Over too soon...

Not waterfowl as a whole but duck season...The state gives us a week around Christmas for the last hoorah of duck season 2018. The bad news is everything around here has been froze for the past couple weeks. So, the best I could do was hope for birds around Ft. Wayne.
I went down and checked my properties on Sunday evening, and the report was kinda not great. I finally got ahold of Jake, Sunday after I got home. I was really hoping on being able to shoot his farm pond Monday then scout my other properties for Tuesday. More bad news, the farm pond was froze so we formulated a game plan for Monday. Which entailed going to one of my spots I hadn't even scouted, fortunately, there were usually geese and some ducks out there.
We set up early and waited for the sun and fun, one of them showed. The sun came out and the geese set the whole time we were there. Jake had to be home around 12 so we started packing up at 10:45 to get him home in time. While we were packing up the landowner came out and we started talking, apparently, the geese were where my spread was the night prior. So after we finished packing and I got Jake home, I packed a small spread in the truck and pointed it South back to the same spot I was at in the am. I got there around 2pm and waited for the geese to get up to feed. With 18 minutes before I had to pack it in the geese got up. I started working a flock that came in from my right to left, and when they were close enough I took 2. I missed my third shot.

No ducks....
Tuesday I had a buddy from work invite me over to spend a casual afternoon with his family. I got there around 2 his wife fixed me a plate of food and we just hung out. By the way, the food and service were second to none, 5 stars on Yelp. Thank you very much, I really enjoyed myself.
Wednesday was going to go to my river spot with Jimmy, his plans changed so I headed down with the boat because the river was supposed to be open. Well, it wasn't and that turned into a 2-hour truck ride towing my duck boat. When I got home I called Jimmy to see if he wanted to do an evening hunt. He was game so back to the Fort I went with the car loaded down with decoys. We went to the same place I shot the above geese, the bad news was it was warmer (46 degrees) and the geese didn't fly 'til late.
No ducks....
Today, yes Thursday Jimmy and I went to the place we were going to go on Wednesday. We got there and got set up early and waited for the sun and fun. Today just to be different neither showed. We had a flock of divers that came in albeit high and not looking to stop. In hindsight, we should have given them what for, they were right on the edge of being close enough. Those were the only fowl that were even somewhat close enough. The ducks and geese weren't even really around like they should've been. We didn't see that much flying today, so we packed up around noon and I headed home... empty-handed again.... I blame Jimmy-bad juju.
No ducks....

Thank God goose is still open, I'll take it out on them next week. 😈

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, and please if you're going to be out, have a safe New Year.

I'll be out trying to cancel the flight plans of some geese. 😎

Whew....

Well, it's been a whirlwind couple of weeks for me. Last week Sean and I hunted all three days. We started the day usually with an hour sit then I would start a slow drive to him. I spent the rest of the day making drives to him, then the last hour or two we would find a stand to sit in 'til dark. This week was more of the same, we did see quite a few deer the last couple weeks. We were seeing the South end of Northbound deer, the drives didn't really work but I did move deer. Yesterday was the last day of our muzzleloading season, I had actually set down and looked at google maps and marked all my drives for the day. The first drive was uneventful.... for deer, geese, on the other hand, I had a hundred or so fly over at treetops at 10:30 am.
I'll be back for them.
We were walking out and Sean busted out a pheasant... he pooped. We got to the trucks and I formulated the plan. Which entailed Sean going down to stand up by a lake and I would drive to him. When I was on the way to park the truck I realized I left my gun in his car, so I turned around and met up with him at his parking spot. I grabbed my gun and the rest of my gear I had left in his car and headed back to my parking spot.
I got out of the truck and started getting ready to make the drive when I heard a shot from where Sean would be, so I grabbed my phone and called him. When Sean answered I said, "did you shoot?" he said he did and the deer is down, I told him to reload and stay there watch the deer, he said he already did and the deer is not moving. I threw my gear back in the truck and headed over to where Sean was. When I got there I grabbed my gear and started to go to where I thought he would be. I rounded a corner to see Sean standing there looking at a deer looking back at us from down the trail. I thought he said the deer was dead? Sean moved and the deer bolted and I said, "I thought you said he was dead?" Sean said, "he is he's in the trail up there."
So we walked up to see a deer dead in the trail, the other deer must have either been Mom or a sister cause she didn't want to leave even with us there.
I asked him what happened and Sean said," I was coming around the corner and saw a deer in the sorghum and then another in the trail, I slowly put my chair down and put the crosshairs on the bigger of the two and squeezed the trigger. After I congratulated him I got to work and dressed the deer, we got it back and loaded him in the truck. Filled out all the paperwork and headed off to the processor. It wasn't the biggest deer ever taken but boy will he be tender.

