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:

2 for Goo

I have been watching the forums for Lake Michigan and aparrently the kings and coho are staging in 20 to 50 fow. So on Tues. I went up to try my luck, I trolled for 8 hours, only to put 2 gaspergoo's in the boat. They are actually freshwater drum, they remind me of a sheepshead, nothing but trash.

They put up a pretty good fight, but they are NOT KINGS.












Count down to my goose and dove opener: 4 days and a wake up.... cannot wait...

playin' catch up

Alright let's play some catch up... 2 weeks ago I made a trip to Tippy. Tippy is quickly becoming my second favorite lake to fish. The chance of rain was a mere 0%, this is what I got.

 Before the superstorm hit the fishing was awesome, with the largemouth and white bass were chasing and crashing the shad on the surface. I actually started the video recording so I could catch some of the action and got the storm instead. I caught and released alot of fish and kept 4 for supper.

Then on the way back to the landing I caught a couple bass froggin'.

 Last week I made another voyage up to Lake Michigan and put in at Michigan City. It was the first time in 3 years that I put in up there. I started at dawn and wanted to motor out to 90 fow but only made it to 83 fow before I dropped lines and started trolling. The waves and wind was from the South, so the further out I went the worse it got. I trolled all the way back in (5 mi) and around the mouth of Trail Creek without even a bump. Another 0, that made it 3 zero's for the year and very well might be the last time I go up this year. Remember kids dove and early goose opens on Sept.1.

This week I went to Tippy again and got into the largemouth, many fish caught but nothing big so no pics. I hopped over to Chapman around 2 or so and fished there til 7. By then I was pretty tired so I packed up and headed for home. All in all had a pretty good day.

I gotta work next Thurs. so I probably won't be going out unless the silver fish start showing up on Lake Michigan. I know I said it might be the last time this year, but I just can't help myself.