The Year in Review

Another year has come and gone. Time to get the hunting stuff put away, and get the fishing stuff out and dusted off. I had a pretty good year both fishing and hunting of course the hunting is alot easier to keep track of.
So here it is:

2009 Hunting Season Breakdown

Species-------Days Afield ---Number of Critters Taken
Turkey---------- 6---------------- 0
Deer------------- 1 ----------------1
Dove------------- 3---------------- 4
Pheasant-------- ½-------------- 0
Coon------------- 3---------------- 3
Coyote/Fox----------- 3---------------- 1
Waterfowl------------ 24----------- 15 ducks/22 geese

Total-------40 1/2-------------46

Well if you compare the totals from last year. My days afield and number of critters are both lower than last year. The reason for this is my work schedule.
I learned being on first shift killed me this year, hopefully that will change next year.
I also learned that field hunting ducks and geese is worth the work.
I learned pelts are worth practically nothing this year. I will probably spend less time chasing coons and yotes next year. I will spend as much time hunting waterfowl as possible. I also learned that senko's really do work and I am looking forward to using them again this year.

So, I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks.
I'll take the month of March off (no hunting or fishing). I use this month to get the garage cleaned out and get the stuff taken care of that I have neglected all year.
I'll start casting the big lake in April. Of course I have put in for the Turkey hunt again this year, so keep your fingers crossed for me.
So until I have something worth blogging about- take care, and check back the first week of April.

First yote hunt this year

Weed and I got out for a yote hunt last Thurs. Weed came along to run the video of all the yotes I planned on bringin' in. After our first stand I took him back to a tree that I knew had coons in it. I set him up and pointed him at the tree and started the squallerin'. Everything was workin' great except that the coon had a sleep over in the tree right next to his. Now if it was coon season I would've added another pelt to my freezer. However it is not and we not only let the coon live on but Weed didn't even get the video of the coons departure. O.K. here's kinda where it goes stale so we'll just FF in the interest of saving time. Drive,walk,call,walk,call,drive,walk,call. Not sure how many stands we hit that day but it was 4:30ish when Weed had to go do some saving of the USA. Well I breathed a sigh of relief cause I almost had to take him to one of my good spots. Since he left I decided to see if my first good spot was still good. I was walking in to find a spot to sit down when I saw a yote. Right then and there I realized it was Weed's bad Joo Joo that had been keeping me down all day. So I backed out of the spot and went down to call another spot, I saw 7 turkey's walkin' down the path. I got to the next spot and went through the call and had a bald eagle fly over, things are lookin' up. After that I walked back to the car and drove to another spot. I walked in sat down and started the caller. I'm not sure how long it took but I heard something off to my right. I looked over and there she was 50 yards through some briar's and brush. I had shut the caller off but she wasn't stopping so I took the shot. She didn't even really acknowledge it she did however go to her left and up the hill a little, which was enough for me to slam her with the 50 grn V-max. Bang flop game over. Hit the ki-yi's hoping for a double,after a couple mins I shut it off and retrieved my prize.

Furries

Daytime coon calling
I went for a walk about yesterday and ended up with 3 coon. I did see 7 and had 1 drop back into the tree upon the shot (very sad). I hate losing,wounding,not using, anything I shoot or hook. Anyone who has hunted or fished with me knows that. I'll look for hours for a dove, but there was no getting this coon. I initially thought that the house he was in was open on the bottom. I have called this tree before, so when he came out the hole to his shoulders I let him have it. The sickening thing was he dropped inside the tree and I couldn't get him, short of a ladder, and a long hooked bar.
That was the low point of my day, the high points were the coons that worked for me. The first one I got I had to call to twice. I was set up on another tree and kinda watchin' two trees to my right. Well I looked over about 30 yrds and there was a coon lookin' at me. So I waited for him to go back into the tree and moved to take him. Well he didn't come back out, so I moved on knowing I would be back to call there. The next spot was the coon that fell back in, nuff said there. By the time I got back I set up on the tree the coon was in and started the caller. The sound had only been playing for maybe a minute when this coon comes tearing out lookin' for a fight. Unfortunately ( for him) he ran into a 30 grn 22 mag round.

