Trip Recap

Shooting Recap:

Dan Upland Hunting: 6 birds bagged on 12 attempts. Missed 3 "lay-ups", 1 fairly easy one, and 2 difficult shots. 2 of the birds bagged were on a covey of Hungarian partridge.

Bill Upland Hunting: 6 birds bagged on 10 attempts. Missed 1 "lay-up", 1 fairly easy one, and 2 difficult shots.

*Only 3 Roosters were shot at by both of us. 1 of those escaped and the other 2 were bagged (1 by me and the other by Bill).

Dan Waterfowl Hunting: In the first 2 days, I started by only knocking down 1 duck in the first 20 times I pulled the trigger. However, I quickly recovered by bagging 13 ducks on my next 20 trigger squeezes for a total of 14/40.

Bill Waterfowl Hunting: Bill shot pretty well consistently throughout the trip, bagging 10 ducks on 25 shots... While making all of the easy shots that were presented and missing most of the difficult ones.

Dog Recap:

Our dogs combined to flush 63 pheasants in gun range, 15 of which were Roosters. We estimate that Winnie found and pointed approximately 75% of those flushed. Additionally, she pointed a covey if partridge from 15-20 yds away.

Maggie's upland performance was excellent as expected. She consistently hunted in range and found, trailed, and flushed any birds that were in front of her when hunting apart from Winnie. While hunting in the same area as Winnie, she did a good job of recognizing when Winnie was on point out ahead of her and quickly moving up to trail the birds at a rate fast enough to flush them. Of particular note, Maggie developed the habit of checking back while trailing, to ensure that we were keeping up with her.

On waterfowl, Mag did a nice job on the retrieves, finding all birds that she was sent for. A few of her retrieves were difficult blinds, (one of which ended in a trail for a bird) that she completed without any major problems. Her lack of steadiness was definitely an issue and a few cast refusals on blinds were unwelcome, but not unexpected.

Jackson definitely became a hunting dog this week! In the upland field, he transformed from needing constant encouragement and running around with somewhat of an idea of what he was looking for, to independently hunting in front of us, in range, and very obediently with a purpose on the final day. 

On his first waterfowl hunting experience ever, he passed with flying colors. Aside from a couple controled breaks that we quickly got under control, he did everything I could have hoped he would do. He was obedient, steady (by the end of the trip), marked what was able to be marked, made quick clean retrieves, and handled the blinds necessary even better than I ever thought he would! When Maggie was injured, he stepped up and did a great job of double duty for the final two days. He definitely earned his keep and made his dad proud! I wonder if Gunner will need to put him in his place when we return this evening?!

Of note: We enjoyed Jackson's quirkiness. His inability to find a comfortable spot of his own in the truck and the resulting odd positions found himself and his picture were comical. His preference for trying to step up into the truck rather than jumping like all the other dogs was also amusing!

Overall Trip Recap:

The unseasonably warm weather made the duckhunting different and challenging. With only resident ducks in the area, they were difficult to decoy close enough to shoot. Additionally, since the migration hasn't started yet, The birds that were in the area were spread out among the many potholes of water. Given these facts, we were happy to scratch out the number of ducks that we bagged each day.

After multiple conversations with local landowners and other hotel guests, it has been speculated that the unseasonably wet summer killed off a large portion of the young pheasant population, resulting in MUCH lower bird numbers than the 33% increase the NDG&F Dept predicted. Evidence of this was seen in the lack of presents we observed while driving as compared to previous years. On a positive note, we believe that we have found a new strategy for targeting pheasants. In the evening, we found good concentrations of Roosters in low-lying, dry, cattail areas, with a food source and water nearby.

Additionally, we have our room and dates confirmed at this year's already discounted rate!! Additionally, the room will be newly remodeled and is on the ground floor!! 

Murphy's Law

This has been a rough trip on us, but we've made the best of it and had a good time anyway. Let's take a look back  at Murphy's attempts to spoil our week.