 Now with the first one out of the way next, we'll go for quality. : )
As for those geese, I went back out this morning to get an easy pass shooting limit, or so I thought. I got to the spot around 9 am found a nice tree to lean against and waited for the fun. The first dozen left out at what I think was 10-10:30 (I didn't bring a watch) they flew over the water so I didn't shoot. I waited for the rest to get off to go eat.... and I waited.... and waited. I got stood up!!! the mass of geese that left out of there yesterday either left early (not likely) or didn't come back last night. I figure they just didn't come back to roost last night, so I packed out and headed home.
That's why I don't leave the house on Thursdays. : (

Good times

Monday found us back at Jakes farm pond. Since the thaw from last weekend, there have been some birds using it. So we adjusted the A-frame and settled in for a half day hunt. We did have some luck with birds wanting to work, but it seemed they all wanted to land on the right side of the blind. So needless to say Jake shot 3 and Scott and I left out with nothing but the knowledge that the only bird we had a shot at is still flying. 

When you watch the vid open it full screen.

After the hunt on Monday, we jumped in the truck and headed out to do some scouting. We found a cornfield that had some water in a low spot and the ducks were there. Scott was able to get permission on the field for Tuesday.
We got to the field in good time and started hauling the gear out, then we had to break some thin ice to set the floaters. We just got the full bodies and layouts set up and the air filled with the sound of whistling wings. These ducks came by the hundreds ready to do battle over the leftover corn that we were guarding. When the shot was called and the smoke settled there were 5 ducks on the ground and we were all on our way to limitsville.
After the first light flight, we worked 4-6 packs until our limits were filled. We all shot pretty well, Jake went out first, then me, and Scott dropped his last bird around 9-9:15 am. After we had the gear picked up and the hero pic taken I think we were out of the field by 10.
Super fast, Super fun day, Thanks to Jake and Scott.

      Scott                                                                                                           Jake

Wednesday I hooked up the duck boat and headed to Big Turkey still high from the awesome hunt on Tuesday. After 6 hours the high wore off and the cold had set in. I had a couple flocks that came by to give my spread a look, but then it was off to eat... or at least they didn't want to be by me. There were 150 or so geese that left off the lake around 10 a.m. since season is out I could only watch them. After I was sure nothing was going to fly I packed it up around noon and headed to the house.
All in all, I had a pretty great week. Next week .... deer and maybe even sneak out for another pheasant hunt. 😎

Duck, Pheasant, swing and a miss

Monday the weather dude called for rain and snow in that order. When the rain hit Sunday evening I thought it would keep going into Monday however, the weatherman had it right for a change and I awoke to 3 inches of snow with a side of slop below that. I got to the ramp well before sunrise, motored out to the spot of the day and set up my decoys. I heard the sounds of restless waterfowl through the snowstorm across the lake from me. I thought this should be a good day the birds should be moving in and out all day with this snow. Well, the birds I heard moved out in the snow like a thief in the night. I never saw them which at this point of the day I was beginning to realize seeing birds was going to be the hard part. The snow was falling in huge flakes and I had to clean decoys every 15 minutes or so.

 I took this pic after I got back from knocking all the snow off them, I would get up and tip the top of the boat open and the snow was so thick it didn't fall off.
Until....
The snow stopped and the clouds parted long enough for this lonesome guy to come in. I did have a shot at another mallard but after the shot, I swung to get on the hen. She was quickly retreating and out of the corner of my eye, I saw the drake get up and make a clean getaway.