The second coon was really not wanting to come out. He made it through 5-10 mins of kit in distress, the same with woodpecker/kit distress, and finally after 5 min of brawlin' bandits he came out lookin' for a fight. Bang flop


The last coon didn't pop out a tree I was watching. I had 4 trees in close proximity that I was watching. I would say that within 10 mins of playing the kit in distress I saw him running on the ground heading for one of the trees I was watching. Well he didn't make it instead he came home with me.
All in all I had a great day, did alot of walking, and got some more yote and fox spots. Not to mention the new coon spots I'll be hitting next year.

Coon huntin' last Tues.

Yes I went out, I went up to Mongo for some daytime callin'. Now let me just say, I've been told that coons don't like to run in the snow.
Horsepuckey I saw tracks in soft snow (then) and mud tracks in the harder snow (now). I think what had 'em runnin' was the cold temps for so long followed by the warm temps. Anywho, I did make it out and knocked on 6 or 7 doors.
Nobody was home, or at least they didn't want to come out. So after seeing all the tracks I decided to try some nite time callin'. So I packed up and went home to take a nap.
When I got up at 8:18 pm I still wasn't convinced I would see anything. So I checked the temp and went to the front door and looked outside. COON, right in the front yard just meandering around looking for something to eat. I got excited, ran upstairs (walked fast) and threw on my coon hunting attire. I grabbed my light and call and was off.
I went down to Huntington and made 6-7 stands. Nothing, I didn't even call in a possum or see a set of eyes all night. So, tired and depressed I made it home by midnight, I went upstairs to brush my teeth. I left the light off as I always do, so I can see outside to the bird feeder.
Yep, COON in the back yard scarfing up the birdseed on the ground and eating the leftover squirrel food. It seems the city coons were out and the country coons stayed home.
Anyway that was last week and I'll give her heck this week as well. Hopefully I'll have some fur to show for my efforts.
As you can see I need it so- wish me luck.
Thanks

All good things must come to an end

That's right I'm packin' up all my waterfowl gear 'til next year. I was on my last field hunt for the year yesterday. I knew it was going to be a long day when the clouds cleared off, and the sun started it's ascent to start the day. Needless to say the birds started flying around 2:30, and boy did they ever fly. The bad news was they did not want to fly to my field.
So I started playing with the qwackers. I survived 6 tornadoes and 4 of them actually touched down. I even saw a wood duck and a black duck in one of the tornadoes that came over me.

As a matter of fact I was having so much fun watching the ducks. I didn't see a goose that flew through over the top. Only noticed him after he was already past.

Finally the geese started loosening up from their flight path and one came in from behind me. I smashed him at 15 yrds. So with a poof of feathers, and a snow splash down, I had my first goose. I made a mental note that I would start pickin' up around 5:15. I didn't want to do too much pickin' up after dark. So when 5:00 rolled around I knew it was getting down to crunch time. 5:10 - I had a pair coming from my right to left, right down the runway. I thought to myself, "they're going to work", and they did. When they dropped their landing gear I dropped the trailing goose. I watched him go down after sending 2 shots his way. I jumped up and started out to him, he popped his head up. Ok, here's where it gets stupid, raise shotgun and fire, and again. Unbelievable missed again, so once again it's off to the races. I did do one smart thing this time I put my shotgun down before starting the footrace follies. Well I managed to catch my goose and dispatch him. When I got back to my gun I noticed the chamber was closed. I thought that's odd didn't it eject the spent round? Yeah you guessed it, I had another round in the chamber. I must have loaded up at the blind and just forgot about it. I didn't have to chase that dang goose around, I could've just tried to shoot him again. Well I did end up picking up in the dark anyway, but it's always easier when you have limit to carry out.

Last day limit

Took this pic while picking up. I probably had a thousand geese in the air with at least that many qwackers if not more.

Already lookin' forward to next year.

I would like to say thanks to all the landowners that allowed me to hunt their property this year.

Time for some furry critters.