Start of 2017 Fishing season

Mike and I went up yesterday to Lake Michigan to try our luck.
Good news and Bad news: I had luck and Mike didn't, well I shouldn't say that, he did snag a decent sized shad (trash) that is now seagull/coyote food on shore. He did try all day and didn't give up though. We had a pretty good day, the sun was out but it was pretty gusty all day. I caught both my fish on a red eye shad in red sexy shad color. We even stopped at Bass Pro and Mike bought the same thing I was using, still no luck. Well I guess just being with me and netting my fish should be enough to give him that warm fuzzy feeling. 😀

Well that and I let him keep the fish...... I wonder what he told his wife?

Time to put the 2016 season to bed

Yep it's at the end of another year. And this is how my next to last coyote hunt ended.

I just couldn't understand why my feet were getting wet and how the sticks were able to penetrate my boots. The good news was the weather was nice and I only hunted on them this way from noon on. Then the best news was I went to Rural King and got a pair for 18$.



I hit the sale at Rural King just right I got a pair of boots and an Under Armor beanie for 30 bucks which is just an unbelievable price. It was so good I went back the next day and got another pair of boots and another UA beanie.
Well enough small talk here's the stats from this year:

   2016  Hunting Season Breakdown

 Species    |  Days Afield  |  Number of Critters Taken

  Turkey                  6                           1

  Deer                      8                           0

  Dove                     3                          14

  Rabbit                   0                           0

  Pheasant                1                           1

                               Coon                Did not hunt/no fur market                          

  Coyote/Fox           3                           0

         Waterfowl            33             22 ducks/29 geese

Total                      54                          67

Well I can say I doubled my duck count but went down on the geese. I spent more time afield for deer and turkey and didn't capitalize on either, but it was still a good time. I got out a couple more days than last year and brought home more game.
I don't know... I think I had a pretty well rounded year this year and hope 2017 will yield about the same.
This summer is going to be kinda depressing, I'm selling my boat and won't have another until next spring. I am going to be working more this summer to help pay off some bills and save for the next boat. I am going to try and get out and do some fishing just not sure how much or where.
Anyway Turkey season is next and I have already put in for the draw at Mississinewa. I don't think I'll get it (I got drawn last year) but there's always hope. If I do need a spot Mike has mentioned that he's got tons of turkeys. So who knows, maybe this year I'll go shoot one of them dumb private prop. turkey's.
Anyway hope your year went as good as mine.
Stay safe and enjoy what life gives you because it can just as easily be taken away.

Waterfowl season is over

Last week was the last week for my waterfowl season. Mike and I went out twice, once to one of his properties and Friday we hit the water.
Wednesday- We got to Fred's stepped out the truck and realized the geese we were going to be hunting had roosted in the pond. While we looked the situation over we noticed something in the water closest to our shore. So I turned on my light and proceeded to walk closer. The closer we got the more confused we were. They didn't look like ducks and they weren't geese, so we continued to get closer. When we were within 15 yards I could finally make them out. They were snow geese... I have never seen a flock of 15 snow geese anywhere around here. Well needless to say once we were that close they took off. When they got up everything on the little pond got up. For the next 10 minutes it was nothing but flock after flock leaving the area. Well we got set up and could've quickly nailed down our limits. But we took our time, knowing we were going to stay the day in the hopes the snows would come back.
 The ducks and geese on that little pond offered a great show that went on all day. Once daylight started to wane we realized the snows were not going to return. Snow geese got the better of us again...
So we packed up our gear took the pics and headed home.

Friday we hit my water spot and toughed out the wind til around 2pm. We were a little late in arriving and had to push out the geese that had roosted there. We had a couple pairs come back and give a chance to bring geese home but we couldn't put steel on birds for whatever reason.
Oh well, we had to give it one last hoorah.
The only critters left now are coyotes and with the warm weather coming next week, I'm going to try to get out a couple times this week.

Been a little lax this week

I've been out goose hunting 3 times this week and have been just a little lax in the hero pic department. Even though I been shooting geese every time I get out.
 Sean, Mike and I were out yesterday on a field that I've hunted before, but is now under new management. After some negotiating I got permission to hunt, so I called the boys and set the meet time at 5:45am. At 5:45 I was the only one at the designated meet location. A few phone calls and 45 minutes later we were on our way.Once we got set up and daylight was showing through I realized that we set up on the wrong little hill.
Strike one.
Once we were ready, with nothing flying, we decided the birds were going to be fashionably late. The first flock got there around noonish we had 6 come in and 4 leave. My bad I had the decoys too far up towards the blinds so the birds didn't swing and set where I wanted them to.
Strike two.
So I moved the decoys and waited and waited and listened to Sean snore and then waited some more.
20-30 minutes before sunset is when they started flying and they came in waves. We had a flock of 20-30 working with a four pack in front threating to land so I gave the order to, "take 'em", here's the rub. I told the guys that if you get a big flock to come in and we had some early setters that we would let them land and suck the rest in.
Strike three.
Long story short we had some opportunities that we quickly blew and once again couldn't hit the broad side of a barn from the inside.
Terrible shooting.

At least everyone told me they had a good time, and if you talk to anyone in the game that's what it's really all about.
 Right????
I think everyone would've had a really good time if their were 9 geese laying there, that's a good time.

rain, warm, rain, snow....

Monday Sean and I went to one of my water spots because it's been sooo warm and rainy, the fields around here are just mud. We had a couple geese play the game and 3 of them paid the price. I only shot one and Sean got 2 which doesn't really sound that good but it was a good time.

this kid can't keep his eye's open

forgot to get a hero pic so just got a pic at home....











Tuesday promised the same wind and cooler temps with the chance of sun. Well the chance came through for about half an hour total through the day. The good news was I filled my 3 bird limit at 9am. The bad new was I still stayed until noon. Here's why... when I was out getting my third goose I looked up at a four pack that was passing by and saw something out of the ordinary for around here. There was a snow goose right in the middle of the formation. So since it was early I thought I would give hang out for a while and see if I could add to my limit.

Yeah there's only three there so in hindsight I should've just gone home. Oh well, it was a pretty nice day and I did see alot of geese even though all I could do was call and watch.