  So day one ended with a wet crotch,(I think my waders are leaking more than previously assessed) and one mallard, which is still better than a shutout with a wet crotch.
At the end of day 1 with no word from Jake, I decided to take a day off of waterfowl and get into some cleanup pheasant. I got to the check station around 8am and got the lowdown on how they were running the clean up now, it has been a long time since I was at Mongo for clean up. Anyway, while I was talking to the DNR guy another hunter walked in and signed up and asked about a youth hunt. I was already outside going to my car when I noticed a dog box in the other hunters truck and no one in the passenger seat. So I turned around and asked him if he was hunting alone, he said, "yes". I said, "do you have a dog?" he said, "yes," I asked him if he wanted some company while assuring him he didn't have to feel obligated to say yes. He said, "sure" so he filled out his check-in card, I filled out mine, I told him I would follow him and thanked him profusely for allowing me to tag along.
So we get to his spot and he lets the dog out and as I'm getting ready I introduce myself and thank him again for allowing me to hunt with them. Well, it wasn't too long and we found ourselves following a super little English Setter named "Sonny" but he didn't answer to that while he was working. I didn't find out his name until the day was almost over because through the course of the day that dog had many names and none of them were Sonny or derogatory. He worked his butt off all day to get us our limits of pheasant. Just a super well behaved little pheasant finding machine. The first 2 came out my side I hit both but couldn't find either. We moved on and it didn't take too long and Sonny had a point. The bird flushed and fell to earth after a couple of shots, and as pheasants do started running. I caught up to it in a fence row and while I was waiting for Robert to get into position the bird just fell over dead. We got another point and flush that bird just dropped. So we decided to push the row that I shot the first 2 birds out of. Well, as we were walking down the row I spotted the first pheasant I shot. So I let Robert know, I picked it up and we moved on to another spot thankful to have found 1 of 2.
So now we only needed one more bird for Robert and we would be done. As we started the sorghum field I was noticing all the pheasant tracks and it wasn't too far in when we got a point. Robert went in for the flush but the dog didn't hold and slowly crept forward. I said, "that birds running", sure enough, a couple feet from the first point came another. Robert moved in again and this time the bird flushed with Sonny nipping at his tail feathers. Robert gave the bird a couple milliseconds then let the lead loose, then came the feathers. After checking the bird and seeing that he wasn't gutted, we high fived, walked back to the vehicles took the hero pic and agreed we should do this again. I told him I will for sure give him a call next year.

Thanks again to Robert and Sonny I had a great time

 

 

 I finally called Jake to see if he was still alive, he said he was beat up pretty bad from work last week. He offered the farm pond shoot for Wednesday, I accepted and we decided on a time to meet at his house at 6am. Well, he said the birds were there Monday and if it's open should be there today. We pulled into the field and saw hard water where the pond was, so the work started. We got out and started busting ice to open a hole. Now instead of a slam dunk duck hunt, it went to holy crap I hope they come back today. The pluses were that they were there Monday and there was duck crap on the ice. So they have been there since there was ice but it had probably closed since then. We stayed 'til 11:30 or so but never fired a shot, we picked up the decoys and headed for the barn to warm up.
All in all, still had a super week, brought home some birds and had a good time with friends.

Happy Thanksgiving

Just taking it easy today, got up at 4 am and got the turkey cookin', washed the dishes and fixin' to make my lunches for the week.
This week's hunting pretty much went the same way, just got everything done. Monday I went to Eagle and didn't shoot the geese that flew by, they were just a little out of range for the #2's I had loaded. So I passed on them and after the day was done I cut a bunch of grass for my buddies A-frame blind.
Tuesday went to one of Jake's spots and shot a couple ducks, I know I know I gotta start getting pics from those hunts.
Wednesday I found geese.... a lot of geese at one of my properties, I called my buddies but nobody could make it, so off to the Fort in the am for me. I got down there and set my decoys,

 brushed up my blind,

and got ready for the action.
This is the first time I have used this blind and let me tell ya it was pretty nice, it kept a lot of the wind off and it was really easy to shoot out of.

The first flock came in from behind me, by the time they made a noise they were practically on top of me. Well, since they were so close it was like trying to hit them with something the size of a golf ball. Anyway, I did drop one of them and the others flew 300 yards out into the field and set down. Well as anyone that hunts geese knows you don't want any competition in the field from live geese. So I started out to kick them off property, on the way I saw another flock land with the 4 that I just shot at. After the long walk, I went over and picked up my goose, made a sleeper decoy out of him and sat back down in my blind. 

Well, this happened soon after sun up and I was kickin' myself for not shooting my limit on the first flock all day. I was out stretching my legs when I heard a honk, I looked up and saw 5 geese headed my way. I only had enough time to make it to the side of the blind so I hunkered down and started calling. 

 I anchored the second goose with one shot, the first goose needed a couple follow up shots.
As it turns out this was the first goose limit of the year for me. I was also super happy I didn't shoot my limit on the first flock because both of these birds were banded.

