Christmas Eve Eve Limit

Alright so Weed and I got up and out early Thursday morning to hit a field I've been seeing geese in. We got there and set up before daybreak. As we were laying there waiting for the geese to fly we saw a truck drive into the adjacent field. I kept a close eye on them to see what they were doing. They started pulling decoys out of the truck...... I thought oh crap we just got hosed. I really didn't know which way the geese were coming in from but with them set up on the property line it couldn't be good for us. The first flock of geese started flying and my fear was realized when they pulled right into their set and they shot 2.
As the morning went on we watched as over 1000 geese and half that number in ducks dropped into a field 700 yards from where we were.
We were finally able to get a group that came from behind us work in. I called the shot and the geese fell, as soon as they were out of range I said ,"I got my two how did you do?". The answer was ,"you got 2 to?"
So here's the question part of the story: If we can have 2 geese as limit and we each got limit what happened?

(Jeopardy theme music)
If your answer was: what is shot the same goose, give yourself a gold star. Yep when the flock came over and I called the shot we picked the same goose to shoot with our first shot. When that one dropped (hard) we swung on another goose and dropped him.
Now we had a couple chances before we packed it in to get our other goose but couldn't pull it off.
Oh yeah before I forget here's a couple pics of the loaded down goose mobile.














I look like a hillbilly moving every time I go goose hunting. You know under the cover of darkness trying to avoid paying last months rent.

Anyway the super good news is after we got done hunting I went home, cleaned my birds, put my stuff away and went out to get permission to hunt the hot fields. I talked to 2 people and got permission on not only the hot field but another field 2 properties west of the hot field right in the flight path. So now I'm trying to put together when we can get out and shoot it. Should be a gosh darn good time.
Anyway have a very Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas

Well I haven't been very good at keeping this blog up to date as of late. I blame work, if I didn't have to go to work I would have more time to write and even a little time to hunt.
Anyway, I'll just start by saying,"I did not get a deer". I hunted all through bow season and a couple days of muzzle loader and came home empty.
Once again I shall proclaim that if it's brown it's down. I shall pass on no more medium sized deer. The last time I passed on deer hoping for something bigger I got skunked. This year was no different I had my chances and allowed small deer to walk. My new motto is,"young deer taste real good."

Two weeks ago Weed and I limited out on a field I got permission to hunt. The thing about this field is it generally holds alot of birds as long as you don't shoot 'em out day after day.
Now that I said that let me say that this hunt took place on a Thurs. After we shot our birds we had a hundred or so birds still working. We had messed up on 2 flocks of ducks and I noticed that one of the flocks of geese had a spec in it. We don't see spec's down here so I really wanted this bird. I even had a high passing shot when we were pickin' up our gear.
So with duck season ending the next week I decided then that this was the field I wanted to hunt. I made the arrangements and hunted this field the last day of duck season which was the next Tues.
I hunted all day and only managed 1 duck at 4:20 pm.Well as I was going to get my decoy bags I talked with the homeowner adjacent to the property and he asked me how I did. I told him and he said I missed it, apparently Sunday there were 200-250 birds, ducks and geese in this field.
There was even a coyote harassing them all day, trying to get a free meal.
Well after hearing that I knew what had happened, the cold weather froze up the roost and they left dodge for softer water. Since this day I have only seen a couple dozen geese out here. I am hopeful however that as soon as we get a break in the weather the geese will come back. I can only hope the spec is still with them. I am sure that anyone seeing this goose will be gunning for him. Almost like they would a neck banded goose. I hope he makes it so I can get him. :)
I am still getting out goose hunting as much as possible the last 2 days however have yielded nothing. I hunted a field 2 days ago after securing permission to hunt another field. I was seeing the geese but nothing wanted to play. This morning I did some pass shooting at the river with nothing to show for it.
Oh well there's always tomorrow, and I will be going out.
Until next time have a Merry Christmas, get out and hunt they haven't taken that away yet.

Good week

Have you ever had one of those days by which all others are measured?
Well that's how I started out my week. I went to the river on Tues. and had a great day. I brought home all I shot at minus one duck. Both the ducks and goose worked great. With just a quack or a honk, and they were setting their wings and looking for a place to land.The day started out warm and turned cold with 30 mph gusts.
It was however one of the best days I have had this year.





















I was supposed to hunt a field on Wed. but the wind was going to be blowing really bad. So I did a 180, grabbed my 20 gauge and headed for Huntington Res. for some pheasant.
I got down there pretty early and started hunting. I was only about 10 min into the hunt and I saw my first pheasant. Now I'm not going to mislead you, I tried for the ground pound.
I was denied, apparently there was too much weedage between the pheasant and myself. The shot spooked the bird and he took off, I nailed him to the ground with my second shot.
So there I was 10 min in and already had 1/2 my limit. I thought, "this is going to be easy".
Wrong, I saw 2 other birds and even heard one cackling in the morning, but I couldn't put my hands on another one. I did shoot a rabbit really dead.
So that's where I ended my day one rabbit and a pheasant. I did realize 2 things-
1. I'm no spring chicken anymore, and all the times I've heard ,"I'm too old to do that" I can relate. I used to be able to run up mountains while carrying all my gear and guns only to be stopped by darkness.
Wed. I had to slow down cause I got a cramp on the inside of my right leg. When that went away I got the same thing on my left leg. Thank goodness they didn't cramp in unison or I would still be in the woods unable to move.
The 2nd is I need to lose 1 or 30 pounds, and all this walking, hunting fun stuff would be alot more fun.

