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...