Last Thursday, (the night before we left for ND): While packing my truck, we noticed a transmission line that just cracked and started leaking onto my garage floor and had to work all evening to find a place to repair it that night or early Friday morning. No parts and repair facilities were available, so we put JB Weld on it in order to be able to make it to Marietta the next morning.

Friday: Departed around 7am for Marietta Ford to get the trans line repaired enroute to ND. Friday around 8:30pm in Wisconsin, the engine blows a plug and coil out and halts progress. We sleep in the truck until we could get it repaired the next morning.

Saturday: We repaired it as good as could be done with limited tools and abilities in the parking lot of Advance Auto Parts. This allows us to continue towards ND while we search for a garage to do a permanent repair. We make it almost to Minnesota before we find a place open and willing to do the work... And spend 3+ hours waiting while they work on it.

Sunday and Monday:  Bill got sick on Sunday and remained quite sick until his fever broke Monday night.

Tuesday: Nothing happened except normal hunting... Crazy!!

Wednesday: I started feeling sick in the morning and continued to feel worse as the day went on. We went to bed early and my fever broke that night. 

Thursday: Maggie was retrieving a pheasant and ran through a barbed wire fence, resulting in 12 stitches and incapacitating her for the rest of the trip. Additionally, Winnie ate a thin "liner" sock at some point in the last couple of days and we haven't noticed it coming back out either end yet.

Friday: Towards the end of a successful evening pheasant hunt, while walking back towards the truck, I realized that my Oakley sunglasses had fallen off my head and are lost.

Saturday: A little bit of hunting and started driving... No major issues.

Sunday: In Indiana (almost to Ohio border) and the truck blew a different spark plug and coil out of the engine. Exactly the same issue as we had on our way to ND... We are currently near Columbus, and attempting to limp it back home to WV.

To make things worse, our wives have not had it easy this week either and should be publicly recognized for their efforts and sacrifices... 

Dealing with all of the normal (but not easy) problems of everyday life as a temporary single parent... PLUS: 

Jennifer's car blew a transmission last Monday and she has been dealing with that... Thanks mom and dad for picking up Jennifer and the kids along side I-68 and for the use of your car. 

Lori and Drew have been sick for at least 1 day each this past week, and Luke carried a fever of 100+ for three days, requiring a visit to the doctor, then hospital for lots of tests (blood work, urine sample, x-rays...). However, he seems to be doing better now and all tests have come back normal so far.

Thank you Lori and Jennifer for everything you do and putting up with our hunting pursuits!! We love you and will see you soon.

Saturday hunting and logistical items

It is 1 PM central time and we are headed for home. We shot three ducks at Jerry's this morning, hunting there until 9 AM. I got one female redhead and Dan made a beautiful double on a pair of crossing BW Teal. Jackson had the duties again with Maggie on injured reserve and did a great job. He was steady during both shooting opportunities. He picked up my bird as a short sight blind because the bird was low-flying and his view of the shot and fall was obscured by the cattails. He made a beautiful marked retrieve on the 'go bird' (second bird to fall of the pair) of Dan's double, although I didn't realize he had marked it until I had walked him part way to the bird. It was about a 75yd. retrieve through water, cattails, & into more open water. As we were walking from our hide into the first area of open water I casually said his name (having a 1-sided conversation as we walked), and he took off like a rocket from my side and ran a laser straight line through the the water, cattails, and into the next water to the bird! When he returned with that bird, I spotted the 1st bird of the double floating toward us and he picked that up as a 20 yd. sight blind. Also of note, he sat perfectly and patiently on the opposite bank while Dan & I set up in the dark. He is becoming quite a little hunter!

We talked to Jerry for a little while and then were hunting at Lake Brekken by 10:45AM. We hit a couple brushy tree rows on our way to the low-lying areas in the adjacent crop fields that produced birds yesterday. We found no birds in any of these spots. On our way back, we hunted through the area where Dan wounded the rooster yesterday and Jax found it, still very alive, but unable to fly. This made us feel good about ourselves as conservationists! This was our only action and we got back to the truck at noon.

