Moment of silence please

Tuesday was my last fishing day for this year. I got out in the wee hours and caught quite a few largemouths on many different lures. This white bass hit the lottery. I caught him in the morning,and kept him in the live well all day. Since I couldn't catch some company for him I let him go. I'll try to get him next year.

I also got out for some dove hunting on Wednesday. I didn't shoot that well but I did get a couple to ride in the car.

Next week I will be winterizing the boat and putting it in storage. I will also be getting ready for the upcoming waterfowl season.
I cannot wait.

Bow season opener

Well Oct.1st was Indiana's bow opener and this is how I spent my day.

My buddy sold his property and the guy that has been farming it bought the property. He has been taking out fence rows since he bought it and this year the last one came out. The bad news is that was the one with my stands in it, so I am now a displaced bowhunter. So I actually had a chance to try all the great fishing that I have been missing out on. So far I would rather be bowhunting, however I am sure I will change my tune when I can start waterfowl hunting after the 19th.
When I was fishing I noticed a little green grasshopper on my depthfinder right in the morning. That little dude stayed with me all day, either on my depth finder or my trolling motor. He tried to commit suicide once, I rescued him from the depths of Tippy and he stayed with me the rest of the day.

when I got back to the ramp I let him go

Since my wife is loving she let me go dove hunting on Wed. I went down to Huntington and this is what I found.

I had to wait until after 11am until I could see anything. My shooting was really bad but I did bring home 4 birds. I saw alot of birds but they are really skiddish. I suppose that will happen if someone has been trying to shoot you for the past 2 months.
Well I always have next week, and it will pretty much be a repeat of this week, with the exception of more fish brought to the boat and more birds brought home.

Finally scored

Last night my buddy Jimmie and I went to the sportsman's DU event we affectionately call "date night". Long story short you get as many raffle tickets as what is in your wingspan, from fingertip to fingertip. Jimmie is 6'8" so he has quite the wingspan. I get tickets for us and we go out and have a really good time.
Sarah doesn't like to go because the first one we went to took til 11pm to end, and with Kathy here now she couldn't go anyway. So I'm pretty lucky Jimmie takes the time out to go with me, this is his 3rd event and he says he has a good time. His wingspan has yet to really pay off but I'm sure one of these years it will.
I usually end up with something I can use at these things and this year was no exception.
I finally got a set of over-sized Green Head Gear duck butts. That was awesome cause I have been putting off buying a set.
Here's the pic:

Oh yeah I also won the Mossberg 835 Ulti-mag.

Last days of early season

I was reading an article this year that you shouldn't show your hand to geese in the early season. That means don't put out all your decoys so you can change it up later in the year. Well I gave it a shot this year, I don't know how many decoys "they" put out but I will say the 14 I was using just wasn't enough.
Yesterday I put out all my decoys, which totals to 30. That's all it took to put some feathers into my boat. It's just shameful that I had to learn this lesson the hard way, and miss out on the other geese that I might have had a shot at if I had the larger spread.
 This has to be the lowest number of geese I have ever shot in an early season. I should have changed up my spread last week after the first day.
Oh well live and learn, the lesson I took from this is "they" aren't always right.
I ended up with 2 yes only 2 geese. I could've had one today but he came in while I was picking up my decoys. He wanted in so bad he circled twice and still landed, with me out at my furthest decoy trying to sneak back in to get to my shotgun. I gave him a 3 shot salute but he might have been a little far.

Did you notice I painted my gun??? How's it look??

On Tuesday I got out for some dove hunting and the action was less than spectacular, however my shooting was awesome. I went 4 for 5, the pic only shows 3 doves, because I got the last one while I was picking up my decoys.

Now that early season is over for me, and since I am not bow hunting this year. I will probably go fishing a couple more times before the waterfowl opener on the 19th of Oct. However if I want to squeeze a trigger, dove season will still be open, I'll let them settle down a little first.

1,2,3 and it's back to work

Hunting season is finally here, I hunted Tues, Wed, and Thursday morning for geese and went out Tues, and Wed. for doves.
I could've just left my shotgun at home in the mornings. Day one I saw 2 geese, day 2 was missed opportunities, and this morning I had 8 pass by without so much as a look back. I think this is the first opener for me, that I haven't dropped at least one goose.
Oh well I have three more days next week before early season ends.
Dove hunting on the other hand went relatively good. I shot terribly but I did get 17 birds over the 2 days I hunted. The highlight of this dove season is the band I got on the first day. I knew that doves were banded, and I have always looked for bands. This year I didn't pay so much attention, and when I was cleaning my birds I just happened to look down into the trash and see the band on one of my dove's legs.  
AWESOME and lucky, I have already reported the number but have yet to hear back. When I get the info I'll let'cha know.
Nothing really happens without pics, so here they are: