Junior Hunter

I got Guages Junior Hunter certificate in the mail today!!! Now we need to start working now to be ready for Senior Hunter next spring.

Remembering Matt

Three weeks ago Matt passed on. Matt was a great guy who was one of my best friends as well as my uncle. We had a lot of great memories. Here are a few pictures to remember Matt. Matt will be missed.

The deer is from Colorado 2009. Matt was the only one to shoot a deer on that trip and my last hunt with Matt.

The next two pictures I borrowed from Andrew. I believe they were muzzle loader in Utah in 2006. There were up on the divide where a lot of memories were made with Matt.

The pintail was taken while we were swan hunting in 2008. He hit the pintail and it sailed a long ways so Justin and I took the boat out after it and the duck kept diving while Justin was trying to grab it.

The swan was Matt's last, and made it to the taxidermist. The swans come off a small pond where they roost at night and we had a hard time getting any close, and when we did get one in range he got lucky and one bb to the head was all that it took to bring the swan down.

Frozen on the river

As a duck hunter sometimes I question my sanity. Today was one of those days. Maybe sanity is isn't the right term, but I have learned there is a fine line between crazy and stupid.

Joel had permission to try a new spot on the river. It was -2 when we started down walking down to the river at 6:30 this morning. We found the hole we wanted to hunt, thanks to google earth on my phone. I never would have thought my Blackberry would've helped me duck hunting, but I've used it several times. Anyway, we had some mallard, wood duck and golden eye decoys. Joel and Skye were putting the wood duck decoys on the far side, and I was putting the golden eye's on the close bank when one of the golden eye's got caught in the current and was going down stream quick. I ran down and snagged the golden eye just in time to pick up four decoys that had got away from Joel and Skye. After doing this a couple more times, we ended up with about 1/3 the decoys in the water that we started with.

We had a pair of mallard that tried to drop in and Joel got the drake. That was the first and last duck killed by us this morning. We had one drake golden eye buzz us that didn't even pay attention, and then a hen woodie circled once, but didn't present a shot. We packed up and were back to the truck by probably 9:00. I got home and took my waders off the this is what they looked like. I had been in the river up to about my waist and then the water froze and my waders were able to stand up on their own.

I'm still not sure if I am crazy or stupid, but I do know that I am a duck hunter that has mud in my blood.

Hunt on the river

Last Saturday I went out with my father in law, Danny, for a hunt on the river. It was just for a couple hours in the afternoon and I wasn't sure what to expect. Usually late in the season is when it is the best, and I didn't know if we were late enough yet. We threw a couple decoys out in the river, and nothing was flying. I was teaching him about fantasy football when I look up and see about 15 mallards locked up! We were up above the river, and the ducks were probably only 15 yards when I first saw them. We each took a greenhead out of that flock, but we should've had several more. Shortly after that I shot a hen mallard. Then it slowed down for another hour. Then a lone goose was trying to land on the sewer ponds behind us. I kept calling at him and he finally came over and I hit him and Danny finished him. Definately an enjoyable hunt with Danny.

A few pics

Here are a few pictures I had on my camera from hunts this year.

This was with Martin and Samantha last Saturday. It was slow and Samantha would conveniently "see" ducks that just went behind the reeds...I think she had ducks on the brain. We didn't shoot much, but I sure had a good time.

Here is Guage. He is turning into an amazing duck dog.
Here is Guage learning about the Mutt Hutt blind.

I left work a couple hours early and went out with Brandon and one of the Secretary's husband (Yancy). It was Yancy's first time duck hunting. We tried jump shooting and a couple hen spoonies came up and Yancy dropped the one on the right and I missed the front one. I'm usually a pretty good shot so I was a little surprised I missed as close as they were. We jumped a hen widgeon and I shot first, but she was in the trees in the river, and I didn't hit her hard enough. Yancy finished her off for his second duck. We threw out a couple decoys, but the birds just wouldn't quite come close enough. On the way out I shot a hen spoony, and I believe it is the one I missed earlier in the day. Not too bad for a hen slaying day. I took a couple pics of Yancy and his first two ducks, but my camera isn't very good and they didn't turn out at all.

Chasing ditch parrots

For a lot of years growing up it was a tradition to go hunting the morning of Thanksgiving. Some years would be a duck hunt, but most recently we would all go to a local pheasant farm. This year we went to an extended pheasant area and tried chasing wild pheasants ... sort of wild anyway. They do a youth hunt where the DWR releases a bunch of farm raised birds and youth hunters have the opportunity to shoot them, and adults are not allowed to carry a gun. Youth hunters don't kill all the birds, so we went after the leftover birds. We walked a long ways, and were about to turn back when we finally saw a little sign in the snow. I said let's go another 100 yards. Famous last words. We really got to where we were going to turn around and Samantha and Shane went around to the bottom of the draw. Me, my dad, Martin and Joe were going to come down the draw and hopefully push something out. Right before we dropped into the draw I notice that everyone but me has their gun over their shoulder and I think to myself, "if a pheasant flushes up, I'll be the only one who can get a shot". You guessed it, not even two minutes later up comes a rooster. I shot and winged it. Bo took after the bird, but he is definitely not as quick as he once was, and that bird probably ran for miles before he stopped. We made a valiant effort to find the pheasant, but it didn't happen.

I truly have mud in my blood and would rather chase ducks over really anything else, but once or twice a year I have to get my shorthair out and let him run. I thoroughly enjoy watching him work and try to find a pheasant, but he is slowing down and the arthritis is going to make him sore for a couple days. Even though he will be sore, you can tell that Bo loved every minute of the hunt. On the way back I noticed that my 10 year old shorthair was still hunting (not ranging as far as when we first left the truck), and my 18 month old lab was by my side.

Duck hunt

The duck hunt in Utah has started. The opener found us on a public WMA. There was 5 of us that went and we were the first ones to start out onto the pond, but was passed by a canoe that was rowing faster than I was. We got setup and had a couple hours to spare before the 8:00 a.m. start time. We watched a lot of birds fly by before we were able to shoot. And true to a Utah wma opener we had two groups set up on either side of us about 70-100 yards away. There were only four boats on the pond, and in the mile and a half of shoreline there were 3 boats within 150 yards of each other. We ended up shooting a bunch of ducks, and a mixed bag too. My father-in-law came and has not hunted where there were a lot of ducks in the area so I think he really enjoyed seeing all the birds. We had a coot come in right at about 8:00 and one of the other guys told my father-in-law it was his duck and he shot it not knowing it was a coot until we all started laughing. Two of us ended up with a full limit and the other 3 ended up with 3 or 4 ducks a piece (plus a couple coots). We shot a pair of canvasbacks, and a pair of redheads, and some widgeon, mallards, teal and spoonies. It was a great hunt, unfortunately I didn't get any pictures. I'll make sure and get some next time.