We fed the dogs, cleaned the birds, and repositioned our gear for the ride home. All 3 dogs are riding up front. I wanted to be able to keep an eye on Mag to ensure she isn't licking at her stitches; I am soft, and thought Jax would be more comfortable up here; Winnie the Princess  always gets to ride up front...

We are starving, but the closest fast food is McDonalds, 132 miles from here. We're going to be really hungry by the time we arrive!

In an effort to be trendy, like our President, below is a 'selfie' of me and Dan in our hunting spot at Jerry's. Where's Angela Merkel when you need her?!

No duck hunting, but got some pheasants

After getting our things packed to head out tomorrow, we went to the Federal property next to Goven's for duck hunting this evening. Upon our arrival, we surveyed the situation and determined that the wind wasn't blowing in the right direction, and there were too many hazards (barbed wire fence in the water and a road within 50 yards) in the area that the wind was forcing us to hunt. Given these circumstances, we made the call to shut it down and hunt pheasants instead.

We packed up our things, drove back to the hotel, and picked up Winnie to make one more attempt at getting some birds today... And boy am I glad that we did! This was both the best decision we've made all week, and they best hunting we've had all week!! 

We arrived back at Lake Brekken (across the road from Goven's) at 5:30 to start our hunt. The wind was initially about 15 mph, but died down as the evening progressed, and the temperature was approximately 55°. We targeted some low lying, wetland areas out in the middle of the grain fields with great success! 

In the 1:45 we had available to hunt, Winnie and Jackson found, pointed, and flushed between 10 and 15 hens, all within range. Additionally, we set an Everly ND record by flushing 9 roosters within range!! Of the nine, we brought home 4, dropped 1 that we didn't recover, wounded 1 that kept flying, missed 2 that we should have hit, and 1 more flushed with a group that got away while we shot at the others. 

Of the 4 we bagged, Bill and I each hit 2 and the dogs shared the retrieving work. Worth noting, Bill says that Jackson is not as steady as he should be, but without turning our hunting trip into a training session, it will have to be addressed later in training at home. The wounded bird that got away may have been recoverable, but we pulled the dogs off the search because there was only 15 minutes of shooting time left and we still had one very promising spot that we wanted to hunt. 

Like most days, Winnie pointed, trailed, re-pointed, re-trailed, and pointed again, more birds then we could count. While her obedience could be a little better, her hunting has been nothing short of awesome!

Tonight's plan is to finish packing and grab some dinner. We plan to hunt ducks at Jerry's for a short time tomorrow morning, then return to the scene of today's pheasant success for one more run at the roosters before we hit the road for home.

Friday morning pheasants

No pheasants.

We hunted Creek WMA again this morning from 830 to 1045. Weather was 50° with a light breeze. Hens were again bountiful, with 11 flushes in range. We found and flushed only one rooster, and it presented an easy shot. However, Dan missed it and I had no shot because he was directly between me and the bird. Jackson and Winnie hunted well together and Dan & I are both disappointed to not have been able to put them in a position to make some retrieves. No pictures to accompany this post, because other then some beautiful points by Winnie (no opportunity to photograph them without potentially sacrificing shooting opportunities), there was no action to photograph.

Maggie was moving around much better this morning and appeared to be doing fine. We will be back to the hotel soon to begin packing for home. We are going to hunt ducks this afternoon at Lake Brekken.

Thursday evening

No ducks.

We were able to get to the O'Shea property to an alternate pond we are calling "T2" and quickly set up our spread to be ready for shooting at 5:30. We flushed about a dozen ducks off the pond on our way in, but nothing returned. Shooting time and ended at 6:43 PM and after getting everything cleaned-up, we are now (7:15pm) headed back to the hotel to check on Maggie and grab some dinner. Our plan is to hunt pheasants again tomorrow morning at the same spot as today.

 

Thursday supplemental post

It's 4:30 PM in Dan and I are now heading for the hotel, returning from the Garrison veterinary hospital. Unbeknownst to us at the time, Maggie sliced open her right leg when retrieving the third rooster of the day. I knew she may have hurt herself at the time because she had to run through a Barbwire fence to get to the bird in when she did, it should turn off her feet. In typical Maggie fashion, she got right back up and ran to retrieve the road without a whimper. After receiving the birds from her, I looked her over to ensure she was on injured and I did not see anything wrong. She then hunted for the next 45 minutes without a hint of any problem. After getting back to the hotel, clean birds, feeding dogs, and eating lunch Dan happen to notice a red spot on her leg and looked closer to discover a fairly major problem. Thankfully the vet was only 20 miles away and was able to squeeze us in. Maggie received about 10 stitches and will not be able to hunt anymore for the remainder of the trip, so Jackson will have to pull double duty tomorrow and handle anything we get into on Saturday. As you can see from the third picture, the vet did a very nice job with the stitches.

Thursday AM pheasants

With Dan not feeling well and wanting to change our luck on pheasants we decided to sleep in a little (compared to duck hunting) and hunt pheasants this morning. It worked on all counts. Dan woke up feeling better and we hunted Wolf Creek WMA from nine to noon and got three roosters and two Hungarian Partridge. The exact tally was 3 pheasants for Bill & 2 Partridge for Dan. We hunted Maggie and Winnie together again and they are proving to be an awesome team. The only thing they are not doing to near perfection is that neither dog has been very steady on birds we have shot. Our desire to quickly and cleanly retrieve the birds as well as not turn our hunting trip into a training session has given them enough leeway to start developing this habit. That will be something to correct another time...

We hunted a combination of grasslands and woody/brushy areas, with most of the birds coming from the brushy areas. In most of the cases, Winnie was finding in pointing the birds, then Maggie would pick up the trail to follow the running bird until she got it in the air. These trails would last anywhere from 50 to 500 yards. We also flushed three hens today, with one of them being an example of the point and flush teamwork above that did take about 500 yards of trailing before putting the bird in the air. What talent and persistence these dogs have! In addition to the 3 roosters we got, we also missed a very easy one. Win and Mag had been a little birdy and working up a field/grass edge when a rooster erupted 5 yards in front of us. I missed 2x and Dan missed once before his gun jammed - preventing a follow-up shot. Also of note, Winnie had a beautiful point on the covey (approx. 8 birds) of partridge. She was about 15 yards downwind and held it until Mag went in and flushed the birds.

Weather this morning was very pleasant. Mostly sunny with a morning temperature of around 50 and a noontime temperature of 60. We had a light breeze most of the morning.


 

 

Winnie retrieved a duck!

This afternoon's pheasant hunt turned into more of a duck hunt than it was meant to be. We hunted two new islands on Lake Sakakaweea and flushed five hens and one rooster. The rooster flush was immediately following a hen flush that Winnie had trailed for a considerable distance while Maggie was working a different bird. After seeing the hen flush and relaxing, Dan said the rooster flushed slightly behind and to the side of him from a very short distance but he was totally surprised and missed the shot.

On a more positive marksmanship note, Dan continued the streak of awe-inspiring waterfowl shooting as he knocked down 2 Gadwall that flushed off of a small pot hole where we were hunting pheasant. He dropped 2 ducks on 3 shots that were approximately 35 and 45 yards away and moving from right to left. Just after these 2 fell, a Duck flew from the same marsh from our left to right and I dropped it with 1 shot at approximately 30 yards. Maggie was near me and marked the bird, so I sent her for the retrieve. What I did not realize was that Winnie also broke on my shot and headed for my bird. Dan and I were both quite surprised 45 seconds later when we saw when her returning to us proudly carrying my Gadwall. This caught us off guard because despite Dan's effort to the contrary, Winnie has been generally uninterested and unwilling to pick up ducks in training. 

Wednesday Ducks

Hunting at Jerry's today was quite a success. The weather this morning was overcast and approximately 50° with 5-15 mph winds from the West. Our morning started off with a duck landing in our spread prior to legal shooting time. It later flushed towards us and was promptly knocked down by Dan, landing about 5 yds in front of Jackson. He stayed steady through the fall and made quick work of the retrieve.  A few minutes later a hen mallard surprised us, flying directly overhead. Dan also knocked that one down, however it fell in a location that Jackson wasn't able to see. This set up an opportunity for him to try his hand at the first "real" blind retrieve of his career... Which he lined on the first attempt with no whistles or hand signals needed!!

Shortly after getting settled back into our hunting spot, another duck flew by that Dan shot. It's splashed down hard just a couple feet inside the cattails, and Jackson had a controlled break. After making the correction, re-sitting him on the stand & waiting about a minute, I walked him out for another a blind retrieve. Unfortunately, the bird must have been wounded, because after a couple whistles and casts Jackson was in the correct spot, but there was no bird.I gave him a verbal release command to hunt for the bird on his own but it must have tucked itself back in the cattails never to be found.

After watching a few ducks drop into some water about 50 yards from us, Dan decided to take a walk (surprising no one) to jump shoot and/or flush them back towards me. While he was gone, a Gadwall decoyed into our spread, which I quickly killed. Jackson also had a controlled break on this bird, which made me decide to retrieve it myself to help him learn that he only gets to retrieve when he is steady. I then hoped we would get 1 more bird, to reinforce this lesson...

As Dan was walking back to our spot, a few mallards flew down the slough towards him. He shot the one that was in range, and it landed just a few yards from him, so he retrieved it himself. 

Over the last 2 days, his shooting has greatly improved and has been the best I've ever seen him shoot in all of our hunting time together! He has killed 8 ducks on his last 8 shots! 

After making it back to our spot and getting settled in again, a pair of BW Teal flew down the slough towards us, then turned at about 25 yds, giving us an opportunity for a crossing shot.  Dan shot 1 of them on 2 attempts for his 5th duck of the day while I kept an eye on Jackson to ensure his steadiness, which was perfect. However, his view of the fall was obscured by the reeds we were hiding in, which turned this retrieve into a sight blind that he handled with ease. So, the steadiness lesson apparently was a success and he got an easy, confidence-boosting blind.

We cut our hunt a little short (about 10:15) in an attempt to get out and find some better pheasant hunting this afternoon. Hopefully, the wind will stay calm and not dampen our chances of putting up some roosters!

Jackson's final retrieve of the day

Jax wondering where Dan is going...

Mallard decoy...

Widgeon decoy... or the real thing???

Things that make go you Hmmmm....

Over the last couple days, I've learned some interesting things. One thing is that the dumpster is the most happening spot at the hotel. I have been cleaning our birds each night on the truck tailgate pulled next to the dumpster, so I can throw the carcasses in when I'm finished. It seems that it's a popular spot, because every night I get to talk to several other hotel guests / hunters as they make an evening trek to deposit something in the receptacle. Although this causes my bird cleaning to take longer than necessary, it has been good to talk to the other guys and sometimes it has been enlightening. One of these conversations went like this (after the exchange of pleasantries):
Bill: So, did you do any good today?
Guy: Yeah, we got a good many ducks yesterday, and 5 Canadians today.
Bill: I didn't know it was legal to shoot Canadians.
Guy: Yeah, as long as you have the right permits and are done hunting by 1pm.
Bill: Good to know, thanks...

So, the moral of that story (I think), is that they take border security pretty seriously up here (maybe our southern border states could take a lesson)... Sue Snow and any other readers who are neighbors to the North, be careful if you come to ND!!!
In retrospect, maybe the guy meant to say that they got 5 "Canada Geese", but I can only report what he told me...