 Yesterday was the last day I could hunt before the first half of the goose season ended.
Wow, what a way to end this part of the season, by the way, these birds were banded in Peawanuck which is up by Hudson Bay in Ontario. What a way to end the first stretch of the season.
Next week duck is still open and the pheasant clean up will be in full swing, so I'll try to get out for some pheasant also.
OOOOoooo my turkey's done, have a happy Thanksgiving.

Gettin' colder

We've got a lot of the local lakes lockin' up, so the open water is becoming prime real estate. We still don't have a bunch of geese and the geese we do have aren't staying in one field. They're kinda just hoppin' from field to field, so there's no way to set up in any one field and have any kind of success.
Back to the water situation, most of the main bodies are open but the landings that are somewhat sheltered are freezing up pretty quick.
Through all that, I did have some success this week on Big Turkey. Monday it was kinda a fly by shoot and this Suzie got too close.

 Slowly but surely I'm putting together a meal.
Tuesday I went with Jake to one of his fields and just kinda hung out and bullshitted. Oh yeah, we did throw out and air out all his decoys then put them all back in the trailer.
Wednesday I went back out to Big Turkey. Remember the ice I was talking about earlier? Well, I never thought my boat would break that much ice. I broke out a channel at least 150 yards long some thicker some just skim ice, but I was determined to get out. Thankfully I was rewarded for my efforts with a brace of ducks. This is the closest I've been to shooting a limit this year. I needed one more mallard and I would've had my mallard limit.

 The cool thing about this hunt was all the mallards were landing in my decoys, they weren't just passing by. The ringneck, well he came shooting by in a 12 pack and he didn't fly fast enough. I hate eating divers so I usually don't shoot them, but it was pretty fun.

Wind and rain

Monday I went to a local lake albeit a little late (as per my norm anymore) as I was setting up I had a dozen or so mallards fly over and I thought, this should be a good day. Well, the best part of Monday is I didn't get rained on. I ended up heading home without anything to dirty a knife, which actually can be considered a good thing?
Tuesday woke me with some vicious wind and the distinct sound of rain on the roof. So I rolled over and got some more sleep.
Wednesday I made the hour drive to one of my newest little gems. When I got there, there was already a truck at the landing, which didn't really bother me because there always seems to be a vehicle there. Anyway I unloaded the boat and headed across the lake to set up, yes once again a little late. I hunted until 1:00 then packed it in, the person that had the red truck had already packed it in and headed home without firing a shot. My day was a little better.

Thursday I spent a couple hours the morning at the lake 4 minutes from my house. I missed a goose but was able to get my first wood duck this year.

Maybe this will get the ball rolling to a great year. It's been a pretty slow start and I haven't even shot a limit yet, but I think it's lookin' up.
Gotta work a couple days then back at 'er next week.

The word for the week is .... RAIN

 Side note: I looked out my back window on Saturday and saw this fox hangin' out by my shed.

 Let's start on Monday, the only geese I had were the same geese we hunted last week. So back to the same field, while I was setting the last decoys the rain started. It only lasted for a couple minutes but it got everything soaked. So I got up and wiped off all the decoys, well, when the sun came up the clouds parted and I had a field full of bright shiny decoys. Just then the roost pond cleared out and the game was on.... they saw the decoys and the game was off.
Since the sun was out now and I wanted to dry everything out I got up and dried off all the decoys again. Then I climbed back in my blind for the long haul.
I stayed until sunset when I had to stop, so I unloaded and started to pack up, 2 minutes after my time was up this happened.

Tuesday I forgot to set my alarm so I got up late, decided to go out and scout some lakes.
Wednesday and today started with rain, yesterday it stopped around 10am and don't really care when it's going to stop today since my hunting week is already all but over.

On the upside, I did get the boat worked on yesterday, and I am going to pick up a piece to fit in the front. After that cutting the deck for the front and getting carpet for it. 

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

Duck and goose have officially opened for me, and yes I triple checked the date. I started the season on one of my fields in "town".

this glorious morning starts my season

 The birds I saw the day prior really didn't make an appearance, however, we did manage to drop some geese. My buddies J and Scott took a couple birds each and decided to head for the house around 1 p.m. I wanted to hang out for the evening flight and promptly fell asleep. I woke up around 2ish to the sight and sound of a tractor starting to disc the field I was hunting in/next to.

So as soon as he started, I got busy with getting my crap out of the corn, even though he was discing the bean field. When I got home I got busy with finding a place to hunt Tues. and I found it in Big Turkey Lake. I hung out 'til around noon then picked up my dekes took the hero pic

with the single goose that fell in love with my spread. This was more of a scouting trip than anything else, the goose was a bonus.
So when I got home I made supper...