Day off number 3 or as normal people call it "Thursday".
I made it to the field I was going to hunt on Wed. and brought a friend from work. This was the first time I used the truck to haul all my stuff to the field, and let me tell ya it was packed. Next time I'll get a pic of the truck with all the gear in it.
Well I've been watching this field for a while and even though there was never a ton of birds on it, there were always birds on it. The only thing I didn't really know was what time they came in.
So we waited and waited and waited, there was very little even flying so we waited,did I mention we waited? Well we did, and it finally paid off with a flock of 25 or so birds coming in. They circled at least 3 times before committing to come in to land. The bad news is they wanted to land too far to the right. We had a house down the road on the right so I wanted to try to not shoot that way. I don't think we could've hit it but no sense tempting fate, so when they got close enough I gave the word and feathers flew. I unleashed my first shot on the goose the farthest left of the 15 or so birds to my right. I did hit him but he didn't go down, so I swung on the 5 or so birds to my left and dropped one. My buddy was able to connect on his second shot and there we were with geese on the ground. I got up and walked over to where my first goose was loosing altitude to see if I could find him. I couldn't find him so hopefully he's either dead or alive and not wounded somewhere.
We stayed for a wee bit longer, and just when I started checking the insides of my eyelids for cracks, he speaks up and says he's ready to pack it in. I didn't protest cause I really didn't think we would get anymore takers.



















He's really gotta get a hat.

Happy Thanksgiving

Well just got done pluckin' my Turkey and put it in the oven. Now that I have some time before the next basting I'll get'cha up to date on the hunting thing.
I went to the river on Tues. morn and got a goose. I missed the second one that was with him.
The geese were acting really weird. I had a flock of 20-25 come in but they landed short, so I got up and shooed them away. While I was tryin' to get them to come back I noticed 2 more setting down. They short stopped me, so I let them swim in a ways and took one of them.



















On Wed. I went to Loon Lake, had alot of early activity. Even though I had a couple chances I only managed to get one duck. That one I'm not sure what it is, but if I had to name it I would call it a black duck cross.





















Any way had a good couple of days hunting. I'm going to try and get out in the morning. The crappy thing is with shotgun deer season going on I can't get into alot of my fields to hunt. Oh well, I'm going to go out and do some scouting for tomorrow, hopefully I'll find someplace with a duck tornado. So til next time take care and have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving.

What I did on my Vacation

When I got back to work on Friday I was asked what I did on my vacation. The answer I had was "I hunted", every day sometimes twice a day. Yep I hunted ducks in the morning and deer in the afternoon. The cold weather kinda slacked off and the ducks were not pouring in like they had been. I hunted alot of water sets and a couple land sets.

These two hunts came off of a couple water hunts. I got a lesser scaup (bluebill) and a couple mallards

I was invited up to my buddy weed's pond to shoot some geese. He also invited a another buddy of ours by the name of fasteddie. Even though the company was great, the goose shoot was not lets say "hot". We managed 2 divers, a mallard, and a lone goose. We hunted the pond the second to last day of my vacation.

I told weed we needed to shoot my deer property before my vacation was over. We set up a hunt for the next morning. We shot our limit of geese within a hour or so.
I shot my 2 geese from the first flock that came over, weed whiffed on his. I got the I-Kam rolling, and on the next flock weed got his 2 here's the video:







So that was the waterfowl section of my vacation.

The whitetail section didn't fare as well. Even though I saw deer almost every time I went out I wasn't able to get a shot. As is the bane of the deer hunter I had deer pass right under the deer stand that I was not in. The deer that did pass under my stand were small so I passed on them. I should've learned a couple years ago that when I pass on deer I don't get a deer. Oh well even though my bow season is over I still have a chance with muzzleloader season in Dec.

So until next week, keep your groups tight and your eye on the prize.

ducks and bucks

Since duck season has started and I have yet to bag my buck. I'm burning the hunting candle at both ends.
In the morning I've been going duck hunting and in the evening I've been deer hunting.
The duck hunting has been goin' kinda slow.
I worked last weekend which was opener, they (other duck hunters) must have shot the heck out of 'em. During early goose I was seeing lets say 100 ducks a day and now I'm lucky to see 15. I have been out a couple times and the ducks have not come back yet. I have been lucky enough to bag a few.




This is my first duck this year. I whiffed on my second duck. I would've been just as effective to take 3 shells and throw them at the second duck.

















This is the second day and the only duck I got to shoot at.