Tuesday pheasants and other stuff

Our plan was to scout and hunt for pheasants from 2-7. We got in a lot of driving, some scouting, and some hunting. We neglected to remember how deceptive the maps can be in relation to the actual terrain. We ended-up doing a lot more driving than desired just to get to the places we wanted to go. It's tough to get from "A" to "B" when the map you use shows roads connecting the 2 points that are non-existent... To illustrate, a picture is shown below of 6th Street. The 'street' only got worse after this picture was taken. We had to eventually turn around and backtrack on this road for ~ 4 miles... This is one of the roads we needed to use that was clearly marked as a roadway on our DeLorme Atlas & Gazetteer, and GPS.
At one point, we stopped on a dirt road and got out to hunt a promising-looking piece of cover only to learn that the area was off-limits. We had finished hunting it (producing no birds) and then a very nice guy drove up and informed us that although all the signs showed that we were legal, the local mining company owned the property and no hunting was allowed. However, he then got our map and showed us 3 spots nearby to try. There was another group of hunters at the 1st spot, so we didn't stop there. We didn't stop at the 2nd spot, but agreed it might be worth checking out anther day. We hunted the 3rd spot (south end of Coal Lake at the new Coal Lake WMA) for a little less than 2 hours, with no success. Winnie and Jax hunted fine, there just weren't any birds there... We knocked-off around 6:30 and took a couple pics before heading back to the hotel. As you can see, it is ridiculously warm here. This was the first time in my life I have ever hunted pheasants in a t-shirt... We hunted along a lake, so there was plenty of opportunity for dogs to cool off and drink as they felt necessary. Today's high temp was 70. Tomorrow, we're hunting ducks at Jerry's and plan to make a relatively short hunt of it so we can get back here for lunch and quick turnaround to take the boat back to the big lake. We're planning to scout some other islands and spend as much time as necessary to get a few roosters!

6th Street...



Dan & Winnie

Jax & Bill



Tuesday am Ducks

After watching the Steelers win last night, we got up this am ready to whack some ducks. The spot where we saw the most ducks yesterday (which is the same spot we used to shoot 2 limits last year) was under 2' of water when we got there. This didn't prevent us from using it, it just made it more difficult/challenging. We set a dozen decoys, with 3 on a jerk string and were set up and ready about 15 min. before shooting time arrived. Just before legal shooting time, Maggie acted very 'un-Maggie like' and twice broke off-of her retriever stand and chased 2 different groups of ducks that landed within a few yards of our seats, thus scaring them away. Watching that behavior, I don't know how we degenerated from GMHR to this, so fast... She was disciplined the first time & severely disciplined the second time. I hope we will not see a repeat of this behavior, because to further escalate any punishment would mean that she'll be hurt or drowned. Needless to say, I was not happy. Other than that, she had a good day. As the morning quickly dawned (high sky, 50 degrees, 10+mph wind), it became quickly apparent that there wasn't going to be much flying today. When Dan needed to go back to dry land to get his sunglasses, I had some birds come in & I shot a drake Gadwall and a drake BW Teal & Mag picked them up as a single mark, and a nice blind that terminated into a 'hunt-em-up' in the cattails on the shore (about 100 yards from me). She did a great job on both birds. While we were separated, Dan shot1 drake BW Teal that expired close enough for him to get himself. After reuniting, we decided to pull the decoys and jump shoot the back part of the wetland complex before heading to the truck. During that time Dan shot a triple on flushing BW Teal. Mag and I were across the marsh and she later picked up a drake and a hen of those 3. The 3rd bird was hit, but swam away before Dan could get another shot on it to finish it.
This would also be a good time to note that our "cripple gun" (my pheasant gun outfitted with Trulock EF Turkey Chokes and #7 steel shot) is working well. Its only limitation is that we are only able to use it when hunting on dry land and have a place to set it down when not in use. Also, our decoys are fantastic! Anyone who is looking for the best & most durable decoys you've ever seen should call Jamie Milsaps at Decoyflocker.com. I'll try to grab a couple close-up pics later in the week... These are fully-flocked, foam-filled life size decoys that look so close to the real thing you have to be careful not to shoot them!

