Monthly Archive for October, 2009

Fowl Day at the Duck Park

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on October 31, 2009
in Duck Hunting, Hunting, Layout Boat and Ted Shanks
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Hubbard and I decided to try our luck at Ted Shanks on Wednesday Nov. 11. The bird count was 18,000+ birds and draw time was 4 a.m. We got there around 3:30. Hubbard was the first guy to the window for the poorline and managed to pull pill #2! Absolutely amazing. Picked pool 2D since its bird-to-hunter ratio was one of the best for the wade and shoot areas, and we thought we were going to have a heck of a hunt.

We were the first ones into the pool and headed to the north side of it in our layout boats. In the pitch black darkness, it’s really hard to see how far you’ve gone, so we had a little trouble trying to get to where we wanted to be. We were barely set up and ready by the time shooting time started. After Hubbard missed a pintail drake and I missed a mallard hen, we realized that we weren’t as far north in the pool as we wanted to be. So we packed up al our gear and moved to where we saw birds working and landing.

By the time we got to where we wanted to be, it seemed like the birds stopped working. We did have some singles and doubles work our decoy spread, but we just couldn’t get them to commit. Passed on a few iffy shots at the beginning because we were hoping they would drop into the dekes. Finally decided to stop waiting and start shooting.

Hubbard ended up shooting a single mallard hen that came in, and Jessie made the retrieve on it (with a little help from me — she didn’t go far enough initially). Then we had a mallard drake and hen come in. We both sat up to shoot the drake and missed on the first shot. I shot a second time and knocked it down, but I could tell that it was still alive. Jessie took off after it, and I jumped out of the boat to help her. We ended up pushing the bird ahead into some corn, and then were never able to find it. I did see it briefly down one of the corn rows at about 30 yards, but before I could shoot it, it magically disappeared. Jessie and I ran towards where I saw it, but it was gone. Probably dove. We searched all over, but couldn’t find it. Went back to the boats, and I ended up getting one more shot (and miss) at a mallard hen. And that was it.

Temps hit the mid 60s and there was little bird movement all day. My shooting skills were pathetic. Kind of a bummer to draw so well, get into a great pool and then get the shaft with a bad hunt. But, a bad hunt is better than a day at work, and we had a great time. Looking forward to some cooler weather and more active birds.

First Set-Up Location

1st Location at Sunrise

Layout Boats in Second Set-Up Location

2nd Location Layout Boats

Panoramic of 2nd Location

2nd Location Panorama (looking at the boats)

2nd Location Panorama 2

2nd Location Panorama (looking from my boat)

Mallard Migration Status — Courtesy of MDC

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on October 26, 2009
in Duck Hunting, Hunting and MDC
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Opening Day Bust!

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on October 26, 2009
in Duck Hunting, Hunting and Old Monroe
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Opening day was uneventful. We were able to hunt, even though the area had received major flooding. Shooting time was 6:07, and we walked in about 30 minutes before it.

We were hunting the north side, so Jeff and George took blind 1, and Dan and I decided to hunt blind 3 because it had a dog stand that wasn’t underwater as much as blind 2, and blind 2 still had 6″ of water in it. But, when we got to blind 3, Dan looked inside and saw two big river rats staring at us. Needless to say, we changed our minds and went to hunt blind 2.

By the time we threw out decoys around blind 2, we had already heard some shooting, and saw lots of birds flying. Opening day was officially underway. unfortunately, we only got shots at one group of teal, but they passed us at light speed. By the time I was pulling the trigger, they were already buzzing by us. Had a few other groups come close to us, and had one big duck come by, but by the time we saw anything that was in range, it was too late.

We finished up the morning at around 9 a.m. Each of us had taken 1 shot, and it was already close to 70 degrees out side. Way too warm for this sport. I bailed the rest of the water from blind 2, and I bailed out a dead carcass during the process — probably another nasty old river rat. Lucky me. On the way out, George and Jeff took care of the river rats in blind 3. Lucky them.

