Christmas hunt?

 I'm not sure you could call it a Christmas hunt if it was the day after, but I'm going to anyway. I finally found a bunch of birds in town on Christmas so I ended up going there Tuesday. It turned out to be a really nice day, medium wind, cloudy, and warm. Warm?? yeah it was 50ish, so it was way too hot but I still went. I've noticed in this spot the ducks get out early and usually don't come back til near dark. So, I've been trying to get there a little early so I can have a shot at some ducks before they disapear for the day.

 

TO SEE THE VIDEO GO TO THE BLOG, click on the blue link on the bottom.

 As I've noticed videoing my hunts, usually the GoPro was not recording for my best shots of the day. I shot 2 ducks and a goose off camera. So I ended the day with 3 geese and 3 ducks, until I found the goose I sailed on the last volley. Then the total was 4 geese and 3 ducks for the day.

  The time right now is 4:22 am and I'm set up to hunt this morning. I'm getting a jump on this so I won't be so rushed when I get home. 

 

Now off for my last hunt of the year....

Well that was a bust. 

I got to the lake I wanted to hunt and there were 3 trucks in the parking lot. So just to make sure they were in the spot I was going to go to. I drove around the other side of the lake and sure enough they were setting up right off the point. With the wind direction the way it was that's the only spot that I had, so on with plan B. Plan B was to drive back to the lake across from my house and hu.... crap there's a truck in the parking lot and they're setting up on the island. I could've dropped in and set up in another spot but I only had 20 mins til shooting and I figured with the rain I could stay in today. So I'm sitting here finishing this and listening for them to shoot, I haven't heard anything yet and it's been shooting light for a half hour already. 

Maybe I'm not going to be missing anything.

Making up for last week

 Question: Why is it that when you have your alarm set for 4:00am and you wake up at 3:00am you feel fresh and revived. But you have your alarm set for 4:00am and only get 7 hours of sleep if you sleep till 4:00am. So you force yourself to go back to sleep wait for your alarm to get up at 4:00am, and now you're tired.

Monday was snowing and blowy so I stayed home and did nothing just relaxed. Tuesday I went to one of my spots in Fort Wayne, I thought it was going to be a great day. It was cold, it was cloudy and then about 8:00 the orange thing popped out. As we all know, it made my quick shoot an all day sit. I had one flock come in at 5 minutes till shoot done. I did go three for three so by the time I got them gathered up my alarm was going off it was time to stop. Which was fine because like I said I did get three geese. I started to pick up and I had three more geese come in and sit down on my decoys. If I would have just had five more minutes I could have had my limit of five, but three was good.

 

 

I got all my prework chores done yesterday so I got to go hunting this morning. I didn't get anything but had a good time trying. I was going to go home early anyway but God let me know when I should go home.

At the tree tops reflection in the water is the skim ice that was encroaching on me. By the time I got half my dekes up, the wind had push the ice against the other half and into the reeds.

Dammit broke the streak

 Yep, no pics, no ducks, no geese totally blanked this week. I sat on a field all day Tuesday only to not even take my shot at 3 ducks when it was given to me, right at last light. Those were the only feathered fliers that even remotely offered me a shot. I really wanted to get out Monday, but on Sunday I put an ache in my back so thought it would be best to get some sleep and get on the mend.

Now, duck is closed for a week but goose is still open. If we don't get some weather next week, I might have to stay home and clean. 😡

Really don't want to do that.

Get your storm dance going for rain or snow I'll take either.

Lota geese this week

 This is going to be short.

Found some birds is Ft. Wayne, the hunt didn't last long. I tried to get video but it was over so fast I couldn't even get it turned on.

I do have a video of a goose that hung out with me for a couple hours but I can't get it off my phone.

Cacklers

They were no bigger than a mallard. We don't shoot alot of them but we get 'em every once and a while.

I stayed til noon to try and get some ducks but that was a no go.

Tuesday I recouped, Wednesday I went to a local lake to try for a couple ducks......

One loner goose... the only shot I fired that day. 

This morning I got up extra early and finished all my chores so I could go out to the lake across the road. I had a flock of geese stop 100 yards short and had a gadwall do a drive-by. 

Nothing to clean today.

Gotta get the trash out, talk to ya next week.