We got our ducks cleaned, ate some lunch, and are now headed out to scout some pheasant spots and hopefully kill some birds for Winnie and Jax.

Pheasant Island

After 2+ years of hunting in this area, we finally made it to the spot that was recommended by some other hunters the first day we arrived the first year. We had a good hunt from 4:30pm to 6:30pm on an island in Lake Sakakawea. The hunt obviously requires a boat, and therefore more prep and teardown time to pull it off (therefore a little less time actually hunting) but it was nice to have the whole place to ourselves and know we were hunting birds that are have not been pressured.

Tonight we hunted Winnie and Maggie together for the duration. In total, they found and put up three hens and two roosters within shooting range and no birds out of range. Of the roosters, Winnie pointed the one that Dan shot and Maggie found (and pointed) the second one that I shot. Each dog successfully retrieved 'their' bird without incident. Everybody goes home happy! Additionally, Winnie pointed, trailed, and repointed all three hens. 

Tomorrow we are hunting ducks on federal property adjacent to the Goven farm and Lake Brekken.
 

 

Monday ducks

First: Happy Birthday to Gunner! He turns 10 today and is enjoying (I hope) getting to relax at home. I decided that the combination of the pace of this trip and the fact that we have 3 other younger, qualified dogs pushed me to think that home was the right choice for him. I do look forward to hunting with him in the coming months closer to home!
Today, we hunted the 65 pond with moderate success. I thought it was really cool that on the day of Gunner's birthday, his son Jackson participated in his first duck hunting experience. On the other hand, this was breaking every bit of advice about the best way to introduce a young dog to real hunting...
We hunted until 11 and totaled 3 ducks: 2 drake Gadwall and 1 hen Shoveler. I shot the Gadwall and Dan got the Shoveler. Jackson retrieved my Gadwall as a marked double and did the retrieves perfectly, although he came out of his hut and ran a few yards before 're-sitting' himself. He was totally steady on Dan's duck, which made me very happy! It was warm (45 degrees at 6am) and calm all morning. Overall, there were a lot of ducks in our general vicinity, but not many in shooting range. As the morning progressed and ducks were landing nearby but not in our pond, Dan went for a walk and found 6 other potholes within walking distance. That explained where the ducks were going! With the warm weather and no wind, the ducks are not moving a lot, and with similar small potholes of water everywhere, the birds that are moving have a lot of choices of places to set down, so we need to make the most of the shooting opportunities we are going to get.

We used the Ghillie suits that we bought last year, with apparently solid success. I am interested to see who can find Dan in the photo below. I'm sure we all look forward to reading this comments section!

 

Good evening, but no pheasants in the bag

It was a beautiful sunset, we flushed 10 pheasants in shooting range, and Winnie and Jax hunted very well together.

The downside was that all the birds were hens (shooting hens is not permitted). This gave the dogs some much-needed practice being steady to flush. We did see 2 roosters but they flushed wild, too far out in front of us. After the hunting day ended we secured permission for duck hunting at the "65 Pond" that was made famous in 2012. There were a fair amount of ducks there today, so we'll see how tomorrow goes. 

Thanks for your comments, they are fun to read!

