1 week

That's all we have for the late duck season, and the week started on Sat. Since I hadn't done any scouting and just wanted a real easy hunt I would see if Mike wanted to go to the river on Christmas Morning. Well he couldn't make the morning but said he could do the afternoon.
When we got down to the river we saw that someone had been down there Saturday, and had a really good shoot, judging by all the shotgun shells everywhere. Well we stuck it out in the hope that a couple ducks and geese would come back. They did but only 2 ducks and maybe a dozen geese. I took a poke at the ducks, I dropped both but only found one.

I chased the mallard for an hour before he gave me the slip.
Tuesday it rained all day so I spent the day scouting for Wednesday. As it turns out, I found a field that in all actuality I got permission on back in 2010. I had not hunted it because for what ever reason the birds just hadn't showed up again until Tues. So once again I gave Mike a call to see it he could make it. He had something to do in the evening, but said he could make the morning 'til about 1. So off we went in the frozen morning to try and get some birds. I had been watching the birds in the area and there were plenty of geese and ducks around so my hopes were high.
We had been set up for about 30 minutes when the first four pack came in. The birds worked perfectly and just when they were going to set down I called the shot. 2 birds stayed and 2 went in search of greener pastures. Next was a dozen or so birds that wanted to come in. Well they split up and we had a four pack ready to land while the rest of the flock was still unsure. I have always believed in, "a bird in the hand" so I called the shot and all four stayed on the ground. Next was a split threesome with one way out in front, just in a hurry to make a new friend. I called and when the goose was right out in front I told Hunter to smoke him, one shot one goose. We had another threesome come in looking for company, but we were all outside the blinds and couldn't get closed up in time to convince them to come in.

Tuesday's final- I got 3, Mike and Hunter got 2 apiece.
We had 2 ducks fly over when we were all out of our blinds and not paying attention. 😭

Oh yeah and here's the kicker. Since last week I had noticed there was a grinding sound coming from my rear tires. I chalked it up to road grime on my rotors, so I got the truck washed. Then when I was backing up the brakes were acting kind of weird. So I had Mike get out and watch them when I was backing up. That's when he noticed I had 0 pad left and the rotor was ground away pretty bad. So I called around to get an appointment for pads and rotors (both sides were bad) and was able to get into the shop Jan 4th. So needless to say the truck is not leaving the driveway for the rest of this week and next week....... maybe I'll have to go coyote hunting.

I should be getting paid

Let me explain why. I went coyote hunting on Tuesday (nothing) and on the way home I did some scouting. I saw a bunch of geese in a field that Mike has permission to hunt. When I got home I called Mike up and told him the game plan which was as follows:
1. get to the field by noon thirty and get the spread set as the geese were coming in at 4-4:30 pm.
2. get hid and shoot geese and go home.
Simple plan right?
Well by the time 1:45 rolled around, we were getting to the field and getting the spread out. Of course we had 2 flocks try to land on us and nobody had a gun ready. Well they didn't go far, just out to a field across from us. So we had hope that when they came back they would come close enough for a shot....... That didn't happen.
So as the clock turned 5:05 with only 11 minutes of shooting light left I started packing it in. You know the usual, unload the gun, put the calls away, start dragging the sled arou....... hey those geese look like they're coming this way.
I yelled out to Mike ,"geese coming are you loaded?" No was the answer, but by the time the geese were within shooting range I watched him shoot twice and had 1 goose fall. As he loaded up again another flock was on the way. When they got close enough 3 shots later and Mike had his 3 bird limit.
All while I watched (I know it was my fault)- I should've stayed in the game and made it pay.
So let's recap:
I did the scouting  (albeit on his property.)
We used my decoys which I set out
I did the calling (which in the end didn't help at all)
I even drove, so I packed and unpacked the gear by myself.
All so my Buddy could have a good hunt.... kinda sounds like a guide..... huh.  😖