SAD SAD DAY- 1 down 1 to go

 and started getting ready for the next day's hunt, I decided to hunt a pond a ways away when the phone rang.
 My buddy J was asking what my plans for Wed. were, I told him about my planned water hunt. He said that he just got done watching 500 or so mallards and a couple hundred geese drop into a field he can hunt, then asked if I would like to go. I thought about for about 1/8th of a second and asked what time to meet at his house. Well, we hammered out a time and I changed all gear to hunt a field. I got to J's house right about on time and chatted with the Scott and Andy until J came out to greet the day. Well, we made the 10-minute drive to the field and promptly deployed his 7 doz goose decoys and a doz mallard decoys set the blinds, hid the truck and trailer and got ready for the skies to turn dark with birds. Since it's called hunting and not killing, the birds had other ideas about how the day will go. We did work a couple flocks of geese, we just weren't able to drop them in the kill hole. I'm not sure why they didn't commit, but they all lived another day. The mallards... well, the mallards never made it off the water wherever they roosted that night. So after a beautiful morning and working the couple flocks of geese we packed 'er in and headed to the house.
I got home and fixed a roast with taters, carrots, and onions, sprinkled with a pouch of Lipton mushroom onion soup mix. MMMMmmm good, when it was done cooking I hooked up the boat and headed to Loon lake which is 5 minutes from the house. This was really just another scouting trip for me, I really hate evening hunts. This one, however, was pretty cool, the lake was made for duck hunting and the bottom was all sand and gravel which makes it super easy to walk.
So to recap- 2 geese taken, 2 lakes added to my duck lakes, and a couple days in a field with friends, not too shabby.

Next....

Fall turkey season is officially closed (for me). I hunted yesterday morning and heard a couple of birds in the trees around me. I never saw them when they hit the ground, so I went home and mowed the lawn. Took a shower and was back in the field by 4 p.m. by 5:14 my tag was filled. I didn't get any video because this little girl came in silent. She peeked down the trail turned to walk away so I put the red dot on her and put her in the dirt.
 Season over.

Next week: duck and goose opener....YEAH

Own your mistakes.... face the consequences

Yesterday morning I woke early to get some chores around the house done because I was meeting up with Sean for the turkey opener. Well, I got a call around 6:26 a.m. letting me know that Sean just got up and was going to be late. No worries don't rush just get here when you can. Well, we finally got to our hunting spot around 7:40ish a little late but not terrible. As we sat there we could hear the turkeys talking back and forth, still roosted a little to our east. I'm guessing around 8:15 we had our first fly down, a hen dropped in no more than 10 yards from us. Sean couldn't see her because of a couple of trees in the way. He also had a hard time because he wasn't turned enough so he had to contort to get on her. Anyway, she saw him move when he was turning for the shot, so she ducked her head and briskly walked away.
I really wasn't worried at this point because we could still hear turkey's in the trees talking. As we waited I had Sean turn a little and I kept chatting with the turkeys in the trees. After a couple of minutes, we had some more fly downs but they went to the North out of sight. Then we had another flydown in the same spot the first hen was. Right behind her were a couple turkeys coming in from behind us.
Well, I wanted the birds to keep walking by us to get in front so we both could get on a bird. However, at 10 yards you just can't get away with any movement, and they were seeing stuff they just didn't like. So they started walking away, I started prodding Sean to pick one and shoot, shoot, can you see one? shoooooooot.
Finally, he was able to get on a bird and squeeze the trigger. When he did an explosion of turkeys ensued, all the birds to our right took off, the birds in front of us took flight and took off, even the birds that set down to our North were coming in to see what was going on jumped in the air a couple feet then set down and took off. We were covered up in turkeys and I couldn't get on any of them to double up. So we decided since Sean's bird was flopping in front of us that we would just sit for an hour to see if we could get one to come back for me to shoot.
Well, when the hour was up we got up, walked over to my deer stand and I showed him where I was when I shot my deer last week. Then we walked back picked up his bird gathered our stuff and headed out to the car to get the hero pic.