Sunday am Ducks

We hunted ducks this morning at Jerry's. It was (and is going be all week) abnormally warm, with daytime highs in the 60's. That makes it pleasant, but not the best for duck hunting... We totaled 3 ducks - 2 drake BW Teal and a drake Gadwall. After the first 30 min., we realized we hadn't picked the best spot, so we picked up and moved. Although the busiest part of the morning flight was over, the move did yield our bests shooting opportunities. A deeper inspection of our morning would show that Dan missed 2 ducks outright, wounded 2 ducks (lightly hit and kept flying) and did the same with a pheasant that flushed while he was walking around. I missed a drake mallard and finished the day with 3 ducks on 4 shots. I could have shot a couple other ducks but didn't because I wanted to ID them before shooting and there wasn't enough light yet to do that. Maggie did a good job, except for not delivering the gadwall to hand. It was wounded and she did a great job of marking it and chasing it into the cattails and then trailing it before finally catching it. The problem was that she dropped it to shake & it jumped back into the water and promptly dove without resurfacing anywhere Mag or I could see. So, this bird escaped the Everly frying pan, but will likely be an evening meal for some critter in the marsh tonight... All in all, an enjoyable morning. We did a little scouting for other duck spots and noted that there don't appear to be the numbers of ducks here that we would like (probably due to the mild weather), but we have a place picked for tomorrow that looks decent. It's some sloppy joe's for lunch now and maybe a quick nap (we are both still very tired) and then out to chasse some pheasants this afternoon.

 

 

We have arrived!

Only 16.5 hours behind schedule!

We ran into additional engine trouble and had a 3+ hour stop late morning in Hudson, WI to have the temporary fix that Dan preformed made permanent. The truck wasn't running great, and we figured that we'd missed out on hunting today anyway. Some good notes are that the weather is pleasant and dry and the dogs  got to run around in a cemetery adjacent to the engine repair shop. On a down note, I think I've contracted the same illness that plagued Christopher and AJ over the weekend and Drew on Thursday. The silver lining is they each kicked it in 24 hours. I'm filling up on OJ and Tylenol and hoping that I don't transmit it to Dan. We are looking forward to kicking off our hunt tomorrow morning. Stay tuned for the first hunting update then.

Good morning Tomah, WI

We had some additional problems last night around 8:30. As we drove down the Interstate, we heard a loud 'pop' under the hood, followed by a loss of power and additional noises that you never want to hear coming from your engine. 

A quick exit to a gas station showed that we had blown a spark plug up through the coil. 15 min. later we were at Advance Auto to get the replacement plug and coil. Then we backtracked 10 min to a 24-hour repair shop. The next problem was that they were all at the 'Cranberry Harvest' and weren't really open 24-hours - at least not during the cranberry harvest. So, not wanting to give up yet, we tried to install the parts ourselves, but found that the threads in the engine for the plug to screw into were messed-up. After learning that there is another simple part that can be used to remedy this problem, we had to call it a night, because it was 10pm and there were no parts stores still open.

So, the 5 of us got cozy in the truck and slept at the truck stop. Advance Auto opened a few minutes ago, Dan got the part needed and has talked the guy at Advance into helping him install everything, so we'll see how this goes. Maybe we'll be in Underwood by 10pm tonight...

Just like Willie Nelson said...

We are on the road again! As you can see from the picture, we are headed towards Columbus, Ohio. We have figured out that if we average 72 mph, we will arrive at our destination on time.

All in all, a much better scenario than what could have happened today. One downside is that due to the faster driving speed, we will not get as good gas mileage, and will likely not be able to hit our pre-planned fuel stops. If that's the case, we'll have to get crazy and stop as needed, although it will be at spots that have not been reconnoitered.

At the Ford Dealership...

Well, You may be surprised that we are not on the West side of Columbus, OH by now - as our itinerary prescribed. We're instead at the Marietta, Ohio Ford dealership getting the transmission coolant hose on Dan's truck replaced. We discovered the problem yesterday, but it was too late to get it handled so we carefully drove this far and are very happy to be now in the waiting room at the dealership. We are very thankful that 1) they had the part in stock 2) The Service Manager jumped us to the front of his line for service. I have to wonder if this treatment is a product of the 'nicer' Mid-west attitude, and if a dealership on the East Coast would have been so accommodating to a couple to transients. While waiting here, we'll run some calculations to figure out what our adjusted speed needs to be for the rest of the trip to get us to Jerry's on time to hunt tomorrow am. More on this later...