Deer season

Is finally over.... I got out everyday during muzzle loader . Mornings, evenings not an entire day but I actually gave it a good shot this year. I was fortunate enough that Mike brought me to some of his ground and that is where I saw deer (Thanks Mike). I saw 2 last week and 2 this morning, nothing willing to give me a shot but at least I saw deer. So to wrap up year #2 without a deer, I think next year I'll just have to break down and get a crossbow so I can hunt the early season. That being said it's back to blasting geese which is what I would rather be doing. So hopefully I'll have pics of dead stuff next week.💀

Starting December with a bang

Well it was suppose to be raining Monday so after last years pheasant fiasco I decided to go and put it in the rain, since that might keep some people away.  I saw 4 pheasants and only one when I was walking....which is the one I got. The people were not as bad as last year, so that was awesome. I only flushed the one bird but since I got to bring meat home it was a good day.

My clothes are still drying

Tuesday Mike and I decided to shoot his Uncle George's pond in his field. Once again, we shot poorly but managed to end up one bird short of limit; Mike still needed one more. So we packed all the gear except the birds and decoys because I left my camera back in the truck.
 On the walk back a Drake quacked and landed on the water right next to the furthest decoy.

The Drake is on the right

 Mike said he was going to walk back for his gun to which I agreed.

You can see the truck to the right at the base of the telephone pole

On the way back the duck must have seen him and got up and started flying over towards Mike when he shot.  He hit him on the first shot waited for a decent shot on the water and then had to shoot again before going down to retrieve his prize.

last duck for Mike's limit

Really good hunt.

 After we were done with the hero pics for the day we packed up the rest of the gear and headed out.
Only to get back to the truck and Mike realized he forgot his gun back at the blind.

Mike going back for his gun.

Then this morning we went back to GP's (George's Pond) and shot a couple ducks. We didn't get limit but I'm blaming that on the cloud cover.  The wind and temp were good but I think we could've done better if it had been sunny.

When I got started cleaning my duck the first thing I noticed is it had rice breast. Since it wasn't that bad I made the decision to keep it, I've read it won't hurt me but there are few enough that if I want I could probably cut them out.

Rice breast doesn't look appetizing but won't hurt you

couple days and one duck

I went out on Monday to lake #2 and had some hard fought luck..... I was set up and hadn't seen anything (besides the geese that are not in season) all day.

The last two geese are real

Until I watched a dozen or so ducks land across the lake from me..... I waited until I was ready to go then off to the other side of the lake to see where these ducks were going. When I got over there, there was a walkway through the cattails and on the other side was an opening with beaver cut stumps and muskrat huts all over. Then I saw the ducks after I saw them I took one more step and they flushed; 3 shots later I had 2 drakes down. Then the hunt was on...it was really thick with cattails back there. The bad news is I only found one, the other one must have put his head down and snuck off. I looked for at least a half hour for the other duck with no luck.

 When I went back on Tues. I looked again for that duck. I didn't find him or any live ducks to add to my game bag. Don't be too sad though.  I did see 4 muskrats and one mink on Tuesday so at least a mink or coon will get a good meal out of my misfortune.

Had an awesome week

My scouting on Sunday afternoon let me know my fields were void of waterfowl. So with my regular water spot dry this year I have had to find new areas to hunt. I started thinking about all the places I have hunted or intended to hunt and remembered a small lake about 45 min to an hour of where I am. Well desperate times calls for desperate measures so Monday morning found me on the way to a hopeful hot spot.
I rounded the corner to the launch and there were 4 cars in the parking lot with headlights bobbing everywhere. To me that means ,"they beat you here, go find something else." Fortunately I had devised a plan B so off to lake #2 which really isn't that far from my first lake.
I get to lake #2 and there's a car in the parking lot. This would be weird if I wasn't way out in the boonies, since I am this is downright unnerving. I did see a guy walking on the road on the way in so I thought maybe he just parks here and goes for his walk. The more I move the truck around and get the boat launched the more I'm thinking the drivers seat is laid down. Well I get launched and go to park the truck a car space from the car and there was a dude sleeping. So of course my first thought is "I hope he doesn't break into my truck".
I'm finally on the water to the spot I found on a contour map that should be shallow enough for me to set out my spread. I get to within 10 feet of shore and what looks like a foot of water, I jump out and immediately sink to my waist (I always hold on to the boat when I get out in an unfamiliar lake). After figuring out that I would be able to put out my spread (very cautiously) I got to work. I got done and got the boat in place just after shooting time started. As I was loading my gun I watched 4 mallards drop down on the other side of the lake I started thinking I set up in the wrong place. 13 minutes had gone past when a flock of mallards started working my end of the lake.... they got too close. When the smoke cleared I had 3 mallards on the water, and the 4 that had set down across from me came over to see what all the fuss was about.... bang. I had my mallard limit before 7:30am so I changed loads and waited for geese. I did have some geese come over by me but not close enough. While I was waiting for geese I did shoot 2 more ducks to fill my limit.