Now as for the deer, I saw Mr. Big Jr. on Tuesday night. He's a high tined 8 point that I would not think twice about taking. He came out with 10 minutes left to shoot and never made it over to me. All I could do was watch him, which was pretty cool.

It seems the coyotes have come back again this year. I have been seeing 3, but last week I had 7 in front of me, so it looks like I'll be putting in some sniper duty this year. I wasn't going to hunt yotes this year cause they aren't worth anything, but to keep my deer population up I'll bury a couple.

Bow season has begun

I didn't make it out the first couple days of season due to work. I have been out 2 days and have seen quite a few deer. The first morning I saw 9 deer I passed on 2 yearling button bucks. The second morning I saw 4, two of which I could have shot 2. I got video of both the deer and just as a sneak peak I'll put the button buck on here.
I have seen 3 shooters and hope I can seal the deal by fri morning.


I have tried and tried to get the time right, I still haven't been able to get it done.

Early Season

Well I didn't have a stellar early season. I did however manage to bring home 5 geese.

I hunted 8 out of the 15 days and crammed it into a 12 min video.

Day 2

I set out this morning with the threat of rain. Threat realized when the downpour started. Myself and all my hunting gear got soaked.I hate hunting in the rain.
Since I couldn't get any wetter I stayed til everything dried (mostly), just when I was picking up to go in (1:00 pm) it started to sprinkle again. I hastily picked up my dekes and got home to unpack and dry everything.
I know you're wondering if I got anything, right? NO, I didn't get anything again today, except soaked. I don't even know if my shotgun still works.
I could've had some blue wings that zipped by but season doesn't open til' the fourth. Well that's it for me for this week. Gotta go to work in the morning and won't get out again til' Tues. and I will guarantee you right now that I will get some shooting. So stay tuned, don't give up on me quite yet.
Shoot, if you're good I might even throw in some video.

It's here, It's here, It's finally here

Yep hunting season kicked off today.
Since I didn't get drawn for the dove hunt, I went goose hunting today.
The year started out the same as any other, I got to my spot late. I started by setting my deke's out, after they were all set, my attention turned to getting my boat hidden. I started to clear out some limbs and the over grown vines when all of a sudden something was on my face under my right eye. I tried to get it off but it wouldn't come off, then the pain started. When I was pulling on the vines I disturbed a hornets nest. The hornet really put a smack down on me.
Since I am a trooper, I said a few words that seem to have medicinal value, and moved the boat over 5 feet and continued the hunt.
Well unfortunately I didn't have a stellar hunt. I did however see quite a few geese, they were of course on the other end of the lake and moving away. The duck count was also pretty high, I even had 4 wood ducks swim within 10' of the boat.
I stayed until 11:30 and decided to pack it in.
I quit early cause I had two missions to accomplish before the rain started. I wanted to get some more paint on the boat, I really needed more green.
I also wanted to go back and wage war on that hornets nest, which I did. I won, the nest was completely annihilated.
Now when I get to my spot in the morning I don't have to worry about getting attacked by hornets.
The only thing that would make tomorrow better is to come home with a goose or two or five, so wish me luck.

Hunting season is almost here

Thank goodness, I went to the big pond for a "boat ride" yesterday. I didn't even get bumped, it was however a beautiful day.
So I'll do the annual deer stand check and clean out next week and since I didn't get drawn for the dove hunt this year, I will do some goose hunting on the 1st I will post the outcome.

Catch up

Two weeks ago, last week and this week bad weather reared it's ugly head. The bad fishing followed the weather. I got out local the last two weeks but not this week. I am really itching to go to the big lake and couldn't get out this week because of the weather. I'm shooting for next week, then it will be time to clear out the deer stand before Sept. and dove and early goose. After the first 2 weeks of Sept. I might try to get up 1 more time before I have to winterize the boat and commit to hunting for the year. Well not much else to say, hope your fishin' is goin' better than mine.

Another 23 hour day

Again I couldn't sleep at 12 am so I got up and started to get ready to go. I ate, drank some coffee and packed the boat. I started to pull out of the drive and noticed the passenger side taillights on the trailer were not working.
I forgot to tell you that last week on the way home I ran over a chunk of rubber. It jumped up and busted out the passenger side taillight on the trailer. So I got a new set of lights and replaced both taillights on the trailer.
So I got out, pulled out the tools and within 15 minutes I had the lights working and I was on my way.
I got to Freeman lake at dawn, put the boat in and ran down to the dam. I went here for the white bass of which they have many. Well I fished til 1 pm before I saw my first white bass. They finally started chasing the shad up on one of the points. I caught several on this point but they were all small, so they all went back. Before the white bass I had caught a couple small mouth, a couple drum and the crappie in the pic. After the "silvers" stopped chasing everyone started hitting the water pretty hard so I loaded up and moved to Max.
The first thing I did was unload the boat and get in the water to cool off. Man did that feel good, then I got to some serious fishing.
I hit a largemouth first and then a smallmouth, I noticed the water was pretty dingy. They were hitting this lake pretty good too. I remembered that in the past the smallies chased up the baitfish, so I went to the break and watched. Sure enough they were chasing up the baitfish so I started casting and hooked up with the big white bass. Man I'm telling you he doubled up my pole and pulled like a King. I mean he just smacked it and ran, it was awesome. After I boated him and landed and lost some more smallies I decided to pack up and head for home.I got home put the gear away and cleaned the fish, took a shower, ate and went to bed. Whew what a day.

