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.