4 mallards, a ringneck and a gadwall hen

Since my success on Monday I decided to go back to #2 lake again on Tuesday. I had a spoonie hen come in and commit suicide about mid-day. Sorry no pic of the hen.
When I got home I cleaned my bird, changed clothes and headed out to scout for Wednesday. Since I was pretty sure I didn't have any birds around here I headed out to Toms to see what he had going on.
There was nothing.... until after shooting time then he had every goose in a 3 mile radius dropping into his field... found our Wednesday spot. So I called up my minion and decided to get at least one more gun in the field so I gave Brian a call. He gave me this song and dance that he just shot a deer and he had to clean it blah, blah, blah. I finagled him into giving me just a couple hours in the morning then he would have the rest of the day to cut up his deer.
Well we got to the field and we could see nothing... the fog was thick. Well Brian had to leave around 10 a.m. so I was really hoping the fog would burn off soon. It started to thin out by 8 a.m. and we started putting feathers on the ground. By 9 Brian had his limit and Sean and I each had 2, so Brian was going to take off and we were going to stay to try and fill our limits.
As it turns out Sean got one more and I each went home 1 short of limit.

Sean,Brian,Me

Oh, yeah, all the ducks flew early (after shooting time but still early) I was playing with the decoys, Brian was texting and I think Sean was sleeping. So no ducks today.

Second day on this field

Well this was the second day within a week that we put feathers down in this field. Actually let me back up a little bit. The day before we hunted this field I was scouting the field from a culdesac, there were 50 geese or so on the field when all of a sudden I had 2 cop cars on me, and a cop standing at my window asking what I was doing there.

 Now having to tell a cop I was watching geese was very true but I'm sure that he kinda questioned it if only for a second to himself. Now while he was running my license and plates there was another cop (a chick) that came up to the window and started interrogating me: what was I doing here, do you know who lives in the farm house, whose property is this, do you really goose hunt.... Now I answered all of her questions until she asked for my property owner's phone number. I was just about to give it to her when I came to my senses and told her, "No, I won't give you the number". She looked at me and said, "You won't give me the number?" And I told her again, "No, I don't need the cops bothering my landowner when I'm doing nothing wrong."  Just at this point the other cop came around and gave me my license back and let me know I can't park there over night.
Man the stuff you put up with just to kill a couple geese.

One goose short of limit and all the ducks flew really early but at least we came home with some meat.
After this hunt (we park in the culdesac) I went over and talked to the people in house that called the cops and assured them I harbored no ill will about them calling the cops and that I would've done the same. They informed me that the had been living there for 30 years and only started to have problems 6 months ago, hence the call.
Anyway on Tuesday I stayed home and caught up on some house work and it was suppose to rain and it actually did most of the day.
Wednesday I went to Round Lake for the day and ended up with one goose and one wood duck. Not terribly good but it was the first time on that lake and it looks promising.

 Today I went back to Round but I set up in a different spot and had zero luck.

Finally something to write about

So since the last time I entered a blog entry I have been:
1. Fall Turkey hunting 4 times and did not bag a bird.
2. Waterfowl hunting 4 times and have not bagged a bird.... until this week.