Well once we got the gear stashed in the car we started filling out the transport tag.
Sean asked me if it was the 10th or 11th?
I looked at him and said,"what?? it's the 17th"
He said no it's the 10th.
I said no it's not..... and I grabbed my phone and stared at the date in disbelief..... we shot this bird a week early.
Now the holy shits set in, after the initial shock wore off, the first call I made was to a Conservation officer to turn ourselves in and see what he wanted us to do.
I explained what had happened and how I honestly thought it was Oct. the 17th. After some more discussion, the C.O. asked where we could meet up, by that time I was already at home so I gave him my home address and he said he would meet us there. We unpacked the car I cleaned the bird and awaited the C.O. and our punishment. Even though Sean squeezed the trigger and took the bird, I was the reason he was there and I felt ultimately responsible.
I told Sean that no matter what happens I'll make it right, whether he gets fined or his gun taken away I will reimburse him.
After a half hour of sitting on needles the C.O. finally shows up at the house, and we tell the story again.
After hearing it again he says, "mistakes happen, and since you called and turned yourself in I'm just going to give you a warning."
In amazement and relief, I just stood there for a couple seconds and let what just happened sink in. I gratefully shook his hand and I think recounted the mixup a couple more times, not really sure, I was just kinda babbling and not paying attention to what I was saying.
He wrote up Sean's warning and we all chatted about hunting and the opportunities up North here. After all was said and done we shook hands again and we parted ways.
All in all, it was a good experience that I never want to have again, and trust me I will be checking dates twice before going out hunting again.

Not to minimize it but you see turkey is in season right now for archery, not firearms. So really we just used the wrong method to take this turkey. Firearms opens on the 17th of Oct.
I'll be out opening morning trying to get my bird.

well.... back to work

At least until next week, when fall turkey season opens. Last week, I did quite a bit but it feels like I really didn't accomplish much.
I forgot about this but this finally happened.

LOOK AT THAT INSIDE TEMP 59.4 YEAH!!!!

 I worked on the boat mostly,

I got the whole deck in and only have to drill and rivet it down before I lay the vinyl.
...yeah trying to remember what else I did last week. Sorry but just drawing a blank, however, I did work on the boat again this week. I got the whole front deck tore off, and am trying to decide whether or not to invest a couple hundred bucks in aluminum to raise the casting deck another 6" or just redeck it as it is.... I'm leaning toward the investment.
Anyway here's the pics

It would make it easier to fish out of and I would be that much higher so I could see into the water easier. Really leaning towards the investment.

Well, I went out deer hunting yesterday, I forgot my thermacell so I only lasted a couple hours before the skeeters drove me nuts.

I also got out this morning for all of an hour, this is what I saw.

pretty young buck, but I'll have deer meat this year

 I went out to my private prop. again this morning and knew with the direction of the wind I would be able to sit below my tree stand, (didn't want to be tempted to shoot too far) and my scent would be blowing away from where I thought the deer would come from. I was only sitting for 45 minutes before this guy started walking in from upwind and right of me. He kept walking from my right to my left and I grunt stopped him at 14 yards directly in front of me. He never knew I was there, I was tucked back in some brush and behind a tree. When he stopped, I was already safety off and ready to shoot. I loosed the arrow and from the way he took off, I knew I got a good hit on him. I gathered my gear and walked down to check the arrow. Nice clean red blood on it, it was only a matter of time. So I packed out took the car home and got the truck. When I found him he was only 20 yards from where I shot him and when I gutted him, I saw why he only went a couple yards.

Total heart shot

 MMMmmm heart... it's what's for dinner.

This is the first deer I've shot in a while, he wasn't huge but he got to ride in the Titan.

Hunting and Fishing lull

The next couple weeks are going to be nothing but work weeks. I still have the deck of the boat tore up and there's really nothing to hunt until the 1st of Oct. when deer comes in.
This week I went to the dentist on Monday, rented a 50 septic snake to snake out the drain in front of the garage. Tuesday I returned the snake dismayed and ticked off because it didn't work the way I wanted it too. The drain in front of the garage has had water back up, and I thought if I got the snake I could open the other end and the water would drain better. Well, from the way it felt the people who built the garage cemented over the exit hole. Now I have to get a sewer company to come and tell me exactly where the discharge hole is so I can bust up the concrete. I also cooked up a bunch of geese on Tues. which turned out really good. I did a pulled goose with 6-7 geese and a goose stew with 2 geese and today I actually cooked up some flying prime rib. So I will have plenty to eat for the next couple weeks. Wednesday I brought my car in and got a chip in the windshield fixed that happened on Tues. coming back from F.W. Then when I got home I patched up the exhaust on my pos so I would stop bothering the neighbors 3 blocks over. Today.... well today outside of the cooking I searched for a flashlight that has been missing for a while.
I haven't worked on the boat yet, but need to before Oct. 1st. So more than likely next week I'll work on the boat, I'm hoping to get the deck in and maybe even get the linoleum laid.
I cannot wait for waterfowl opener.

