Long hard season

Well, yesterday morning saw the end of another hard deer season. I didn't hunt last week because of the heatwave we were in. This week was the week, Monday however was not, I just couldn't make it out so I got all my running done. Tuesday found me sitting in my deer stand in the magical 5 acres, watching a yearling doe browse around, lose interest and finally just wander off. Wednesday I was sitting in the same stand at sunrise and there was a distinct sense of success in the air. It had everything to do with the 6 deer that wandered into my woods from the beans just a little after sunrise. There were 2- 2-year-old bucks with maybe 8 points between the two of them. There were 2 yearlings, one 2-year-old and one monster doe. Needless to say, I was going to let them all walk except for the big doe, she was so big I started shaking. Well, she must have realized what I had on my mind and wandered off to the North. Meanwhile, I was watching one of the bucks and a yearling browsing and laying down 60 yards in front of me. The other yearling and the 2-year-old doe were hanging out to my right 50 yards out. The other buck meandered up behind me when I lost sight of him. After what I can only guess to be 30 minutes, a buck bolts down the hill on my right, I try to grunt stop him with no luck. The next option is to try a shot, so I loose the arrow, it looked like a clean miss. But this buck turned and started back toward me, all the while I was cocking my crossbow and nocking a fresh bolt. When I was able to get a clear shot, I loosed another bolt, this one found it's mark. The buck reeled over backward down the hill flipping head over ass 2 times before I lost sight of him. After a couple minutes to settle down, collect myself and police my gear I got down and made my way to the truck. I put up my fun gear and grabbed my work gear and headed back to claim my prize.

He had 9 points and dressed out at 165 pounds

Come to find out, the first shot actually hit him in the rear. He made the wrong choice to turn around and find out what had bitten him. In his last-ditch effort to cause me pain, he was able to destroy both of my bolts, one of my nocturnal nocks and broke off and lost a brand new rage broadhead😡. But he did get to ride in my truck.😄 : ) 😄

work, work, work

ATTENTION LOYAL BLOG SUBSCRIBERS and those of you I forced into signing up for my blog.

It seems there was a glitch in the Matrix on last weeks blog and all you may have received was a paragraph. Well, there was also some pics and a video (well worth another look). So you can either go to this site or you may be able to just scroll down. However you want to do it, I would highly recommend checking it out.

Now onto this weeks action..... there was none. I mowed the lawn, washed the boat, got the vinyl laid... oh yeah that was action. If you consider me cursing at the flooring, action. It did turn out pretty good for an amateur.

It actually has a really thin foamish back on it so when you walk on it it's kinda squishy. But that was the easy end, the front will may be next week. I got my on-board charger out and almost ready to send back. Why?  Well, it took days for it to charge my trolling batteries where it should've only took hours. Since it's a Noco Genius and is well under warranty I just send it back and they'll send me out a new one. I also got my garage cleaned up a little... ok, enough to get my duck boat out. Oh yeah, I was also able to get my battery into the duck boat and got it ready for this duck season. WOW, I really did alot this week and that's just the stuff I can remember. I probably did alot more that I already forgot about.
So, next week should be: winterize motors, install keel shield, carpet the front deck, and install vent visors on the truck, not necessarily all in that order.
Gotta go make some salmon for supper now.
Take care 'til next week.

Early season all but over for me

With early goose season opening on the 14th this year I took Sat. and Sun. off. I got an invite to hunt with Jake and a few of his friends on Sat. It was a great way to start the early goose season. One of the guys who hunted with us works as a crop duster, apparently, his boss found out where he was hunting on Sat. This may have been only a close flyby but unfortunately, there was a full moon out in the early morning and the pilot took exception to it...

 Once the hunt was over and everything was packed up we were short a couple birds but it will be the hunt to top this year.

 From left to right: Cody, Tucker, Aaron, Chad, Nate, James, Zeb, Me, John, Jake


From there it just went downhill we just didn't have any birds.
Jake, Sean and I went to one of Jake's spots on Sunday. We shot a couple geese in the morning then Sean and I shot over to Mongo to try to get on some teal I found there a week prior during a dove hunt. We didn't find the teal but Sean got a dove...

Monday stayed home and got some chores done, Tuesday more of the same from Monday. Wednesday Jake and I hunted the same pond as Sunday. We didn't get anything but there were more geese in the area. After the morning hunt, I headed home caught a quick nap and shot over to Mongo to try some pass shooting. Sean and I saw where the geese were flying through to get to a feed just East of Mongo. So I signed in and got set up, I did get one goose but that was all that came close enough for a shot. Sorry, no pic forgot to get one. Thursday I was going to go hunt a lake nearby but I just couldn't get out of bed. So essentially that was my early season goose hunt. It was a pretty busy week but it really got me ready for the second season, in a month. Before that starts though we have opening fall turkey and deer archery season, I'm looking forward to both of those.

Do I have another trip in me???

So, I went to Erie yesterday rollin' solo, none of my bros could get free. Before I went I told myself that I had 2 trips to Erie left in me before I winterized the boat and focused on shootin' stuff in the face. Well, I fished hard all day and only ground out 2 walleye

 and one 18" largemouth

 I just checked my path on google pro and it said I traveled 23 miles trolling yesterday, it seems huge but I believe it. I fished for 16 hours, ending at sunset, it was a long hot day to bring home my 2 fish. It was pretty bumpy out all day the wind pretty much had its way with me. The lake was pretty tore up, with eelgrass floating all over and on top of that, the spiny water fleas were in pretty thick.
 
 With those 3 things going against me I should be happy I boated the couple I did. Seems like I was cleaning lures and line every 15 mins to a half-hour, then staying on course was a bear...
That being said next week is the opening goose, needless to say, I won't even be thinking about fishing....
I might be up for a trip the week after, but I'm saying now if I can't fill the passenger seat I'm going to be done for the year....


-maybe-

HUNTING SEASON IS HERE

Yes, the 2019-2020 has officially opened, I spent opening Dove on a mix of private and public properties. I will say I did better on public but it was awesome to be able to shoot lead again. On all public properties, you can only shoot steel, which sometimes isn't lethal. Nuff 'bout that, I shot ok and brought down 10 doves over the course of 2 days. 2 on Tuesday

 I only shot two because of all the usual excuses: shot poorly, the wrong spot, started late, forgot my chair, tired......
Wednesday same as Tuesday, I started on private and transitioned to public. I not only shot better but I was in the same field and was where the dove wanted to be. In waterfowl lingo, I was on the X. I didn't get a pic of the 8 doves I shot on Wednesday because it was pretty late and I went to Jakes to make poppers out of them and deep fry'em. While I was cleaning them I was on my second to last bird and low and behold it was banded...

 This is the info...
 Dear Jeff Kimber,
Thank you for reporting Band #: 1843-32069A confirmation email has been sent to you.
See below for the banding information for the reported bird:

Date	08/01/2016
Species	Mourning Dove
Age	HATCHED IN 2015 OR EARLIER
Sex	MALE
Location	NEAR MONGO, LAGRANGE COUNTY, INDIANA, USA

 This is my second dove band, they are rarer than waterfowl bands.
Super awesome start... the poppers were also really good.