Lake Michigan 14 July

Woke up at midnight unable to sleep, ate breakfast, packed the boat and started driving. Got 5 min away and realized I forgot to take my chair out of the boat, so I turned around and went back.
Back on the road thinking to myself how stupid it was to forget about the chair. I realized I left my Ill. license on the couch. I turn around drive the 10 min back to the house and get the license.
Finally on the road I get to Pastrick Marina at 30 min before sunrise. I start setting up the boat and notice that they're are alot of boats coming into the Marina. I get launched and followed 3 other boats out, thinking they have some local knowledge that I wasn't privy to. Turns out they didn't cause they started bangin' em about a mile from where I was. I started trolling over to where the action is and I hit my first fish a nice brown. I was in the trolling rotation with everyone else when I get my second a nice coho.
It is now afternoon and I am the only idiot still trolling around. I trolled all the way out to the Ill. border and get into 63 fow when I banged my King. He made 5 drag burning runs when I finally wore him down and put him in the net. Today I went 3 for 5 which is alot better than my previous outings this year. I'm hoping that since I started using "hooks" I might be able to improve my record to 100% next time.By the way to ruler on the board is 2' long. I was looking back on my past pics my fish look really small, so I put it in there so you can see just how huge the fish really are.
FYI- I made it home and in bed by 11:16 pm almost a 24 hour day.

Clear and Hamilton

My quest for a rainbow off of Clear continues. I trolled all morning until the speedboats came out with no luck. I didn't even catch a smallie, nothing was hitting.
So after the thermometer hit 90 degrees I hopped lakes to give Hamilton a try. That's where the fish were, I really got into 'em. They were chasing huge schools of shad up to the surface and smackin' them. So I just sat there and caught fish after fish. I didn't catch anything of size but I still had a great time. Sorry no pics this week there just wasn't anything to take a pic of, hopefully next week.

Tippy last week/ Lake Michigan yesterday

Tippy was my destination last week. The wind blew all day however I managed 30 plus largemouth and white bass. Not really a whole lot to say, I just got into em last week. After fishing at Tippy for most of the day I started home and stopped at Robinson for some scum frog action, I landed 3.
I took a picture of the spider culvert that I have to go through to get to the lake.
Well that was last week.
I've been waiting for a couple days were it was cool enough at night and not windy, to be able to get up to the big lake and fish for a couple days. Well I finally got my wish this week. I started up to The Dunes Wed. to set up camp and cook some supper, get a good nights sleep and get to fishin bright and early. Catch my limit by noon head back to camp, put some fresh salmon on the fire, have an adult beverage, go to bed and do it again the next day.
Well that was how I envisioned it, this is how it went down.......
I got to the Dunes around 8pm to a sign that said,"campground full" oh crap. I head on up to the gate and ask if there are any more sites left open. The guard calls in to the office an tells me there is one site left.
Man do I have good luck.
Well I pay the 5 bucks to enter.
I go to the camp office only to find out I can only have the site for 1 night. It seems it is reserved for the next night. I had the option to be at the campground before 2 pm to see if anything else is available. Now remember the whole reason for the camping is to stay close to the lake and have more time to fish and not drive home beat axx tired.
So I paid the 18 bucks for a site that I won't even be able to put a tent up at or leave anything behind when I leave to go fishin at 4:30 in the am.
I called Sarah to tell her what's going on. She gave me her condolences and urges me to make the best of it, since this is the only camping trip I will go on this year.
Ok, time to make supper so I put the duck that I bought on the fire to cook. By the time it's done I came to the conclusion that the campers to the right and in back of me have approx. 6 (loud) kids between them.
I finish supper while watching the comings and goings of people going to and coming from the camp facilities. The crapper was close enough for me to hit it with a rock.
After the rousing game of cross campground Marco Polo, played by my neighbors and 3 other random kids (which stopped being cute after the 4th round) it finally turned 10pm.
This is the best part- I got to unload all my camping gear from my truck and sleep in the bed under my tonneau cover.
Even though they call it a "bed" trust me when I say it is not comfortable.
Time to crawl under the cover and get some sleep....... oh good the dad's of the two sites decided to see who could drink more beer...... I really don't know who won but they finally gave up or passed out at 3 am. I tossed and turned until 4 am. With no sleep in sight, and a mosquito buzzing in my ear. I got up, took a shower, packed up my "campsite" and headed out to do some fishing.
I got to the landing with plenty of time to get my boat ready.







This was Chicago in the morning.




