Monday I went to Loon Lake and had 2 geese come in and land in the channel to my left. After at least a half hour of talking these birds in I was finally able to get a shot on them. Unfortunately only one stayed on the water the other one got up and made for a quieter resting spot.

Tuesday I scouted and called for permission for a couple fields I wanted to hunt on Wed.
After I got permission on a field that has been holding MANY ducks and geese. I called my posse and let them know I nailed down a killer field for Wednesday.
When Wednesday morning rolled around it found me and my compadres hard at work stubbling blinds and putting out a killer spread of decoys.  But there was also bad news
The bad news was:
1. The roost pond was less than 100 yards behind us.
2. There was little to no wind.
3. The ducks and geese would have to come from behind (over) us to get downwind into the spread.
4. When the clouds cleared we were looking straight into the sun.
5. Once again we all shot poorly.

Despite all that was bad about this shoot, we still managed to anchor down a 3 man limit of geese and a couple ducks.

And the best news is I just drove by this field today and the ducks and geese are still using it..... can't wait for Monday.

Couple dove hunts this week

Well Monday I worked on the house and Wednesday it rained. Tuesday we went to Huntington for dove and sat the morning then walked all afternoon. We only shot 2 dove, Mike got one and his son Hunter got one. Very poor shoot.
Today Mike, Sean and myself went to Huntington. I got 5 dove, Mike ...... well Mike has a really black cloud over him. He got down to where we agreed he should set up only to be greeted by a skunk. So he moved down a little only to realize he was setting up under a paper wasps nest. So he moved again, how he managed to shoot one I'll never know, but he did. He stayed down to try and get a couple more after Sean and I had left.
Sean, well.... what else can I say 'bout Sean??

 Not sure why he didn't get one but he didn't....

My Sept.

As you know hunting season started on Sept. 1 with dove coming in. I got drawn and my buddy Mike got drawn for the hunt. Well as it turns out he brought his son Hunter and I had Sean fill my empty chair. So with everyone that was going a friendly wager came into play.
Last place buys pizza, second to last buys pop and first place eats and drinks for free. Well the closer it got to the date I gave it some thought and decided to have a traveling trophy made. I ordered it and it got here the day of the shoot.
As it turns out we all had a really good day, lotsa birds and plenty of shooting. That being said when the birds were counted there was a tie for first. So the tie breaker was to count up the left over shells and then the winner would be decided.
After all was said and done the winner was......

Here's the trophy I will display with honor and pride.

Woody Stiewig Dove Classic World Champion

 My buddy Woody loved to Dove hunt so I thought this would be a perfect tribute to him. He passed on 29 May 2014 and this is dedicated to him. This trophy will be passed to the winner of each Dove opener among my group of friends.
He is missed...

The first day I got out for goose was on Mon. and Mike had a private pond for us to hunt. I knew where it was but had not scouted it. Since Mon was a holiday it was either hunt there or not do anything since everyone was going to be out.
Well we didn't slaughter them but we did manage a couple geese... oh yeah we shot horribly.

CAUTION: BAD WORD

left to right: Me,Sean,Hunter,Mike, and Derrick

 Like I said we shot terribly but in our defense we only had that one flock come in. And in that one flock we killed our first band of the year. Since everyone lost track of their goose and there was no shot in it, the only fair thing to do is draw cards and the high card wins.
I'll keep you informed of that too.

I went dove hunting again Tues and took 5--not awesome but almost enough for a good meal. Then this morning got the boat out for a water hunt. I saw some geese but nothing wanted to play... and I need to fix my trailer lights. I am hoping to get out Thursday and try to put the smack down on some more geese... I'll let'cha know how that goes.

