We finished the trip with 34 ducks & 2 pheasants in 7 mornings of ducks & 4 evenings of phez (90 min each).
We learned from Jerry after we arrived here that although they had a very wet spring, they’ve received no rainfall since the 4th of July. That resulted in very low water levels & a much lower pheasant population than normal.
The pheasant hunting was tough due to the combined factors of low bird numbers & us having dogs and people that couldn’t or didn’t really want-to hunt in the thick cattails. Moose was the only one voting for getting in the thick stuff… on a good note, we flushed a total of two roosters and connected on both of them!
For ducks, we ended with very good totals & know that it should be inflated by another 15 birds; had we shot better &/or made some better decisions. We definitely can’t complain, having had the ability to shoot limits 4 of our 7 days! Also on the positive side, all the ducks we shot after day1 were puddle ducks that were decoying or thinking of decoying. While not many actually gave us ‘feet down’ layup shots, it was the type of shooting on the type of ducks that we most prefer.
With the benefit of hindsight, we would have been better off to pack-up and head for Iowa after we finished our morning duck hunt on Thursday. That would have gotten us out of ND before the mercury plummeted & given us 2 full days in Iowa, providing much better opportunities for pheasants in cover that our older dogs would have been more well-suited to handle. Maybe we would have shot a couple ducks in IA, but considering that we only shot 1 in the last 2 days in ND, we wouldn’t be giving up much.
Currently, it’s 2pm CDT Sat & we expect to get to our respective homes Sunday around 12 noon EST for Dad/Dan & 5 for Bill.
Winnie was slower than she was in her prime (but aren’t we all!?) & a little slower than last year. She was extremely effective in the time she hunted, however the acreage she could cover was limited by her speed. Battling the dual forces of age (almost 13) & Cancer (she’s currently on a daily cocktail of chemo meds), she did extremely well! You could tell that she was excited & happy to get out and hunt each day & enjoyed getting to hold the 1 pheasant that we did kill for some photos!
Jax, at 10.5 yrs tired-out faster than his younger years & seemed to have a little trouble with depth perception (first day at Miller’s he consistently overran every mark). However, he was awesome that same morning at sitting quietly for 45 min watching ducks strafe us & sometimes land as little as 5 yds. from where he was sitting! He also hunted pheasants effectively until he grew tired (usually about 90 min). He retrieved ~ 19 ducks, most as marks, a couple as blinds & 1 pheasant. Jax didn’t have much trouble with the hotel floors (he didn’t like the kitchen, but carefully came in when it was feeding time), but he totally avoided the grass outside - he would only walk on the sidewalk… His 'manners' were much improved from last year: bird handling, breaking, etc. were a non-issue this year.
Moose seemed to thoroughly enjoy the trip & did a great job, considering the limited amount of training (compared to GMHRs of the past) that we could pack into his first year of life (his 1st BD was 2 weeks ago). This was also his first hunting ever, so he did a fantastic job with all that considered, picking up all 11 ducks that we shot over him. He delivered everything to hand, though he did have a couple 'drops' to shake that we had to correct. Due to heavy cover and him not being able to see, we did have to resort to some rock throwing, since he doesn’t handle yet. He was very steady, with a couple instances of creeping when I put him in spots he couldn’t see. He hunted pheasants well, though had no bird contacts.
All in all, the 3 of us agree that this was a good trip & we’re glad we made it!