This was the afternoon










So as you can see the Lake really wasn't cooperating with my plan either.
Well I trolled for 13 hours, then I pulled in my lines and slow rolled into the marina.
I managed to land 2 fish, one king and a coho. I went 2 for 10 (that means 10 got away) I had 3 come unbuttoned within 10 feet of the boat.
For my next trip up I think I'm going to try this new thing called "hooks", and see if that up's my hooking to landing ratio.

Fishing is done for the day. Now I had the option to try and find a campground and sleep in the bed of my truck again, or drive home 3 hours dead axx tired........ It was a long drive.
I would've been better off just biting the bullet and making the drive like I always do.

4 hours sleep
$110.00 for gas,lodging,entry fees,ext.....
2 fish
and still driving home dead axx tired....priceless

13 1/2 hours washin lures

Yep sometimes you gotta pay your dues, and for me that day was yesterday.
I went up to the big lake and spent 13 1/2 hours washing lures.
The day was a new experience for me, I have often read the fishing reports of members before I hit the lake, and wondered how can anyone miss a fish let alone 5 or 6? I was even listening to Brothernature tell 5 Orrs how they were 0 for 6 with the two guys he took out. I couldn't help but think how can you loose that many fish?
Usually the luck I have is really good or I don't get bit at all. Yesterday I went 0 for 4 of which 2 were my fault. They just wouldn't stay buttoned up, lost one tryin to get my dipsy pole out of the holder (first time out with this new pole, I will get a new holder), and the other I couldn't reel my rigger rod fast enough or smooth enough to catch up to the fish.
It was like take an amateur fishing day on the big lake and I was the amateur.
Anyway the weather was pretty good and the wind died down as the day progressed although it didn't play a big factor at any point in the day.
This is what I watched most of the day

These are all the lures I washed yesterday- I missed fish on the bumblebee,2 on mag blu dolphin, bomber. I forgot to put my flies in the pic they were a green tinsel and glo white with green.
Next time I go up I'm camping out at the dunes and fishing the next day to double my chances of bringin home either 1 fish or 2 day limit to make up for yesterday.

Stormy day fishin

I went to Tippy Lake yesterday and weathered the storm to fish the whole day. I got to the Lake with the knowledge a storm, she was a brewin, but thought I had til 2pm before it hit. I was wrong, the blast came at 8 am with plenty of thunder, lightning and of course massive raindrops.
So I did what any fishing idiot would. I hightailed it to the culvert and hide out til the lightning stopped. Yep there I was holding my boat straight in a dark,low, spider infested culvert while I waited out the storm.
I was only a stone's throw away from the landing but,"I came here to fish".
After the storm blew over I was able to try and dry out the boat and all else in it. The day actually turned out to be pretty nice with a couple showers coming and going fairly quickly.
By the way to all those who say," fishing is better in the rain". Have you actually ever fished in the rain??? I was envisioning a dramatic improvement in my cast to harassed bass ratio and it never did materialize. So, just one more fisherman's tail put to rest as far as I'm concerned.
Anywho, I was able to manage some scrappers and a couple decent bass on a scum frog. Which by the way, I had just recently purchased a new scum frog because my old one was on it's last leg. Now I had that one for at least 2 years, this new one lasted ONE outing. I will not purchase another scum frog from here on out. I did get a spro frog, I hope it lasts a while.
If you look close at this picture you can see I brought along my own deck lounge for some lounging. Actually I got to my first spot and saw it floating in the water. I didn't want anyone to hit it, so I fished it out and held onto it all day. Now I'm going to clean it up and sell it, who said fishing isn't profitable?

2 fer

Since I missed last weeks update I shall review last week and this week all in one, yes one entry. So hang on cause here comes the fun.
Last week I went to Big Turkey to try my luck with some walleye and bass. I started out the day with light winds from the SE. As the day went on the wind started to get stronger and stronger so I switched to trolling to try for some walleye. I managed 1 walleye, 1 perch and a bass, after trolling for a couple hours I cut off the trolling motor and started casting again. I went over to a sunken island and casted across it for bass. I had a great time and caught quite a few bass off this island with a spinnerbait. The one walleye I managed came home with me, here's the pic.Tues of this week I went to Nyona Lake to try for some wipers (which we all know is a cross between a white bass and a striper). I got to the lake kinda late cause of the drive and bad map skills, to tell ya the truth I have a problem getting to this lake every time. I managed one bass in open water, there wasn't a whole lot of bass chasing. After a couple of hours on Nyona I went over to S. Mud which is only a couple of minutes away. I caught 1 small largemouth and wasted a couple hours here. I moved back to Nyona and started casting with a scum frog ( I love catching fish this way) the bass started to add up. I stayed on Nyona til a bass tourny started and that was my que to move lakes. Here's the pic of one of the better scum frog bass.
When the tourny showed up I moved to Robinson lake and managed 1 small largemouth in only an hour before dark.

