I caught but I did manage some nice fish. I casted for most of my fish and when the wind started kicking up I trolled for a while. I was trolling the wind washed side of the Lake. I was following the 15-20' depth range when all three rods doubled over. That's the good news, the bad news is, in my haste to get to my fish 2 came unbuttoned. The walleye I actually put in the boat was a shorty. So I marked the spot on my GPS and just kept tracking over it trying to redeem myself to no avail. I did catch several smallies and some perch and a sunfish. I fished from 8 am (rain delay) until 10:15 pm loaded the boat and headed for home. Here's just one of the jumbo perch I caught.
Only 2 weeks until dove and early goose open...... :)

Freeman Lake

This is the first trip to Freeman this year. I got a rather late start -up at 3:45 on the road by 4:40 and got there after daybreak. Now in my rush I realized I forgot my camera's. Small set back but not a huge problem, now the last lake I was on was the big lake. When I fish LM I always do what??? yep take out my trolling battery. Guess what I forgot to put back in my boat. Yep that's right my battery, fortunately I carry an old spare that runs all my electronics. I used a cable I made to run the juice to my troller and I was in business (for a short time). After my tired old battery gave up I switched to trolling with my kicker. Before I started trolling I caught a couple cats....blah...and a 3#drum. When I was trolling I continued to catch the cats but added a walleye and a decent crappie to the catch. Now the last two came home with me and volunteered to be dinner. They were delicious.

By the way the walleyes' not small the crappies' big.

Well I got three lakes I've been thinkin' bout goin' to next week. I'm not sure which one it will be yet, but I'll be fishin' one of 'em