My worst day hunting

 The weekend past Thanksgiving is the start of the pheasant clean up on the public properties. This year was extra special because we had fresh snow and that makes my job alot easier. All I have to do is cut a track and follow it, because at the end there's a pheasant. Then all I have to do is catch it before it flies for a quick ground pound shot. Some people may frown on this tactic but I have found that not having a dog, if I wing a pheasant I never find it. 

That being said this is how my day went.

I started out at sunrise along with an army of orange ready to go with dogs and guns looking to fill their bag limit of 2 pheasant. I went to the same area I had luck last year, parked on the far East side of the section and started walking. I went for about 3 hours without even cutting a track. I even scared the crap out of a deer hunter that was sitting on the ground and didn't hear me walk up. After I chatted with him for a couple minutes I headed South down a trail that he said led to a couple fields. As I was walking I was keeping a keen eye out for pheasant tracks. Finally I cut one and started to follow it, the pheasant got off the trail and headed into a thick blow down with new saplings. So as per my game plan I was up around and over blow-downs looking 10-20 yards ahead for an escaping pheasant. Beyond that I saw a trail that was in front of me 35-40 yards and a lab was running left to right down it then turned around and ran back around the point where I thought I had heard voices. Just then I saw something crossing the path a little to my right going away from me. I pulled up and shot..... and instantly heard the sound of a dog yelping and crying, followed by the screams of a young lady trying to have the dog come to her...

I had just shot a dog.... I scrambled through the crap that was between me and the path, when I finally made it she had the dog (I think a Shiba Inu) in her arms. In total there was what looked like brother and sister (old enough to drive) the dad and the grampa along with their 5 labs and the little dog. 

She wasn't hysterical but understandably shaken, the grampa was concerned, as were the boy and the dad. She finally said,"what did you think you were shooting at?" to which I replied, "a hen pheasant". They took off the little dogs vest which was orange... I never saw orange, and started checking for shot holes. The dogs ears were bleeding a little which could've been briars, which is what the older gentleman had said. He also said not to worry, there won't be a lawsuit, which I never even thought of. I was in shock and only concerned about the welfare of the dog. The dog had a some swelling on the cheek but no blood, there was some blood on the other side of the face. She wasn't whining as she was held by the girl but she was shaken. I asked them to check the dogs eyes which were ok, and stayed with them until the dog was looked over for shot. I gave them a deer tag that has my address and name on it, and asked them to let me know how the dog is after they take her to the vet.

 Then we parted ways, they went to their truck and I... well I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I was also shaken by what had transpired, I still cannot put into words the darkness I felt after hearing that dog yelp. It absolutely tore my heart out, I almost just packed it in for the day. But going home and worrying wouldn't help anything, so I decided to keep hunting. It wasn't until 2 fields later that I noticed I hadn't ejected the spent shell. Well, after another hour of walking I finally cut another track and started following it. It was maybe 15 minutes and I shot my first pheasant, and only 5 minutes after that to get me limit. 

I walked out to the road and started the long trek back to the car. I had actually walked through the entire section, and took the road back... bout a 5 mile hike round trip.

Normally I'm in my pics all smiles and happy... that just wasn't the case on this day.

As soon as I hear from the family I will let you know how this turns out.

 

Tuesday I left the house around 10:30 which I thought would put me right where I wanted to be, with the birds pushed into the thick cover. Well, the turnout on the second day was dramatically less than day one. With no one pushing the birds out of the fields I found myself trying to walk 'em up. I just got done pushing some thick saw grass and cattails when I got to a path and started walking back the way I just came and cut a track. So I started following it, after the fresh snow in the morning it was pretty easy. I caught a glimpse of the pheasant running into the same stuff I shot my limit in the day before. So off I went, after a couple minutes I had my first pheasant. Try as I may, I spent the next 4 hours walking and tracking, only to miss on 3 separate pheasants and only managed to wear myself out. 

Even not getting a bird and wearing myself out would've been worlds better than what happened the day before....

I'm not going to stop hunting, and in a sport where decisions are made in milliseconds good or bad things can happen. I absolutely feel terrible about what happened but I don't feel I did anything wrong. It looked like a hen pheasant running away. They had an orange vest on the dog but no bell or beeper, I had my lab wear a bell, just another good tool to not have something like this happen. 

Not that I'm trying to justify my actions, belittle the accident or blame anyone.... I'm just saying.