Now those of you who know me know hunting is never far from my mind especially duck hunting. This year I decided to paint my layout blinds instead of mudding them and I think they turned out pretty good. The bad news is I didn't get before pics so you cant really see the difference but the good news is no more mudding the blind every year here's the pic of the finished

3 lake day

Well this was the first day I could get out in the past couple of weeks because of rain. I have also been working alot, and I just got my schedule changed from thirds to weekends. I am really looking forward to doing alot of fishing and hunting this year.
Now back to Mon, I went to Max and hooked up a smallie and a largemouth before the wind kicked in. I then trailered up and moved to Bass lake where I trolled up a nice crappie. After trolling for a couple hours with no other hits I gave away my crappie and started home. I stopped on the way at Pike lake and did some more casting, where I hooked up a small walleye. I threw him back and kept casting the point I caught him on to no avail. So I packed up and went home.
So until next week, tight lines.

Wrapped up anotherTurkey season

Well as you know I got drawn for Mississinewa Res. for the first 3 days of Turkey season. As it turns out I only needed the first day.
I got off work at 5 a.m. made the hour drive down, to my surprise no one was in my first spot. So I got out and prepared to take off to the woods, when it happened. Gobbles and lots of them across the road from where I was going to hunt. Playing the odds I started off towards the gobbling, when I thought I was close enough I got set up. All the birds gobbling flew down the opposite side of the woods they were roosted in. 3 hours later all that I had seen was a hen and she came from one end of the field all the way to my decoys.



So I made the deal with myself, I'll move over across the road and set up and wait til 11:30 a.m. Then I'll go home and google where I heard all the turkeys gobbling so I can get on them in the morning. So I pulled all my crap together and off I went. I got to my spot at 10:30, I got my dekes set out and got my chair ready, cut some branches and generally made a huge commotion in the corner of the field I was setting up in. Just when I was getting ready to sit down, I saw a Turkey in the field next to the one I was set up in. So I started with some soft cutting, used sparingly and pushing the sound away from where I thought the birds would come from. Well less than 15 min later I hear something walking through the leaves to the corner of the field. I start straining to see beyond and through the briar patch that is between me and the sound. Finally I see a head and neck walk out to the edge of the field. He never made a sound just came in and looked at all the fine ladies in the field. I started to slowly move the shotgun barrel over for the shot and at 15 yards that's darn near impossible. He didn't really see me move but he did start to smell a rat so when he turned back towards the woods I swung on him put the red dot on his neck and dropped the hammer. All I saw was leaves and brush getting blown to shreds then I heard the "I'm down, death flapping" and I got up and claimed my prize.

A 2 year old Tom weighing in at 23 1/2 #'s, with a 10 1/2" beard, and 3/4 " spurs.

and just like that my seasons' over........ you can uncross your fingers now.

First outing

This year started off great......as far as equipment goes. I ended up going to Max for my first outing this year. I got to the lake in the really dark hours. It was cold, clear, and calm, by the time I left it was just cold and clear. I couldn't hook up on anything casting and since it was a test trip I put on the trolling motor and did some trolling. Only then did I hook up a largemouth bass and a decent walleye.
I was fishing 20' of water trolling at 1.5-1.9 mph and my lures were running between 9-13 ft. The warmest water I found all day was 55.4 degrees brrrrr.
All in all I had a good day until I got blown off the lake. All my equipment started up and ran well and I'm ready for the season to kick into full swing.
I did get drawn for the Turkey hunt this year so this week will be the week of little rest. Hunt, sleep, work and get up and do it again for three days. Well gotta mow some lawns so I can just enjoy the week, and the hunt without yard work looming over my head.
Yeah who am I kidding I couldn't care less if the lawn needs mowed if I get to go Turkey hunting. Anyway wish me luck this week and as always I will post my hunt so watch for it by the weekend. Keep your fingers crossed for me.
Here's the pic.
MMMMmmmm he was tasty.

The Year in Review

Another year has come and gone. Time to get the hunting stuff put away, and get the fishing stuff out and dusted off. I had a pretty good year both fishing and hunting of course the hunting is alot easier to keep track of.
So here it is:

2009 Hunting Season Breakdown

Species-------Days Afield ---Number of Critters Taken
Turkey---------- 6---------------- 0
Deer------------- 1 ----------------1
Dove------------- 3---------------- 4
Pheasant-------- ½-------------- 0
Coon------------- 3---------------- 3
Coyote/Fox----------- 3---------------- 1
Waterfowl------------ 24----------- 15 ducks/22 geese

Total-------40 1/2-------------46

Well if you compare the totals from last year. My days afield and number of critters are both lower than last year. The reason for this is my work schedule.
I learned being on first shift killed me this year, hopefully that will change next year.
I also learned that field hunting ducks and geese is worth the work.
I learned pelts are worth practically nothing this year. I will probably spend less time chasing coons and yotes next year. I will spend as much time hunting waterfowl as possible. I also learned that senko's really do work and I am looking forward to using them again this year.