Auspicious beginning

Alright, not really but I wanted to start the new hunting year off on a good note. This is how it really started. I went dove hunting last Monday and the only thing dropping was sweat.
I went to Mongo which usually has a pretty good dove showing only to see that the sunflowers that were planted for the doves either didn't grow or got grazed off by deer. I sat in a very poor excuse for a sunflower field for over 5 hours only to see a handful of doves. The only dove I did have a shot at I whiffed on. Now the fields weren't the fault of the DNR, we had a 27-day drought that was the leading cause of the poor shape of the fields. Since I didn't do so well dove hunting I headed into town to pick up my chairs that my neighbor had refinished for me.

 

 He did a super nice job on them and they look brand new, Thanks, Tom.

Tuesday I stayed home and worked on the boat.

 It still looks the same today however, it will get some attention next week. Now on Wednesday, I found out the dealership didn't receive my check for my extended warranty. So had to call the bank and get them to issue a new one and cancel the old one.
Then work.
Monday My Minion and I went to Mongo to try their goose stakes. Now I had never done this but thought we should give it a go just to see what it's like. Come to find out it's just pass shooting spots across the whole property. I was under the assumption that these were stakes set up under known goose flight lines, you just needed to get lucky to be under the one that they are using. So needless to say we didn't do well, we did see a goose but he was pretty far away.
Yesterday I was going to pack up and make the 45 minute run to the river. I got up on time, loaded the truck, hooked up the boat and ..... no lights on the trailer. After an hour of looking for my 12-volt circuit tester, I did what any sane person would've done, I went back to bed. When I got up I looked for my tester some more, realizing it was gone I went and bought a new one. Then after testing my wiring I went and bought some new lights. Since I felt as if I had wasted most of the day anyway I decided to mow the lawn, that way I could say I mowed the lawn and fixed my trailer lights.
Wednesday I got up packed the truck, hooked up the boat and headed to the river. After hunting most of the day and bagging the only goose I saw.

boy that's a small goose

 I packed it in and started home, but before I did I noticed one of my grease covers on the trailer was missing. I checked them yesterday and must not have attached it well enough to stay on, so now I'm in the market for a new cover. When I got back I had to call the dealership again and I found out they messed up my title for the truck. So now they have to do some more leg work and fix the title so I can get the truck in my name. They said it would take better than a month to get it straightened out and they will pay the fees incurred because I only have 45 days to get the truck titled.
Thankfully I will have about 4 weeks of nothing to do but work on stuff unless I go south for some dove.
Anyway, my hunting season started with 1 goose, a crappy sunflower field, and some trailer issues....... oh well I guess this is where one would say, "it can only get better".

Got out today for a minute

Today was spose to be cloudy with a little sun and no rain. Since tomorrow is spose to be rainy I thought I should get out today. So I decided on a lake not far from the house so if it did get nasty I wouldn't be that far out. I went to Otter which is the gateway to the James chain. I thought I would start on Otter and just see how far I would get.
Well when I got to the landing the wind was howling which means alot of battery use and poor boat control all day. I launched anyway and actually started fishing right at the landing and after catching 3 or 4 bass I decided to hit the lake.

 Well I can't say I remember boating another fish... however I did boat a blue heron. Yes, I said a blue heron. I saw him standing on a dock and just as I casted he took off and flew right into my line. Since he couldn't stay in the air the only other place was on the water. They weren't built to swim so I caught up to him rather quickly. I grabbed him by the neck up by the head brought him aboard and got him tucked into the corner of the boat. Unfortunately he managed to get the hook into his right thigh, I got a pair of pliers and removed it. After I got the hook out and made sure he was free from the line I let him go. He flew twords the shore landing in the water just short, he seemed to be making out none the worse for ware. I on the other hand had to take a couple minutes to process what just happened.

There was no way he would've let me get a selfie with him

 So after the BH debackle I got back to fishing while keeping an eye on the approaching storm. When it started looking more like thunderstorms than clouds I got off the lake. So in closing I caught some bass, a blue heron and a couple rain drops and was on and off in 4 hours.

First

Erie's not that scary... yesterday I fished Lake Erie for the first time. It was pretty cloudy most of the day, however, that doesn't mean it was cool. In fact, it was down right hot, the breeze died off mid-morning and then it was just me sitting in a boat stinkin'.
 On the way to Erie, I stopped to get a set of regs and hit up the bait shop dude for info. I was going to fish the islands off Marblehead until he told me that they were catching down by Cedar Point so that's where I went.