Wow it's been awhile

So I got up to Lake Michigan today and had a pretty good day. The wind never let off so I couldn't stay as long as I wanted but had a good day anyway. I fished from sunup til around noonish before the waves got the best of me. I didn't get skunked but I didn't get to bring anything home either.
I ended up catching 2 gaspergoo's (sheephead)

  and a short coho that I had been dragging around the lake for I can't tell you how long. When I finally noticed this poor fish it was only because he was on top and getting dragged. Well since he was short I had to let him go, and since I had him hooked in the head-not sure how that happened- I know he didn't live. It didn't take the seagulls long to find him though, wish he could've been my meal.
This might have been the end of an era.... I cleaned out my boat and am going to put it up for sale. No I'm not going to stop fishing I just think I need to get a bigger boat.
Let ya know how that turns out.
Since hunting season starts Sept. first I won't be using the boat the rest of the year. I know it's not the time to sell a boat but it is the time to buy. So worst case scenario I will pick one up this year and sell my next spring. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

5 July out on the big pond

Fished hard all day with nothing to report. Hit all depths from 50-75 all colors that have been productive. The only redeeming thing that came out of the day is it didn't rain. Wish I had something better to report but that's why they call it fishing and not catching.

Lake Wawasee

I was trying to find a spot to go fishing this weekend and couldn't nail anything down until the day before I went. I hadn't been to this lake in years so I decided to revisit Indiana's largest natural lake. The lake did not welcome me as far as weather goes, it was supposed to be low winds and sunny. The opposite was true all day; it was very windy and mostly mostly cloudy. Still the fishing was pretty good. I hit fish from one end of the lake to the other on a variety of lures. So all in all, I did manage to have a very good productive day.

I did have one dilemma: I found a washer on the front deck of the boat that wasn't there when I started fishing....  So.....where did it come from? Where's the bolt and nut? I looked during the rest of the day to try and find out where it came from with no luck. I was pretty concerned when I found it, but since I cannot definitively prove that it came off of anything I can only wait for something to fall apart. 

Story of my life.

from dawn 'til dusk

I went up to the big pond yesterday. I started at 6am and didn't get off the lake until 8pm. I started right out front of the ditch and started an east troll. After a couple hours of nothing but cleaning lures I was listening to the radio and there was a bite on over by Chicago. So against my better judgement I pulled gear and ran 1 hour and 45 min to where the bite "was".
Well you guessed it by the time I got there all I had to show for it was a very light gas tank. Oh well it was only noon and I thought I would be able to troll all the way back, so I started trolling. I went until 1pm when I got my first hit. He was only on for a matter of seconds before he came unbuttoned. As it got later I began to wonder about my kicker's gas level so I reached down and checked it, it too was getting light.

My next bit of action came at 6:17 when I hooked into a 4 pound (I thought King at the time) Coho. No more did I turn my back to put the Coho into the cooler all hell broke loose. As I was putting water into the cooler I heard something break behind me, after a quick inventory of my gear I realized a rod was gone. I grabbed the tether and started to pull the rod only to realize that there was a fish on the other end. After getting the rod and starting to fight the fish I saw it had hit the lure with such ferocity that it broke my rod holder leaving only the peg on board. Well with all this going on it put the boat in a terrible shit hook so I had to straighten that out.  Once I was able to get the fish and the boat in such a way that he couldn't get back in the other lines or gear in the water I cut the motor, to make landing him easier.

With 2 fish in the box I really wanted to be done but with the both engine's almost out of gas I decided to troll in until 8pm, then kick over the big motor and that should get me the rest of the way in...
NOT
As you can see in the pic I did not make it in, actually I thought my kicker would run out of gas before I got in. Fortunately I did make it in without being towed or rowing.

  Boy did I learn my lesson I won't go out again on anything less than a full tank of gas.

13# and 4# Coho the ruler is 2' long

This pic does not do this Coho justice it was HUGE.
This is the biggest Coho I have ever caught and actually it even tops any of the Kings I have caught. When I got home and realized I had caught Coho and not Kings I looked up the state record and saw I only missed it by 7 pounds. If you print off this pic it would weight 10 pounds..... that's how big this fish was.

