Sunday roosters!

After getting some advice about hunting the thick stuff, coupled with some intel from the landowner where we hunted ducks this morning, we did better this afternoon. Overall we found 5 roosters and 6 hens. However, the hunting was HARD. We covered about the same amount of ground as previous days, but 80% of it was in cattails, other similar high stuff, and phragmites that was about 9 feet tall. To say that it was tough on the dogs and on us is the biggest understatement of the year!

Winnie and Gunner hunted for 2.5 hours and then we switched Gunner for Mag because Gunner was totally tired after crashing thru cattails and thick stuff for 2 hours. Winnie and Mag hunted together for about 2 more hours. All 3 hunted superbly. Gunner registered 2 beautiful points, producing 1 bird - a hen. We are guessing that on the other point, the bird ran out and they just didn't find it because I've never seen him hold a point that long and NOT produce a bird... Other than that, he found and flushed a rooster in the cattails that I shot and Winnie made a nice retrieve, because he couldn't see it because the cattails were too high...

Winnie had a several good points on hens and 2 on roosters. On the first of the 2 roosters she pointed, she found and pointed it, then trailed the rooster for about 75 yards as it ran, was slowing to reset and point again when it flushed. It was a 25 yard shot for Dan - that he missed... The other point was excellent too. She was in the middle of phragmites and we heard her beeper go off, and then again, and then again, and then again... Finally a bird holding tight! Dan charged in and flushed it, and I shot it for Winnie to retrieve - which she did. Mag stayed steady while I shot and she honored while Winnie retrieved.

We had a passing rooster fly low enough to take a shot at, and we both missed - mostly me missing and Dan firing to back me up... A few minutes later, Dan flushed another rooster underfoot (independent of the dogs) and promptly missed that one too. At that point, he was getting (understandably) frustrated...

We concluded the day by stalking and killing a duck on the slough as we headed back to the truck. Mag was happy to swim across it to make the retrieve.

I included a few pictures here that I hope can do justice to the cover we were in today. It was enough to make even Dan decide that we are going to NOT hunt pheasants tomorrow and let the dogs (and our own legs) rest. We'll hunt ducks tomorrow morning and spend the afternoon scouting for some new pheasant spots for Tu-Wed-Thur. We're planning to hunt pheasants in the morning on Tuesday (and ducks in the afternoon) to maybe give us a better chance on the pheasants.

After such an exhausting afternoon, we were too tired to make dinner, so we splurged and  treated ourselves to a fancy dinner - takeout pizza from the gas station next to the hotel. It was really good!

Here's some background info on these pictures: The top one is the cover where Winnie pointed and held the rooster that I shot. She was in the middle of the tall stuff (phragmites). The cattails to the right were as tall as Dan.
The second pic is Mag running in front of some grasses that were not nearly as tall, but were super thick. We went through a good bit of this stuff, and all of it was really hard for us to walk through. No wonder the dogs are all so tired!
I twisted my ankle 2x (which has been about the daily norm) and fell down 3 or 4 times (which has also been the norm). It's just really tough going out here!!!
The last picture - well, can you look at it and tell us "what's wrong with this picture", or at least - what doesn't make sense?