 Since it was a difference of 10 minutes to me, I put in on the South side of Marblehead. I fished from sunup 'til around 6pm, it was a really fun trip. It was cool to troll a big lake for walleye with lighter gear. Since it was the first time fishing here I did have a little learning curve in the fact that I honestly believe I missed a couple fish just by not being able to tell if it was on or not. I wasn't fishing any weights or riggers other than one color of lead core on both reels. I hit my first walleye in 38 fow and had somewhere in the ballpark of 100' of line out.

Nice 17"er straight into the box, notice the color of the lure? For some reason, the walleye on Erie like pinks and purples so that's what I was draggin' all day.

My second walleye was a 16"er on a purple flicker shad in 41 fow. I did catch one more on a clown flicker shad that I couldn't stretch enough to make my minimum of 16"s so back he went.
I did catch some trash too.

This Dr. Suess lookin' fish is a freshwater drum or sheepshead and they gave me the best fight of the day. I caught and released 3 of these guys before I gave up trolling and started casting for the day.
I caught this channel cat while on the hunt for ..... well anything else.

 I did try to find some white bass, without any luck. They would've gone nicely with my 2 walleye, but that was not to be.

 So to wrap it up my first trip to Lake Erie was a success, everything worked and came home in the same shape as when it left. However, before I make that trip again I think I need to get a couple more lures. Then I will be expecting nothing but limits and bonus fish.
MMMmmm walleye.

Three lake day

Threatening rain and thunderstorms has almost become a weekly occurrence anymore. I really wanted to get out to Erie this week and yet again I couldn't because of the weather, and next week looks like more of the same.
Anywho, I started at Wawasee this week a little after sunrise. I had a really good time fishing this lake. In the past, I only fished it once a year and I think I'm going to up that for next year just because of the amount of fish, the variety, and fishing methods employed. All that means is I caught fish in a variety of ways and had a good time.
  just a side note here.... even though these bass look small it's only because of the "selfie-style"
way I'm taking their pics.... they're all actually 5#er's except the crappie he's only 2 1/2. Once I get the decking done on the boat I will have a permanent place for my camera and will be getting better pics and video.
 Here's the pics....

 This crappie almost got to ride in the cooler on the way home.  mmmm crappie

After a couple hours here, 4 I think, I loaded up and headed for Pretty Lake. Up until I got to Pretty the storms held off but only an hour or so into fishing I could hear the boomers. So I did the responsible thing and loaded up without even catching a fish.
I headed for a lake I wanted to scout for duck hunting. This lake was only a 10 min drive from the last and I had enough time to get some stuff out of the boat and throw it in the truck before the storm let loose. It rained hard, and the wind was rocking the truck, so I ate my sammich in the cab and waited for it to pass. Once it passed it was game on for this lake. I dropped the boat in and started fish/scouting, it looked like a decent duck lake with plenty of hides and lots of lilies and reeds.
I even caught some fish froggin' the pads....

 Well, that was my day, I went out caught some fish and made it home without breaking anything. That in and of itself is a win for team Jeff.
Not sure where next week will find me but I'll be on a lake somewhere, wish me luck.

Big Turkey

No not me... most of the time, I went to Big Turkey Lake this week. I really wanted to go to Lake Erie but the weather was chance of rain with thunder and lightning and I'm not willing to drive 2.5 hours for half a day.
So I made the smart choice (for a change) and headed to a lake that is 15-20 mins from me. The other main reason I chose this lake is, I know it is huntable. So I went to scout for the upcoming duck and goose season, of which they had plenty. I think I know where I'll be at least one day of early goose season.
Anyway back to the task at hand... fishing. The day started off very cloudy but the bass were hitting right off the bat. I didn't have any one lure that worked for me but I caught bass almost all day. Nothing big but they were fun.

 The morning was threatening rain until around 9 when it started to clear off and let the sun shine through for a while. I was just about ready to start trolling for the walleye they stock in this lake when all of a sudden the skies grew dark and started to rumble.... Then there was lightning... well gotta go wish I could stay, pack it up and head for the landing, just like everyone else with a trailer.
This storm kinda ticked me off cause it rained lightly all the way home and off and on for the rest of the day. Everyone knows I don't like doing anything in the rain but I would've stayed if I would've known the thunder and lightning was just a bluff.