Both pools were really high, but I actually think the amount of water will be good for hunting. The corn is finally starting to turn brown, and there are lots of ducks in the area. They just didn’t want to come near us.

The forecast for Sunday was about the same. Sunny and warm. I decided to stay home and sleep in. We’re heading to Shanks on Veteran’s Day Wednesday for the poor line, so hopefully we draw well. We need some colder weather!

Week of Rain = Flood

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on October 22, 2009
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The heavy rainfalls that we’ve had over the past week has caused some major flooding. Right now, the Cuivre River is above flood levels, and we can’t even get to our blinds to see if they are OK for the opener on Saturday. Not looking good. Here’s a screen shot of the Cuivre’s water levels.

Cuivre River Water Levels as of 11-3-09

Cuivre River Water Levels as of 11-3-09

Trip to the World’s Foremost Outfitters

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on October 14, 2009
in Hunting and Layout Boat
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Went to Cabela’s on Saturday morning with my daughter to pick up an order. I had ordered a Killer Weed layout blind kit (Golden Harvest), and drab green K-L Sport Sled. The sled should pull really well behind the layout boat, and I can put decoys and gear in it. While we were there, I also managed to pick up some new neoprene gauntlet decoy gloves, and a 3/4 face warmer/mask/gaitor.

Today, I took the Killer Weed raffia grass out of the package and combined it into separate bundles. I still need to attach it to the boat, but I was only able to get 12 bundles out of it. Seems a little light, but we’ll see how well it does. I have grass mats and some camo burlap as a base layer, and am using the grass bundles to break it up more.

Cleaning up the Thunderstick

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on October 14, 2009
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I had a chance to break my Benelli Nova apart and take a look inside the action. Boy, was it dirty. No rust or anything too bad, just a lot of dirt and debris. I’m not really sure when the last time was that I cleaned it, which is why I took it apart. After cleaning it up with some Rem oil, I put it back together, and now it’s all perty and ready to go!

A Star Among Us

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on October 9, 2009
in Dogs, Hunting and waterfowler.com
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I forgot to mention that we have a star among us this season. Jeff’s dog Bogey made the cover of waterfowler.com! They’ve moved on to a new picture, but here’s what it looked like. It was shot from inside blind 6, facing west towards blind 5.

Bogey on Waterfowler.com

Bogey on Waterfowler.com

Dog-gone Training

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on October 9, 2009
in Busch Wildlife and Dogs
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Went out to Busch Wildlife this past Saturday with Jessie, cousin Jeff and his dog Bogey. The weather was beautiful after a week of doom and gloom rain and clouds. Had bluebird skies with temps in the 50s or 60s.

We did some basic retrieving drills and worked on the 2 dogs honoring each other’s retrieves. Both dogs did a good job, and you could tell that they are ready to go for the season. I sent Jessie on her first double retrieve, and she somehow managed to pull it off after a little help from me on the first dummy bird. It was pretty cool to see, but I know that I need to work on it more with her. She’s 4 years old, but seems like she still has good potential to learn.

Bogey

Bogey

Jessie

Jessie

Jessie

Jessie

‘09 Blinds are Brushed

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on October 9, 2009
in Duck Hunting, Hunting and Old Monroe
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Finished brushing the blinds out at Old Monroe a couple of weeks ago. This year, we replaced the chicken wire on most of them, and we ended up brushing all 6 blinds (instead of 4).  We now have a “party blind” in the number 5 spot. This is a little bigger than the others, and should provide a little extra room for 2 guys and gear. The corn has come in a lot more than expected and has some good ears on it. Not all of it was fully developed yet, but it should provide some food to lure the ducks in, and it definitely provides more cover for the blinds.

Looking forward to the start of the season. Nov. 7 is coming fast! Just need a little cooperation from Mother Nature this year. She wasn’t too kind last year — only got a month of hunting in before the pool locked up!

Working on Blind 5

Working on Blind 5

Blind 6

Blind 6