My summer vacation

Well my vacation started with my parents not being home when I got home to start my vacation. Turns out I showed up on the wrong week...... according to my Mom. So with no one around I went over and hung out with my brother all day, which was great. Around 11 pm my Mom and Dad roll in, they were in the cities for my nieces' graduation. Once my Mom got home it was time to make plans, and it turned out best if I was to go to Canada fishing the first couple days. (Because lets keep in mind I arrived on the wrong week.)  So I got a hold of my Uncle Rick and headed North. I spent three days in Canada fishing. It wasn't as good as recent years... We caught a lot of fish but most of them were rats; we caught very few slotters but we did catch some nice fish too.




















 I caught a 22" walleye and Rick wasn't far behind with a 20".... and then there was the muskie.

Well turns out I couldn't net 'em.  As soon as I put the camera down he made a surge under the boat and broke the line. That fish pulled us around the lake for 25+ minutes before showing himself.
Well we left the cabin on Fri morning to get ready for my cousin's wedding on Sat.

 When we got back to Ricks house we unloaded everything and started to prep the motor home for the trip. That's when he saw a dead humming bird on the ground.

What I thought was really cool is you couldn't see the red unless it was at the perfect angle.











So I got back home and went fishing with my cousin Corey. He took me to Fish Lake which is right by his house and we caught some nice fish there also.... I can't remember but I think his biggest was around 23 something.

I caught a couple walleye and pike but nothing worth getting a pic of. From there I put on my best camo and crashed the wedding reception. It was a good time and I got to see a lot of the family I never get to see.

CONGRATS LANCE I hope your marriage is healthy and happy.

While I was at the reception my Uncle Dave invited me to go out the next morning with him on Lake Superior. So we met up in the a.m. Sunday morning for a couple hours of trolling. We hooked up right out the gate with this little greaser and then didn't get a sniff the rest of the time.

 With the winds coming from the N NE it wasn't too long before the rollers started to stack up and we headed for the barn. I just want to give a shout out to Dave's boat, I think he said it's a Dory.  Man what an awesome little boat for the big lake.

This is the lift bridge on the way in.

So when we got in it was off to my Aunt Renee's for a little get together at her cabin on Prairie Lake. Super nice cabin and time catching up with everyone. The food was very good and those taters....mmmmm.
Thanks Nae.
Since we were at a lake Corey and I with his daughter Addy went out fishing for a while. I think the only fish caught was my pike but it was a good time. Addy did a great job and hung with us in the wind until it was time to go. That was a lot of fun to go out with her.
Monday we rallied the troops and headed for the shack to mow the lawn. On the way out we saw something I have never seen up there and that was a TURKEY. Yep, saw a hen turkey trying to cross the road and then decided better of it. I had been hearing that they have been seeing turkeys up that way but that was the first one I have seen up there. AWESOME

This is a shot of my Dad mowing, it just struck me funny and to quote Forrest Gump," And 'cause I was gazillionaire and I liked doing it so much, I cut that grass for free. ..."

 So that was my vacation I hung around Monday and left Tuesday morning to get home to my beautiful loving wife Tuesday evening.
I just wanted to say a huge "Thank you" to my whole family it was a great vacation and it was really great to see everyone again.

What a difference a week makes

Last week I went to Max and really got into the smallies. I also landed a couple largemouth but the white bass and walleye eluded me on this trip. I was in fish all day and the wind got a little brisk in the afternoon which tended to push me around a little but other than that I had a great day.
Here's the pics

look close you can see the lure in his mouth... That's what's commonly known as choking it!!!

All of these fish were 2 to 3 pounders I had a pretty awesome day.

Now on to this week.... I left late (again) for the big lake on Wednesday morning. I have been seeing that some silver fish have been caught out of Washington park. So off I went to stretch a line and wash some lures. If I only knew how true that statement was I probably would've stayed home and mowed the lawn again. As you may have guessed I got the big ole goose egg.... the old skunkapoloosa. I did have a steelhead on for about 10 seconds then he straightened the hook and went on about his day. I stayed until around 6 and decided to pack-er in and head for the house with my tail between my legs and a very empty cooler. The only good thing to come out of this excursion is all my equipment worked flawlessly.... next time I'll really get into them..