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.

Colorado

A week ago Thursday we (me, Andrew, my dad and Matt) headed to Colorado to hunt deer with muzzleloaders. We left after Karen's wedding, which put us on the road about 9:30 p.m. After a stop in Wellington for a pitstop we made it to Grand Junction and stopped at Wally World to get our tags (where else is open during the middle of the night?) We left Grand Junction about 2:30 a.m. and made one more stop in Rifle to top off the fuel and fill up all our coolers with ice. We had a lot of empty coolers with high hopes of bringing home four deer.

We rolled in to camp about 4:30ish and we unloaded the four-wheelers, changed to some warmer clothes, had breakfast and headed out to find some deer. I don't remember the last time I pulled an all nighter, but it's been a while.

Andrew, my dad and myself spread out along a ridge, and Matt went to look in a different canyon. I didn't see any deer right away, and wasn't overly motivated to sit there real long since I was tired, so I called Andrew on the radio and he had some good bucks in his spotting scope. It turns out 3 were "shooters" and one we named the elkhorn buck because on side of his antlers looked like an elk antler. We watched them until they bedded down, and then went back to camp. I layed my pad out on the trailer and slept for a while, but not long enough. We got settled into camp and proceeded to shoot our guns to make sure they were as accurate as a muzzleloader can be.

I hadn't planned on hunting, and wasn't going to until the day before we left when we found some affordable land owner vouchers. I do not own a muzzleloader (yet) and so MaCade let me borrow his. Turns out MaCades muzzleloader shoots #11 caps and everyone elses shoots #209 shotgun primers. I only had 4 caps and 2 misfired while trying to sight in the gun. Umm, now what? I have 2 caps left and then what? I started asking people if they had any extra caps I could use. There were 2 guys camped just down the road from us who said they were shooting #209's and didn't have any #11's. I ran into them later and they had some! They were going through thier bag and found some #11's from years ago when they shot them. What a life saver. I was able to shoot the gun, and had enough primers to sling some lead at a deer if the opportunity was there.

We found the shooter bucks Friday night and we all were asleep before 9:00 with dreams of shooting big bucks in the morning. We were glad we drove all night and found those deer.

Saturday morning we find the group of deer the "shooter" bucks were in...but only on the shooter bucks was there. Now what? We decided to wait on chasing those deer to see if we could find the other shooters too.

I found a buck that I chased through the brush, and he presented a quick shot, but I felt like I would have been trying to force the shot, so I didn't take it.

Saturday night found Matt and Andrew in the area of the big bucks, and my dad and myself watching across the ridge. I saw 3 bucks in the bottom, one of which I would've shot, but didn't know if it was quite big enough for Matt or Andrew. A little bit later, Matt spotted the bucks, and ended up shooting the bigger of the three. A 20" 4 point with good forks. A good buck, but not as big as we had hoped for or as big as we had seen.

Sunday found us glassing again and riding some of the roads. We didn't see as many bucks, but Matt found some good ones in the late morning. They were really skittish, so we didn't make a push to get on them. We would try later that day. Later that day, they didn't come out of the thick aspens, so we weren't able to get on them.

Monday found us riding the roads and glassing. The deer were getting fewer and farther between. We starting pushing the draws and after pushing several where we didn't see a deer, we found one that had a couple bucks in it. We had one buck, that all three of us had in our sights, but he was on a full run. Had he slowed down or paused, we could've had a shot. Such is hunting I guess. We had another come out, but it was too thick to get a shot. Monday evening we split up and I saw a bull elk chasing 2 cows, and by chasing, I mean he had them on a dead run. It was definately cool to see that. I got back to camp to find out Andrew and dad found a 4 x 6! That got us excited. They had tried to get on him, without spooking him, but ran out of daylight. We were there first thing Tuesday morning, but it was foggy and you couldn't see 100 yards, which makes it hard to find deer. Andrew and I were sneaking through the brush and cut some tracks from that morning of a big deer. We followed the tracks easily because it had rained Monday night. They went right over the fence to the area that we can't hunt! I guess they don't get big by being stupid. We rode the roads in that canyon for a little bit, and I was able to get a shot at a 3 point, but missed.

It was a lot of fun, and the best part was the people I was with. We saw a lot of big bucks, we just weren't able to get on them. I think next year we will be more aggressive earlier in the hunt, and next year I hope to have my own muzzleloader.

We ended up with one deer, which was bigger at the end of the hunt when that was the only one shot, and had a great time. I am looking forward to going next year.

Here are a few pictures from a recent fishing trip.