So, I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks.
I'll take the month of March off (no hunting or fishing). I use this month to get the garage cleaned out and get the stuff taken care of that I have neglected all year.
I'll start casting the big lake in April. Of course I have put in for the Turkey hunt again this year, so keep your fingers crossed for me.
So until I have something worth blogging about- take care, and check back the first week of April.

First yote hunt this year

Weed and I got out for a yote hunt last Thurs. Weed came along to run the video of all the yotes I planned on bringin' in. After our first stand I took him back to a tree that I knew had coons in it. I set him up and pointed him at the tree and started the squallerin'. Everything was workin' great except that the coon had a sleep over in the tree right next to his. Now if it was coon season I would've added another pelt to my freezer. However it is not and we not only let the coon live on but Weed didn't even get the video of the coons departure. O.K. here's kinda where it goes stale so we'll just FF in the interest of saving time. Drive,walk,call,walk,call,drive,walk,call. Not sure how many stands we hit that day but it was 4:30ish when Weed had to go do some saving of the USA. Well I breathed a sigh of relief cause I almost had to take him to one of my good spots. Since he left I decided to see if my first good spot was still good. I was walking in to find a spot to sit down when I saw a yote. Right then and there I realized it was Weed's bad Joo Joo that had been keeping me down all day. So I backed out of the spot and went down to call another spot, I saw 7 turkey's walkin' down the path. I got to the next spot and went through the call and had a bald eagle fly over, things are lookin' up. After that I walked back to the car and drove to another spot. I walked in sat down and started the caller. I'm not sure how long it took but I heard something off to my right. I looked over and there she was 50 yards through some briar's and brush. I had shut the caller off but she wasn't stopping so I took the shot. She didn't even really acknowledge it she did however go to her left and up the hill a little, which was enough for me to slam her with the 50 grn V-max. Bang flop game over. Hit the ki-yi's hoping for a double,after a couple mins I shut it off and retrieved my prize.

Furries

Daytime coon calling
I went for a walk about yesterday and ended up with 3 coon. I did see 7 and had 1 drop back into the tree upon the shot (very sad). I hate losing,wounding,not using, anything I shoot or hook. Anyone who has hunted or fished with me knows that. I'll look for hours for a dove, but there was no getting this coon. I initially thought that the house he was in was open on the bottom. I have called this tree before, so when he came out the hole to his shoulders I let him have it. The sickening thing was he dropped inside the tree and I couldn't get him, short of a ladder, and a long hooked bar.
That was the low point of my day, the high points were the coons that worked for me. The first one I got I had to call to twice. I was set up on another tree and kinda watchin' two trees to my right. Well I looked over about 30 yrds and there was a coon lookin' at me. So I waited for him to go back into the tree and moved to take him. Well he didn't come back out, so I moved on knowing I would be back to call there. The next spot was the coon that fell back in, nuff said there. By the time I got back I set up on the tree the coon was in and started the caller. The sound had only been playing for maybe a minute when this coon comes tearing out lookin' for a fight. Unfortunately ( for him) he ran into a 30 grn 22 mag round.

The second coon was really not wanting to come out. He made it through 5-10 mins of kit in distress, the same with woodpecker/kit distress, and finally after 5 min of brawlin' bandits he came out lookin' for a fight. Bang flop


The last coon didn't pop out a tree I was watching. I had 4 trees in close proximity that I was watching. I would say that within 10 mins of playing the kit in distress I saw him running on the ground heading for one of the trees I was watching. Well he didn't make it instead he came home with me.
All in all I had a great day, did alot of walking, and got some more yote and fox spots. Not to mention the new coon spots I'll be hitting next year.

Coon huntin' last Tues.

Yes I went out, I went up to Mongo for some daytime callin'. Now let me just say, I've been told that coons don't like to run in the snow.
Horsepuckey I saw tracks in soft snow (then) and mud tracks in the harder snow (now). I think what had 'em runnin' was the cold temps for so long followed by the warm temps. Anywho, I did make it out and knocked on 6 or 7 doors.
Nobody was home, or at least they didn't want to come out. So after seeing all the tracks I decided to try some nite time callin'. So I packed up and went home to take a nap.
When I got up at 8:18 pm I still wasn't convinced I would see anything. So I checked the temp and went to the front door and looked outside. COON, right in the front yard just meandering around looking for something to eat. I got excited, ran upstairs (walked fast) and threw on my coon hunting attire. I grabbed my light and call and was off.
I went down to Huntington and made 6-7 stands. Nothing, I didn't even call in a possum or see a set of eyes all night. So, tired and depressed I made it home by midnight, I went upstairs to brush my teeth. I left the light off as I always do, so I can see outside to the bird feeder.
Yep, COON in the back yard scarfing up the birdseed on the ground and eating the leftover squirrel food. It seems the city coons were out and the country coons stayed home.
Anyway that was last week and I'll give her heck this week as well. Hopefully I'll have some fur to show for my efforts.
As you can see I need it so- wish me luck.
Thanks

All good things must come to an end

That's right I'm packin' up all my waterfowl gear 'til next year. I was on my last field hunt for the year yesterday. I knew it was going to be a long day when the clouds cleared off, and the sun started it's ascent to start the day. Needless to say the birds started flying around 2:30, and boy did they ever fly. The bad news was they did not want to fly to my field.
So I started playing with the qwackers. I survived 6 tornadoes and 4 of them actually touched down. I even saw a wood duck and a black duck in one of the tornadoes that came over me.

As a matter of fact I was having so much fun watching the ducks. I didn't see a goose that flew through over the top. Only noticed him after he was already past.

Finally the geese started loosening up from their flight path and one came in from behind me. I smashed him at 15 yrds. So with a poof of feathers, and a snow splash down, I had my first goose. I made a mental note that I would start pickin' up around 5:15. I didn't want to do too much pickin' up after dark. So when 5:00 rolled around I knew it was getting down to crunch time. 5:10 - I had a pair coming from my right to left, right down the runway. I thought to myself, "they're going to work", and they did. When they dropped their landing gear I dropped the trailing goose. I watched him go down after sending 2 shots his way. I jumped up and started out to him, he popped his head up. Ok, here's where it gets stupid, raise shotgun and fire, and again. Unbelievable missed again, so once again it's off to the races. I did do one smart thing this time I put my shotgun down before starting the footrace follies. Well I managed to catch my goose and dispatch him. When I got back to my gun I noticed the chamber was closed. I thought that's odd didn't it eject the spent round? Yeah you guessed it, I had another round in the chamber. I must have loaded up at the blind and just forgot about it. I didn't have to chase that dang goose around, I could've just tried to shoot him again. Well I did end up picking up in the dark anyway, but it's always easier when you have limit to carry out.

Last day limit

Took this pic while picking up. I probably had a thousand geese in the air with at least that many qwackers if not more.

Already lookin' forward to next year.

I would like to say thanks to all the landowners that allowed me to hunt their property this year.

Time for some furry critters.

Blizzard of......GEESE

I am so hated at my job that they decided to give me another day off this week. Of course we all know what I'm going to do with that. Yep, hit the fields for more geese.
Now the bad new was the front was supposed to be showing up around 9 am. So I got out around 7:30 am and started putting out the spread along with the layout blind. I got done just in time to lay back in the blind and watch the snow fall. The toughest thing about field hunting in the snow is: keeping the snow off you face long enough to fall asleep. The second hardest thing is keeping your dekes free from snow. I had to brush off my dekes at least 5 x's during this hunt.

I don't know what time they started flying but they were late, even for geese. The first group that passed within range turned out to be just a bunch of rubberneckers, I managed to cull one out of that flock. I saw a massive flock coming from behind me, no takers. They were passing here and there not really interested in my spread. They pretty much just followed the first flock. I could get'em to bend but not deviate from their course. This is probably a good time to mention the wind settled in and was coming from the wrong direction. It was supposed to be WSW and turned out more ESE. So that means the wind was coming from my right foot over to my left shoulder as I lay there. I did move my dekes best as I could but it was not an ideal situation.

Any way I finally had a flock working the way I wanted. They were working in great and just when they looked like they were going to pass me by and land just behind me. They hooked right in to the kill zone. I took my limit goose with one shot. I started walking up to my prize and he raised his head. So I shouldered the gun aimed high to the head and fired, and fired. Crap goose still not down, foot race me VS the goose. Now take a minute to picture the staypuff marshmallow man running down a goose in the middle of a field. . . . . I'll wait. OK now that your done laughing, I forgot to mention that I tripped did a beautiful shoulder roll, planted my shotgun in the snow, got up and practically tackled that goose. . . . I'll wait again. . . . With my goose in one hand and my frozen snow covered shotgun in the other I walked back to my layout giggling the whole way. Still had a great day, here's the pics

This is pretty much what my spread looked like most of the day. I tried to keep 'em cleaned off but the snow was really comin' down.

There's 44 decoys out there.

First post of 2010

I slept in this morning, got up, ate and made it to the field by 7:30 am. It was kind of a freezing mist kinda morning. I knew I had some time, the geese should fly a little earlier than on a sunny day. It probably took me a half hour to an hour to put out my 44 decoy spread. Once I got the spread ready I settled in my blind and awaited my guests. I'm really not sure when the first flock passed by ( I didn't have my watch) but they didn't want to stop in. So I did what every field hunter does at some point and started hunting with my ears. I heard a honk so I opened my eyes and saw a flock out in front and passing right to left. I started in with the goose music, they weren't sure at first, but all of a sudden they started to swing into the flight path. They committed and were 60 yds out and 10 feet off the deck. At 25-30 yds out they were 5 feet off the deck and I couldn't take it anymore. In my head I heard, "Take 'em" so I did, 3 shots later my limit of 2 geese lay on the ground. So a half hour to an hour after that (10:45 am) I was on my way home to tell you 'bout my day.
Sorry about the pic but I forgot my camera at home. I wanted to take some pics in the field but twas not to be today. I was really warm when I got home so I changed into my house clothes.